Who am I and why should you care what I say

about book writing?

You've spent a long time and put a lot of work into
getting your message out only to have it be ignored due
to a lack of professionalism. A stigma comes with self-
publishing — indie authors have a reputation for not
taking their work seriously and for lacking polished
skill.

This is a generalization, unfortunately, but it casts a

shadow on those of us who do put in the hard work
and investment to make our book stand out from the
crowds and compete with traditionally-published books
from the “Big Five” publishing houses.

My name is Steve, and I’ve been blogging since 2004. I

have published a handful of books, including one with
a traditional publisher. Over the years I would
constantly get asked by friends and acquaintances for
help with things related to either their website, writing,
formatting their ebooks, and publishing.

I learned after an accumulated days and days’ worth of my time hopping on Skype calls and
helping people with whatever they needed, that it was time to slow down and start using my
expertise to start a business helping first-time writers and established professionals who just
want to save themselves some time.

I have helped over 30 authors format their books for digital distribution and guided a
number of them in their launch and marketing strategy. As both a self-published and
traditionally published author, I understand the ins and outs of the industry. My background,
experience, and passion more than qualify me to help you take your book from infancy to
completion.

If you need a writing coach to help bring your book to life, or talk launch & marketing
strategy, editing, proofreading, and cover design among other considerations, I’m available
for a free 30 minute strategy session to see if me and my team would be a good fit for you
and your book.

My calendar booking link: meetme.so/SteveBremner

Email me directly: fireonyourhead@SteveBremner.com

 Write Your Manuscript in 30 Days
Sequential Tips Checklist
Do these things before starting the first draft of your non-fiction book so that
you can focus and get it written faster.

Market Research
Determine who your avatar (ideal reader) is.
Find out what your audience wants, and give it to them.
Answer the question: “What’s in it for the reader”?

Personal Preparation
Get your head together
Get clear understanding regarding the purpose of your manuscript (outline
for non-fiction)
Write now, edit later

The Mechanics of Writing

Outline or mapping
Hone in on your voice
Set a goal and stick to your schedule

Strategy Tips For Focusing on Your Writing

Things that you don't necessarily need to do in a particular order. Consider

these “ingredients” to your success.

Listen to music
Change your position & location
Write during off-peak times
Use focus software (Self-control, Focus Booster, etc…)
Time management
Software specifically conducive to writing
Create a sense of urgency for yourself
Take a Break! Do other things away from the computer screen.
(add more of your own….)

 Detailed Version of the Checklist:
Sequential Tips
I've divided this document into two sections. First, things to do in sequence, and
things that are just tactical to help you focus while writing, whatever stage of the
game you're in. You might disagree with the order of the things below in this
sequence, and that’s fine because you gotta to do what works for you. But I think
you'll be in better shape if you do these things before starting your manuscript.

Also the one-page concise checklist is meant to be something you can print and keep
handy while you write and check things off if you’d like to use it that way.

Market Research
Know who your avatar (ideal reader) is
When I wrote my first e-book 6 Lies People Believe About Healing, I had pretended I was
writing it to just ONE person in my mind: someone who believes they are sick for
"God's glory" and that he had placed a disease on them to teach them a lesson. From
there this helped me create a list of the most common lies I hear people teach and
preach about why they're suffering from a physical ailment (i.e., “God's teaching me a
lesson using this cancer that's destroying my body" or “I'm becoming more humble"). I was
passionate about doing whatever I could to help people see that God is good and that
in his goodness, he doesn't put physical afflictions on them so they'll become more
humble. I had one person in mind when I wrote that and generally speaking it was
someone from the Plymouth Brethren Church I grew up in, where during my youth I
never really heard much about miracles or healing.

Having an avatar is not necessary per se, but you will find it to be beneficial with
many aspects of the book writing process, as well as the marketing for it.
Know what your audience wants, and give it to them.
Start by going to the fourth most-trafficked website in all of the internet; Amazon.
Then look at already-existing books in the niche in which you're going to contribute
your knowledge. YouTube and Google are also excellent places to see what are the top
10 questions people are asking about the topic you want to write about. If you're just
looking to write a book on any subject and motivate yourself with something other
than a passion for the topic, you probably won't finish the manuscript. Or at least you
won’t likely be passionate about marketing it to the best of your ability.

