How to Get Started Writing and Publishing Your Book

A while back, Mandy* submitted a simple suggestion.

How to get started for dummies.

I was tempted to make that today’s subject line, but —

1. I don’t think you’re dummies, and
2. I don’t want to get sued by the good folks who were smart enough to trademark the “For Dummies” phrasing and series.

So here we are. If I were to simplify the whole publishing process down to a few simple steps, it would be this.

Understand what type of book you want to write.

Inside of publishing, this is called category but a simpler way to think about it is: Where would your book be in the bookstore? What would be its Amazon subcategory? What books are similar, and what are their categories listed as?

A few super broad examples are: Memoir, Business, Self-Help, How-to, Parenting, and Fiction.

This will do two things.

First, it will allow you to get advice that applies to YOUR book.

Everyone in publishing — from editors at publishing houses to freelancers — specializes, which means that you want to learn from folks who are giving you relevant advice.