How to Write Your First Book

A step-by-step guide

Billy Frazier
3 min readApr 5, 2024
  1. Setup a Medium account.
  2. Write and publish your first article.
  3. Start your own blog.
  4. Write (almost) every day for three years.
  5. Setup a newsletter using MailChimp.
  6. Include an email capture form at the end of each post using Upscribe.
  7. Create a book outline using posts from your blog.
  8. Send your outline to a group of potential readers (and your email list)
  9. Update it based on their feedback.
  10. Spend at least one hour each day writing your first draft.
  11. Finish your first draft and take a week off.
  12. Print your first copy out on actual paper ($14 at FedEx).
  13. Read through it once to get the feel for the overall flow.
  14. Read through it again, making any edits with a red pen.
  15. Transfer these edits to a new draft in Google Docs.
  16. Decide that this idea wasn’t as valuable or marketable as you thought.
  17. Shelf this manuscript and repeat steps 7–15.
  18. OK, now that you’re back on track, share this second book concept with a diverse group of early readers.

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Billy Frazier
Billy Frazier

Written by Billy Frazier

Principal experience designer, writer, and leader who’s fumbling forward through a creative career while helping others do the same. fumblingbook.com

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