What's in it for the reader?

People ignore content that doesn't suggest a benefit they're looking for. They have to
know what they're getting out of the book, and you can answer this question best
when you have an idea of who your ideal reader is in the first place.

Personal Preparation

Get Your Head Together

The first thing to do is get in the right mindset. You are going to write and publish a
book, nothing else. And if you follow the tips and strategies outlined in this short
manual, you’ll do it quickly. There’s not really a right or wrong way to write your book,
but you will figure out what works best for you the more you write. Well, if you
decided not to put spaces between your words and not indent anything, then sure,
that wouldn’t fly with your readers. So I guess there are some right and wrong ways to
write it. But pick and choose some of the steps outlined below. The only way you’ll
know how to write your book is to write your book. Period.

Let me remind you; you have something unique to share that nobody else — not even
the people who’ve already written the same subject matter as you’re about to embark
on — has ever written from the viewpoint you’re going to. The world needs your
message!
Clear understanding of the purpose of your manuscript (outline
for non-fiction)
Take your findings from researching whatever you think is currently a trending topic
to write about, and combine those findings with your brainstormed topics. Where
your personal passions & experience match what’s trending.

After determining your book’s topic, you may be tempted to cover that subject as
broadly as possible. This is based on the idea you want to reach as many people as
possible with your writing. This is in fact a bad idea, and instead you need to get more
specific. For the most part, people read nonfiction books to learn. Or to “hate read”
someone they dislike so they can trash the book on their blog or whatever. At any
rate, they don’t want to hear the same old broad subject with a generic solution.

Provide specific solutions to specific problems.

You also need to establish why it’s an important issue to solve, who you’re solving it
for, and without being too self-absorbed, why you are the expert and your solution is
golden. Don’t take it too far with showing your credentials though, because if you
over do it you could wind up making your readers think you’re some kind of narcissist
bragging about their accomplishments.

The Mechanics of Writing

Outline or Mapping
There are a lot of writing gurus who will tell you to get a blank piece of paper or a
white board and write ideas down, starting with your main one in the middle, and then
draw branches with other ideas that are connected to that. I personally work better
with writing an outline, preferably in my word processor. From there I may try
answering questions like:

What is the problem that this chapter solves or addresses?

What is the solution?
What objections might the reader have to the information I present in this chapter?
How will I counter those objections?
Can this material be combined with one of the other chapters or does it merit its
own?
When I was writing myTongues book, and my healing one but particularly with the
former, I wrote down a list of all the reasons and answers I could think for why
people didn’t believe in speaking in tongues. From there I found after I had written
many of the chapters, that I just didn’t have enough information for some of the
misconceptions, so I made an “other objections” chapter which included the ones
that I couldn’t flesh out in whole chapters of their own.

You may even find as you go that you change the order you originally planned for the
chapters.

Examples of ways you can outline your book at this stage are:

1. “How to” books (Kinda like this one about writing your book fast)
2. A strong stance on a hot button issue
3. An interesting or relatable story.

You may think this should come earlier in the process, and you may be right. I find
whenever I'm brainstorming or mind mapping for a book or a series of blog posts, I
prefer having done some of my market research before I've determined things like the
chapter breakdown or what order I want them in, and what points, in particular, in
which I want to focus. But if you don’t determine your primary and specific goal in
writing your book, you’ll quickly lose focus and forget why you’re writing it in the first
place or have less resolve when discouragement and writer’s block hit you.

Hone in on Your Voice

Many bestselling non-fiction books are written with a casual tone. I know, you were
taught to in high school to use proper English, but that was mostly to prepare you for
how to write your college papers. In real life, the books that resonate best with the
average reader are casual. Knowing your ideal reader should help with this. When
people read your book, it should feel like you’re speaking to them, like you’re both
having a coffee or tea together and chatting. Granted, you’re the one doing all the
talking in his case, but still, you get the idea.

