40 weeks ago, on 6 March 2015, I wrote a book pitch. I define that day as the day of conception for my book ‘The UnBusy Entrepreneur’. It was the beginning of the incubation period for this ‘virtual baby’ that ultimately led to its birth last December.

After the book pitch submission, I received feedback from my mentor, Andrew Griffiths, and subsequently participated in a 30,000-words-in-30-days challenge. The idea was to write 1,000 words a day for 30 days and at the end of the 30 days, have enough words to put together a book. This method of book writing is part of the ‘Publish’ segment of the Key Person of Influence Growth Accelerator Programme.

The 30 days was challenging, but also very effective in getting me to sit down and simply write daily. Having a book pitch in a structured format allowed me to simply pick a chapter or section each day and write it. By the end of 30 days, I had 30,028 words. It was the end of April.

Between May and August, I self-edited my book. I read it, reread it, wrote more parts, deleted a bunch of paragraphs and generally messed around with it. Eventually in September, I sent it off to a friend of mine who edited and structured it for me. She gave me suggestions on parts that flowed well and other sections that needed adjustments. At the same time, I decided to set a date for the launch so I wouldn’t procrastinate in getting my book out.


Setting the date definitely helped as I now had a deadline to work towards. Working backwards from the date, I knew I needed to get the final book to the printers by the end of November which meant getting the edited version of the book to the layout artist by mid-November which meant getting the book to the editor by early October. It also meant organising for the book cover to be designed and booking the relevant resources that were needed.

While it didn’t exactly happen in that sequence, I managed to put the book together and get it edited, laid out, proofed and printed by the deadline. What I realised from this experience was that setting goals and deadlines are essential in getting it done. Between May and August, pretty much nothing happened because there was no urgency. However once the date for the book launch was set, everything swung into action again. Having a framework and being able to follow it was also vital in the process. Using the templates, strategies and support from the Key Person of Influence programme, I was able to plan, write, edit and publish my book quite easily.

The key lessons I gained from this was to simply follow these 10 steps:

1. Plan your book
2. Write it
3. Read and edit what you have written
4. Send it to someone you trust to review it
5. Edit it some more
6. Send it to a professional editor
7. Send it to layout
8. Send it to print
9. Prepare to launch
10. HAVE A DEADLINE FOR EVERY STEP

While it seemed to be an impossible task back in March, I now know that 40 weeks is long enough to get a book written, published and launched.

Visit UnBusy Entrepreneur to find out more about Olivia's work.

_{This post was first published on UnBusy Entrepreneur blog and has been reposted on Executive Lifestyle with the permission of the author. Image from Olivia Chiong
Edited by Nedda Chaplin}

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