In November 2021, OnePoll asked 2,000 people if they thought they had a good idea for a book in them. More than half said yes. When asked if they had started writing, only 15% said yes, and only 6% were halfway through. Bear in mind this is over a year after hobbies like cooking, reading, and gardening were on the rise from the pandemic. Who didn’t have a sourdough starter by that time?
What does it take to write that story that’s been dying to get out? What do you do with it when you do get it on paper? Are you a writer now, or is it just one-and-done?
If you’re planning on starting to write a book anytime soon, welcome to the world of amateur noveling. You’ll be happy to hear that most of us aren’t actually writing, but we’re always glad to tell you about that next big project we’re working on. If you really are bitten by the writing bug and want to know how these ideas become full novels, read on!
How to Write that First Draft
Ernest Hemingway once said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” The first draft might feel daunting at first, but the process of sitting down often and consistently to write is all it takes to get your ideas onto paper. One of my favorite methods is with the help of the Nanos. In 2022, over 400,000 writers got together to take on National Novel Writing Month, a 30-day challenge for 50,000 words toward a novel over the month of November. Those 50,000 words are on the low end of what a novel could be, with smaller, lighter books in the 50,000 to 75,000 word range, and science fiction and fantasy closer to the 120,000 word range. Even still, this is a great first milestone, as NaNoWriMo has been challenging its writers to write just under 1,700 words a day since 1999.
What do You do with that First Draft?
The story you would tell should be compelling to you, because it makes you more likely to finish it. We write the story we want to read, because The truth is that you will have to write, read, rewrite, reread, and rewrite and reread many times depending on how much you plan to polish that manuscript.
As a five-time Nano winner, I can tell you that some book drafts aren’t worth that kind of time. To me, the joy of having written something silly, putting it to paper, and seeing where it all ends up fifty, sixty, or seventy thousand words later is its own reward. If you want someone else to enjoy reading it, though, you will need to edit, and then format.
Editing is typically done in three passes. In the first pass, this is just making sure the story makes sense, that there are no timeline errors, and that you have all the characters and events in the order you want them. The second pass is for style. That’s where you rewrite sections to add description to slow it down, take out exposition to speed it up, or tighten up metaphors and symbolism for consistency. Once settings, characters, tone, and imagery is set up, the last pass is when you finally start fixing all those spelling errors.
Once the final draft has all the elements in the right order and everything is grammatically correct, then it’s time to format. Have you been using italics? Bold? Section dividers? This is when you will use some kind of document formatting software to set the page size, margins, make sure that no pages end with just a single line on them, and make sure that all your chapters start on the same side of the book. While Microsoft Word is fine for this, Adobe InDesign is the top of the market, and Affinity is a nice, lower-cost option. Why pay more? Book Design software is keyed to some of the better tools for center justification, preventing snaking gaps down the page, setting up a template for left and right pages that allow for more template customization, and the fonts turn up better when distilling into pdf format.
Publishing Your Draft
Sure, you could shop your finished book to big publishers or hope to get an agent. This is the only way to get one big check for your story, but the biggest payday that used to come from being accepted by the big publishing houses just isn’t a thing anymore.
If you are publishing with the intent on selling, there is an uphill battle to make a book look professional, free from amateur errors, with a nice cover and available in stores online and in person. Getting into bookstores is difficult, though. Berrett-Koehler suggests that for every book on the sales shelf, there are 100 to 1,000 titles competing for the same space. Major distributors for self-publishing like IngramSpark or Draft2Digital, can help, as they get your print-on-demand or ebook eligible to be placed in a wide range of stores. Getting onto shelves won’t make you rich, but you might be surprised to learn that self-published authors have great reach, especially in the ebook market, and recent surveys suggest that they are making as much if not more than many traditional authors.
If you’re not looking to print a thousand books, or if you just want to print a family memoir or cookbook for a dozen people, there are smaller printing distribution options that are sometimes referred to as vanity publishers. The idea is that at these smaller publishing groups, your book will usually sell more copies to the author than to any other outside customer. The benefit of these smaller publishers, though, is that they have a lower per-unit cost for small orders. My personal favorite is Lulu.com, which I use for annual family memoirs and occasionally photo books.
How Do You Decide Which One is Right for You?
What separates most book printing services is the level of complexity in getting your document formatted, printer-ready, and how copies are sent out. Smaller publishers will often provide their own cover and interior design service, sometimes as a template, and other times as a web tool. More traditional printers will ask for a formatted PDF and provide guidelines. While the learning curve is very steep, unit costs for larger volumes or print and ship orders at traditional printers will be lower.
In the end, goals vary widely on what to do with your story, but there are resources at every step along the way. If you have a story to share, no matter how small or large the audience, the process can be very rewarding.
Writing and Publishing Resources
https://nanowrimo.org/about-nano
https://blog.reedsy.com/best-self-publishing-companies/
Statistics on Self Publishing
https://wordsrated.com/self-published-book-sales-statistics/
https://www.draft2digital.com/blog/self-publishing-industry-insights-q2-2022/
Book Design Software
https://www.adobe.com/products/indesign.html
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/publisher/
Smaller Book Printing Company with in-house design
Larger Book Printing Companies
About the Author
Jeff has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University. Prior to coming to Hallam-ICS, Jeff had 7 years of experience working in prefab construction for mechanical and electrical buildings and skids. He holds a professional engineering license in multiple states, participates in all phases of the project design from concept through construction, and cooks a mean gumbo.
Read My Hallam Story
About Hallam-ICS
Hallam-ICS is an engineering and automation company that designs MEP systems for facilities and plants, engineers control and automation solutions, and ensures safety and regulatory compliance through arc flash studies, commissioning, and validation. Our offices are located in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Vermont and North Carolina and our projects take us world-wide.
