The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book

By all means read the classic book, The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. It’s short and fun to read. No one has ever summed up the rules of good writing better, so far as I know. It’s all there.

Writing itself is its own best teacher. You can never learn to write by thinking about writing; you have to write.

The most important advice I or anyone can give you about how to write is to start writing

HOW TO WRITE YOUR BOOK: THE BASICS

On the other hand, if you are starting out with a deep knowledge of your material because you have been teaching it or using it every day in your work; you are fairly certain of the best way to organize your information; and you have some evidence that your writing skills are already good, you may be ready to write a proposal for your book, sell it, and only then begin to write it.

The disadvantage of completing your manuscript before you sell it is that you may end up having to revamp or even totally rewrite the book based on your editor’s input

Also, you must include sample chapters in your proposal anyway

Since a book grows and changes as you write it, if you complete your project first, your proposal will be a more accurate reflection of your actual book

However, if you are writing nonfiction, you have two options: (1) You may choose to write all or part of your book before you attempt to sell it to a publisher, or, (2) you may begin by writing a proposal for your book, then sell the project to a publisher and receive a royalty advance, and only then write the book, thereby being paid, in effect, to write the book.

First-time fiction writers will virtually always have to complete a manuscript before attempting to sell it.