Book Smarts
Thinking of writing a book? You’re going to need a plan.
I spent ten years writing a book about the first eight years of my life. I had no idea when I started that it would take longer to write about the experiences of my childhood than it did to live them. Having finally finished the first draft of the manuscript, I breathed a great sigh of relief. I was done!
To celebrate, I did two things. First, I signed up for a HerStry webinar on how to write a book proposal. Second, I signed up for the Minnesota Writer’s Workshop on how to get published, adding two, ten-minute pitch opportunities with agents at the last minute to give myself a deadline. After all, what good is writing a book if no one wants to read it? I was brimming with questions. Do I need to hire an editor to review my work and make sure it’s worthy? How about a proofreader? How do I find an agent (and what happens after that)?
I started with the webinar. What I learned put a damper on my celebratory mood. I quickly realized with each answered question that I wasn’t even close to the finish line. Getting a book written is one thing—making it readable (and, God help me, publishable) is another. Truth is, I was just getting started. It was like running a 5k and realizing that you’d inadvertently signed up for a marathon.
The writer’s workshop was just six weeks away. Was I ready? Could I do this? I was filled with self-doubt. Then I heard my mom’s voice in the back of my head, and the quip she’d say every time she was presented with a challenge: How hard could it be?
How hard indeed. Turns out writers these days aren’t just writers at all. We’re editors. Marketers. Researchers. Sales persons. Website developers. Social media experts. It was enough to make my head spin.
A saving grace came at the end of the webinar, when someone asked about resources to plan and pitch their book to an agent. The host, Jane Friedman, directed us to a series of books by Jennie Nash. With a quick search on Amazon, I immediately zeroed in on Blueprint for a Memoir, which arrived on my doorstep the very next day.
Not being one to shy away from a challenge, I completed all 14 exercises in the book within the week. I realized as I completed one exercise after another, that I was “doing it” a bit backwards, having already completed the manuscript I was in the process of “scoping out.” I also realized that maybe what I was writing wasn’t really a memoir at all. So, I ordered another book: Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book.
Once again, I read it cover to cover and completed all the exercises. With each refined response, and after much soul-searching, I was zeroing in on what my book is about, why I wrote it, who I wrote it for, and how I hoped to get it out into the world. It was time well spent.
But it didn’t stop there. I started working on the next steps. A book proposal. A list of agents that might be interested in what I was writing. A query letter that could be customized for each agent. A synopsis. An overview. A marketing plan. A website. This blog!
It’s been ten years since I first decided to write a book about my parent’s adventures working as Lutheran missionaries in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. Now, I’m happy to say, I’m finally ready to talk about it. I’ve stopped looking for the “finish line.” Now I’m all about the process, and getting the story just right.
