Wait, we just got a video yesterday, what’s going on?

Well, to kick off 2020 I am bringing you 5 days of fresh content to kickstart your year. I want this to be the year that you go from “I want to be an author” to “I AM an author.” So be sure to subscribe to this channel to get my videos for the rest of the week as well as my weekly updates. And be sure to subscribe to my Author Your Ambition newsletter as well because there is so much to learn and do and I can’t capture them all in video format all the time.

For today we are going to be talking about the 5 stages of book development. So many people who have an idea to write a book get started but then they hit that first wall with the creativity or their inspiration or their time and then because they don’t know all the steps, they give up. So here are the 5 stages of book development to help you visualize what you need to get done:

Writing is the first step. Not thinking up the idea or meditating on it or talking about it. Writing is the first step. I have other tips on how you can be more efficient in writing and how you get all the words down in other videos, but the first step is writing. Think about that. This is the first of five stages in your book development. This can be the longest part of the process for many authors. The first step is: you gotta write the book.

Editing the book. You are very smart and very capable, but you are not going to write a masterpiece in your first draft. You need to go back and refine it. You need others to come in and point out any issues or errors. No one develops a book all alone. Sharing your book with an editor is the first time an author will open up and bear their soul to another person because showing someone else your writing feels like that every time. Editing should be thorough and should not be rush.

Formatting. How are people going to experience your book? Will they read it as a paperback book, or on an eReader? Or will they listen to it? Your book is like a caterpillar in a cocoon in this stage and when the formatting is done it will be a butterfly or a scary moth. This is a gross metaphor, but you get what I mean.

After all the editing and formatting, you need to go through and fine-tune. You should only format a version of your book that you are ready to put out there. But things get missed in formatting. Or the text is duplicated. You need to go through and do a fine-tuned final pass of your book. Your name is on it.

Publishing! The final step can be just as mentally taxing as the first, but you now have everything ready to get your book out to the people, so now you need to make it available to them.

The reason I want to highlight and spell out each of these stages is that if you are done writing, you may be wondering what to do next. Or maybe you’ve been spending a lot of time researching self-publishing options, but you haven’t even started editing your book. Some of this research can be concurrent, but focus on the next step and then the next.

I had to figure out this process on my own and one of the biggest joys that I have is when I work with an aspiring author and I relay this information and I can see their shoulders rest and they let out a deep breath and say, “okay, I know what I need to do now.” They visibly relax, they appear way less tense.

So where are you in the process for your book? Drop a comment below on what stage you are in right now. I want to know where you are stuck. And, if you are headed back to the office next week and you feel like you wanted to get so much more done on your book over the holiday, but time just flew by, I am co-hosting a writing retreat in April to help you dedicate the time to getting the writing or the editing or the fine-tuning in. Check out the link below:

Alright, that is it for today. Check back in tomorrow.

If you have found this information helpful please let me know if the comments and be sure to give this video a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe and ring the bell. This helps YouTube know that this video was helpful and can get it in front of more authors like us, it will also help make sure you are notified every time I have a new video go live.
Now you can get back to writing your book!

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