Over the years, I’ve been asked by several people to give them tips on book writing. As I thought about their requests, I realized that I don’t have the right generalized knowledge to write on that topic, but I do have very specific knowledge about how I write books. So, for all those curious, here is my story. I hope it can help you with your journey as an author.
Where do I get the ideas for my books?
I don’t choose them; they choose me. I once heard prolific author Peter Kreeft say that his books leapt into his head in all the oddest places–the grocery aisle, for example–nearly fully formed. I can’t say I’m quite that lucky, but I would say that my book ideas do seem to come to me, and I then feel like the mother meant to bring the child into the world. I’ve currently got a list of 20 more books to write and I’m regularly adding another one or two, so I’ll have to improve my pace of writing one every five years if I have any hopes of completing them all. Thankfully, the steps below should help me accelerate.
How do I keep my thoughts / notations / citations straight?
I keep a stack of index cards with me at all times. As a thought pops into my head, I jot it down–one thought per index card. As I’m reading, if I come across a point I like, I’ll jot that down too, noting the book or article, author, page number or date, anything to specify it as clearly as possible. I’ve had to stop myself from abbreviating anything, for I’ve too often returned to a card and been frantically trying to decode which book and author the jumble of letters referenced. These stacks of index cards are then sorted by which of the working book ideas it best relates to. If an idea ties to several book ideas, I create duplicate cards.
To keep the index cards sorted, I store them in a set of photo boxes that are used by scrapbookers. These cards then become the start to the book contents. If a stack of cards is small, it’s probably too light for the book. So, I’ll dive into my library or into a book ordering spree and do a bit more research or solo thinking sessions to add index cards to the pile of thoughts.
I’ve been keeping files of cards for years now. I probably have several thousand sorted and ready for the new books. This is a great way for me to keep the future books achievable through slow investments of time and thinking.
How do I write my first drafts?
I spread the index cards for that title out onto a big table and start to group them by topics that may become the chapters. I’m very loosely sorting them at this point so that a structure can emerge versus be imposed. Some will gravitate toward the book thesis–those go into the introduction pile. Others will illustrate a point for later.
Once I have all the cards stacked into their categories, I then sort each stack into the chronological order that I’d want to mention them. This becomes a fluid, pre-draft that gives me a sense of flow.
Once I start writing, I just start with the first card and tie it into the next and on and on until the stack is gone. The draft will be rough, without polish, but it gets the thought strings out for sharing and refining. I throw away the cards after I’ve written from them. If I don’t use a card, I file it back into a pile for another book or dump it into a general pile that gets sorted again at the end of the project. That helps me keep each thought captured so no thought gets lost or forgotten.
How do I revise my drafts?
I let a lot of people see the first messy draft. They give me a wide range of feedback. Through their feedback, I’m able to test what resonated and what flopped. Then I revise the draft before I’m too wedded to any of it.
People who’ve read my first and later drafts can catch glimpses of the first draft in the latter, but it is usually very different. I thought I had revised a lot between the first and final drafts of Everyone is a Change Agent, my first book, but the transformation of Change Tactics, my second book, from the first to the last was more extensive. Revising this way takes a long time, but it suits my personality to revise in the soft conflict of multiple perspectives and find a spot amidst the feedback that is both true to their investment of time and courage to critique the manuscript and to my voice and intentions for the book.
How I illustrate my points?
I don’t. Sarah Moyle does. She is my visual companion on this publishing journey, and we’ve melded our styles together so well that I can imagine my work without her. I’m blessed to have known her since my first keynote when she illustrated it live and I’m excited about all the publishing journeys we will go on together.
How did I publish?
I use the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform. It’s simple, intuitive, and even better now than it was five years ago. To publish you only need a manuscript file that meets the specifications and the cover art too. Thankfully there are a lot of people willing to help you with all of those steps, especially now that Upwork and Reedsy exist. I found my copyeditor on Upwork and my formatter and indexer on Reedsy. I’ll admit that I was nervous to learn these new platforms and find people to help me, but now that I’m done, I can’t wait to partner with them again, or if they aren’t available, to meet another awesome professional. There are a lot of little details that go into this step, but my point here isn’t to write a user manual, but to tell you that this step may seem to be too big for you. It isn’t. If you can get a manuscript out of your head, written up, and revised with the help of your friends, this step will be the easy part.
How did I publicize my books?
I really don’t. I want to do it more systematically and I even spent some time studying how to sell a book and crafting some initial plans for publicizing Change Tactics. But then Ted had his tumor biopsy surgery, and I had to give myself grace to let something go so I could focus, physically and mentally, on him. I chose to abandon my coordinated plans for the book launch. So, to fill the gap I’ve been accepting all podcasts that ask, agreeing to a few small speaking engagements, and generally posting mentions on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. My friends have helped to share the word too and I’m very grateful for their support. The nice part about self-publishing with an on-demand printing publisher is that I’m not trying to sell a first printing as fast as possible. I’m trying to get the ideas out into the world and 
I’m constantly innovating on how to do that. The books are just one of the vehicles for helping the ideas spread, and however they spread, I’m grateful. I do hope to learn more from other on book launches and campaigns for future books. I’ll declare that as my stretch goal for the next book.
Oh, but before I leave this, I must say that I would always recommend getting book photos taken by John DeMato. His photos of Change Tactics and Everyone is a Change Agent are fantastic on the website, on social media and in presentations and, for me, they are like senior pictures for the books. You are so proud of them, how they’ve grown and are ready to go out into the world, so you can’t wait to show them off in their true form, in print, in photos. You can see John’s work for me on display here and on this website and you can check out more of his work at his site: johndemato.com
This is the rough story of how I publish. I hope that it helps many of you who are thinking of writing a book to move from thinking to action. If it can really be as simple as seven steps and someone as busy as I can do it, I know that all of you can do it too. Why not try? I believe in you, and I can’t wait to read your books!
2025 Update
I didn’t have to update the original 2021 post much because I haven’t written another book since (though I plan to get one or two more out this year!). But I would be remiss if I didn’t add a link to a colleague who is devoting her time to helping non-fiction authors succeed: Jenny Lisk. Go to Jenny for general wisdom and targeted advice at https://jennyliskllc.com/nonfiction-crash-course-publishing-options.
Whatever process you use to write your book; the statement I want to leave you with is: Write your book. Don’t let a process, or a lack of process, stop you. Let your book flow out of you even a letter, a word, a paragraph or page at a time.
Now get writing!
