How to Write Your Book in 6 Months - What I Learned from Writing an Instructional Design Book.
Are you thinking about becoming an instructional designer? You’re not alone! Instructional design is one of the fastest growing fields, but it’s also a bit confusing. Many of the best instructional designers you know of fell into the role by accident and didn’t have dreams or ambitions of designing learning experiences for a living. Other instructional designers pursued years of education to make this job a reality. The differences in how to become an instructional designer have created a need for an Instructional Design career guide. That is why I wrote a book to help you called, What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Instructional Designer.
One thing I wasn’t expecting when the book came out, was how many of you would reach out to me about your dreams of writing a book. This seems to be a bucket list item for many of you so I figured I would peel back the curtain. I’ll share with you my 5 essential tips with how I wrote the book in 6 months without losing my sanity. I’m specifically highlighting that timeframe by the way because 6 months was my personal deadline. You can take as much time as you need to, but I found that a hard and short deadline was a true motivator. I used the same tactic when writing my dissertation and it worked. I told myself that I had to be done by the time I turned 30, and I happened to graduate on my 30th birthday. So, please feel free to use your own discretion with setting a deadline, but let’s get into my 5 tips on how to write and complete your book.
#1 Removing Barriers
What’s currently holding you back from writing a book? Is it an issue with time or writer’s block or something else? For me, I didn’t have a desire to write a book because of two barriers. The first was being afraid of working with a publisher and the second was the unknown of making physical copies of books. The first thing I did when I started to have an idea of writing the book was that I would turn to my friends and colleagues, who are successful authors and asked them about their experiences with the logistics of writing a book. They shared with me their stories of what they encountered and gave me a few pieces of wisdom. After hearing about their troubles with publishers, I decided for my first book, I wasn’t going to go the full published author route. I did this based on some key factors and if I had to boil it down to one word it would be “control.” I wanted control of the content, the timing, the marketing, and the formatting. My purpose of writing this book wasn’t to become a best seller. It was to help new instructional designers with their problems today. For the sake of it, I did talk to 2 publishers, and my concerns matched up with what my colleagues told me to look out for. So instead, I decided I would be a self-published author for now.
My second barrier was worrying about the mechanics of physical copies of books. Growing up, my mom worked with an author to help him sell and distribute his books throughout the New Hampshire area. I was young so I really don’t remember all of the details, but I do have a memory of going into a warehouse and seeing that he had hundreds of copies of his books that he couldn’t sell. I really don’t want a basement full of books, so I decided right at the beginning to make an ebook. If readers want hard copies of the book, I’ll go through print on demand with Amazon and figure something out. This turned out to be true, as I’m currently researching this, but I’m so thankful I get to learn about this task now when the book is done and not at the beginning to just give me another headache.
Takeaway: Do some reflection and think about what’s stopping you from writing the book. Write them down. Whatever they are, find alternatives to them and find out how to maneuver around them.
#2 Creating Confidence
I thoroughly believe in the power of confidence. Motivation and momentum drive us to achieve our goals and through this process, it creates discipline and confidence. If you don’t have the belief in yourself or your book, then that’s a deal breaker. You need to gain some small wins in order to make the book writing process a reality. Do you currently write? This could be journal entries, blog posts, reviews, or anything else. You need to practice writing and making it into a habit. For me, I’ve written a dissertation. Nothing is going to be harder than that behemoth and having multiple people scrutinize every line so writing a book never intimidated me. Completing this surely added to my self-confidence.
What created confidence for me though as a content creator were my blog posts. My blog has been shared and read by thousands of instructional designers. Some of these readers shared their experiences that were different than mine and these experiences made me see through a different lens. They made me become a better instructional designer and researcher so for the next time I was to produce another piece of content, I would have more perspectives. This further led me to believing in the book’s topic and knowing that it could help out even more instructional designers. It’s why I’m not afraid to promote the book or talk about with people, because I know based on my prior work, that the content connects with readers.
Takeaway: If you haven’t written before, I would highly encourage you to write a blog post or two and share it on LinkedIn. Try to make the topic relevant to the purpose of your book’s theme. Collect feedback from your target audience and from those you respect in the field. Learn to accept criticism and to use it to make you a better writer. If your book is something more for entertainment, share it in the relevant groups on Facebook or post it on Reddit.
