Answer This Question Before Writing a Book

Having an idea for a book is easy, but writing a book to get that idea out into the world is daunting. Do you contact an agent or mail your submission to a traditional publishing company? Do you try to self-publish, and if so how does that work?

WestBow Press, a self-publishing division of Thomas Nelson, says the first step to getting your book published is to know your goals. They list 11 potential goals for you to consider for writing a book.

Determine Your Goals for Writing a Book

No author’s goal is to just publish a book: your goal is to change lives. The question is how do you want to go about that? Maybe you travel and speak regularly or have a church community you want to get your thoughts in front of. Or maybe you dream of your book breaking out of the thousands of self-published online books and becoming a bestseller. Maybe you have a thriving social media presence and need help leveraging it toward buying your book.

The truth is there are dozens of options worth considering about your book, including everything from “do I want color print” to “should I have a professional promotional video to promote it?”

There are no wrong answers here, just different paths toward fulfilling your specific needs. So step 1 is for you to identify what you want your book to be.


Christine Yount Jones
Christine Yount Jones
Christine Yount Jones is Content Director for Outreach Media Group. She has published several books and hundreds of articles about ministry in the last three decades. Before his death in 2003, Michael Yount and Christine had three children. Now, she and her husband, Ray Jones, together have five grown kids.

Related Posts

Comments

Recent Stories