Can anyone write a book?

23 years.

That’s the age it took me to open up a Word document and write the first word of my first book.

How old am I now? Still twenty-three. But there is something different now about this version of me. 

I’ve written not just the first word of my first book… I’ve written much more than that. Sixty-thousand to be precise. These words didn’t just spill out of me in a week or a day. I wrote every day for four months on my book for one hour each day. 

Some hours later I had before my eyes: the first draft of my first book. Which is a little bit more than just the first word or my first book, isn’t it?

Today I want to go over, briefly, how you can also go about writing a book, and how you are likely more than capable (If you want to write a book in the first place).

Simple steps: from 0 words to 60,000.

The hardest part about doing anything seems to be just getting started. At least this is how it has been for me. Especially when it comes to writing a book! After all, I waited twenty-three years just to have enough courage to open a Word document and title it “my first book”. 

However when I look back at my life, getting started only feels like the hardest part. In reality, it is just as easy to get started as it is to keep going. I say this for those thinking about how hard it is to get started on their book.

The first steps are far less insurmountable than they seem. 

When I set out to write my book I didn’t have all the details sorted at first, but rather than get lost in paralysis by analysis, I just started writing. Words on the page were the goal.

Show up for one hour each day and if you write nothing then stare at a blank page for an hour, that’s the basis I was setting for myself. No expectations, just show up.

Of course, when I showed up I didn’t stare at a blank page the whole time. Because when your mind knows it has no other place to go it finds something to write. Some of the things I wrote really stunk too, but out of all the stink, there were some real gems; diamonds in the rough if you will.

This is essentially all I depended on to get my first draft to completion. Show up every single day, without fail, and just write. 

If you want to write that book you’ve always wanted you need to:

1) Get started
2) Do the thing every single day
3) Keep doing the thing every single day

‘the thing’ being: showing up to write.

Going to publish

Many aspiring book writers often ask the question: “But how will I get my book published?” and the answer — although I didn’t worry about this until I had my book’s first draft nearly finished — is quite simple.

You could look for a big fancy published to publish your book, or pay someone to publish it, market it, etc. etc. These are all good routes, they are the traditional paths to publish your book. But if this is your first book and you’re like me, chances are you just want to get it out there.

And you can! Self-publishing is another incredible option that is super simple to get done. The best part is that it doesn’t cost you many thousands of dollars, matter of fact, it costs you just about nothing at all.

I learned while researching how I was going to publish that you can use Amazon’s KDP publishing platform for free. Then you can sell your book on Amazon and they will print it out on demand anytime someone orders it.

This is probably the simplest way to self-publish and has made it super accessible to get your book out there. You can then also save your book as an EPUB and then sell it on places like Gumroad.

All of the above that I just mentioned has plenty of full documentation too over on YouTube.

With all this in mind, I think it’s silly not to give writing that book you’ve always wanted to write a go. You can get started, keep going, and when you’re ready: publish it all by yourself to one of the biggest online marketplaces in the world.

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Thanks for reading, if you have any questions feel free to message me. 
 — your friend, jack ♠️