Write a Book in 2021. Here’s How.

It’s time for the second annual Blog-Your-Own-Book Challenge!

Last June, I thought to myself — what if we challenged everyone to write a blog post a day for one month. That morphed into something more like what if we challenged everyone to write a blog post a day for a month and turn those posts into a book?

So, as often happens with me, a one-month challenge turned into a four month challenge we called BYOB or Blog Your Own Book. We’d all plan our challenges in July, write those blog posts in August, edit them into a book in September, and prepare them for publication in October.

I didn’t think it through much. I just posted it. I figured I’d write a couple of blog posts to encourage readers. I’d do my own 31-day challenge. And that would be that.

Yeah. Not so much. It exploded. Ninja Writers loved the idea. And I had to scramble to keep up!

So — in 2021, we’re doing it again. Only this time I’m far more prepared. Yay!

Let’s Do This!

It’s mid-June, which means that our planning month starts in two weeks. Are you ready to BYOB?

Because, I’m going to challenge you to do something big this summer and fall. I’m going to do it right along with you. It’s going to be a kind of extra-special challenge for me this year, because I haven’t been blogging much. Really, not much at all.

So, I’ll have the chance to see if blogging every day for 31 days does anything for my Medium stats. I’ll be sure to report on that as well.

We’re going to write books. Not just club members. Everyone. Anyone. You.

Books that we can sell to create an income stream or use as a lead magnet to attract new clients or to help us build our email lists. Books we can be proud of.

There’s something that happens when you finish writing a book — especially if it’s your first book. Suddenly you know, without a doubt, that you can do it. You can finish writing a long-form manuscript. And once it’s done, then you know you can do it again.

Introducing the Blog-Your-Own-Book Challenge

The BYOB Challenge has four parts. Because there are four parts to writing a book. It’s important to me that you come away from this challenge with a skill set you can use over and over to build your writing career.

The goal is to choose a single topic, plan a series of consecutive blog posts that you’ll write and publish for 31 days, then put them together into a book you’ll publish in time for the holidays.

Part One: Planning

In July, you’ll do some work toward figuring out the focus of your book.

You’ll choose your Niche. This has been something of a focus for Ninja Writers lately, so I’m very excite to help with this. Remember this: your niche is not your topic. It’s the people you’re writing for.

Figure out who you’re writing for and all you have to do is give them what they need.

You’ll decide whether you want to write a narrative or prescriptive book. something like a memoir, or something more like a how-to guide?

Because I know someone will ask: We’re focusing on nonfiction, but you can certainly take the concept and make it work for you if you want to write fiction or poetry.

I hope that as you take this challenge, you’ll develop a writing habit that will serve you as a writer. You’ll have to be disciplined and treat your writing like it’s your job. You’ll have to stay on task and make choices about the other things in your life, so that you can make time for this project.

You’ll have to organize your time. Maybe you need to write some of those blog posts now so that you can publish them daily in August. Maybe you’ll have to make a choice about what your book will be able, so that you can write the posts in time.

This is how you start to become a professional writer.

In July, you’ll also plan and create an opt-in, so you can start capturing an audience. That’s a short, juicy little bit of writing you offer in exchange for an email address.

Part Two: Writing

In August, you’ll publish 31 blog posts in 31 days. I didn’t say write, because like I said, you might write them ahead of time. You might write them all in the first week and just publish them through the month. You might repurpose content you’ve already written.

There are lots of possibilities.

But, if you follow the program, you will publish every day for 31 days. That could be here on Medium. Or on your own blog. On social media, maybe. I could imagine someone initially publishing on LinkedIn or Facebook, for instance.

I’ll be publishing on Medium. It’s free and easy, you might earn a little money, and it’s a good way to start building an audience. You’ll use that opt-in to grow your email list.

Part Three: Editing

In September, you’ll put it all together into a book. Your 31 blog posts become your “31 Days to . . .” book. Or your collection of essays, poems, or short stories. Or your memoir. Or, literally, whatever it is that excited you in July and August.

You’ll smooth the posts out, so that they flow into a book. You’ll write an introduction and whatever else needs to be added to the manuscript.

And then you’ll edit the whole thing. I’ll give you some ideas about how to do deep self-editing, and also help you figure out how to hire and work with a copyeditor. By the end of the month, your book will be ready for the final step.

Part Four: Publishing

In October, you’ll work toward getting a cover and layout for your book, and getting it up on Amazon or ready to use as a lead magnet or gift to your followers.

You’ll learn how to work with a cover designer and use simple products to lay your book out and get it ready to publish, whatever publishing looks like for you.

And we’ll talk about how having a book on the market — either for sale or to use as a marketing tool — can help you develop income streams. Maybe you’ll make some money from your blog posts and directly from sales, but that’s just the tip of the ice berg.

You can use your book to help build your email list, which means that you’ll have an audience interested in whatever you develop next. And you’ll have developed a blogging habit which can become an income stream all on its own. Plus, you’ll have learned how to BYOB, so you can do it over and over again.

So. Are you in?

Stay tuned for the first posts about planning your BYOB Challenge. Tell your friends — let’s make this a thing. Challenges are way more fun when we do them together, right?

If you’re in the Ninja Writers Club, we’ll be using our Working Writer call on Sunday’s at noon EST as BYOB central through October. We’re kicking it off with a virtual writing retreat this weekend (June 19 and 20) that’s free for Club members.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss a thing, click here to join us.

I answered some questions about the BYOB Challenge here:

Here’s my secret weapon for sticking with whatever your thing is.

Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the author of Viral Nation, Rebel Nation, The Astonishing Maybe, and Center of Gravity. She is the original Ninja Writer.