Decisions, Part I : Pre-Planning [Self-Publishing Basics]

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By Håkan Dahlström | Flickr

Decisions, decisions.

When deciding to self-publish or, heck, when deciding to write a book — many decisions must be made. The first set of these revolve around planning your book, both as an actual piece of completed work and from a marketing standpoint (if your goal is for other people to purchase it, that is).

In order to make the process of answering these questions less overwhelming we’ve broken them up into three posts based on when in the process the answers become critical. In this first post, we present a list of questions (separated into categories) to ask yourself before you put fingers to keys to begin writing your book.

Our Assumptions

Just a quick note: we’re working off of a couple of assumptions here. The first is that you’d like your book to reach an audience — any audience — beyond friends and family. The second is that you started the book writing process with the expectation of your work being traditionally published.

If you’re headed into the writing process with the intent to self-publish, we recommend also checking out next Monday’s post Big Decisions (subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t forget). The more questions you answer at the beginning of the process, the better.

Let your Mind (and Pen) Wander — Download the PDF

If you’re the type that likes to handwrite notes and outlines, you may want to download the PDF version of these questions. We give you plenty of room to write, sketch, and brainstorm — however you think best.

Pre-planning Questions to Ask: Overall

• What is my goal?

This is perhaps the most important — and most often forgotten question of planning. Do you want to write a book that will sell millions? Or appeal to a specific group of people? Do you want to be literary or commercial? Do you want to attract a specific agent/publisher?

Remember, the best goal statements include steps for getting there. Here’s an example of an excellent goal statement: “To write a bestselling novel by focusing on two of the hottest trends right now, YA lit and vampires.”

Pre-planning Questions to Ask: Marketing

• Who is my target market?
• How will my book stand out? How will it be unique from millions of others?
• Where will my book fit in? To what would it be compared?
• Write your book’s elevator pitch.

You might think it strange that questions of marketing are placed before those on writing, but this is by design. As we’re assuming that you’d like to sell many copies of your book, taking the time to plan for this eventuality up front can only help your chances of marketing your book successfully.

Pre-planning Questions to Ask: Writing

• When/where am I going to write? [ETA: Two more great posts on finding time to write.]
• How long is it going to take? Take out a calendar and sketch out rough milestones and word count goals.
• What style will I write in (such as literary vs. commercial)?
• What tone will the piece have?
• Get started on a rough outline of your book. Revise as necessary.

Taking the time to plan the details of how your book will be written will help immensely in the writing process — both by helping you keep your creative focus and continuing forward progress toward your goal.

What Questions Do YOU Ask?

These are just basic questions to ask yourself — I’m sure our experienced readers will bring up many more. If you have a question to add, please leave a comment. Also, if you know of an online or offline resource to help with any of the above, please leave that too!

One Final Note

Don’t skimp on spending time in the pre-planning process! Take at least a month in this pre-planning process to give your brain time to change its mind. The more time you take here, the less time the writing process will take — but that’s tomorrow’s post!

This post is part of our Self-Publishing Basics series. Don’t miss a post — subscribe to our RSS feed or receive posts via e-mail.