Writing a book is easier said than done, and that’s not even the hardest part. Not only will you have to write your books, but you’ll also have to promote them to an eager audience that you build over time.
Your work routine will make or break your career as an author, and regardless of what you write about, productivity is a key skill to master. If you want to write more books and boost your sales in the process, incorporate these 7 productivity tips into your workflow.
#1: Write First Thing In The Morning To Build Momentum
When you wake up, you have the most momentum. Nothing crazy has happened yet and the meetings and other activities are usually clumped together later in the day.
It’s important to wake up and start writing because this will provide you with momentum for the rest of the day. The way you conduct yourself in the first hour of the day plays a large role in what your entire day looks like.
Writing first thing in the morning makes it easier to stay focused and continue writing throughout the day.
#2: Write With Zero Distractions
When you are writing, remove distractions from your environment. Make sure your phone is in a different room and your Wi-Fi is off.
These are two of the most common distractions that can derail any writing routine. The next time you get distracted during a writing session, take a mental note of what distracted you. Then, figure out how you can remove that distraction during your next writing session.
You might have to write in an isolated room in the house and let your family know that you’re writing at a certain timeframe. You can make more progress with 30 minutes of concentrated effort than with 2 hours of distracted effort.
#3: Listen To Music While You Write
Music can help you tune out the other noises around you and make for a great writing session. It’s best to listen to music without words as the purpose of this music isn’t for you to jam to your favorite song.
The purpose of this music is to just help you stay focused. Find a certain theme you like, put on the headphones, and tunnel vision your way through your next writing session.
#4: Outline Your Book In Detail Before You Start
Every minute of preparation saves about 10 minutes of time. Preparation helps you know the direction of your book. Not knowing the direction of your writing risks falling into a stop and go routine.
In a stop and go routine, you write until you don’t know where to proceed. You stop, gather your thoughts, and then go until you have to stop again.
This inefficient writing approach can chew away at your time and leave you with very few words added to your book. Taking 15-30 minutes to outline your book from start to finish will save you a lot of time in the long run.
#5: Do Keyword Research Before Writing Your Book
Productivity for authors isn’t just about writing your book from start to finish. Productivity also includes book marketing and ensuring your content reaches more readers.
Before you start writing a book, do some keyword research to increase the odds of your book being a success. Some keywords have lower competition and higher demand than others, and it’s important to find specific keywords that give you a better chance on the Amazon algorithm.
You don’t want to spend hours writing a book that goes on to get no sales. Keyword research prior to writing the book helps you to avoid this dilemma.
You can use a resource like Publisher Rocket to do detailed keyword research so your next book is a winner.
#6: Repurpose Your Content
In between writing and promoting your books, you also have to produce free content. The free content helps you build your brand and attract potential readers.
Many authors struggle with writing their books and producing free content. One of those two tasks usually gets discarded and you end up with books that don’t get enough sales or free content that doesn’t lead people to a high converting offer.
Content repurposing is the game changer that allows you to write books and produce free content simultaneously. You can take passages from your books and turn them into blog posts. You can create videos and use the edited transcriptions in your book.
Repurposing your content allows you to get more mileage with the same content, and it will mightily help you on your quest to becoming a full-time writer.
#7: Grow Your Email List To Scale Your Marketing
Marketing your book to an email list of 10,000 people produces very different results if you only have 1,000 people on your email list (assuming both email lists had equal engagement percentages).
The dream scenario for any author is to have an eager audience you can easily reach with a single email. This is the scaled version of book marketing that allows you to do less work to get more book sales.
Every author should strive to grow their email list and make it a top priority. Including a call-to-action at the start of your book offering a free resource in exchange for an email address, mentioning a free opt-in page at the backend of your book, and partnering with fellow authors are some of the many ways to grow your email list.
Email list growth is the best way to grow your audience and get more book sales.
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