If you’ve got a book inside you but don’t want to write it yourself, have someone else write your book for you! There are a number of ways you can do this.
Verbally speak your book into a voice-recorder and find someone to type it for you – such as a Virtual PA (VPA). You can find VPAs who live near you by Googling ‘virtual pa’ [followed by your town or city]. Furthermore, by using an online voice-recorder, you could work with a VPA who doesn’t live locally.
To find an online voice recorders visit http://stairsforbreakfast.com/record to see what I use.
Alternatively, if you’re passionate and have good knowledge about a subject but find it difficult to formulate the information in an engaging style for a book, find someone who’s good at writing – and share your knowledge, ideas and information for a book with them. The person you invite to write the book could be a friend, relative or VPA – or a professional ghostwriter.
Having someone else write a book with you can be a fun, simple and effective process – and can be done over the phone. It’s an easy process to maintain by following these steps:
Set up an initial phone call with the writer to discuss your ideas for the overall book. Record the call and ask the writer to email you a summary of your conversation.
It goes without saying that communicating well with the writer is vital. Recording every phone call with the writer will give them invaluable information to work from. If you don’t have a good call recording solution, visit http://stairsforbreakfast.com/record to see what I use.
The initial call – and the summary email of your conversation – will give you a good idea if the writer is an easy person for you to work with. Let the writer know if you would like any changes made to the summary email. If you would like to work with the person to write your book, you can do so as follows:
- Set up another phone call with the writer and record the conversation. Tell them everything you want to include in the first chapter of the book. You don’t need to be word-for-word. Just give the writer an outline of the content, including any important points.
- Ask the writer to draft the first chapter and to email it to you.
- Get back on the phone with the writer when you have read the first draft. Detail any changes you would like made to it. Record the phone conversation.
- Ask the writer to make the amendments and to email you a new draft. Discuss any further changes you would like until you’re happy that the first chapter is complete.
Repeat the above four steps for each chapter of your book.
In Part 3 my next article I’ll explain:
- How other people can provide the content for your book
- How to promote your book while it’s being written
- How to make money by turning written material into other formats
