At long last you’re ready to write the book.  You’ve sold the proposal and a publisher is patiently awaiting the application of your genius to the blank computer screen.  What do you need to know before you plunge in? 

I’ve written extensively about good structures for content in both of my books on public speaking (Give Your Speech, Change the World; Trust Me) so I won’t talk about structure here.  Instead, I’ll discuss several traps for the unwary in book writing. 

1.  A book is not a speech.  They are two very different genres with different goals and needs.  If you’ve been speaking about a topic, never assume that the book is as good as written.  Speaking is a much less detail-oriented genre.  You can get away with brief summary statements and allusions in a speech that will not pass muster in a book.  You must be prepared to go back to first principles and basic understandings when you write a book.  You may find yourself needing to write whole chapters about topics you dealt with in a sentence or paragraph in your speech. 

2.  Write first, edit second.   Writers get into trouble when they edit themselves as they write.  Any real writer has two voices in her head:  the creative genius who puts the black marks on the white page, and the editor who imposes discipline on the creativity.  It’s a mistake to listen to the editor before the creative genius has had a chance to do her thing.  The minute you start questioning a sentence or a paragraph on a writing day is the time when writer’s block sets in.  Keep it at bay by separating the two processes. 

3.  Write every day.  The difference between wannabes and actual writers is that writers write, every day.  It’s a practice like any other.  You don’t get to be a great baseball player by thinking about it; similarly you don’t get on the New York Times bestseller list by having great ideas and nothing more.  Moreover, a book is long – anywhere from 40,000 words to a great deal more – and it can’t be created at the last minute.  So when you know what your deadline is, start now, not any later, to work toward it.  Publishers are not impressed by late delivery of books because they publish to a schedule that’s worked out months in advance.  If you deliver late, you screw up their catalog for the year. 

4.  A proposal is not a commitment.  The finished book should look something like the proposal, but it doesn’t have to follow it exactly.  Allow for new discovery, serendipity, and flashes of genius as you write.  You’re going to spend a lot of time with your book, so make it better than the proposal.  Think of the proposal as a road map, not the terrain itself. 

5.  A book is all about an idea and a voice.   You’ve sold the idea in the proposal; now it’s time to find your voice.  A book should read like it could only have been written by you.  Books that have unique voices carry their readers along, create passionate fans, and build communities of interest.  And sometimes, just sometimes, they become bestsellers.  So let yourself speak truly, directly, and fully in your book.  Remember, it’s going into the Library of Congress with your name on it.