#3 Dividing and Conquering
I’m assuming that one of the barriers stopping you from writing a book is that you are thinking about the big picture. You imagine every single chapter, the cover art, the table of contents, the references, the diagrams, the number of pages, and more. While it’s a always good idea to have an overview of what adventure you are going into, I learned a long time ago about the power of taking things one step at a time. Instead of envisioning the book as a whole, I chose to view it as 18 blog post ideas and these eventually became the 18 chapters. The book consists of commonly asked questions by new instructional designers or transitioning instructional designers from another field. After writing down some of those commonly asked questions, I could visualize where the book could lead to. I jotted down a quick outline and thought about some of the most popular topics that have come up since the pandemic. Topics like working with SMEs, a day in the life of an ID, creating a portfolio, going back to school for another degree, and many others started to form in the outline. After moving a few pieces around, it became clear how the questions would align to the book’s title. All I needed was to make a few rough drafts to see if the content actually connected together. After a few days, it started to take shape. Each rough draft became another step in the right direction, and before long, I had most of the chapters done.
Takeaway: Writing an entire book is scary. Writing one chapter is manageable. Break down your book into an outline. It’s ok if it’s not complete yet. More ideas will pop up as you are writing the rough drafts of the chapters. You can always go back and revise the outline later. Once you have a general sense of each chapter, ask yourself if it aligns with the book’s purpose. Will this serve your audience? Do these chapters tell your story? Once you have these answers, you are ready to write more.
#4 Hiring Talent
This is a lesson I wish I learned a long time ago. Just because I can do the job, doesn’t necessarily mean that I should. I have a degree in graphic design and have spent years using Photoshop and other tools. When I first envisioned the book, I figured that I would do the designs for the cover and the layout. After spending so much time writing, I quickly came to the realization that I absolutely did not want to spend time designing too. I pivoted and hired a designer and it was the best decision I made. She came up with a beautiful cover and layout that I honestly would’ve never considered. It did feel like a calculated risk to give the reigns over to another designer, but what’s the worst that could’ve happened? If I truly couldn’t stand the design, I would work with another artist. Fortunately, everything came out fantastic. The other key person I hired was an editor. Luckily for me, my friend, Jen, was an editor with an online learning background so she was the perfect person to read the manuscript. Just like with the designer, she came up with additional ideas and suggestions that I wouldn’t have included in the book. Her edits made my messages stronger and resonate more with the readers. A second set of eyes never hurts!
Takeaway: Hire the right talent. The right support system can enhance your book and your writing process. For designers and editors, check out Fiverr. I’ve worked with some phenomenal people there and would highly encourage you to reach out to my designer, Rica, if you are thinking about a book cover. Be sure to do your due diligence with researching these artists’ ratings, past work, and pricing. You can also reach out to your network or colleagues for their recommended people.
#5 Sharing the Experience
The best idea I had about writing the book was to share my experience. As soon as I wrote the title down on a Word doc, I began to tell everyone that I’m about to go on this crazy journey and invited them along for the ride. I had no idea what each week would bring, but I figured it would be cool to hear how an author goes through each step. I shared my updates through my mailing list, the Instructional Design Institute Community, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and a few select social media groups. I told my colleagues, peers, coworkers, family, and just about anyone who would listen. I did this for three reasons.
The first, it was going to keep me accountable. Every time I had a conversation with someone, they always asked me, “How’s the book coming along?” It was a constant reminder that I had to commit and finish. I utilized this same strategy for my dissertation and it worked then, so I figured, it would work again. The second, sharing built up excitement and anticipation. I wanted people to be just as excited to read it just as I was excited to write it. I wanted word of mouth to spread that I was up to something and to keep it on everyone’s radar. I started to receive messages from potential readers asking when it was coming out, almost like they were getting impatient, in a good way. When it finally launched, I received so many congratulation messages and I still jump up and down in excitement when someone shares a screenshot of them holding up their tablet reading the ebook. The third reason was that some of my colleagues offered to read my manuscript and write a review for the ebook. In hindsight, I wish I did this more. Their reviews reinforced the notion that this ebook can truly help new and transitioning instructional designers. As a bonus though, this became marketing material for the website and for social media. You can write the best book in the world, but if no one reads it, it doesn’t matter.
Takeaway: Share your journey. Tell everyone you know that you are going down this path and invite them to experience it with you. If you haven’t already, I would highly encourage you to start a mailing list and to host your own community to bring people together. Reach out colleagues you respect and admire, and ask them to write a review for you to include in the book itself and marketing material for your website. You need to build that excitement and hearing from other experts that you are on track will not only boost your motivation, but will grab the attention of your future readers.
That my friends is my crazy book writing process of how I finished my ebook in 6 months. I hope these tips help you with either starting your own book writing journey or help you to cross the finish line. If you haven’t yet already, you can find the book over at theinstructionaldesignbook.com or go to Amazon for the Kindle version.
