How to Write a Book

DEVELOP A WIREFRAME

A wireframe is how the book is organized. It consists of the number of pages, book title and subtitle, chapters, references, appendicies, foreward, preface, acknowledgements and introduction. Start with the number of pages. Many books are 300-400 pages. For example say you want to write a 400 page book with 15 chapters. When you do the math that is about 26 pages per chapter which may be too much. If you choose 20 chapters, the number drops down to 20 pages per chapter which is more reasonable. Now develop the number of words on a page. If you use 10 words per line and 35 lines per page, that's 350 words per page. 350 words per page times 20 pages gives you 7000 words per chapter. Wordprocessors contain word counts so just write each chapter and pay attention to the word count until you reach your planned target for the chapter.

WRITE THE CONTENT

• Title: Words to describe the contents of the book
• Cover Picture: Needs to be copyfree
• Table of Contents: Chapter titles and page numbers
• Foreword: Usually a short piece written by someone other than the author, the Foreword may provide a context for the main work.
• Preface—Written by the author, the Preface often tells how the book came into being, and is often signed with the name, place and date, although this is not always the case.
• Acknowledgments—The author expresses their gratitude for help in the creation of the book.
• Introduction—The author explains the purposes and the goals of the work, and may also place the work in a context, as well as spell out the organization and scope of the book.
• Chapters: Write the content chapter by chapter
• References: Decide on how you will organize your references. All numbered within the chapter and listed by number at the end of each chapter or no numbers and a list of references at the end of the chapter
• Appendix: Additional information to explain certain material

DO THE COPY EDITING

Copy editing is the work that an editor does to improve formatting, style and accuracy. An editor that does this work is called a copy editor. Use the five C's: clear, correct, concise, comprehensible, and consistent. Copy editors "make it say what it means, and mean what it says"

This is a critical step in making the book a success. Copy editing is best left to professionals and we advise that you take advantage of our copy editing services. Our copy editors will put a polish your writing and improve the quality. Please select the optional services tab to read more about this service

The copy editing process consists of the following steps:

• Read the completed book without changing anything. Determine if you are getting the right points across to the reader. Think about the flow of ideas; are they properly organized.
• Reorganize the content Make sure your points have a good flow. To improve the flow, pretend you are the reader, not the writer. Does it make sense, does it explain how it all works together.
• Rewrite the content It is not possible to get it right the first time. Put the book down for a few days and come back to read it again. Pretend you are the reader and determine if it all makes sense. If the points are not clear to the reader, rewrite so they do. Repeat this process several times until you are satisfied.
  Return to the beginning and examine the first sentence for errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and flow. Fix the problems.
• Read the sentence backwards: One way to discover errors more accurately is to read the sentence backwards. Many times if there are mistakes in the writing your mind may ignore it and assume it says the right thing. This happens a lot. Your brain has to actually understand each word if you read it backwards.
• Move on to the next sentence and repeat Move through the book one sentence at a time.
• Do a final read-through. When all the sentences have been edited, return to the beginning of the text and give it a final reading. Correct any errors you may have missed.