How to Write a Book and Get It Published: Hints, Tips & Techniques

By Joseph M Lenard

Although I am the holder of over 2 dozen copyrights, this is only my 2nd internationally putlished book, and in this book I oft provide examples of how I went about writing my other internationally published historical-fiction (or as I call it "FACTion," fictional storyline that interlaces historical events to give it greater impact and relevancy to/with/for the reader in today's world) manuscript "Terror Strikes: Coming Soon to a City Near You" by way of which to provide practicle application and examples of the "Hints, Tips, Techniques" provided in "HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND GET IT PUBLISHED."

This book, however, is NOT just limited to aspiring/budding authors, but too those who may be "curious" about the inner-workings and/or "behind the scenes" of how many books are put together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joseph M Lenard
• Release date: Jan 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798218128760

Joseph M Lenard

Joseph M. Lenard (aka: JLenardDetroit)Author, blogger, podcaster, speaker, vlogger.Author: "Terror Strikes: Coming soon to a City near you!"Born of the 1960s, very much a person of the 1980s.Lifelong (by choice) resident Wyandotte Michigan.Former Information Technology professional.Political/Conservative issues blogger/speaker/writer/vlogger.Holder of 2 dozen+ Copyrighted materials.Social-Media (100k+ reach over) Before It's News, CloutHub, FreeTalk, GAB, GETTR, LibertyCentric, LOCALS, MINDS, MeWe, Nextdoor, Parler, PolitiChatter, Rescue Michigan, Spreely, Twitter, and several Political Activist Websites commentary rights.

Book preview

Foreword

About the Book

About the Author

1. For Starters 20

2. Your Story Outline 37

3. Table of Contents Outline 48

4. Research 63

5. Character Development 65

6. Scene Development 74

7. Deadlines and Contracts 76

8. Publishing Options 79

9. Outsourcing 97

10. Foreword Outline 100

11. Editing 105

12. Formatting / Typesetting 114

13. Cover Design 121

14. Marketing 129

15. Reviews 147

Behind the Book

Afterword

FOREWORD

This book by Joseph M. Lenard is an absolute must have on your bookshelf! As I was reading this book, I saw many, many instances where I made huge mistakes in organizing and formatting my thoughts and outlines for my books.

I learned several things from each and every chapter in this book that will help me for years moving forward! Joseph’s step-by-step approach with this book will take a novice and turn you into a published author a lot faster than anything else I have come across!

When you take this book and just follow through each chapter and then implement what was just explained (and actually do the work before moving on), you can’t help but be successful at publishing your book.

The only way it will fail is if you do not follow the outline. Period!

I was blessed to interview Joseph on my Kingdom Cross Roads podcast and share his vast information on how to write and publish a book with our listeners. I learned so much from that interview (I was even taking notes as we were conducting the interview)!

When Joseph contacted me and let me know he was preparing to take the information we discussed on the podcast to write this book, and then asked me to write a note, I was absolutely blessed! Naturally, I said yes immediately!

1. Read this book and use it as your guide.

2. Follow the format of this book while writing and publishing your book.

If you do those two things, you will be successful!

— Robert R. Thibodeau, pastor, author, speaker, and host of

The Kingdom Cross Roads and Revelation Warning podcasts

For more information on Pastor Thibodeau,

please visit: PodcastersForChrist.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK

As stated in the dedication, this book is for and about those who love writing and aspire to become a published novelist. If perhaps instead of a novel you may wish to publish, bundle, short stories (though within these pages we will discuss how you may be able to combine short stories to create a multi-layered, novel with several sub-themes under one main underlying theme that ties them all together); and non-fiction fare also.

I hope that my decades of writing, having more than two dozen copyrights, and now having achieved a #1 Bestseller standing, that I can now share that journey with you can and will help inspire you toward realizing your dream (if becoming a published author is just even remotely one of yours). Within this book I share my journey, in a sense, in the desire to pay-it-forward (so to speak) to those aspiring internationally published status; and hopefully #1 Bestseller stature; like I have.

These pages are designed to provide some hints, tips, techniques, and tricks, that you can effectively use to create your masterpiece.

Some aspects of this book are transcribed from interviews with those interested in further discussing his behind the scenes look at his writing and publishing processes of the book Terror Strikes: Coming Soon to a City Near You.

This book is not designed to be all-encompassing but geared to those who have spent at least some of their lives writing and now are looking to take that next step. It is for those looking for some tips, tricks, techniques, on how to potentially improve their writing to achieve a publishable manuscript. For those starting from scratch, it is recommended that you find a local high school, library, or community college that offers creative writing courses to begin your process.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Honor. Integrity. Patriotism. -- For some people these are words. For bestselling author of "Terror Strikes: Coming Soon to a City Near You!" Joseph M Lenard, these are the core values that he embodies—every day—deeply ingrained in every facet of his life and work.

It is this set of cherished values he brings to life in his #1 bestselling historical fiction novel (Terror Strikes) and now to this publication in hopes of aiding other aspiring writers.

