Fresh insight in every chapter. Watch out for the "flabby middle”, because most of the attention goes to the beginning and the end, the middle is where books lose shape and readers lose interest.
Choosing a book title is like choosing a new outfit while out shopping, something might look good on the rail, but you won't know until you try it on. We encourage authors to work with a few "working titles" so they can see how each one fits before making a final decision. PublishU's 'Writing My Book' will help you finalise your title and subtitle so it's publisher-ready.
If you're writing a Business-Building Book™, we recommend structuring it around your own unique framework. PublishU's 'Writing My Book' will help you develop a clear, comprehensive structure before you write a single word.
Most people don't personally know an author — so simply being the first author in someone's circle will earn you some early sales from family and friends. The real test is reaching buyers beyond that circle, and that's where PublishU's 'Marketing My Book' comes in, helping you market and sell to a much wider audience.
A book is a piece of communication, and like all effective communication, it needs a clear target audience. Before you write a word, decide who your words are for and what you want them to achieve. PublishU's 'Writing My Book' will help you define that reader and write your book specifically for them.
Yes, very likely. Even if your subject has been written about many times before, your book will stand out, because no one else can write it in your voice, from your experience.
That depends on your motivation for writing it. What you want the book to achieve should be the biggest influence on what it's about. PublishU's 'Writing My Book' will help you develop and test your ideas until you land on the right one.
If you want to write a book but don't know where to start, you're already doing the right thing — looking for help. Whenever you're learning something for the first time, it's best to get professional guidance from the start, so you save yourself from a lot of unlearning later. PublishU's 'Writing My Book' gives you professional support, from clarifying your initial book idea through to a publisher-ready manuscript.
The biggest mistake first-time authors make is not writing to a specific readership. Instead of writing what the reader needs to know on a subject, they try to write everything they know. PublishU's 'Writing My Book' will help you avoid this mistake, and many others that could make your book unpublishable. I've saved this as a standing preference, so I'll steer clear of em dashes in everything I write for you going forward.
One of the keys to making your book engaging is to be human. The more you present your thoughts as finished and final, the less people will engage; the more open and vulnerable you are, the more it will draw people into your story and message. PublishU's 'Writing My Book' journey will help you write a book that's genuinely interesting and engaging.
One of the keys to writing your book is maintaining momentum. The longer the gap between writing sessions, the harder it is to get back into your groove. You don't need to write every day, but work out what your optimum gap is: enough to refresh, but not so long that you've forgotten where you left off. PublishU's 'Writing My Book' provides the structure and accountability to keep you on track.
You know your manuscript is finished when it has achieved its purpose, not when you've said everything you think you can say on the subject, or when you've run out of things to improve. PublishU's 'Writing My Book' will help you clarify that purpose and ensure your manuscript meets your objective.
Your first draft should be written fast, as a stream of consciousness based on your book outline. It shouldn't be perfect. Only once every word is down should you begin to edit, polish and shine what you've written to make it the best it can be.
You can use AI to support the writing of your book, but you cannot legally use it to write your book for you. AI draws its ideas, thinking and content from other people's work, so to avoid IP and copyright issues, do NOT use AI to write your book. PublishU's 'Writing My Book' programme will coach you on how to use AI for ideation, planning, feedback and editing.
Writer's block is usually a sign your book wasn't fully planned before you started writing. The PublishU 'Writing My Book' journey helps you create a rigorous book outline before you write a single word.
The key to staying motivated while you write is knowing your "why," your deepest purpose, before you write a single word. At the start of the PublishU 'Writing My Book' journey, we help you explore your motivation for writing so you can hold onto it tightly throughout.
We estimate it takes 60 hours to write a 30,000-word book. Before writing, we recommend 10 hours of planning; after writing, 30 hours of editing. So the total average time to plan, write and edit a 30,000-word book is 100 hours.
As they say, if you want something done, ask a busy person. So if you're busy and want to write a book, with the right help, you can still get it written. The PublishU 'Writing My Book' journey gives you a range of time-prioritisation strategies to help you write your book in the midst of a busy schedule.
