Are you planning to choose the career of becoming an author? Do you have the passion for writing your book, but don’t know what path to follow to fulfill this dream? Here is an easy guide to help you become an author.
Guide to becoming a published author
- Master the fundamentals of book writing
To go ahead and become an author, you need to first learn the basics. Writing a book involves a lot of skills like storytelling, content structuring and planning, content research, editing, proofreading, experimenting with different genres, writing styles, and so much more. You need to go in-depth into all these fundamentals and master these skills.
2. Invest in writing courses
You might think that you already possess a flair for writing, and you don’t need any additional learning. But no matter how skilled you are, your growth as a writer will stop if you do not invest in self-education. Several courses can help you improve your writing skills. These courses will teach you how to research your writing material, plan and structure your content, best writing styles, editing and proofreading techniques and everything in between. It does not matter if you already know how to do these things, gaining more knowledge always helps.
3. Create a routine for writing
You cannot wait for creative inspiration to hit you everyday to start writing. If you do so, you might not complete your book even in years. So establish a writing routine for yourself every day. Set fixed time slots for yourself and give yourself deadlines to complete each chapter of your book. Writing a book is a huge process that requires you to put in work every single day. So putting a routine in place is necessary so that you do not procrastinate and delay the process.
4. Prepare your manuscript and edit it
Start your writing process by preparing an outline for your book. Break down your content into different chapters and give them headings. Plan the content for every chapter. Use these chapter summaries as your Northstar during your writing process. Pen down all ideas that flow to you organically, and you can correct the flaws. Use a thorough review and proofreading method to edit your final content.
5. Research publishing houses
You can go to Google and search for different publishing houses and agents to help you get your manuscript published. On “Become Author”, you can fill out a simple form stating a few personal details (less than 3) and select the book writing services you need, and they will handhold you through the entire book publishing process. They provide multiple services like writing assistance, proofreading, editing, book cover designing, getting your book listed on Kindle, and getting Kindle edition and print copies of your book.
Prepare your submission package and submit your work
Your publishing agent will give you options for different packages that involve different services. Select the one that fits your requirements and submit your draft. Accompany it with a query letter, author bio and synopsis. Customize a query letter as per the publishing agent.
Writing a book might seem to be too overwhelming at the beginning. But if you follow all the above steps, you will be on the right track to becoming an author.
Featured image credits: Kyra_Starr from pixabay.com
