Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Interview With Writing Coach Ann McIndoo

I came across a copy of 7 Easy Steps to Write Your Book:  How To Get Your Book Out of Your Head and a Manuscript in Your Hands by author coach Ann McIndoo, and found her approach to be very helpful for eager but disorganized or unfocused writers.

Her seven steps boil down to this:

Step 1: Prepare to Write Your Book
Gather the information, resources, and materials needed to cook up your book.

Step 2:  Create Your Resource and Chapter Piles
Organize the thoughts, materials and content.

Step 3:  Create Your Manuscript Grid™
You need to give structure to your book.

Step 4:  Create Your Trigger Sentences™
List the concepts you want to expand on.

Step 5:  Create Your Storyboard™
Develop a big picture for your book.

Step 6:  Write or Talk Your Book
How to get it out of your head.

Step 7:  Prepare Your Manuscript
Create the book and then revise, edit and shape it.

Ann tries to simplify the process of putting a book together and helps the writer break each step down so that it’s conquerable.  For more information, check out: www.SoYouWantToWrite.com and www.7EasyStepsToWriteYourBook.com.

Here’s a Q&A with the author.

1.       What are the biggest obstacles writers must overcome in order to get their book done?
  • Knowing the message you want to convey is at the top of the list.  
  • Organizing your thoughts and materials so you know what you want to say.
  • Deciding to write your book and making the time for getting your book out of your head.
  • Sticking to it!
2.       How does your seven-step system help them?
  • I have created a unique process that makes it easy for anyone to get their book done.  Using my process you can have your book out of your head and a manuscript in your hands in 9-12 weeks.  
  • My process starts with answering 4 basic questions:
    • Why are you writing this book?
    • What are you going to do with this book?  How are you going to use it?
    • Who is your audience?
    • Where is your audience?
  • I go on to help the new author to collect their resources, organize their materials, create the structure of their book and finally, talk their book, not write their book.  Talking produces a much richer tapestry of content.  
  • I have used my process to produce more than 1,200 books for speakers, coaches, entrepreneurs, business leaders and professionals.  
3.      How can one get over writer’s block”
  • That’s an easy one!  Change your focus!  
  • First:  Refresh.  Drink some water, take a short walk outside, think about something fun in your life or something you are looking forward to.  
  • Stop thinking about what or why you are not writing and think about what you want to say.  
  • Start with bullet points.  
  • Talk to someone about your topic and ask them what they would like to know about it.  Ask questions.  Write down the answers.   
4.     What do you enjoy most about working with writers?
  • I love working with authors and writers because they always have a unique message, wisdom, journey, process or something special to share.  Authors and writers are always coming up with unique ideas and are great to brainstorm with. 

5.     What new challenges do writers face today that didn’t exist a decade ago?
  • I think there are much fewer challenges and many more resources today than 10 years ago.  
  • I started So, You Want To Write in 2005 and it was more difficult to get a book cover, interior layout, editing and publishing services and much more expensive. Now we have dozens of resources for branding, social media, publishing, marketing and promotion.  I think it’s much easier, faster and cheaper to write your book today, especially if I’m your Author’s Coach!
6.     Shouldn’t the writing process come naturally, rather than using a “paint by the numbers” approach?
  • That’s a great question!
  • Writing comes naturally to me, the words just come out.  But it isn’t the same for everyone.  Many of my authors know what they want to say but when it comes to writing it down, they get stuck.  So I created my “Writer’s Power Tools” - How to write “on demand”.  I have put my Writer’s Power Tools in an ebook that shows you how to create your own and trigger them to help you get ready to write.  [The ebook is attached]  
7.      Where do you see the future of the book industry heading?

  • Getting bigger, easier, faster and cheaper to buy books and book related products.  
  • I like making my Author clients profitable.  You can sell your book for $20 or your “system” for $200, $500 or more.  I create ancillary products like workbooks and coaching programs for authors so they can sell their “system” and be profitable.  
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015

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