Set a goal and stick to your schedule

Your writing target depends on the kind of time you can carve out of your schedule
and how fast you can type, but I'm challenging you to write at least 40,000 words in 30
days. Horror novelist Stephen King wrote in his book, On Writing: A Memoir Of The
Craft that he writes 2000 words a day, starting around 8 am, whether that takes him
into the afternoon or whether he finishes it all by 11:30am.

Sidenote: I recommend reading his book. Read my detailed review of my reasons why.

Write now, edit later

Once you get into the writing, just write and don't edit. You may be like me and
every fibre in your being fights against this urge, but trust me on this. Just write until
you have no more writing in you, and then go back and edit. Write all you can in the
times you've set aside for churning out your manuscript. On the other hand, don’t
beat yourself up over the time aspect of it. I look at it like working out at the gym:
I've never spent more than two and a half hours at the gym in one visit, but I have
gone weeks in a row going to the gym for at least half an hour every day my gym was
open. I don't have expertise about whether that's beneficial or the best way to do it,
but at the beginning of my weight loss journey, it helped make working out more
manageable for me when I broke it down into doable time chunks on a near-daily
basis.

I recommend something similar to this with writing. Like the previous point of setting
a goal or a schedule, you'll find that writing at least 1000 words per day can be done in
less than an hour if you’re an average typer.

Strategy Tips For Focusing

These are things that don't necessarily fall into a sequence and are intentionally not
listed in any particular order for that reason. These are merely writing hacks you can
use for focusing and getting the writing done, assuming you've done the steps in the
previous list first and are ready to get down to the content creation part of your book.

Some of these are common sense time management tips, but I'm just here to give you
a reminder that you CAN get your book done.
Listen to music
Specific music helps creativity, such as baroque music or Mozart. Try different styles
of music to determine what works best for you or what you enjoy working with the
most. There are Playlists on music apps like Spotify and Google Play Music which
contain curated lists based on genres and tempo and other things that help with
getting the creative juices flowing. I need to use headphones in my home office to
tune out the noise that comes from having two daughters under the age of 4 in a
house with concrete walls.

I suggest not listening to your favorite bands and music you’re familiar with because
even though it can help you focus and block out the world around you, there are
studies that suggest higher productivity when listening to certain styles of music with
songs or melodies we are not familiar with.

Change your position

I read somewhere — and the internet doesn't lie — that many people are more
creative when they lie down. I also learned that if you write standing up, it's also great
for your health. I don't know who to believe, but if you choose to write for extended
periods as opposed to short bursts, you may get tired of sitting in the same position
for long periods at a time. Mix it up a little.

Write during off-peak times

I am not a morning person, in fact it’s about 12:31 am local tie as I write this. I wrote
the majority of my Tongues book between 10 pm and 2 am during the weeks when I
was writing fresh new content for it. Others tap into that creative flow more so when
they do it first thing in the morning. Well, I read another study or article that
suggested to try doing the opposite of what works for you. If you are a morning
person, write at night. If you are a night person, write in the morning. Again, mix it
up a little.

Stay Focused
For help with this, I used to use FocusBooster while it was a free app (it’s still pretty
cheap). It uses the Pomodoro Technique, which is a time management system that
challenges you to focus on a single task for 25 minutes and then give yourself a 5-
minute break. The method comes from the idea that frequent breaks can improve
mental agility. When those 25 minutes are up, the app sounds an alarm and counts
down the 5-minute break as well. I take advantage of these breaks to get another
coffee or go to the bathroom, or just not feel guilty about checking my email or
Facebook for just that break. Then, when the alarm sounds, get back to working. I
wrote the lion's share of Nine Lies People Believe About Speaking in Tongues with
FocusBooster turned on.

Nowadays I primarily use a Mac app called Self Control which blocks out websites
and apps of your choosing -- in my case, social media profiles — for an hour or two
at a time. The self-control app I use allows for sites to be blocked out for up to 24
hours at a time. Alternatively, you could also use filters like Net Nanny or porn
blockers to block out all internet or specific websites during the chunk of the day you
are committing to focusing on your writing as well. Not having the ability to go to
distracting sites helps me not to bother trying to, and I stay focused on what I'm
writing.

