The Fastest Way to Write Your Book

by Dave Haslett

If a university is researching the subject you’re interested in, contact them and ask if you can speak to the person leading the research.

  Once you’ve gathered enough material for your book, sort it into a logical order and paste the best bits into a word processing document. Then blast your way through it as fast as you can, rewriting it in your own words and style, so it all hangs together nicely and you can’t get sued for plagiarism.

  This is a short-cut way of doing what all non-fiction writers do: lots of research, bringing together material from a variety of sources, then rewriting the whole thing in your own words, and perhaps introducing a new angle and a few new ideas.

  All you’re doing is speeding up the process. It might take other writers a year or more to research and write a book, but this intensive “cheat” can reduce it to just a few days.

  Rewriting in next to no time

  The easiest way to rewrite the document you put together in the previous section is to read a paragraph, make sure you fully understand it, then rewrite it in your own words.

  Don’t try to sound formal or informal; just imagine that you’re telling a friend about it, and write it in your normal speaking voice.

  Picturing your friend in your head as you write the words should help make this easier.

  Your priority should be to finish the first draft as quickly as possible. But it’s vital that you use your own words rather than anyone else’s.

  Another good way of rewriting the document is to read a sentence or two from the original text, then rephrase it in your own words and record yourself speaking it. Then move on to the next sentence. When you’ve finished an entire chapter, play back the recording and type everything you said into your word processor. Or get someone else to type it for you while you record the next chapter.

  Either of these techniques should enable you to rewrite the entire book in just a few days.

  Editing in next to no time

  Once you’ve finished the rewriting, you’ll need to edit and polish your book to make sure it reads smoothly and consistently. Here’s a great tip: don’t edit your book in your word processor.

  For some strange reason, your brain tends to see what it thinks is on the page, or what it thinks you typed – not what’s actually on the page. Your brain also thinks there aren’t any errors. There are errors – and probably lots of them – but you won’t be able to see them unless you break the connection.

  Most writers break the connection by printing out their manuscript and marking all the corrections and changes by hand with a pen. The errors are much easier to spot this way, and you’ll be amazed at how many there are.

  Another good method is to send the document to an e-book reader device or app if you have one. Again, the errors are much easier to spot. Most e-book readers let you mark the erroneous text and leave a comment to say what needs to be changed. However, at this stage there are likely to be hundreds of errors and the changes could be extensive. It’s better to edit on paper for now, so you have plenty of room to make sweeping changes. Use your e-book reader for the later stages and proofreading, when you’re just looking for the final few glitches.

  I use Amazon’s free Kindle app on my iPad. I find it much more convenient and usable than my actual Kindle e-book reader.

  A third option is to listen to the text. The mistakes stand out when you hear it read aloud. You could simply read it out – perhaps to one of your pets. Or you could read it to a friend or to the members of your local writing group. Even better, get someone else to read it to you. Or if that’s too embarrassing, use text-to-speech software and get your computer to read it to you.

  As well as looking for mistakes in the text, look for places where you stumble over the words or run out of breath because the sentence is too long. Listen to the rhythm and flow of the words too, and see if you can improve them.

  Ask a few other people to read through your text too, just in case you’ve missed anything. These people could be members of your advance reading team.

  Set up an advance reading team by responding to fans who contact you to say how much they like your work. Ask them if they’d like to join your team and receive free preview copies of your forthcoming works. All they have to do in return is to read the book within the timeframe you give them – say two weeks – and report any errors they find.

  Most writers also encourage their advance reading team to write and post reviews of their books after they’ve been published.

  Repackaging existing knowledge

  Think about the potential readers of your book – or even better ask them. What exactly do they want to know? See if you can make your book a one-stop source for all of that information.

  You can repackage ideas and knowledge drawn from other books, encyclopaedias, magazine articles, films, TV and radio shows and documentaries, websites, blogs, podcasts, talks and lectures, science papers, government reports, interviews with experts, surveys, and so on. Gather it all together then organise it into a form that suits your target readership’s needs.

  Repackaging is much easier – and faster – than writing everything from scratch. Again, this is exactly the same process that other writers use; you’re simply speeding it up. And, as before, you’ll need to rewrite everything in your own words and style using the methods we looked at earlier.

  Ideally, your book should have at least a few ideas that have never appeared in book form before. Perhaps you have some new ideas of your own. If you talk to experts, ask them what they wish they’d known when they were starting out. Ask them about the things no one told them, that they didn’t come across in books, and had to find out for themselves. You can also borrow ideas from other subjects where you can see a connection. As I mentioned earlier, several of the “new” ideas in this book were adapted from my previous career as a computer programmer.

