“How I Wrote My First Book?” (+Self Publishing Tips)

Book a free 25-minute call. Tell me where your book is now.

I wrote my first book by following a simple 30-day plan from Steve Scott, and I got it onto the market. But I failed in one way: I put it in the wrong market, so it sold only now and then. Here is how I did it, my tips, and the mistakes you can skip.

How did I write my first book?

When I started, I wanted to see whether I could get some of my ideas out, especially on goal achievement. I saw that getting a book on the market was complicated. There are many steps, plus covers, and money. How much should you pay to create the book, format it and get a cover? What is the point of investing if you don’t know whether you’ll earn it back? I did not want to fail as I had with affiliate marketing and selling services on a freelance marketplace. The Kindle revolution looked worth my time, but a lot was at stake.

I read a lot and knew people who had done it, but they weren’t necessarily getting sales. Then I found a book by Steve Scott, who writes on habits and on self-publishing. He broke the work into simple steps. They weren’t the steps to sell a lot, only to get something on the market. His 30-day path gave me the focus to finish the book and get the cover made. It was still a pain, because I wasn’t plugged into any community, and I was working from his writing and confusing information from the sides.

With his help my first book went on the market and sold now and then. That felt good enough to try again, which led to my habits book and my email book. I did fail in one way. I didn’t understand that the market you put your book in matters. Read which genres sell best before you pick yours. Before you start your own, answer these 3 questions to ask before you write a book.

How long does a first draft take?

There is no standard answer. The Australian Writers’ Centre shows published novelists who had most of a draft in three months, took four months, or took about a year. The 30-day plan I followed was a way to keep moving, and not a deadline you fail if you miss it. Pick a daily amount that you can keep up, as in Tip 1, and let the finish date follow from that. If typing is what slows you down, read can I dictate my book instead of typing it?

Tip 1: How do you make progress every day?

When you have no manuscript, you need to write the book. I suggest 30 minutes a day, or a thousand words a day if you prefer. For how many words you need in total, see how long a self-published book should be. Taking trainings and reading books can have no impact on what you’re doing. Sit in the chair and pump out the book. Don’t edit as you go. Fix it afterward. This matters most for the first book, because many things will try to stop you and an inner voice will tell you to quit. We are not waiting for a muse. Success breeds success.

Tip 2: Who should you learn from?

Find a network of people who are trying to get books out and get them selling, and who share strategies. You can find like-minded people in the comments on my YouTube channel, where I talk with self-publishers and people just getting started. Make sure the people you talk to are actually self-publishing. There are huge communities of people with the desire but no real progress. They will pull you down with a lot of talk and little doing.

You need motivation to do, and the best way is to be around people who are doing. I have put out 230 books and some people have put out thousands. Anyone is fine, as long as they are putting out books and sharing strategies. That is what I try to do on my channel. Many of my early mistakes are ones I can help you avoid, along with the overload that hit me. You don’t have to buy anything to start. Just listen to the content I put out.

Tip 3: Should you pay for tools?

The third tip is to buy the tools that stop you wasting time and increase your sales. You can go completely free with just a computer and an internet connection, but in my experience your books won’t sell. My early books were awful, and after a while I fixed them. Now sales come through from different books every day, like popcorn popping, on different platforms, and I reinvest to put out more. The tools I use are on my best tools for self-publishing page. If you have found better ones, I’d like to hear from you.

How did you write your first book? Tell me in the comments. If you want help from someone who has done it 230 times, book a free 25-minute discovery call.

Listen to this episode on Spotify

Free 25-minute self-publishing call with Chris Baird

Tell me where your book is now. You leave the call with a clear next step for publishing it.

Book your free call

Free, 25 minutes on Zoom, no card needed.