Joseph M. Lenard is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below.

More information at websites:

http://josephmlenard.us

https://terrorstrikes.info

https://en.everybodywiki.com/Joseph_M._Lenard

Joseph’s body of works contain copyrighted and published poetry. Joseph has written and recorded music, in the tradition of the Lenard family legacy; though not entirely in the tradition of his father Thaddeus, who was creator/leader of The Polka Kings that often toured throughout northeast United States.

In addition, Joseph has about a dozen copyrighted short-stories including "Watchful Eyes (sci-fi), Blue Monday (political thriller), Funhouse of Terror (horror), to his credit, as well as two novels: The Gestapo Kidnap File and Terror Strikes: Coming Soon to a City Near You released with McHenry Press, Joseph was also winner of CJOM (Windsor Ontario Canada) radio contest in the 1980’s with his radio play The Adventures of Detective Idle based upon the Billy Idol song, Eyes without a Face," to which it was paired with.

He resides in Michigan.

http://JosephMLenard.us/contact

Author of Terror Strikes: Coming Soon to a City Near You, blogger, cancer survivor, podcaster, political activist, speaker, writer, vlogger.

Sylvia/Christina (via Amazon review) said of Terror Strikes: Everyone has their own opinions and negativity is such a large part of this world. We give your credit for writing a book and getting it published. The book is interesting and definitely makes me look outside my box of thinking. I would suggest everyone at least take the time to read this book, make your own opinions!

Angel Giacomo (via Bigfoot reviews) said of Terror Strikes: Throughout my life and career, I know the time and difficulty it takes to research something thoroughly, the author of this book has done his due diligence when it comes to terrorism in the recent past. I have attended several classes put on by a number of federal agencies having to do with suicide bombing and terrorism, this book hits on the mark.

More Terror Strikes reviews at: https://TerrorStrikes.info/reviews

Normally, that would be the end of the section. HOWEVER, since this is a Writing and getting Published tips, tricks, techniques, book, there’s more…

You too will want a BRAND (most of what you just read in this About Author section, in marketing terms) developed for yourself too. I would be remiss to not acknowledge Don McCauley of The Authors Show and http://freepublicitygroup.com who helped me develop my brand as well as some press releases later published to promote the book (see related: Marketing chapter (14)).

If you want to reach out to me, feel free to go to https://TerrorStrikes.info or http://JosephMLenard.us and hit the contact tab. I'll be happy to go back and forth with you for at least some initial assistance, beyond which, at some point, would require we work out some form of paid Consultant arrangement. But, again, I’m willing to have some initial conversations and small additional degrees of assisting you outside of what is being offered in this book, for free. Yes, free initial discussion, by email or perhaps even a Skype or Zoom session or few to discuss where you are and where you can/will realistically get to (in-my-personal-opinion, but ultimately, decisions are yours), because I really do want to pay it forward in the sense of helping others become published authors as some aided me.

1. FOR STARTERS

So, you’ve decided to write a book?

Think about this: some of the best stories you have ever read or will ever read come from unknown authors. Remember that the likes of Stephen King, Tom Clancy, James Patterson, and a bunch of other massive successes authors were once unknown writers.

Anybody can be a writer. How good you are is another thing. That is a subjective thing; in so much as what matters is your individual style acceptance by your potential audience versus expected norms and the traditional book critics viewpoints may be. Obviously, if you like writing, you should write as a hobby. If nothing else, it's fertile ground for your mind. It makes you more intelligent by going through the process of doing it. And especially depending on what kind of things you write. You could write just poetry, or you could write lyrics for songs, or you could write short stories and novels. So, anyone and everyone can be a writer (and most everyone has a story or two in them). Whether you can make a living at it is another question that I hope this book helps you determine for yourself – to what degree and scale.

First, of course, now that you decided to write a book, is what kind of book do you have in you?

Do you have in mind a particular story? Perhaps you just want to do a family legacy book of personal stories handed down through the generations that family and friends of your family would enjoy? Unless you’re a celebrity with a broader appeal is not going to sell large quantities. (There are many ancestor research sites that will aid in fleshing out a family legacy book. See chapter 4 for more information on researching.)

Another avenue is, as they say, to write about what you know. Write about your job or career or some other life experience since it is much harder to write fiction in which you have no background. Perhaps even a non-fiction guide book, like this book is; or even technical manual; to potentially help advance your career options. Perhaps even a non-fiction guide book, like this book is; or even technical manual; to potentially help advance your career options. But you’ll have to put in the research regarding your subject matter.

Your book must be your own. It cannot be copied (plagiarized) from another person’s work. You can quote other people’s work, however, as long as you cite your quotations in the back of your book (or footnote references on each page needing a citation (more traditionally these days is having an entire citations section in the back of your book)) in which you attribute where your quote came from.

Since I mentioned citations, let me also interject here too that perhaps if your book is non-fiction that makes mention of various people, places, things, you should highly consider creating an index section at the very back of your book