How To Write and Publish A Book in a Weekend

And turn it into a bestseller

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

I wrote and published a book on a weekend, and within the week, it became a #1 bestseller on Amazon.

And you know what? You can do it too.

Today, I want to tell you how to do it. The process is simple, and you might be halfway there already. So, let’s not waste any time today and dive right into how to make this happen.

Weekend Books for the Win

Before we go into what you need to do to create a book on a weekend, I want to share a few things about these weekend books.

First, they help run through the process of self-publishing books. Doing a quick project like this on the weekend helps me understand how to self-publish books.

Second, the more books you have, the better your chance of making money and selling books. So, starting with a simple short book you created on the weekend is excellent.

Third, weekend books are great for your first book or a good challenge if you haven’t published a book in a while. Plus, you can experiment with using content you have already created.

I have two books that I created on the weekend, and you can pick them up as an example of the content provided below:

1. Transform Your Medium Stories

2. Goal Setting

These books were both created over a weekend. The first one is a group of multiple stories on Medium. The second is one big post I did on my blog initially. 

Alright, that is enough of that. Let’s dive right in!

No.1 - Write or collect your content.

The first thing is you need the content of the book. With the book I wrote and published over the weekend, I had already written most of the content in blog posts.

It was about 10,000 words, and I moved it into a Google Doc where I updated it for a book instead of a blog post. This took an hour or two, but it wasn’t complicated.

Then, I gave it a title based on the content and added the other pages I needed to have in the content to publish it as a book.

No.2 - Self-Editing and Formatting

A weekend book is going to be a self-edited book. There isn’t any other way around that. However, the weekend book is meant to familiarize you with the process. Not to be perfect.

My self-editing process: read out loud, run through Grammarly Pro, read out loud, and have my wife or brother read through it. Make final changes and finalize the format.

Once I have finalized the content, I run through it with my formatting software, but you can also do this in Google Docs. It is pretty simple because Amazon KDP will adapt the content for Kindle.

No.3 - Design the Cover

Again, a weekend book is a self-designed cover. I used Canva Pro to create my book cover. I took a template and changed the fonts, colors, and image sizing. 

I would help give you a better idea of what to write by going to Amazon, searching for books in your niche, and seeing what books are doing well. Mimic, don’t copy the covers. This will help with sales.

Once you finalize your book cover, you can upload it to Amazon KDP with your manuscript.

No.4 - Keywords and Categories

This is an important step. As you upload your content to Amazon, you will want to pick keywords and categories. There are two ways you can do this:

First, you can purchase KDP Rocket, which I use, and do the research yourself. Second, you can do a 24-hour gig on Fiverr to get someone to research for you.

Your keywords and categories are essential for getting you into the #1 bestseller spot on Amazon. If you want help, check out this gig.

No.5 - Book Description

Your cover grabs people’s attention. Your book description is the thing that gets them to buy. You need to write a solid book description that does the following things:

1. Identifies the problem or pain point your book looks to solve.

2. Shares a sample platter taste of what your book offers.

3. Breaks down barriers to using your book as the solution.

4. Calls people to buy your book.

If you can do these four things with your book description, you can create one that will get people to hit the purchase button.

No.6 - Publish and Share

Once you have everything finalized, it is time to publish your book. It can take up to 72 hours for Amazon KDP to publish your book, but I have found that it takes that long for longer texts.

This book is probably going to be relatively short. So it should not take as long. However, once your book is published, you must share it with the world.

Day one, share it on your blog. Day two, share it on your social media channels. Day three, share it with friends and family. Rinse and repeat for the next week or two.

No.7 - Promote Your Book

After a couple of weeks, you should try and set your book up with a free promotion and a book promotion site. This will help drive orders which drives sales later on.

My favorite place to do this is with The Fussy Librarian. You will pay anywhere from $40 to $60 to promote your free book, but I did it with a book and got 900 orders quickly.

This promotion needs to happen in the first 30 days of publishing to help get your book moving off the shelves. It will also help you hit the #1 bestseller in a day.

You Are Now A Published Author

And potentially a bestselling author to boot! Writing and publishing a book on a weekend is an excellent way to learn the self-publishing book process. 

It is also an excellent way to help you practice for the books you want to make super professional. I have two weekend books. One became a bestseller fast. The other one got close.

Combined, they have made me money and over 2,000 orders. So, it is possible to make it happen.

Two things I want to note:

1. This short system is for writing and publishing an Amazon Kindle book. You can add a paperback book later.

2. I do not suggest having more weekend books than complete books. A complete book involves hiring an editor, a cover designer, and potentially a typesetter. 

Now that I have shared everything with you, I have one more thing to share that might be helpful for you and your self-publishing efforts.

Unlimited Email Coaching

Self-publishing isn’t hard. But it is always helpful to have someone to answer questions or bounce ideas off of along the way.

As part of my paid subscription service, I offer Unlimited Email Coaching. You can email me directly at any time about questions you have for self-publishing or writing, and I will get back to you within 24 hours.

So what do you say? Want to get started writing books today?

---

J.R. Heimbigner is a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon who loves helping people grow in their faith and help writers become authors. You can connect with him on Medium, his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Substack!