In my last blog post, I shared three reasons why I think it’s beneficial for leaders to become non-fiction authors. Well, today’s blog post is a continuation of last month’s, but it’s a little elevated. It is also a response to a question I get asked often, “Nailah, what do I write my book about?” And my answer to that question is to write about what you know about it. More specifically, write about a niche problem that you solve in your business or career—something that you can create a framework for. If you don’t have a business, no problem. You likely have a polished skill set. That said, I want to encourage you to write about your business and/or skill set because of these three reasons…

No matter the time, day, month, or year you come across this blog post, I want you to know that your experience is worth sharing. Now that that’s out the way, let’s move on to today’s topic, “Why You Should Become a Non-Fiction Author.” And by non-fiction, I’m not necessarily referring to memoirs or autobiographies, I’m referring to the professional development genre, the self-help genre, and the education genre. I’m referring to informational books—leadership books. Because let’s be honest, we are all leaders in some form or fashion…

Writing a book can be overwhelming, especially if you’re taking on this big feat for the first time. You have to think about the chapter title. The cleverness of words. The word count. The book design. The book editing. The publishing process. The marketing. The sales. Whew!

It’s been a few weeks since the overwhelm of my latest book release, Look Better In Writing: A Quick & Easy Guide to Capitalization (Vol.2). Now that I have a fresh mind to..

The Black Panther movie is expected to generate about $200 million this weekend. Aside from the projected monetary success, the critically-acclaimed reviews will put..

Three years ago today, I published my first (and only) short story. Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK), I, too, had a dream. As a child, I dreamt of becoming a famous author among other things. I didn't think it was possible, so I pushed that dream aside and pursued careers that had more clearly-outlined paths like teaching…

Happy November, writers!

It's the first of the month...wake up, wake up, wake up! (Corny, I know.)

Anyway...

I'm excited because today is not just the first of any month, but it's the first of November...THEE month for writers!

For those who are not familiar, November is "National Novel Writing Month," also known as "NaNoWriMo." This is the month that a lot of writers were/are born. This is the month filled with tons of online writing encouragement and advice from other writers, novelists, etc. This is the month that I got serious about writing my first book, SoKoDiaries: An American Teacher Living in South Korea. (Although I didn't publish my first book until February 2013, it was mostly written in November 2012 while I was overseas in South Korea.) So much literary magic has happened since then!

Writing a book is not easy. Sure, there are some simple strategies you can use to make the book-writing process more digestible, but the work still needs to be done. The WRITING still needs to be done. If you're anything like me, you don't want to wait 17 years to write the second chapter of your book after writing the first, and then another 17 years to write chapter three. I'm exaggerating, of course, but I know that writing a book can be a slow process for some people. And I understand that there are different types of writers, so there are different types of writing processes; however, I have a few tips that I believe will help every type of writer write their book faster.

1 || Put your book in a 3-ring binder so you know it’s real

This may sound cheesy and pretentious all at the same time, but it works. Sometimes, we get so tied to our computers/laptops, that we can't see our writing progress or lack thereof. If you print your book out and see those bald-headed chapters, then it'll hopefully inspire you to fill them out. Or you may find that you actually need to edit a few chapters and scale down. Or you may find that your book is not that far from publish-worthy. I'm telling you, the physical, printed papers help with the book-writing process. It will feel more like a book, and it will be organized in case you want family and friends to proofread it.