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 2019, 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At the time, I had published 8 books since 2011, but most of them were old, the information was outdated, and I had not been marketing them, so they died a slow death.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 bestselling book, 28 Books to $100K.

It wasn’t easy to write, edit, format, publish and launch a book a month, but the payoff has been great.  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 tight 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’ll do another blog post soon on how to create a killer title and also how to decide on what book to write using data to help you).

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.

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.  You can get all of my systems, video training and resource in my DIY course, 28 Books to $100K or you can get on the waiting list for Digital Retirement Academy which opens 4x per year.

Here is a sample of the BAM template…

Once you have a detailed outline for your book, then the next step is to figure out how you work best to get your book written.

For me, I quickly learned that I had to roll out of bed and write in my pajamas first thing in the morning or else the writing wouldn’t get done.  I couldn’t make calls, check emails, go to Starbucks, clean, do laundry or anything.  I had to wake up and write.  I would usually do 2 chapters per day, but if you’re writing a short book of 100 pages or less, each chapter could be 5-10 pages which isn’t a lot.

RAPID WRITING SECRETS

Out of necessity, I created 16 Rapid Writing Secrets to help me get my books done quickly.

• SPEAK YOUR BOOK

Many of my clients do NOT like to sit down and write. So, I have them record what they want to include in their book and then have the recordings transcribed. An editor or assistant puts all the recordings in cohesive order and creates the book. You can do this yourself by downloading the “Rev” app to your smartphone. Then, create recordings for your book and have them transcribed. This is a very quick way to get your book done!

• HAVE SOMEONE INTERVIEW YOU

Have someone who isn’t familiar with your topic interview you about it. Come up with questions for them to ask you and record the answers and then have them transcribed. 

• WRITE THE FIRST PARAGRAPH

When writing a book, the hardest part is writing the first paragraph. Once it’s written, though, the rest will flow. You can even write the first paragraph for each chapter and then go back and add the remaining content. Also, you don’t have to write the chapters in the order they will appear in the book. Start with the chapters that you feel the most energy around.

• WRITE THE CHAPTER SUMMARY FIRST

Many books write themselves once you start writing, so creating a chapter summary will help get the ideas out of your head and give you a place to start.

• WRITE IN A FRESH ENVIRONMENT

Because of distractions at home, you might get more writing done away from your home office. Go to a coffee shop, your local bookstore, or sit outside, anywhere that you won’t be distracted from writing.

• WRITE IT OUT OF SEQUENCE

Many writers get too focused on the sequence of the chapters and never write anything. That’s why you need an editor who will review your book and move things around if they seem out of sequence. Or you can move the chapters around yourself once you’ve written them all. Don’t be too concerned about the order of the chapters because the main goal is to get it out of your head. For me, trying to figure out the sequence as I’m writing slows me down tremendously. Just knowing I can rearrange the chapters when I’m done allows my writing to flow with ease!

• WRITE THE STORIES FIRST, THEN MAKE YOUR POINTS

Everyone loves a good story. People easily remember stories more than a list of facts. There is power in the phrase, “Once upon a time…” So, write your stories first, and then add the points. 

Method: 

• Write a Story.
• Make three points. 
• Rinse and Repeat.

That’s it!

• BLOG YOUR BOOK

I have done a couple of books for clients who collected past blog posts they have written. They edited the blog posts, rearranged them, and sometimes added new content to them. Then they repurposed those blog posts into a brand new book. 

• START WITH POWERFUL QUOTES

When I see a great quote, I feel inspired. Many books I’ve read include a powerful quote at the beginning of each chapter. An easy way to get your book started is to collect 10-12 quotes related to your topic and write a chapter based on each of those quotes.

•  WRITE YOUR BOOK WITH BLOCK TIME

We do our best work when we are in a “FLOW” state, which is when we are completely absorbed in the activity at hand (also known as being “in the zone”). To accomplish this: 

• Do your highest value work early in the day. 
• Set this time aside as your block time. 
• Don’t do any tasks that are distracting beforehand (email, watching the news, scrolling through social
  media, etc.).

What are your favorite Rapid Writing Secrets? Use what works best for you!

I find writing a book in 3-7 days works best for me for a few reasons:

1. I easily lose my train of thought. If I write for an hour or two each day, and then don’t get back to it for a day or two, I’m completely lost about what I was writing about or where I was heading.
2. Because I run an online business:  www.bestsellingauthorprogram.com, it’s hard to balance working with clients every day, taking care of personal things, and writing my books. 
3. I like having designated writing days without any client work or tasks so that I can focus solely on my book. 

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 feed – now I only check it once or twice a day.
• Binge watching TV 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:

1. Join my FREE Facebook group here with other authors on this journey:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/28BooksTo100K
2. Check out the DIY course here:  https://michellekulp.samcart.com/products/28-books-to-100k 
3. Get on the waiting list for Digital Retirement Academy, which opens 4x per year.