How to Write a Book: A Step-by-Step Guide for First-Time Authors

Most people who ask "how do I write a book?" already have the idea. What they lack is a process that gets them from a blank page to a finished manuscript without stalling halfway. This guide gives you that process in ten steps. It works for fiction and non-fiction, and for a 120-page memoir as much as a 300-page novel.

Write one sentence that says who the book is for and what it gives them. For example: "A practical guide that helps first-time landlords in South Africa avoid the ten most expensive mistakes." For a novel: "A crime story set in 1990s Durban for readers who love slow-burn mysteries." That sentence decides what goes in and what stays out, and it saves you months of rewriting.

Rough guides: a non-fiction guide is usually 30,000 to 60,000 words, a memoir 50,000 to 80,000 words, a novel 70,000 to 100,000 words and a picture book under 1,000 words. In print, an A5 book holds roughly 250 to 300 words per page, so 50,000 words comes to about 180 to 200 pages. Knowing the target length tells you how much to write each week.

List your chapters with two or three lines on what each one covers. Non-fiction writers can turn their main points into chapters; novelists can map the beginning, the turning points and the ending. The outline will change, and that is fine. Its job is to stop you facing a blank page every morning.

• Pick a daily or weekly word target you can hit on a bad day, such as 500 words a day or 3,000 a week.
• Write at the same time and place where you can.
• Track your word count; seeing progress keeps you going.

At 500 words a day, five days a week, a 60,000-word first draft takes about six months.

The first draft is for getting the whole story or argument onto the page. If you stop to polish every chapter, you will probably never reach the end. Leave notes such as "[check date]" or "[expand this]" and keep moving.

When the draft is finished, put it away for two to four weeks. You will come back able to see what is missing, what repeats and what does not belong.

Fix the big things before the small things. First the structure: is the order right, does every chapter earn its place? Then the content: clarity, examples, pacing. Only then the sentences and word choice. Reading the manuscript aloud quickly shows clumsy lines.

Give the revised draft to three to five beta readers who match your target reader, not only friends and family. Ask specific questions: where did you lose interest, what confused you, what would you cut? Read our guide to finding beta readers in South Africa.

A professional edit is what separates a self-published book that looks amateur from one that competes with books in shops. Depending on your draft, that might be a developmental edit (structure), a copy edit (sentences and consistency) and a final proofread. See our book editing and proofreading services.

You can submit to traditional publishers, or self-publish and keep your rights. If you self-publish, the manuscript then needs a cover, an interior layout, an ISBN and printing or an ebook. Our self-publishing packages cover all of it from R21,000, and our guide on free book publishers in South Africa explains the traditional route.

If you have the story or the expertise but not the time, a ghostwriter can interview you and write the book in your voice. Read what a ghostwriter does.