- Whether you can't sit still long enough
to put words on a page,
or the thought of writing makes you freeze with fear,
or maybe you're just someone who prefers to talk over type.
Whatever it is, you don't have to type to write a book.
There are plenty of options,
from ghostwriters, to dictation, to something in between.
If you wanna write a book
without actually sitting down to type it out,
then this video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey there, I'm Julie the Book Broad.
I'm a three time, soon to be four time,
author of non-fiction books
like "Self-published & Succeed".
I wrote my books myself,
but as the founder of Book Launchers,
I've met a lot of authors that couldn't, wouldn't,
or shouldn't be the typist
in the journey to becoming an author.
We've found all kinds of solutions
to help get the material from brain to book.
And one of these approaches just might be what you need.
Now, before you attempt any of these approaches,
you will find that you need an outline in order to succeed.
There has to be a preexisting book concept,
audience clarity, and an overall structure for the book.
Assuming you've got that,
then you're good to go on one of these approaches.
I'm gonna put them in an order with the most time consuming
least costly first, going down from there.
Number one, dictate the entire book
through Dragon Dictation, or some other dictation software.
If you suffer from carpal tunnel, arthritis,
or any other physical ailment that makes typing difficult
for your hands and wrists,
but you actually like to craft the words
that will go on the page,
then this might be a great solution for you.
If this is your chosen method,
you have to consider what software you're going to use.
Like I said, Dragon Dictation is common,
but there are plenty of other voice to text
software options on the market now.
So look for what's available for you and your computer
and get that going.
The next thing is to make sure you have a good microphone,
because you do need high quality audio
or your transcription will be a mess.
Maybe you'll be doing dictation on a walk or while driving.
So consider the need for noise canceling or directional mics
that will work for the surroundings
that you're likely to be recording in.
And then give yourself some time to get used to it.
When you dictate,
you need to tell the software what punctuation to use,
or you'll just have a paragraph of text.
At some point, you'll also need to sit
in front of your computer and edit the material.
You speak differently than you'll write,
and not having the visual cues that come with typing,
you'll end up just needing to see it and read it
so that you know what you've said.
Now that said, depending on any additional help
you may have with the process,
you may just need to get the material on the page
and then someone else will be working with it.
That's where the second option I have for you comes in.
Option two is what I would call a hybrid approach.
This is a category that a lot of our clients fall into.
They use a voice recorder or dictation software
to record the material for their book.
If they've done a voice record,
they transcribe it with temi.com or otter.ai
or some other low cost AI transcription service.
They're essentially doing the same as dictation,
but it's more like talking out the idea
when you use voice recorder.
And then the transcriptions all get sent to a writer
who's going to take all the material,
put it together, smooth it out,
and then check in with the author to fill in the gaps.
This has more costs,
but it also is less laborious for the author.
This allows you to think more about the content
and less about the crafting of sentences
and how it's all going to come together,
because the writer is waiting to do that work for you.
The final option is working with a ghostwriter.
That's a way to remain totally hands free.
The writer will interview you, talk with you,
and review material you already have created,
in order to get the material needed for the book.
And they will do the typing.
They'll even go through a lot of the editing for you.
And this allows you to be anywhere for these conversations,
to get the book written
without sitting in front of your computer almost at all,
and truly just be the subject matter expert.
Most of our writers come from a journalist background
or they've done a lot of writing training or script writing.
And they're really great at asking questions,
writing stories, and capturing a specific voice.
Now, I'm curious.
How do you write your book?
Do you type it all out, dictate it, or mix it up?
Let's chat about it in the comments below.
I love to hear from you,
and I'm curious how you write your books.
Some of our authors do a mixture of the above,
but ultimately, there isn't one way to write a book
and become an author.
And if you're someone who can't or won't do the typing,
you can still become an author of an awesome book.
It just might take some time, special software,
or some extra capital to invest in the project.
No matter what, there isn't an excuse
for not writing your book
and getting your message into the world.
If you'd like our help
with writing or editing your dictated manuscript,
or help to craft the outline in the first place,
please reach out at booklaunchers.com/apply and we can chat.
Now, since we're talking ghostwriters,
this video right here
is all about working with a ghostwriter,
and this is the latest and greatest video from the channel.
Both are guaranteed good viewing.
So please click on over, and I'll see you there.