'Serious Novels' photo (c) 2009, Playing Futures: Applied Nomadology - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Check out my three-part series at Education Week Teacher about teachers writing books.

Writing a Book Is a ‘Teacher’s Version of Climbing Mount Everest’ is another series I did on the same subject.

I’ve written or edited thirteen now books and have two more on the way. I’ll probably eventually write a post sharing my own advice to educators (and others) who might like to write a book but, for now and probably for the foreseeable future, I don’t think you’re find any better advice than what you’ll read in the posts and articles I share in this “The Best…” list.

You might also be interested in The Best Writing Advice From Famous Authors.

However, I’d still love to hear suggestions of additional resources.

Here are my choices for The Best Advice If You Want To Write A Book:

Unleashing Your Inner Author…and Getting Published! is a good post by Bill Ferriter that offers advice to teachers who might want to write a book. It’s a must-read if you’ve ever thought about it…

Well-known teacher and author Alan Sitomer is writing a series on this topic right now, and you can see them here.

I think The Case For Self Publishing by Neal Pollack, which recently appeared in The New York Times, offers some valuable thoughts.

Ego Checks You May Encounter As A Blogger-Turned-Book-Writer is funny and has wisdom. It’s from The Awl.

Query Killers is another helpful piece.

Here’s a fun video on editing/revision. Thanks to LeeAnn Moore for the tip.

Chris Brogan is in the midst of writing a series of posts offering book-writing advice. I think his pieces on finding time and discipline are very good, while I’m less enthusiastic about what he wrote under Structure. Writing A Book — Marketing and Promotion is another post in his series that is helpful. Writing a Book — Making Money is yet another post in his series.
Writing A Book — Structure
is Chris Brogan’s latest post.

How to Choose the Best Method for Publishing Your Book is from The Book Designer.

Q&A: Publishing Your Own E-Book is from The New York Times.

How To Be An E-book Author and Publisher In 4 Easy Steps is from Media Tapper.

5 Things to Consider Before Self-Publishing Your Book is from Mashable.

Here’s an interview with Bill Ferriter that appeared in Middleweb. The whole piece is worth reading, but I especially like his advice to teachers on writing a book that’s near the end.

The Joys and Hazards of Self-Publishing on the Web is from The New York Times.

“A Right Fit”: Navigating the World of Literary Agents provides helpful information to anyone wanting to write a piece of fiction.

Writer’s block and the drip is by Seth Godin.

Seth Godin has a great graph on the feelings one goes through when writing a book.

Applying to write for ELT publishers links is a useful post by Alex Case.

Everything you need to know about ebook distribution is from Vook.

5 Things Beginners Need to Know About E-Book Publishing is by Jane Friedman.

How To Self-Publish A Bestseller: Publishing 3.0 is from TechCrunch.

10 Visual Steps To Self-Publishing Your Book On Amazon is from Read Write Web.

Five Things Busy Teachers Need to Know about Writing a Book is by Bill Ferriter.

Self-publishing in ELT (Part 1) and How to become a published ELT writer in the digital era – 10 insiders’ tips are both from ELT Jam.

The ELT Teacher To Writer site might be worth checking-out if you have an interesting in writing materials for English Language Learners.

If You Want To Write A Book, Or If You Are Teaching Writing, Then “Writer’s Success Academy” Is A Must-See Site

Reedsy looks like a potentially useful site for writers who want to self-publish.

How to start writing ELT materials for publishers describes and provides a link to a free ebook on the topic.

24 Things No One Tells You About Book Publishing is from BuzzFeed.

My New BAM! Show Shares Advice To Teachers Who Want To Write A Book

Guest Post: Get Started with iBooks Author

Amazon has opened its “Write-On” platform to everybody. You can read more about it at these two TechCrunch posts.

The Best Advice On Creating Materials For ELLs (& Other Students) – Help Me Find More

Pronoun is a new tool for anybody, including educators, who want to author a book.

Check Out Roxanna Elden’s New Children’s Book: “Rudy’s New Human”

How to Become an ELT Materials Writer is from the International House Journal.

How to Publish Books in Different Genres: Roxanna Elden on Books, Dogs, Kids and Agents is from The Huffington Post.

Advice for would-be textbook authors on approaching a publisher and writing a proposal is from SAGE Connection.

Failed first drafts: the joy of making mistakes is by Jessica Lahey.

To self-publish or not to self-publish? That is the question is by Nik Peachey.

A textbook problem: Seven suggestions to improve the quality of published resources is by Jose Picardo.

 

How do you progress from being a teacher to a materials writer? is from The British Council.

So, you want to write a book? is from EduMatch.

How not to write … ‘really rotten materials’ has some excellent advice for those wanting to write…materials for ELLs.

Nik Peachey is writing a series for the British Council on how to self-publish an Ebook for English-language teaching. Here is Part One and Part Two.

10 Mistakes I Made Publishing My eBook, and How You Can Do it Better is from Make A Living Writing.

The Authors Who Love Amazon is a useful Atlantic article about self-publishing.

How to Write a Book Without Losing Your Mind is from The Atlantic.

EDITING LIST FOR WHEN TEACHERS WRITE BOOKS

If you have additional suggestions of posts/articles, or if you’ve had books published and have advice to share, please leave them in the comments section.

How to Write a Novel: 10 Crucial Steps is from Daily Writing Tips.

Teacher-Made Materials Design: 6 Flaws and Fixes is from TESOL.

Trends in the ELT materials market (?) is from ELT Planning.

How to annoy commissioning editors (and find work) is from ELT Planning.

ELT Teacher 2 Writer publishes ebooks and paperbacks that develop ELT materials-writing skills.

NovelPad is a tool to help you write a…novel.

Self Publishing Resources

Novlr is a tool to help you write a novel. It’s not free, but might be worth the inexpensive price if you’ve got a novel inside of you.

Blogging tips for new ELT writers and How to annoy commissioning editors (and find work) are both from ELT Planning.

EIGHT TIPS FOR TEACHERS WHO WANT TO WRITE A BOOK

Self-publishing in ELT: ensuring quality through the editorial process is from The Material Writing Special Interest Group.

V is for … visibility is from Creating ELT Materials.

10 Things Self-Publishers Should Know about ISBNS

Three Rules of Effective Writing

I don’t necessarily think everything in this article is relevant to education books, but much of it is, and it’s not a pretty picture: The State Of Being A Published Writer In 2023 Is Really Weird, And A Little Worrisome

Here are a few books I would recommend to those looking to get published.

So you want to write an education book (part 1) by Alex Venet.

If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

You might also want to explore the 700 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.