I am not a very experienced writer nor I have written many books. But I always wanted to write one and now I have co-authored a book. Its out in the market and I can tell you from first-hand experience that its a wonderful feeling. I co-authored the book with experienced authors and would just like to share my experience with you. This is to provide just an overview of the book-authoring process so that any interested would-be authors can take the intiative and get to work . :)
Well, first and foremost, decide on what you are going to be writing about? The technology should obviously have some demand in the market. Use the internet to search for books on same/related topics. Study their content and decide on the USPs of your book. Also, from the technology point of view, you should know that the demand for the technology exists and is not going to die off soon. Nopoint in writing something that is obsolete, Right??
You may think that you need to have a publisher in hand first. But generally, its better if you approach the publisher with atleast 60% of your manuscript ready, atleast in case of first time authors.
Once you have decided on the topic for your book, the next step is to start writing it.
The best way to start would be to first finalise the Table of Contents. This will help you give a outline of the book. Additionally, you get a lot of clarity on the book organisation in terms of chapters. Else, chances are that you would be working and re-working.
One the TOC is finalised, start writing the book. :) If you are using Microsoft Word, make a template and you are ready to go !! You need to be careful with the language. It should be simple and effective. Whereever possible illustrate using diagrams, flow-charts, tables etc. The visuals always have a better effect than lines and lines of text.
In case you are a single author, you would have the added responsibility of reviewing the contents. Or probably you could ask any of your friends to do it for you. Either way, reviews are important.
As you continue with the book writing and have completed substantial portions, you need to start preparing to approach the publisher. All the research that you did before starting the book now comes into picture. You prepare a proposal for the book. It should clearly bring out the aspects related to the technology demand, existing books and their weaknesses and what is the USP of your book. You send the proposal to the publisher and in all probability if your research is sound, you would land yourself a deal.
Now that your manuscript is almost 60% ready, it will be much easier for you.Publishers like it when the manuscript is almost ready for them to intiate the process at their end. They would most likely send you a contract stating the royalty details and exclusivity clauses. Go through them carefully and ofcourse you would be too happy to sign them :).
Next step would be to complete the book authoring and the reviewing part.
Once you are through, you would need to send the hard-copy of the book to the publisher for copy-editing. The job of the copy-editor is to review the book in terms of formatting, spelling mistakes and also point out any inconsistencies in the text, mostly in terms of terminology used. The copy-editor may also mark some questions to the author in case he feels that certain text is incorrect or unclear in terms of language.
You would need to review the contents sent back by the copy-editor, answer questions, verify that no erros have been introduced during copy-editing and then send it back to the publisher.
The publisher would get busy in the pagination of the book, your contents would be re-arranged in the form of a book, pages would be designed and all figures and diagrams would be re-drawn in this phase.
Meanwhile you would have to prepare the Preface of the book, the Acknowledgement section, a brief about yourself (Author's profile) and the Dedications. Believe me, this is really the fun part. You can dedicate the book to your parents, God, any other family member and you truly feel that you have done somehting special...Wait till you see your parent's smile when they see their names written on a book :)
After this , its more of reviews. Once the paginated book is ready, you need to again critically review the book to ensure there are no errors. This is the first time that you would see your book as a book..believe me its a great feeling.
Finally, you would have to prepare the index. You can easily do that using Microsoft Word. Once the index is ready, you send all the material back to the publisher.
Your job is done adn you just need to wait for the book....
When you finally see it ..... you would probably jump with joy :))
Further you can always participate in the marketing strategies also along with the publisher....after all the more the books sell..the more is your royalty!!
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