I have often talked about the importance of finishing a first draft of your book quickly. I’m not saying you should be sloppy or rush through things. You should make your book, or any writing for that matter, as good as it can be.

But the fact of the matter is that we all have limited time on this earth. There comes a point after you have written the first draft, the second draft, done revisions and formatting, and the other things you need to do to make it great, when you need to publish it.

Your #1 goal should be to get your current project finished and published, and then move on to the next thing. We make this whole writing thing overly complicated sometimes.

Make it good, do your best, and hit “publish” on that sucker. You won’t become a better writer by continually tinkering with your current project and never actually pulling the publish trigger. You’ll get better by doing more work and learning from each one, while getting feedback along the way.

It’s hard to get a lot of meaningful feedback on something you have not yet published.

The author Dan Poynter was one of the early advocates of self-publishing. He said, “If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.”

Maybe that’s an overstatement. Even waiters deliver something to the table.

So, make it your goal to deliver your work to your hungry readers who have been waiting for your book.

Today’s Challenge: Finish that book you’re working on and publish it.

The post The Productive Writer: Publish Your Work appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

I know when I mention books you’re probably thinking, “That’s not something I can get started on today.”

To the contrary! All you need to do is to sit down and start working on a couple of things.

First, determine the main idea of the book. Second, who is the ideal reader? And third, start working on an outline. If you’re doing a non-fiction book, I recommend about 35,000-40,000 words, divided into 12-15 chapters.

It doesn’t mean you will be writing the whole book. It just means that you are working on the outline, which will help you get excited and want to move forward. The sheer act of developing an outline will be a huge push forward.

You can get the book written faster than you think. Even if you only write 200 words a day (which is an average page length), you can write a book of 120 pages in 4 months. You can write three of those a year if you just write 1 single page per day. Then, you can put it on Amazon and make it available to the world.

We make the process of writing a book much more stressful and complicated than it needs to be. Take some time today to get started writing your book. You’ll be amazed at what can happen when you take action and get moving.

Question: How could writing a book impact your life or business?

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Today’s episode is sponsored by the Book Marketing Mastery course. If you’re tired of being disappointed by your book sales and want to sell more books faster, easier, and with more fun than ever, sign up today. Use the code “DailyWriter” to get 10% off.

The post Start Writing Today: Your First (or Next) Book appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.