The process of writing a book is much like that of conceiving a child and bringing it into the world. Much like but not quite, if you know what I mean. You need a man and a woman to mate in order to conceive a child. In the case of a book, you could go solo or you could collaborate with someone and brainstorm together all the ideas you both have. Generally, it’s more of going solo.Ideas germinate and you write down everything that comes to mind. Later on, you look at what you’ve written and begin to make a mind map so that the general mess takes on form.
You can see the structure of your plot, a main plot, sub-plots. Ideas for your characters develop and
you flesh them out.
It can be quite exciting to plot your characters’ roles and their traits. There will be characters you like and those whom you dislike. With these skeletal outlines drawn out, you can then begin to write your story. Very often it happens that the story leads you on. It seems to take on a life of its own and you’re just the scribe, writing it all out.
Writing is a slow process. You tend to go back a few times to read it and then amend it. Once you’re happy with it, then you get on with the mechanics, that of proofing and editing. With that out of the way, you could let it lie for a while and do something else.
Then after a few days, you may want to look at it again, read it out aloud and mull over it. If you’re happy with it, then you need to decide whether it’s going to be a digital version or a print version.
These days it’s not difficult to upload your manuscript into Kindle Direct Publishing and have your book live online. Of course you would need to have a cover for your book. This is where you may want to outsource to someone who’s a graphic designer who can design a good cover for you.
Amazon generally takes a day to review your book and they will inform you when your book’s live in their store.
So there, your baby has been born. That’s not the end of the story! You would need to promote and market it, so that it gets exposed to more people. When people like your book, they will buy it from amazon and you get a royalty.
This sounds simple but in effect, it isn’t, really. The writing may be the easy part while the marketing and promotions are really challenging.
