This document provides advice and lessons learned for writing and publishing a first book. It discusses developing the book idea, understanding the target audience, researching competitors, outlining the book structure, writing drafts and revisions, and preparing to publish. The key steps are to clarify the purpose and audience for the book, research the market, create an outline and chapter structure, write a first draft, take a break, extensively edit and refine the draft, and initially publish digitally before releasing a printed version. Details like sensory descriptions, editing for errors, and using appropriate verb tenses are also addressed.

1. The Road to Writing
& Publishing Your
First Book

2. How to do it without going …

4. From the Big Idea to the Boring Details:
Lessons learned on how to edit your book to
Write it Better, Faster and with Less Misery
Details!
Details!
Details!
Details!
Details!

5. What does it take to write?

7. The Journey
and what you’ll learn
•Who the heck am I?
•How I did it wrong
•A better way of doing
things
•Lessons Learned
•Resources I like

8. Maybe you’re asking …

9. Writer & Photog right from the “get-go”

10. How a coin toss changed my life

11. Sun Valley, Idaho

12. Magazine
Editor
Newspaper
Photographer
& Photo Editor

13. Adventurer

14. Freelance Writer & Photographer

15. Silicon Valley Days
• Webmaster
• Web content developer
• Information architect

16. Glaucoma –
almost went blind

17. Went down the rabbit hole

19. A voice from beyond me said …

20. “Do Your Bucket List!”

21. #1: “Kayak down the Grand Canyon!”

22. It became “the book I had to write”
That journey …

23. This is the book …

24. It won this contest …

25. “Round 1”

26. Listed the key points …

27. Aggregate key ideas together …

29. Had the perfect writing life …
• House sitting
• No wifi
• Surrounded by Nature

30. I wrote …

31. And wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote …

32. And wrote and wrote and wrote … 135,000 words

33. It was a train wreck!

34. I Hit the Wall

35. What do I do now?

36. Help!

37. I have great friends …

38. She’s a famous author …Marcy interrogates me about my book

40. I decided to Start Over

41. Start with the Big Picture

43. Why are you writing your book?
•Who’s it for … you or an
audience?
•Do you intend to SELL
it?
•Is it to help your
business – to establish
your credibility, etc?

44. Get very clear on WHY you
are writing your book.

45. •Is it for you?
•Is it for an audience?
•If for an audience – WHO?

46. Create a Customer “Avatar”
Describe that person as clearly as possible.

47. Why would they want to read it?
• What’s in it for them?
• What’s their takeaway?
• How does it benefit them?
• What do they learn?
• What experiences do they get from it?
• Is there a universal theme in your book
that will appeal to them?

48. Who’s your competition?

49. Check out your local bookstore.
Where would your book be located?

50. Research similar books on Amazon

51. • What else has been written?
• What are the titles and
subtitles?
• How long are they?
• What do the covers look like?
• What do you like – and not
like – about them?
• Where would it go in the
bookstore or on Amazon?
Questions to research …

52. What the
Market WantsWhat You Want

53. Merge it all together …
• What do you want to write?
• What does the market need?
• What’s the opportunity?

54. Find your North Star, plot your course and WRITEFind your North Star, plot your course and WRITE

55. Big question – Where does it START and END?

56. Write the jacket copy of your book
•First thing somebody
reads about your
book.
•Answers WHY they
should read it
•Write it out!

58. Hard Copy Approach:
Index cards, Post it notes, etc.

59. Software: Mindmapping, Scrivener, Word, etc

60. All your chapters should add up to
the big idea

61. Name the chapters
•They pull people in
•Give them snappy titles

62. Write to the promise in each chapter
•This will help keep
your writing focused

63. Get that First Draft Out!

66. Don’t Stop Until You’re Done

68. Take a BIG break

70. Don’t be a draft dodger

74. Sometimes you ….

75. (And other times you don’t.)

76. Keep It Simple

77. Sometimes you need to do minor trimming.

78. Other times you need a chainsaw.

79. Let’s get tense!
(and get it right!)
1.Know the Usage of each
tense
2.Be mindful of shifting
tenses
3.Know the verb's proper
form for each tense

80. Details, details, details ….

83. “Arrrrrrr!!”

84. “Ahhhhhhh …. “

85. WHERE do you feel it? And WHAT is the SENSATION?

86. “She had a headache.”

87. “Hammers pounded her cranium. Snakes twisted, writhed
and squeezed through her soul until she exploded.”
“Hammers pounded her cranium. Snakes twisted, writhed
and squeezed through her soul until she exploded.”

89. Do it with
Sensory details

91. Get …

92. • It takes another pair of eyes to spot the errors you’ve missed
• An error-free book makes a good impression to the readers
• It is better to get a bad review from your editor than from your
readers
• There is always room for improvement
• All the bestselling books have been edited professionally. It’s what
readers expect.
• You’ll lose credibility if there are errors.

93. Publish it as a Kindle first
• Faster and easier to publish
• There WILL be mistakes (Get
over it)
• MUCH easier to make changes
• Continue to make corrections
• THEN publish it as a book

95. Books on writing I’ve liked

96. Software

97. Microsoft Word
Learn how to use “Track Changes”

98. What makes
people tick?
Enneagram