Questions To Ask When Writing a Book

Publishing and writing a book is one of the best experiences you can add to your resume. It transcends all industries and career paths because putting a book out into the world is an arduous task. But adding “author” to your resume can’t be the only reason you publish a book—fiction or nonfiction.

We have three soul-searching questions every writer should ask before beginning a book project:

1. Why am I writing a book?

This is an important question to ask because we can ultimately write a book for the wrong reason. Some of those bad reasons to write a book include: to gain fame, fortune, and other people’s approval. Simply said, you can’t want anything out of writing a book. On a bad writing day, the potential glow of your name in lights isn’t going to make the writing any easier. To gain people’s approval or love isn’t going to make getting up at 5 in the morning to write any easier. So, ask yourself the real reason you want to write a book. If your answer is anything other than “because I want to share this with even just one person,” you might not be ready to write a book yet.

2. What can I write that I haven’t seen before?

It’s fair to say that everything that can be written already has been written by someone else, but I don’t personally believe that to be true. As individuals, we all have life experiences that shaped us a little differently than everyone else. That individuality is what allows us to tell new stories. While there are tried and true formulas for writing books—all the most successful writers use them—you can introduce new places, people, and situations within those formulas. So, think about some of your personal life experiences and brainstorm how you can use them as inspiration for both fiction and nonfiction writing.

3. How much am I able to invest in this process?

Whether you end up publishing your book on your own or through a traditional publisher, there is a lot of heavy-lifting on the author’s part. In both publishing models, the author is not only responsible for writing and revising the book, but also must be involved in the editing and proofreading stages, sign off on the cover design, and be heavily involved in the book’s marketing. That’s not all, there is also the business side of publishing a book, such as filing taxes on royalties, keeping track of expenses for tax write-off purposes, networking with potential book buyers, readers, and other writers, and more. Take the time to ask yourself how much you can comfortably invest from an emotional, mental, physical, and financial standpoint. Once you feel good about the commitment you’re going to make, you’ll be in a much better place to publish your book.

Do you feel ready to write and publish your book? We’d love to publish you! Give us a call at 1-866-381-2665 or check us out at XulonPress.com