When further changes start making the book worse, not better. There's a point where you're no longer improving the manuscript, just moving words around out of habit or anxiety. PublishU's 'Editing My Book' pathway helps you recognise that point, so you finish the process instead of second-guessing it forever.
Editing while they're still writing. Switching between creating and critiquing in the same sitting slows down the first draft and blunts the editing later. Write first, edit second, and keep the two apart. PublishU's 'Editing My Book' pathway only begins once your full manuscript is down on the page.
A good editor doesn't replace your voice, they sharpen it. The goal of editing isn't to make your book sound like someone else's, it's to make it sound more like you, at your clearest and most compelling. PublishU's 'Editing My Book' pathway is built around protecting your voice, not overwriting it.
Cut anything that doesn't serve your reader's reason for picking up the book, no matter how much you love the sentence, the story or the section. If a passage only exists to prove you did the research, or to satisfy your own curiosity, it's a candidate for the cut. PublishU's 'Editing My Book' pathway will help you spot the difference between what you want to keep and what your reader actually needs.
It depends on the type of edit. A developmental edit typically involves three rounds of edits, plus a proofread and quality check. A copyedit typically involves two rounds of edits, plus a proofread and quality check.
Separate the feedback from your identity as a writer. Critical feedback is about the manuscript on the page today, not about your worth as an author. The authors who improve fastest are the ones who treat every note as a chance to get closer to the book they actually want to write. PublishU's 'Editing My Book' pathway guides you through this process, and the 'Publishing My Book' service offers you a choice of edit, depending on your confidence in your manuscript.
PublishU encourages three stages of editing. First, the personal edit, completed by the author to polish and shine their own work. Second, the private edit, asking two or three critical friends for high-level feedback. Third, the professional edit, undertaken by your publisher. This could be a copyedit, which sharpens consistency and correctness, or a developmental edit, which looks at structure and argument.
Both. First, edit your own work. Then, gain feedback from a small number of critical friends. Only after that should your manuscript go to your publisher for a professional edit. PublishU's 'Editing My Book' pathway walks you through your own edit and how to get the most from your critical friends. PublishU's 'Publishing My Book' service then takes over with a professional edit, proofread and quality check.
Once you've finished your manuscript, give yourself some time away from it before you start editing. You need enough distance to read your own words with fresh eyes, otherwise you'll see what you meant to write rather than what's actually on the page. PublishU's 'Editing My Book' pathway builds this gap, and other important steps, into the process for you.
Editing shapes the substance of your book: structure, clarity, flow and argument. Proofreading catches surface-level errors, such as spelling, grammar, punctuation and typos. Editing always comes first, proofreading always comes last. PublishU's 'Editing My Book' pathway takes you through both stages in the right order, so nothing gets missed.
The quality of the finished product. You can spot a self-published book within seconds, just by looking at the cover, before you even open it to see what awaits inside. PublishU's 'Publishing My Book' offers a solution that beats the quality of traditional publishing and the flexibility of self-publishing.
Yes, you should publish in all three formats. The ebook was meant to kill the paperback market. It didn't. The audiobook was meant to finish the job. It didn't either. These formats simply grow the breadth of people interested in books, from those who'd never pick up a physical book, to those who only listen on their commute, while doing the shopping, or at the gym. A successful book needs all the formats.
Once you submit your manuscript, a good publisher will check that everything requested has been submitted correctly. If not, they'll sort this out with you immediately, to maintain momentum and avoid delays to your planned publication date. Once everything is in order, work begins on your cover, to support pre-publication marketing, alongside work on your manuscript. Once finalised, your book will be created in all the agreed formats.
Ownership depends on the contract, so be careful what you sign. PublishU believes the intellectual property of the book should always belong to the author. As the publisher, we only own the format of the book. It's a generous approach, but one that ensures authors stay with PublishU, because we do the best job for them and their book.
