How to write a book and sell it online?

[Someone here]

I consider myself intelligent and knowledgeable in philosophy. I study and read tons of books for famous philosophers. Starting  from Aristotle to Socrates to rene Descartes to kant etc

And I believe I have a good style of writing and articulating philosphical ideas . So why not use this passion as a career path and start to write a book and get paid for publishing it ?

My question is:  Let's say I've already got the writing thing down, and am able sit and write however many pages it takes to write a book.  I go to Amazon, search Sci-Fi, look at the top books and know that I could write a book that's similar to maybe 5 of the top 10 books that are in the Sci Fi category.    

I write that book. . . what then?  

Do I just publish the book on Amazon and wait for people to buy it?  

Do I go to forums, start a youtube channel, do the sort of extracurricular things that go along with branding so that I could find an audience?  

Do I focus on tags, keywords, categories, hashtags?  Do I follow other authors in the same categories on Twitter and other social media hoping that they might notice that I'm a writer?  

If I just write a solid book in a popular category and put it up on Amazon, will people just go buy my book, or do I have to figure out how to make connections?  

thank you for your insight.  I really appreciate it.

[Carl-Richard]

Go on podcasts or live television and plug your book.

[Someone here]

7 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

Go on podcasts or live television and plug your book.

But I'm a nobody .no one will invite me on his podcast or TV channel.  Doesn't that just come after I already publish the book and get a little bit known for it ? I will be known as the author of the book (X).

[Yarco]

23 hours ago, Someone here said:

I write that book. . . what then?  
Do I just publish the book on Amazon and wait for people to buy it?  
Do I go to forums, start a youtube channel, do the sort of extracurricular things that go along with branding so that I could find an audience?  
Do I focus on tags, keywords, categories, hashtags?  Do I follow other authors in the same categories on Twitter and other social media hoping that they might notice that I'm a writer?  
If I just write a solid book in a popular category and put it up on Amazon, will people just go buy my book, or do I have to figure out how to make connections?  

Yes to all, depending how much work you want to put in, and what you want to get out of it.

23 hours ago, Someone here said:

I go to Amazon, search Sci-Fi, look at the top books and know that I could write a book that's similar to maybe 5 of the top 10 books that are in the Sci Fi category.  

This is an egotistical, kind of an absurd thing to say. Beginners have no idea the kind of fine details that go into the art of a craft, like making a bestselling book, hit song, or video game. There's a 99.9% chance you don't have enough pure natural talent and luck to knock it out of the park on your first try.

If you don't know the basic plot structure to follow, pacing, storytelling then you're almost sure to fail. Philosophy has nothing to do with storytelling, it's just a lesson or takeaway you can add into the overall story as a flourish. If you start with philosophy and try to mold a story around it, it's gonna be dry and feel forced.

If you haven't read a bunch of books in the genre and picked up on all the main tropes that readers of the genre expect, they're going to eviscerate you in the reviews.

If you want to write an averagely decent book and make a couple thousand dollars, sure. But to think you're going to release your first book with no previous education or training in creative writing and have the quality similar to Dean Koontz or Margaret Atwood, that's almost delusional.

21 hours ago, Someone here said:

But I'm a nobody .no one will invite me on his podcast or TV channel.  Doesn't that just come after I already publish the book and get a little bit known for it ? I will be known as the author of the book (X).

Then invite yourself. People aren't going to reach out and hand you everything, no matter how good your book is. Email 100 small-to-medium-sized podcasts related to your book and if 1 emails back to say yes, that's a success. Then use that social proof to build up to being a guest on larger and larger podcasts.

Although I would question whether interviews are really an effective approach or if it's just an ego thing, wanting to be a famous author and interviewed. What's the crossover between people who listen to a particular podcast and will actually read your book? Or is that 10 hours you'd spend arranging an interview and 1 - 2 hours actually doing it better spent making a ton of social media posts or something else?

Maybe this is too negative of a reply though... in the future maybe I should just start saying nothing and let people figure it out on their own, instead of shattering their dreams.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Yarco

[Someone here]

⁶@Yarco not at all .thanks for your reply .

I guess I have put the cart before the horse.  I first need to write the damn book .before I go worrying about how to sell it . After giving it a second thought ..I realized its the writing part that's most challenging rather than how to sell it .

How to start writing?

Also ..Im not just interested in philosophy.I want to start writing novels, hopefully good ones. The thing is I haven't written anything since high school. Back then I was a pretty good writer but that was 2 page essays and rarely a 10 page max short story. So 3 years later, my writing skills are 0. I have a few novel plot ideas but when I sit down to write, I don't know how or what to write. What I'm looking for is advice on where to begin learning skills from the ground up and how to approach this new hobby in a smart way.

I guess I just have to Write something. Get it on the page. At least a paragraph.. no edits no deletes just get used to the act of writing. I'm up to the stage where I have the whole story in my head but I look at the paragraph and  hate the prose and hate the junky way I set it up and delete all of it. I need to  Just get used to getting the words on the page. A paragraph at a time just keep going. Proof read later. Purely for the exercise of starting writing in general.

 

[Carl-Richard]

1 hour ago, Someone here said:

I guess I have put the cart before the horse.

The cart goes after the horse

[Yarco]

8 hours ago, Someone here said:

How to start writing?

