THREE MONTHS
TO AN AMAZON BESTSELLER
Julia Goodfellow-Smith shares her tips and tricks
Having had an unsuccessful attempt at selfpublishing in the past , I decided to get some help when I was ready to write Live Your Bucket List . I joined Self-Publishing School ’ s Become a Bestseller programme and followed their process to self-publish within three months . In this article , I have summarised the four-step process I used - commit yourself , plan your book , write your book and sell your book .
Commit yourself
As many members of OWPG know , it is not easy to write a book . Without deadlines and a publisher chasing for your manuscript , you need to be disciplined to maintain momentum . It helps to understand why you are writing the book and to identify – and tackle – the things that might stop you from completing the project . To deepen my commitment further , I used social media to announce my intention to write a book , including the planned launch date . I would have been hugely embarrassed if I hadn ’ t then followed through . This gave me little room for self-doubt or procrastination .
Plan your book
If you want to be published in three months , you need to move fast . I allowed myself :
■ Four weeks to write the �irst draft . I was aiming for 35,000 words , so set a daily target of 1,500 words
■ Ten days for self-editing
■ Three weeks for professional editing
■ Two weeks for cover design and formatting
■ Two weeks to recruit a launch team and another two for them to read the book before publication .
■ One week for admin , for example , uploading the book to Kindle Direct Publishing and Ingram Spark
Write your book
If you want to turn a book around quickly , it helps if the book is short ( in my case , I was aiming for roughly 35,000 words ) and already researched . When writing , I use a simple process . Whatever I ’ m writing - a speech , a book or a blog - I usually start by creating a mind map of everything I might want to include . For Live Your Bucket List , my mind map helped me to determine the overall structure of the book . I then decided on the structure of each chapter and created a mind map for each ( below ).
I try not to edit the rough draft in any way as I write it . OWPG member Jon Doolan once shared the analogy with me of writing like a puppy and editing like a cat . At this stage , you can be enthusiastic and drool all over your writing , as if you were a puppy . Once the �irst draft is complete , you can channel your inner cat and become ruthless with your manuscript :
■ Does your plan still convey what you want ? Does your book follow the plan ?
■ Is your writing captivating :
□ Have you used good storytelling techniques ?
□ Have you used all �ive senses ? I am very
12 outdoor focus / spring 2022