Do you have a book in you?

3 tips to get started.

It was a gloomy afternoon in January 2020. I was sitting on my sofa, experiencing the down phase of the well-known entrepreneur emotional roller coaster. I distractedly opened a LinkedIn message. It was from Tanya, a young woman who I met in December at a neighbor’s Christmas party. She had expressed interest in my newly launched business and was asking how it was doing. I answered honestly and she kindly offered to talk. After a while, she said: “You need to write a book”.

Now you can just imagine me rolling my eyes and thinking ‘Here we go again!’ Many of my friends had been telling me the same things for years, and now also people I had just met.

Well, I am a talker, not a writer, I don’t like to write, I am not skilled at it, not to mention writing in another language. Plus, I am a rebel, so the more somebody tells me to do something, the more I resist… until the day I decide to do it.

Tanya found a way to start changing my mind by arguing that the book would be a wonderful way to showcase my experience. ‘Huh?’ I thought. That was what I really wanted, but I was not completely sold on the idea. Tanya then connected me to the right resources and the rest is history. This is how I published Venus Genius in December 2020.

I will cover practical advice in upcoming articles. First, I’d like to focus on the phase when you are just thinking about writing a book.

1- Get over the ‘imposter syndrome’

As I explained in the introduction, I never thought I would be able to write a book at this point in my life, not to mention in another language! I thought that writing a book was reserved for people who had a talent for it and were making newspaper headlines.
After my writing experience, I am convinced that — as for innovation — anyone can write a book but it requires:

• Motivation: deep inside, you have to feel an urge to tell your story, whatever the story is, and be passionate about it
• Resources: you will need logistical support — funding as well as writing, editing and publishing mechanisms — and emotional support — a friendly network
• Persistence: it is a long journey, and there will be numerous times when you cannot write, or get negative feedback on your script, or are overwhelmed by the process of publishing. You may just want to give up and feel you’ll never get there. Just breathe, take a break and come back. You’re on a mission!

2- Identify the purpose behind your book

At first, you will have so many thoughts and ideas entering your mind. You will need to take time to reflect:

• Why do you want to write this book? You may want to become a full-time writer and get revenue from writing, or just deliver a message that you think is important, or use the book to land a job or speaking opportunities,…
• What is the key message? I have no experience in fiction or poetry books; for non-fiction there is usually a key message or theme that should be summarized in the book title. So take time to write a couple of sentences to describe your book, and brainstorm a title with friends
• What will success look like? What should happen in the months and years following the publishing that would make you happy? Number of books sold, reviews, number of podcasts and speaking gigs, or just positive comments from people touched by your book?

3- Make a commitment and free-up time

Once you decide you really want to write the book, you have to commit: to yourself, to finding the resources, to the people who will support you logistically and to those who believe in you and your project.

Writing a book is extremely time-intensive for most people. It won’t happen if you do not dedicate time to writing. However we all function differently and you will need to create your own writing approach. You may write according to:

• Scheduled sessions: some of my fellow authors scheduled 2 hours every morning to write, and some blocked Zoom evening sessions where they wrote individually, but being virtually together for motivation
• Sporadic intense sessions: this was definitely my style. I would sometimes wake up at 4am, so excited about the chapter I was writing and having dreamt about it. I would write for 4 hours before going back to bed. Or I would get inspired during the day by something somebody had said or something I had read, and jot down notes on the fly. Sometimes, a couple of days would pass without writing anything
• Deadline pressure, or not! Some people love to work under pressure and need deadlines to deliver.

I hope you’re starting to feel what it takes to turn an idea into a book. In another article, I’ll talk more about the resources needed.

In this article series, I share my experience in writing my first book, Venus Genius. I hope you enjoyed this post — if you enjoyed it and want to connect you can reach me here via my website: www.innoveve.com or connect with me on social: www.linkedin.com/in/fabienne-jacquet. You can also find my book on Amazon — here is the link: https://lnkd.in/dXbs_WK