With a single word 

Set a timer for 10 minutes and make yourself write with no distractions. If you feel like continuing, set it for another 10 minutes and keep going. If not, just stop there and don't burn yourself out on it. Better to write for 10 minutes a day than 0.

Bestselling author Neil Gaiman has a rule for himself, he's only allowed 2 options -- He can sit and write, or he can sit there and do nothing. But he can't sit there and do anything else. Not look at his phone, not even get distracted looking out the window or anything. Just sit and look at the paper (or the cursor blinking in Microsoft Word.) Eventually if you sit and do nothing long enough, you'll get so bored that writing seems better in comparison  

There's 2 main types of writers - Pantsers and plotters. Pantsters "write by the seat of their pants" aka make it up on the spot as they go. Plotters methodically plot out what's going to happen in each chapter in advance, then you're basically just filling in the details and dialogue as you go. I'd recommend trying both, but plotting is usually good for beginners, or you usually hit a point in the middle of the story where you don't know what to do next.

I'd recommend starting with Derek Murphy's 1-page novel plot outline: https://www.creativindie.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/plot-outline.pdf , it's pretty similar to the hero's journey as well though.

For inspiration, look at some of the most prolific writers in history, maybe read their autobiographies and see how they did it. L. Ron Hubbard wrote over 1,000 books (plus started a religion .) Isaac Asimov wrote over 500 novels. Stephen King has written over 60 novels (some of them thicker than the freaking Bible) plus 200+ short stories.

I actually recently decided I'm going to read through all 62 of the original Goosebumps books written by RL Stine (he's written over 450 books in total), summarize + review them all before the end of the year, then probably next year set myself a goal of writing 20 - 50 similar children's horror books following a similar pattern to him. At his peak, he wrote a Goosebumps book in about 2-3 days of plotting and 8 days of writing. At one point he was writing one Goosebumps book and one book from another series of his called Fear Street each month.

So I'm gonna read every book he wrote from 1992 - 1997, figure out what works and why, improve on what I think could be done better and modernized for this generation of kids, read his autobiography, listen to every interview of his that I can find on Youtube, and then I'm gonna replicate it.

[Raze]

You can try https://scribemedia.com/

[Someone here]

6 hours ago, Yarco said:

With a single word 

Set a timer for 10 minutes and make yourself write with no distractions. If you feel like continuing, set it for another 10 minutes and keep going. If not, just stop there and don't burn yourself out on it. Better to write for 10 minutes a day than 0.

Bestselling author Neil Gaiman has a rule for himself, he's only allowed 2 options -- He can sit and write, or he can sit there and do nothing. But he can't sit there and do anything else. Not look at his phone, not even get distracted looking out the window or anything. Just sit and look at the paper (or the cursor blinking in Microsoft Word.) Eventually if you sit and do nothing long enough, you'll get so bored that writing seems better in comparison  

There's 2 main types of writers - Pantsers and plotters. Pantsters "write by the seat of their pants" aka make it up on the spot as they go. Plotters methodically plot out what's going to happen in each chapter in advance, then you're basically just filling in the details and dialogue as you go. I'd recommend trying both, but plotting is usually good for beginners, or you usually hit a point in the middle of the story where you don't know what to do next.

I'd recommend starting with Derek Murphy's 1-page novel plot outline: https://www.creativindie.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/plot-outline.pdf , it's pretty similar to the hero's journey as well though.

For inspiration, look at some of the most prolific writers in history, maybe read their autobiographies and see how they did it. L. Ron Hubbard wrote over 1,000 books (plus started a religion .) Isaac Asimov wrote over 500 novels. Stephen King has written over 60 novels (some of them thicker than the freaking Bible) plus 200+ short stories.

I actually recently decided I'm going to read through all 62 of the original Goosebumps books written by RL Stine (he's written over 450 books in total), summarize + review them all before the end of the year, then probably next year set myself a goal of writing 20 - 50 similar children's horror books following a similar pattern to him. At his peak, he wrote a Goosebumps book in about 2-3 days of plotting and 8 days of writing. At one point he was writing one Goosebumps book and one book from another series of his called Fear Street each month.

So I'm gonna read every book he wrote from 1992 - 1997, figure out what works and why, improve on what I think could be done better and modernized for this generation of kids, read his autobiography, listen to every interview of his that I can find on Youtube, and then I'm gonna replicate it.

Thanks  . I have few questions though ..

Some writers make extensive outlines. Some writers typically spend a year just on an outline. I’ve learned that a book is such a massive undertaking, you need to think it through first. An outline helps. I make outlines, but they’re living, breathing things. When a character does or says something that surprises me, I go back to my outline to see how that changes things. I then update my outline. I’m constantly changing and adding to it. I always expect surprises to happen.

Most people would say, “Sit down, and just write what comes naturally.” That’s good advice. Really. But not good enough. As humans we have a wonderful tendency to go off in a tangent and think about other things. It’s a gift because it let us be curious about things that we’ve discovered until now, but also a curse if you’re a writer or a student. So how do i stay focused and on track with the general idea of the book and not let my mind wander and go in tangents and sometimes getting out of the outline? 

[Someone here]

4 hours ago, Raze said:

You can try https://scribemedia.com/

Thanks for this.  Sincerely appreciate it ?.