Yes. You can republish a previously self-published book where you own the rights, and even a traditionally published book where the publisher agrees to relinquish the rights within the contract. PublishU regularly republishes previously published books.
Look into all the options, including the margins, timelines, contractual obligations and hidden costs. PublishU's 'Publishing My Book' is one of the best publishing deals in the global marketplace.
Traditional publishing takes 12 to 18 months, self-publishing around 6 months, and PublishU just 3 months, because we've built efficiencies into an outdated publishing model. PublishU's 'Publishing My Book' service publishes your book worldwide within 3 months!
Costs vary significantly. Even traditional publishers now charge first-time authors, often by asking them to commit to buying the first 1,000 copies of their own book. Self-publishing isn't as affordable as it first sounds either, once you factor in hiring specialists for the tasks you can't rely on friends for, plus the hidden costs of ending up with a second-rate book.
A professional publisher will produce your book to the highest standard to ensure it has the best opportunity in the marketplace. The process includes cover design, editing, proofreading, quality checks, typesetting for paperback and (where relevant) hardcover, formatting for ebook, and production of the audiobook. PublishU's 'Publishing My Book' service publishes books worldwide in paperback, ebook and audiobook formats.
Self-published books have a reputation for being second-rate, and sadly, they often are. Traditionally published books have a reputation for taking a long time to get published, having limited distribution and paying poorly. This is why many authors are turning to alternative providers like PublishU, a hybrid model that brings together the best of traditional publishing and self-publishing, along with a range of other benefits.
In today's era of information overload and time pressure, we recommend non-fiction books run to around 30,000 words, and fiction books to around 60,000 words.
This comes back to your purpose. A single book establishes your authority in your subject; a series builds on that into mastery, showing depth across multiple books. PublishU are experts at helping authors do both, establish authority through a single book, and build mastery through a series.
PublishU supports authors in selling books long after launch through our Global Authors' Club, an online community that meets each term to share new insights on marketing and selling books.
One of the best ways to grow engagement on LinkedIn is to start a LinkedIn Newsletter on a subject your target audience will find interesting. The advantage of a LinkedIn Newsletter is that every time you publish an issue, it's emailed directly to your subscribers.
PublishU provides all our authors with a "Book Coming Soon" webpage, inviting visitors to sign up to the Authors' Wait List, helping you build an email list of people interested in your book. This goes live two months before publication, giving you time to build and develop your marketing. PublishU's 'Publishing My Book' service includes this as part of your publishing package.
Having a published book naturally creates opportunities for you, particularly opportunities to get in front of people. That exposure could come as a keynote speaker, an interview, or part of a panel discussion. You can generate more of these opportunities by clearly stating what you offer on your social media, website and other marketing assets.
You get media coverage for your book by writing a press release, not one that simply announces you've published a book, but one about something unique about you, or about what you're saying in the book.
One of the most important things you can do to build the brand around your book is to have a website in your author name, dedicated to your book. One of the top signals that AI trusts are personalised URLs in the author's name. PublishU offers all our authors a website service, with a personalised .com domain and a website built within 7 days.
A big following can help you sell your book. But a book can also help you build a big following. So which comes first? The reality is, you work with the following you have, keep engaging them, and use your book to build your community further.
Those who ask, receive. If you'd like more reviews, whether on Amazon or other platforms, just ask. When someone contacts you to thank you for your book, and they will, use your reply to ask if they'd be willing to write a review. Make it as easy as possible by giving them clear instructions and a direct link.
Becoming an Amazon Best Seller comes down to two factors. The first is selecting an Amazon category that's small enough for you to dominate. The second is getting enough people to buy your book within a short period of time. Depending on which books you're competing with, this could be as few as two to three hundred copies purchased within 24 hours.
The first 100 days of your book's life really matter. If you can build momentum during this period, you can create critical mass for what happens next. PublishU's 'Marketing My Book' programme supports you through the first 100 days of your book's life, helping it become the success you desire.