  A book that says something new about a subject, or looks at it from a different angle, can be highly saleable. The new ideas make it worth reading, even to those who know the subject well and already have dozens of books about it.

  Remember that you shouldn’t include too much new material; one or two new ideas per chapter will be more than enough. And no more than five to ten percent of your book’s total content should be brand new. Otherwise your readers will feel overwhelmed and out of their depth.

  If you’ve got tons of new material, spread it over several books.

  Profiling your target readers

  See if you can find out the following things about your target readers:

  what they want to know and what they already know

  what they don’t want to know

  what sort of level you need to pitch things at: beginner, intermediate or expert

  which other books they’ve read

  what sort of book they’re looking for

  how much they’d be willing to pay for it

  which magazines, websites, blogs and Facebook pages/groups they read – you can collect ideas and research material from these places, and market your book there when it’s published

  Let’s say you’re an expert on carpentry and you’re writing a book aimed at beginners. Can you remember when you were in that position yourself and you knew little or nothing about the subject?

  How did you become interested in it?

  How did you learn the basics?

  What made you want to continue learning?

  How did you extend your knowledge until you reached expert level?

  How long did that take?

  What could you have done to reach expert level sooner?

  Who did you speak to or work with?

  What classes did you go to?

  Who taught you?

  Are your tutors still around to help or advise you with your book?

  What projects did you work on that benefited you the most?

  It’s important to study the other books on the market that cover the same subject. These are your competitors. What would make your book different,
better, easier to understand, more complete, or more up-todate than any of them? Try to include more information, more shortcuts and how-to tips, more real-life case studies, more interviews with experts, and so on – as well as your own ideas.

  Knowing who your readers are means you can repackage a single book into a series, with each book aimed at a different readership: beginners, intermediates, experts, children, teenagers, seniors, dog owners, cat lovers, housewives, husbands, single people, the newly married, the recently divorced, the recently bereaved, office workers, executives, the self-employed, sailing enthusiasts, cyclists, teachers, estate agents, doctors, and so on. You’ll sell lots more copies this way, but all you’re doing is reusing the same material over and over again. You should be able to adapt, rewrite and repackage it very quickly to suit each market.

  Get other people to write your book for you

  As we saw earlier, if you can come up with the right sort of idea for your book, you can invite people to send in contributions. Pick out the best ones and sort them into a logical order. You’ll hardly have to write a word of the book yourself, apart from a short introduction and perhaps the odd paragraph here and there to link things together or fill in any gaps.

  If you can persuade a celebrity or well-known expert to write the introduction and linking paragraphs, you might not need to do any writing at all.

  Let’s say you’ve come up with your great idea. Perhaps you’ll publish a collection of people’s memories and photographs. Or perhaps you’ll ask people to look out for particular things when they’re out and about.

  Your book might be about a well-known event, a famous or infamous person, your town or city’s history, the history of a well-known building or monument, famous pets, famous writers’ typewriters and where you can see them … or just about anything else that interests you and you think would sell.

  How will you let people know you’re looking for contributions? You could use your local newspaper, specialist magazines, websites, blogs, Facebook pages and groups, and so on. You could also contact businesses or organisations that work in that field. Ask if they have anything in their archives that you could use. Perhaps their management team, staff, or customers have memories and photos they could contribute.

  Simply state that you’re writing a book about the subject and invite the publication’s readers – or the organisation’s staff or customers – to send in their memories, photographs, memorabilia, and so on. If it’s a quiet week for news, your local newspaper might even interview you.

  The hard part (which isn’t particularly hard) is sorting through all the contributions you receive. You might also need to visit a museum or heritage centre, or trawl through newspaper archives to fill some of the gaps. But that shouldn’t be too hard either – especially if you can persuade someone else to do it for you.

  If your book is history-based, you could ask a local historian or one of the museum’s staff to search the archives for you. Or visit the county records office with a list of things you need to know, and ask one of the assistants to look everything up for you. He should know where everything is, which will save you several hours.

  If he seems reluctant, tell him you’re researching a book and if he does a good job you’ll mention him in the Acknowledgements section and send him a signed copy when it’s published. That usually gets a positive response!

  If people send you their personal photographs or original documents, be extremely careful with them, and always return them in the same condition that you received them. Scan or photocopy everything you can use, and return the originals immediately.

