How to Write a Book Online

This article will show you how to use free online web applications to write your book online.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• internet connection
• web browser
• google/gmail account
• story idea
• stick-to-it-ness

1. If you don't have a google account, sign up for one. Log in, and go to docs.google.com

2. Click on the icon in the upper left, "New," to create a new document. Start writing.

3. Once you've written all you desire, it's time to collect your thoughts and get your book idea organized. Go to notebook.google.com and create a new notebook. If you are writing a non-fiction book, it should be relatively logical to split your book into sections, and then into chapters. Make a new "note" for each section, and as chapter subjects make themselves obvious, a new note for each chapter.

4. If you are writing fiction or a collection of short stories, the organizational process might not be as intuitive. Use notebook.google.com to organize scenes, ideas, exposition, and any other details you'd like to include in the story. Use "tags" to mark the sections you've already written. If you decide to re-order your scenes or chapters, you can also move them around in notebook.
   
   This process may take some time. Don't rush it. You may need to sleep on it, or even think about it for a few weeks before a logical progression of scenes presents itself. Don't be surprised if you need to update your "notes" in the process of writing your book in docs.google.com. You're sure to come up with new ideas as you write.

5. Have a look at what you wrote originally in your google document. Is it a chapter? A series of chapters? Look critically at your starting place, and determine what you still need to write. Set daily writing goals, and pace yourself.
   
   The typical novel comes in at about 80-90,000 words. Non-fiction books are less bound by length. You can check your wordcount under the heading "tools" in Google Docs. You an also take advantage of Spellcheck.

6. Once you have completed your book, have a friend read it over before you publish it or submit it to an agent or publisher. In the upper right-hand corner of the document window, click the blue button that says "share."
   
   Inviting your friend as a "collaborator" will allow him or her to make editorial comments directly on the document. Ask your friend (aka Beta Reader) to make their comments in a different colored font, so you can easily locate them.

7. Once your book has had another set of eyes look over it and you've given yourself time to digest any comments or suggestions made, you'll want to make the final edits to your book. Again, this could take some time. Many authors put down their manuscripts for a month or longer, so they can come back to their books with "fresh eyes."

8. Depending on what your intentions for your book are, there are several options for publishing:
   
   1.) Save the book as a pdf to your computer (typical e-book format)
   2.) Save the book as a Word doc
   3.) Save the book as html (webpage format)
   
   However you save your book, save it with a name you will recognize, somewhere on your computer that you will easily locate. For example, you could name the file MyNovel.pdf and save it in your Documents folder, on your hard drive.

9. If this is an eBook, host it on your webpage, send it in an email, burn it onto a CD, or otherwise disburse it however you'd like.
   
   If this is a .doc file you'd like to send to a publisher, it would behoove you greatly to open the document in Microsoft Word, offline, and make sure it is formatted to your agent or publisher's standards. This is a professional courtesy, and submitting a manuscript with rough formatting is a strike against you.
   
   If you've saved your file as a web page, then all you need to do next is publish it to your site.

10. Best of luck with your career as an author!

Tips & Warnings

• Writing is a great hobby.
• If you're interested in a serious career writing, visit some nearby writing conferences. You can meet agents, editors, novelists, and other professional writers.
• Don't be too hard on yourself if you find yourself "stuck" now and then while working on your book. This happens to most everyone. Just don't give up! Keep writing, even when it feels like "work." You can always cut the rough parts later, or polish them to perfection.

Resources

• National Novel Writing Month (November)

[newcar45]

on 9/21/2009 One of the most important points is to have a friend or someone you trust and who also encourages your writing to give open and honest comments. Then to work to incorporate those comments into your book before you publish it. I have found other useful writing tips at fiveminutevacation.com

[vallain]

on 5/2/2009 nice summary of the process.

[shoopgirl]

on 2/19/2009 this was good to read

[kimarkent]

on 1/23/2009 I appreciate the honesty about sleeping on it for a few weeks sometimes, because it could get hard to do a good job if you haven't given it enough thought. RRRing! 5*

[lmharmon]

on 1/15/2009 digidi,

I don't see why you couldn't fwd your hotmail stuff to your gmail account, then copy and paste the text into google. You'll have to edit out a lot of "To" and "From" stuff, but it would save you the trouble of retyping 80k words.