Time Management
Oh gosh, if I've heard it once I've heard and seen it hundreds of times: “I just don’t
have time to write a book" - says that friend who binges watches every new Netflix
Marvel show the very weekend they come out. I talk to people ALL. The. Time (yes I
wrote it that way on purpose) through Facebook Instant Messenger who somehow
can find the time to engage in internet debates about theology, or post about some
other questionable use of their time like playing video games, but tell me they'd love
to write a book but don't have time.

Seriously?

We can all decide how many hours of sleep we'll get. Whether we genuinely need to
binge watch shows on Netflix. Whether we really should bother engaging in specific
time-wasting activities. How much time and energy we'll invest in our future. Nobody
else will come along and give those desired results to us with no effort.
I hate to sound lame, but that book won't write itself.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day, and it's up to us to choose what is worth
cutting out of our schedule to make the time to write. Some people remove a portion
of their sleep by getting up half an hour or a full hour earlier or by staying up that
much later. Or they remove something else they deem unnecessary from their
schedule to make learning a new skill or fixing something that's currently an obstacle
in their going forward, or writing that book. You could always give up, oh I don't
know, Facebook and see how much that helps? There are a lot of things you can nix
from your schedule to replace with writing time to get your book completed. And
want in on a little tip I've learned? Netflix and Facebook are pretty much always there
whenever I come back from hiatuses, and I've never missed much.

Software Conducive to Writing

If you're happy to use Microsoft Word or Apple's Pages or Open Office for either
Windows or Mac, then power to you. There’s no point in buying something you don’t
need. But I recommend finding writing software that works best for you and has
specific features, like allowing you to block out or at least ignore other apps &
notifications, and use full-screen composition mode on just the word processing
you're doing.

My personal preference is to write using Scrivener, and usually with the full screen
composition mode on, which a lot of sites like WordPress now include. You can see
my detailed recommendation here.

Scrivener is an ‘all-in-one' writing app created by writers for writers. As I said, it can
appear complicated at first and challenge to use, but trust me, it's worth learning how
to get the hang of it and in almost no time at all, it becomes second nature to you. It's
like getting the hang of using a Mac when you have been using a PC for years. At
first, it seems daunting and has a bit of a learning, but then after a while, you realize
how great it is.

Create a sense of urgency for yourself

One of the best ways to accomplish anything is when you have deadlines — whether
self-imposed or from outside sources, like someone holding me accountable asking
me to show my progress. Whenever I've had assignments due in high school or Bible
college, I found that the closer I got to the deadline, the more productive I became.
Imaging that! I believe a lot of people are this way as well. So, in a similar vein to
creating goals and sticking to an editorial calendar, give yourself deadlines, and some
"consequence" that works for you that will help trick your mind into doing all it can to
motivate you to meet your deadlines. Like say, your spouse or roommate can cut off
one of your fingers if you don't finish that chapter or word count by the time of
which you've committed.

Just kidding.

About the finger cut off, not about giving yourself deadlines.

Do other things away from the computer screen

Take a break. Get away from the screen. Stop sitting on your heinie for prolonged
amounts of time. If you’re like me, then the tips in number 1 will help you when you
take advantage of those 5-minute breaks to have another coffee. Stephen King walks
every afternoon after having spent all morning writing. Jeff Goins reads for an hour
before hitting the keyboard.
Now get up away from your computer screen and take a walk. When you come back, I
am willing to bet you have your creative juices flowing.
 You’re Just Getting Started
These are some tools of which I hope you find as you implement them, that you can
quickly and easily get your manuscript written in under 30 days.

But that's just the beginning.

As you edit and re-edit, and send your manuscript to beta readers, an editor and
proofreaders, not to mention as you work on your book launch and promotion among
other things, you'll find writing it was just a fraction of the battle. When I launched my
first Kindle book over 5 years ago, a mentor told me that a successful book is 20%
writing and editing it, and 80% marketing it.

If you would like help bringing your book to life and launching it, or to talk launch &
marketing strategy, editing, proofreading, and cover design, I’m available for a free 30
minute strategy session to see if me and my team would be a good fit for you and
your book.

My calendar booking link: meetme.so/SteveBremner

Email me directly: fireonyourhead@SteveBremner.com