  Attach a label to each photocopy. This should state what it is, who sent it to you, and their contact details. Don’t write directly on the back of the copy, as the ink or imprint might show through. You don’t want that to happen if you’ll be reproducing the image in your book.

  If possible, scan everything into your computer so you have an electronic copy of it. Anything that might end up in your book should be scanned at 600 dpi (dots per inch) or higher.

  When your book is ready for publication, contact the publications that printed your request for contributions. As they were instrumental in your book’s creation, they’ll probably want to interview you to discuss how their readers helped, interesting stories you came across, and so on. Remember to tell them where their readers can buy a copy and how much it costs.

  When you contact the publication, enclose a copy of your book. If the person who interviews you brings the book along, offer to sign it for him. Or offer him another copy – signed of course – if he doesn’t have one. Keep him well supplied with drinks and snacks, and do everything you can to keep him on your side. This often leads to bigger articles and better reviews.

  It doesn’t matter whether your book is published by a large mainstream publisher, a small press, or you publish it yourself. Being published is being published as far as readers and most media outlets are concerned. But regardless of how it’s published, you need to come up with a marketing angle that the media considers newsworthy. We’ll look at this in more detail in the companion book The Fastest Ways to Edit, Publish and Sell Your Book.

  Write what you know

  You’re probably sick of hearing the expression “write what you know”. It’s one of the most common pieces of advice given to writers. But I’m going to repeat it here anyway, as it’s one of the best ways of writing your book quickly. The more you know about something, the less research you’ll have to do, and the faster and easier it will be to write about it. Most of the answers will already be in your head, and this alone will save you several days, particularly during the planning, brainstorming and research stages.

  If you’re still wondering what your book should be about, try making a list of everything you know a lot about. Could you write a book about any of those things?

  Or perhaps you could incorporate your knowledge into a novel. You might be able to use it as the main storyline, or as a clever way of getting your hero out of trouble. Perhaps it could form part of the background detail to add richness and depth to your story. You could even turn it into a series of novels, where you (and your main character) gradually reveal your extensive knowledge of the subject rather than trying to cram it all into one book. Not only will your readers enjoy a great story, they’ll also learn a heck of a lot about the subject you love.

  Adding padding (that’s valuable)

  A picture paints a thousand words

  Readers of non-fiction books often like to see plenty of pictures. Not only do they make things clearer and easier to understand, they also break up the solid blocks of text. This makes your book seem more accessible and less intimidating.

  This is great news if you want to write your book quickly. If you can fill the space with photographs, screenshots, line drawings, charts, diagrams, cartoons, and so on, you won’t need to write as many words.

  There are two important things to consider if you take this approach:

  Your images must be useful and relevant. Remember that you’re always trying to add value. It’s good to use images in place of text, especially where it would take a lot of text to describe something. But your book should be at least as informative and comprehensive as it would have been if it was composed entirely of text. Every image should have a purpose, and it should add something; it shouldn’t be there just to fill up the space.

  Where will you get the images? They’ll need to high quality, otherwise they could ruin your book and kill your sales. And if you can’t produce them yourself or get them from a free or cheap source, they could be quite expensive.

  A great way of getting good quality illustrations cheaply is to ask local art students to produce them for you as a project. Tell them exactly what you want, and if they don’t get it right first time, ask them to change it or do it again. This will be good practice for when they start working in the commercial art world. It also gives them published work they can include in their portfolios to show p
rospective employers.

  Contact the arts department at your local college and explain what you need and how the students would benefit from taking part. The college might give your project to a class of students, or advertise it to see if any of them are interested. You could offer a small fee or prize for each piece of artwork you use, or offer a donation to the college to cover the cost of materials.

  You should be able to get free photos and other artwork from product manufacturers, press offices, publicity agents, tourist boards, and so on. Tell them you want to use the images in your book. If you can persuade them that this will help promote their product or cause, they’ll usually be keen to help. If you use an image, include a note alongside it to say who supplied it.

  You could even call them “sponsors” and list them on your website or on a separate page in your book. This should make their marketing and publicity departments very happy.

  You can find free or low-cost images on photo-sharing websites and in stock image libraries, including:

  Flickr

  Pixabay

  Shutterstock

  Unsplash

  iStock

  Pexels

  Canva

  and many more

  You might have to search several sites to find the images you need.

  Make sure you check the license attached to each photo, as you might need to mention the photographer’s name alongside the photo, or pay an additional fee to use it in your book.

  If you’re looking for free images, select the option to only show images released under the Creative Commons 0 license. You can use these images for any project, whether it’s personal or commercial, but your choice of images will be more limited.