How To Write a How-To Book

I define a "how-to" book as one that is written by an expert or specialist in a specific field that explains to the reader exactly how to successfully perform and/or replicate a particular task, process or activity related to that field. How-to books are always non-fiction. The essence of a how-to book is a set of instructions that one can follow to complete or achieve the task, process, or activity that is being described in the book. Based on e-mails that I receive on a regular basis from aspiring how-to writers, many are intimidated by the actual writing process itself. So, what I have done in my book titled "How To Write A How-To Book (or eBook)" is to share a surefire step-by-step writing process that I have developed and fine-tuned over the last couple of decades. In fact, I started developing an early version of this process more than 20 years ago when I first found myself having to write structured reports on various subjects. After a few painful experiences, always having to develop an entire new report from scratch, it struck me that there must be a way to systematically write reports on just about any subject without having to re-invent the entire process each and every time. The following is a summary of how I adapted that report-writing process to come up with the five (5) key steps contained in my proprietary "How-To Book/eBook Writing Process."

1. Create the table of contents. In my experience, drafting the actual Table of Contents (TOC), before you start writing the actual book/ebook is the single most important key to expediting the development process and creating a successful book. This needs to be more than just a rough draft TOC. It should be a carefully thought out breakdown of exactly what you imagine the TOC will look like in your final book/ebook. In fact, this point is critical to simplifying the book writing process. It will break your book down into specific chapters, headings and sub-headings.
2. Create the book template. This step involves entering the TOC from the previous step into your word processing program, line-by-line. Once all headings and sub-headings have been entered, you then generate an "automatic table of contents" using that function in your word processing program. The resulting document becomes the Master Template for your book that will be used throughput the book creation process.
3. Drill down to the details. This technique is an easy way to flesh out the content of your book at the detailed level; below the heading/sub-heading level. What you do in this step is to add what are called "content points" that summarize what you want to cover under each heading and sub-heading. These "content points", as I call them, are essentially notes to yourself to guide you when you start writing your book. They are a point-form list of subjects, ideas and/or notes about what you want to be sure to cover when you get to that particular sub-section of your document during the writing process.
4. Write your book/eBook. If you have followed the previous steps in detail, at this point the actual writing process should be a relatively simple matter of filling-in-the-blanks because you'll have a fully-formatted template to work with. Since your template includes the detailed point-form breakdown of the specific content points, all you really have to do is follow along with those as you write. Using the master book template, you just need to start at the beginning of your book and keep on writing paragraph-by-paragraph and page-by-page, until you get to the end. At this stage you will find the writing process quite invigorating because the words will just seem to "flow" since you've already done all of the preparation and will have any needed references close at hand. It's like being in "automatic writing mode". This step-by-step approach truly eliminates a lot of the "pain" from the writing process.
5. Edit and revise your book. The first "light edit" should be done while going through the "filling-in-the-blanks" process that is covered in the previous step. During this "first pass" you should do a quick scan when you complete writing each section, and then make any minor revisions that jump out at you right away. Otherwise, leave it until later. Once you've completed the first draft, do a line-by-line on-screen edit in your word processing program using your word processor's spell checker and grammar checker to pick up anything obvious. Then, print out a single copy and give it to an editor and or proof-reader to go through in detail and have them mark-up any problems on the hard copy. Once you get the marked-up copy back, go through the mark-ups carefully one final time, line-by-line, adding any final edits of your own to the hard copy. Finally, using that copy, as marked-up by both you and your editor, do your final on-screen edit, page-by-page, through the entire book.

I can't possibly go into all of the small details and subtleties of this process here except to say that it is an orderly step-by-step process that will guide anyone through the process of writing their own how-to book/ebook. In fact, my book on this subject uses some 15 pages to describe this process in detail. The important thing is that a step-by-process does exist for writing your how-to book/ebook; so you will NEVER have to start from a blank page or screen.