So you think you want to write a book. How do you know you are ready? I think everyone has a little book inside them but not everyone is ready to write it right now. How do you know? Well, last week we explored the 7 Reasons You Should Wait to Get Your Book Published. Here now are the top 10 ways you know you are ready to get started.

1. You have a great online presence. You have built a strong online presence. You have a regular following on your blog. Your current readers will either buy your book or they will be willing to promote it.
2. You have well defined goals. You know what goals you plan to achieve from your book. You have a timeline for completing your book and you know what professional goals you wish to achieve. If it is not a written goal, it will continue to be a wish.
3. You dream about holding your book at a press release. You can visualize how it will feel to be a published author. If you can visualize the feeling you will be more likely to find a way to do it.
4. You have the money to invest. You have determined that benefits to your business and professional status are greater than the cost of publishing. Most authors don’t a big profit on book sales. The money is made from the opportunities that result from being a published author.  
5. Your desire to write your book has moved to the top 5 things you must accomplish in the next year. If you have a burning desire to write a book it will be easier to complete it. Your passion will be conveyed in your book. Your readers will feel your passion for the topic. 
6. You have defined your niche market. There are new books added to the bookshelves everyday. Yours will need to stand out to get noticed. If your book sounds like 2000 others it will not make any difference how intriguing you think the book is it wont get noticed. You must first define your niche market before beginning your book.
7. You have a marketing plan. You have an idea of how you are going to market your book. You already have an online presence but you have ways to promote your book when it is published.
8. You want to be seen as an expert in your field. Published authors are seen as more credible than their unpublished peers.
9. You have made a daily practice of writing. Setting aside time to write daily will make the process easier.
10. You have a great head shot for the back of the book. If good hair days are infrequent, it could be a sign that you are almost ready.

Are you ready?

Can you think of other ways to know you are ready to write and publish a book?

Journaling is one of the best ways to develop a daily habit of writing.  Journaling can have positive impact on your life now and for reflection in the future. It is a good way to look back at your life and see how you have grown emotionally. You can reflect on the blessings and challenges that life has thrown in your path.

I journal almost daily and it has had an amazing impact on my stress level. By writing my fears, hopes and gratitudes, I gain a better perspective on my life.  Expressing my thoughts on paper, allows me to uncover my deepest feelings. When I begin writing I can feel myself relax and soon the challenges seem smaller. Sometimes I cry the entire time I write and other times I laugh. Whatever emotion journaling evokes, you will feel a sense of wellbeing when you are finished. 

We recently had a comment from one of our readers that she never intended to write a book, but her daily habit of journaling evolved into a book. I have several little books that will result from my journal. They may ultimately not be for the public, but they will be in a book format.

If you have trouble thinking of topics to write in your journal you should check out The Reflective Writer. Judy Stone-Goldman always writes a reflective post and then gives a writing prompt. I often use her prompts to get me started.

What do you write in your journal?

What writing prompts do you use?

What tips would you have for someone that is just beginning to journal?

What benefits have you seen from journaling?

Before learning about the Ultimate Blog Challenge, we had set Our Little Books goals for the month to increase traffic to the site by 25%, improve our Alexa ranking and get more comments on the posts. We had no specific idea at that time how we would achieve those specific goals, but sometimes you just plow ahead. I saw a tweet about The Ultimate Blog Challenge and it seemed like the perfect answer to make some headway on our goals. It involved posting a blog every day in August. Certainly a challenge (since we were blogging only three times a week), but not undoable. I decided to jump in.

Jumping in turned out to be the best decision to accomplish our goals. We are very excited with the results. So what benefits resulted from participating in the challenge? Could participating in a Blog Challenge help you and your business? We definitely think so.

Here are six actual results that helped me personally as a blogger and, as a result, also helped Our Little Books as a business:

• Accountability - I seem to need the accountability. It was like having a goal buddy. I don’t really think anyone would have reprimanded me if I had missed one day, but I felt accountable to the group. Everyone in the group was taking the challenge so I didn’t want to let them down.  
• Established a habit - I usually write in my journal daily but I had not disciplined myself to write a post daily. It actually was easier to plan a post daily than it was to plan 2-3 a week. I didn’t write all of the posts myself. I asked for guest posts and I was more proactive about telling them when I need the post. 
• Lead by Example - We tell authors the benefits of blogging to develop their online platform. We can’t expect someone to do something we are not willing to do. How can I tell someone the benefits of blogging if I don’t take it seriously?
• Relationships - I met some great people. I established relationships that will result in joint ventures in the future. We had an increase in requests for our Free e-book on the benefits of having a little book for you business and also in people wanting to learn more about Our Little Books from our newsletter. People read the posts and wanted to know more!
• Alexa Ranking - In an Alexa ranking, your site is ranked against other sites in the world and in the US. On August 1^st, we ranked 957,489 in the world and today (31 days later) we rank 417,189 (the lower the number the better). On August 1^st , we ranked 133,000 in the US and today we rank 54,590. We more than surpassed the goal for the month! 
• Site Traffic Statistics - Do you know your site traffic numbers? The traffic statistics are something we should all be checking. In August, we almost doubled our numbers!

Unique Visitors:          July   1901       August   3631
Number of Visits:        July   4230       August   8008

We love numbers! The fact that all of the numbers increased significant really gets us excited. We know the numbers are not as good as the big bloggers, but they have been blogging daily much longer than we have. Can you imagine what our numbers will look like in 3 months, or 1 year? But, as exciting as the numbers look, I am most excited about the relationships I built and the habit I formed by participating.

I don’t want the momentum to slow down so I have already started another Blog Challenge. 31 Days of Blogging Challenge is more about building a better blog. You can still sign up. It started on August 23^rd and we don’t have assignments on the weekend. You would only have 7 days to make up.

If you have the opportunity to participate in a blog challenge you, and your business, will not regret it.