Should you start to write your book during December, or should you wait until after the Holidays?

After all, December is a busy month, with the holidays and the shopping, etc!

Why not put off starting to write your book until January, when you’ll have more time available.

In fact,  you could even start your book on New Year’s Day!

And that brings up the 11th Common Book Publishing Myth and Misconception I mentioned in Monday’s post and discussed during Tuesday’s book coaching call:

Will writing a book really be easier after the Holidays–because you’ll have more time–or are you, perhaps, procrastinating?

What’s wrong with putting off writing your book until January?

From my author’s and book coach’s point of view, I have some questions and concerns with putting off starting to write your book until January, including:

1. Where, exactly, will January’s extra time come from? That’s another way of asking: What won’t you be doing in January that you’re doing in December? January, like every other month, presents its own challenges. January tends to be a very busy month because of first quarter planning, budgets, and meetings. Plus, in many parts of the country, weather related delays add time and stress to commuting and travel.
2. February, March, and April are not any better. February and March are often even busier than January. February is a short month, and income tax issues appear the closer you get to the April 15th tax deadline. Unfortunately, these days, every month is busy and each month presents its own challenges.
3. Did you say, “writing” a book? Referring to “writing” a book is another problem;  there’s more to publishing and profiting from a book than just writing. There’s planning, there’s marketing, there’s networking, and there’s leveraging a published book into new opportunities and profits. Many authors report that the “real” work of getting successfully published takes place before begining to write a book.
4. New habits. Writing is more a habit than an inherited skill. Writing a book is not the same as staying up all night to “binge write” a report or a term paper. Healthy writing habits, like healthy diet and exercise habits, , are not instantly activated– like turning a faucet and getting water. It takes time to build a routine around short, frequent, writing sessions, and developing the discipline to keep writing rather than prematurely editing what you’ve just written.
5. What happens to most New Year’s Resolutions? Let’s face it; the track record of most New Year’s Resolutions is not particularly favorable. New Year’s Resolutions to start dieting and exercise every day frequently lead to abandoned health club memberships in February and March. To succeed, resolutions need commitments and  schedules that allow time to be incrementally built into your schedule.

Ultimately, are you really convinced you’ll have more time to write after the start of the New Year, or are you procrastinating beginning to write your book for some other reason?

How long have you wanted to write a book?

Whether or not you get successfully published during2012 really depends on how badly you want to write a book and how long you’ve wanted to write a book.

Ultimately, if you’re really convinced that writing a book is important to you and your family, Why would you want to start a month behind schedule?

If you start now, on January 2, 2012–a month from today, you could be well along on your journey to a successfully published book!

When the New Year rolls around, you could have planted the seeds for your writing and publishing success by finishing tasks like:

• Setting realistic and attainable goals
• Selecting a topic for your book
• Choosing a title for your book
• Identifying your book’s competition
• Choosing a position for your book
• Creating a content plan for each chapter
• Setting up a blog and social media presence to promote your book while you’re writing it
• Scheduling “unbreakable appointments” for short, frequent daily writing sessions
• Organizing your hardware, software, and environment for maximum efficiency

The choice is yours

Do you really want to waste another month without making significant progress on your book? Or, do you want to start preparing the groundwork for writing and publishing a successful brand-building book? What’s really holding you back? If you can identify what’s holding you back, there are ways to work around your obstacles. Put me to work helping you write a book. Start to write your book by asking me a question or sharing the challenges and concerns that are holding you back.