Part 4: Organizing my book. Guest Blogger: Kevin Cullis

Kevin Cullis, Author

As with any new book, you have to write. And write, and read, and write, and read, and write, write, write. The reading part is about learning how to write better, do the necessary research to include the information on your book, and reading what others say about your book. It’s about setting the foundation for what you want to produce. The writing part is about putting fingers to keyboard, pen/pencil to paper, or a mixture, however you find it’s best to get the book out of you. Some writers want, even love, to write in longhand their thoughts, forgoing the word processor until the later stages of writing. Writing by hand slows down their writing as well as their thinking so that their first draft will have less rewrites and can have more depth and breadth to it. 

Organize to write and produce your book. This is the project management side of your writing. When it comes to writing a book there are two perspectives: planning to write the book and the planning the process of producing the book. I started first with my idea and began writing and wrote lots over the first few months. Over the months I began learning about book design and production and ended up writing and doing my book design in parallel as both are blended into my final book design. Any book design is a back and forth process, trial and error, and much rework as I find the “sweet spot” of what my final book design will look like. 

Titles. I selected a working title. A working title means that it’s something to start with. You can either start with your title because it will guide your content writing, or start with your content and over time change both as you work through your book. Nearly done with my book, or so I thought, I gave a PDF copy to a friend that wanted to read it. He wanted to start a photography business. When we finally met after he read it, he told me, “You misled me.” Shocked, I gulped and said, “What do you mean, I misled you?” He said, “Your book title implies that I’m going to read about business use of the Mac 100 percent of the time, but your content contains only 50 percent Mac information.”

Ouch! He was right. I had become so hooked on the title as my content changed over time that I had lost sight of keeping both my content and title in sync. In the end I changed my title about 50 or more times during the writing process, even after my friend’s comment, but I had learned that both content and title change over the course of writing and when it comes to your final book both of them have to match what you’re selling to your readers.  

Author, Kevin Cullis is a self-described “business geek”, former Air Force officer, and entrepreneur. He has a Masters Degree in Administration as well as 12 years of face-to-face experience selling both Macs and PCs to businesses. He loves helping entrepreneurs and small business owners integrate, utilize, and optimize the use of their Mac in their marketing, sales, and business management processes. The combination of both a business and a computer process perspectives makes him unique in saving and making money using a Mac. How to Start a Business: Mac Version is his first book.