Write a How-To Book – What is Meant by a Quality Book?
You’ve probably heard from myself or others that you need to write a quality how-to book. But what exactly is a quality book? How will you know when you’ve created a quality book or eBook?
How-To Books and Why-To Books are essentially written learning content just as a speech is verbal learning content. They therefore share many similar characteristics — including the definition of quality. One of the best frameworks for defining quality is the COD model used by Toastmasters. COD stands for Content, Organization and Delivery. These are the three elements that your reader will use, consciously or unconsciously, to judge the quality of your writing.
One of the interesting points is that your reader can’t really judge the quality of your content. After all, the reason they are reading your book is to learn something. They can however, and do judge the content on whether it answers their questions. In order to write a quality how-to book, you need to predict what questions your reader will have about the topic. You then need to be sure to include that information in your book.
In order to make up for this lack, your reader will concentrate on organization to determine the quality of your book. Do you seem to know what you are talking about? Have you organized the presentation to make sense? Do you keep to that organization or do you seem to go off on side discussions? Have you organized the book so it can be easily understood?
You therefore need to concentrate on the organization when you write your how-to book. You simply do not have the luxury of exploring concepts, ideas and techniques. This is why you absolutely must use some form of outlining when writing a book.
The other element that your reader is fully capable of judging is your delivery. Do you write clearly? Have you used good grammar? Are the words spelled correctly? Is your book easy to read? All these elements go into your reader’s judgment of the quality of you delivery.
Content, organization, delivery… the three pieces your reader will use to judge the quality of your book. When you write your how-to book, you must take all three into account. But most of all you need to concentrate on the organization. Your reader really can’t judge the content of your book. And an editor can go a long way towards improving even the worst delivery. But the organization of the book is yours as a writer. How you structure your thoughts, how you make your arguments, how you design your book; these are the key techniques that your reader will use to judge the quality of your book. These are the key techniques that you must build upon to create quality when you write your how-to book.
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Glen Ford is an accomplished consultant, trainer and writer. He has far too many years experience as a trainer and facilitator to willingly admit.
