My first book as an indie author

In this article, we'll show you how to write your first book as an indie author based on the first-hand knowledge of Owen Jones, the indie author of 50+ novels and 125 manuals in English over the last twelve years.

Writing your first book as an indie author is a great way to share your knowledge and experience with others. It's also a good way to earn some money. Whether you earn more if you're self-published or not is difficult to say. However, this guide will teach you how to start writing your first book today.

Fiction or Non-fiction.

The first consideration is whether it is your intention is to write fiction of non-fiction. Perhaps you already have an idea for a gripping novel, or a non-fiction topic that fascinates you. If you don't already have an idea for a novel, which can also be non-fiction of course, it is difficult to just invent one on the spot. Unless, perhaps you go for the life and times of a local celebrity past or present.

Choose Your First Book as an Indie Author

However, if you love what you do, then you might enjoy writing about it. Furthermore, if you enjoy writing about something, the chances are that you'll be happy about researching and learning more about it every day. So, choose a topic that interests you, and you'll find yourself naturally gravitating toward it. Like 'Making Wine from the Grapes In the Garden'.

To Plan Or Not To Plan?

Or in writers' technical terms, are you a planner or a pantser? As in 'flying by the seat of…' I personally do a bit of both, however, I plan less in a novel that I do for a manual. After all, a manual is factual, so in our example, if you forget to talk about feeding your grapes it's a pretty serious omission, but if I forget to tell you something about a character in a novel, the chances are that you'll never know about it.Still, before I start to write a book, I think about it for a few days and write down all relevant thoughts. With my novels, I usually know where I want to start and where I want to finish, but I'm not sure how to get there. It's a lot like being in Cardiff and wanting to drive to Portsmouth with time being unimportant. You put those two points into a route planner and you get various routes. The way points are your initial chapter headings.

Start Writing!

So, I now have my starting point, a few cities along the way and my destination, but that doesn't mean that I have to go that way when I get into my car. I may have to divert because of roadworks, or I may fancy stopping off of in a pretty little village for lunch. It is the same with a work of fiction for me. Sometimes, the final destination changes too! And titles change all the time, especially if your characters talk to you as mine do.

How Long Is The Journey?

A popular saying amongst writers is that the book is finished when the story is over, but it's not always as simple as that. In Daddy's Hobby (above), the protagonist, Lek, would not stop talking to me…telling me what to write and how to say it. It was my first novel, but I had done some research and it told me that a first novel should not be much more than 100,000 words. I tried to stop several ties, but Lek would not keep quiet. When I got to 112,000 I just went on strike. However, she still kept talking to me, so I started a sequel. By the way, that series ran to over 800,000 words in seven volumes!It is easier with non-fiction. When you have told the person's factual story, or you have explained how to grow grapes and turn them into wine, the book is over.

Editing, Proofreading, Formatting and the Cover.