subject: Your How-To Book: 5 Tips to Organize Successfully [print this page] People are often overwhelmed by writing a book. After, Where do I start? and How do I make time for this? the next big question is, How do I organize my book? Good question. Theres no one best way, but here are five suggestions to get you started. Motivate Your Readers with Potential Benefits: Think about your reader and what they want to know. Start with what the book can do for them (benefits) and include stories of how your system or program has helped other people in their shoes. Address Obstacles: Know that your reader may have concerns or objections as its called in the sales process. Maybe theyve tried to lose weight or build a gazebo before and it didnt work. How is your book going to be different from the other methods theyve tried? Maybe theyre even worried that something bad will happen if they try your system (theyll get sick from the diet, theyll fall practicing the exercises, theyll get burned on a computer date). You need to convince them its safe to try. Give Your Readers a System: If you can organize your teachings into a step by step program, each chapter can be one of the steps. Address Readers Concerns: You may want to have chapters for each specific concern a reader may have: one for using your system for health, another for using your system for wealth, etc. This would be an alternative to the step by step method. Help Your Readers Keep it Alive: Leave your readers with an action plan for the future. And help them work accountability and sustainability into the plan. Maybe they can take a class you offer, or enlist the support of a buddy, or start their own artists circle in their home, using your book as a model.
