
20 Jun How to Write a Book in Seven Days
This is an article for ambitious authors who want to write a book in 7 days.
In 2020, I read a blog post by Written Word Media which said the average self-published author who makes $100K has 28 books published. I immediately thought, “I need to make $100K with my books! I’m going to write a book a month and create a 6-figure passive income stream SOLELY from my royalties.”
At the time, I had published 8 books since 2011, but most of them were old, the information was outdated, and I had not been marketing them, so they died a slow death.
Starting in 2018, I spent more than a year writing the second edition of my book, “Quit Your Job and Follow Your Dreams.” I was earning a few hundred dollars per month from this book but considering the amount of time I invested in writing, editing, publishing, and launching this one book, the payoff wasn’t huge.
Seth Godin, who has published dozens of business books on sales and marketing, said:
“One of my books took more than a year to write, ten hours a day. Another took three weeks. Both sell for the same price. The quicker one outsold the other 20 to 1.”
When I read that quote, I realized I didn’t need to spend months or years working on one book. I needed to write short books (100 pages or less) and publish one book per month.
Since writing and teaching are my passion, I knew I could easily do this!
My books, on average, are about 100 pages, and they fit nicely into Amazon’s “Short Reads” category.
I write nonfiction books.
I’m happy to tell you that after 12 consecutive months of writing a book a month in 2020, I was able to create $4,434+ in monthly royalties!
I have since documented the entire process and system I developed in my signature program, Digital Retirement Academy!
People always ask me if it was hard to write a book a month?
In my opinion, anything with big payoffs like this takes work and commitment as well as a lot of focus.
But it was all worth it!
Not only has it created passive income for me, it has opened many new media opportunities and attracted new clients to my business.
Because of my short timeline of writing a book a month, I had to write the book in 7 days and consequently, I developed a system for doing this.
It begins with doing a mind dump which then gets transformed into a working outline once you know the topic of your book and a working title. I love using ChatGPT for my titles and subtitles and also for my outlines.
After I have a working title for my book, I do a 4-step mind dump of everything that pops into my mind about this topic.
Step One:
Gather your Post-it notes and some colorful sharpies. Once you have an idea about the topic you want to write about and have researched other successful books on that topic, write each idea on a Post-it Note and place them on a large white board or notebook.
Step Two:
Organize the Post-it Notes into logical groups based on the topic or theme.
Step Three:
Remove any that don’t fit. Either throw them away or save them to be used in another book. This is the elimination process.
Step Four:
Keep removing until you have 8-12 chapters and 2-6 sub-topics for each chapter.
Then take those chapter topics and sub-topics and create your outline using Chat GPT.
Here is a sample of the BAM template…
Once you have a detailed outline for your book, then I recommend carving out 3 hour blocks of time and getting your book done in 2-5 days. That's how I write all my books now instead of spreading it out I do hyper-focused time blocks.
PRO TIP: Don’t edit when you are in the writing/creating process. That will slow you down significantly. Just get it out of your head and onto the paper. You can clean it up later or have a good editor help you.
I’ve had to remove a lot of distractions in my life in order to write a book a month like:
- Checking email throughout the day – now I only do this twice a day.
- Continually scrolling through my Facebook or Instagram feed – now I only check it once or twice a day.
- Binge watching shows on Netflix.
- Spending time with low-goal or no-goal friends.
What are your go-to distractions?
- Relationships with a lot of drama
- Reading
- Consuming content (webinars, books, trainings)
- Alcohol and partying
- Emails
- Social media
- Spending time with friends who are not evolving and growing
- Watching sports
- Binge watching shows
- Work-a-holism
- Anything that prevents you from creating art
If you find yourself making excuses that you can’t do this because you don’t have the time, then start removing some of the above distractions and you will find the time.
If your life depended on writing a book a month, you could do it.
Here’s what my 30-day writing schedule looks like:
Days 1-7
- Decide on working title for book based on keyword research
- Mind Dump to Outline
- Finalize Detailed Outline
Days 8-15
- Write the book. (NO Editing)
- Wait a few days, then review.
- Keep Post-it Notes in the project folder when I think of anything to add or remove or notes to send my editor/ formatter.
Days 16-23
- Send the manuscript to the editor for initial edits.
- She returns to me, and I review and accept or reject the changes.
- The manuscript is sent back to the editor for final
formatting. - I then read the newly formatted and edited book word-for-word to catch anything we may have missed in the initial review.
- While she and I are working on the manuscript, my cover designer is working on the cover.
Days 17-30
- Write the book description, research the keywords and categories, and publish the book.
- Do a soft launch to get 5-10 reviews.
Following Month
- Launch the book
- Start writing the next book.
If you’re really serious about writing a book in 7 days and maybe even writing a book a month and creating your own passive income like I did, here are the steps I recommend:
- Join my FREE Facebook group here with other authors on this journey: https://www.facebook.com/groups/28BooksTo100K
- Check out Digital Retirement Academy!