"Everyone has a book in them." — Christopher Hitchens.

Each of us navigates life in our own way and gains unique perspectives and insights about life, health, wellness, spirituality, and business.

As a result, we all have something to offer to other people or something that contributes to a certain industry — whether it's a commentary about a topic, a how-to in a specific industry, a guide about starting up a certain type of business, a collection of helpful tips for navigating a universal event in life, or a spiritual journey.

When we ponder the above quote, you'd agree that everyone has an idea for a book, and this article will help you make that a reality.

First, let's start with the options that can get you started in transferring your thoughts, ideas, insight, and expertise on paper.

There are two ways of getting your book idea into print:

• writing it yourself, or

• getting someone to write your ideas on your behalf.

Let's discuss both options in this article.

Write Your Book Yourself

Writing your book yourself should be your first choice because you'd express your thoughts. This route helps your personality come out on paper through the words of your book.

Here are a few things you should consider before embarking on this path.

Pros of Writing Your Book Yourself

Express Your Thoughts With Feelings

Except for needing an editor, a cover designer, and an interior book designer, you have full creative control of your vision and can take it in whatever direction you want.

Writing a book by yourself is the purest, most accurate representation of the ideas and thoughts in your head (and heart) that you'd like to express on paper. The reason is that you're the one writing it.

A Deeper Understanding of Your Chosen Subject

When writing a book yourself, you'll share your insights and research to get a deeper (and wider) understanding of the topic.

This research process will open doors to other subjects that will add more value to your content and more knowledge for you and your readers.

A Sense of Fulfillment

Not many people can say they've written and published a book, better yet, a bestselling book, so that is a point of pride for anyone who does it.

I've experienced celebrating writing, publishing, promoting a book to a bestseller, and getting awarded for a work making impact. I've also experienced the same with every client I've helped publish their bestselling book. Nothing beats this sense of fulfillment.

This warm glow of accomplishment comes with the end of the work, so I suggest you try writing to know how it feels.

Cons of Writing Your Book Yourself

Time, Focus, and Effort

Can you fit a couple of hours (three to four hours) of writing time into your day?

Are you willing to sacrifice family time, me-time, breaks at work, meeting friends, going out, reading, or enjoying other activities to finish a couple of paragraphs or a chapter in your book?

Are you willing to be isolated to avoid distractions while focusing on your work?

Writing a book will take time, focus, and effort, and if you think you'll have problems accommodating those demands, I suggest you look at your other options.

Required skills

Writing a book requires skills you have acquired over time or need to invest time to learn.

• Writing Skills: You can't write a book if you can't write. It's more than putting words on a page; it's arranging your thoughts so they're easy to understand. You must also grab your reader's attention and make the words jump out of the paper.

• Time Management: You'll have to juggle thinking, writing, researching, and reviewing when writing a book.

• Research Skills: Even experts must supplement their stock knowledge with new information. And this is more than just reading the results of a Google search. You need to discern if the information is credible. Not everything you read or watch will be useful for your book.

• Editing and Proofreading: You will need editors to work on your manuscript, but, as a writer, you still need to edit and proofread your work. You'll also have to go through one draft after the other until you're sure your work is readable.

• Perseverance and Resilience: Writing a book takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, between losing motivation or facing writer's block at other times. You'll get critiqued by some reviewers (even before publishing the book) or friends that you've asked to review your work before publishing it. You'll need to be resilient and persevere to navigate this ride.

Steps For Publishing and Promoting Your Book

Well done if you judge that you have the skills to write your book yourself. I recommend you get going and enjoy the process. The average writer needs 6 to 8 months to complete writing their book. Many can take more than a year, while a few can make this happen in a few months.

The difference in time required depends on how many hours you can put in daily, how much extensive research you'll need on the topic, coping with any motivational or writer's block challenges, editing, proofing, and so on.

Let's go through the publishing steps.

To keep this article focused on the writing process of your book, all the steps related to publishing your book are laid out to you in our other article - 7 Steps for Experts to Publish Their Best-Selling Books and Make A Huge Impact.

Related: 7 Steps for Experts to Publish Their Best-Selling Books and Make A Huge Impact

If you're passionate about writing your book, I don't think a year of researching and writing it would deter you from publishing it. However, some of us might not have that kind of time and skills, and that's where the other option of hiring someone to turn your idea into a book comes in.

Hire Someone to Turn Your Idea Into a Book

Say you have a great idea for your book, but your other commitments in work and life would not allow you the time to write it, or maybe you don't have the necessary skills to see it to the end; hiring a ghostwriter might be a good fit for your case.

Ghostwriters are professional writers you hire to write for you. They take your ideas, experiences, insights, and reflections, then work their magic and turn them into books. It's a far more common practice than one would think.

Pros of Hiring a Ghostwriter to Write Your Book Idea

It Saves Time

Celebrities, businesspeople, entrepreneurs, politicians, and other busy people are the ones who usually take advantage of ghostwriting services. It's understandable, given that their chosen careers consume much of their time.

An author who chooses the services of a ghostwriter doesn't have to do the heavy lifting; they need to lay out their vision and goals, and the writer will take it from there.

The author would need to put aside a few hours to get interviewed by a ghostwriter, who will transcribe and convert the interview into a book manuscript ready to be published.

Get The Services of A Pro

Some ghostwriters are all-around writers, but many have specialties and preferred niches, making them experts in their chosen genre. That means they don't need to do too much research and save time; they know what the target audience likes and how to deliver a great end product.

Cons of Hiring A Ghostwriter

It Costs Money

This is to be expected since you are getting service. Ghostwriting can be charged per word, hourly, or for one book, and the cost ranges between $5,000 to $100,000, depending on the writer's experience and expertise.

Your Tone of Voice Won't Be Truly Reflected

Writers have their unique voices. Having someone else write your book idea means that the finished work will have the ghostwriter's distinct writer's voice. It is possible to tone it down, but the work won't be fully yours unless you set clear conditions of only writing the things you've mentioned in the recorded sessions with the ghostwriter.

There are also things like the organization of topics and delivery of the overall message, which the ghostwriter will have more control over. This could be mitigated by doing the final editing yourself.

How ghostwriting works

Ghostwriters come from different experience levels and knowledge of a specific topic, like a particular genre, business, or media type. This difference in ghostwriters makes the fees they command vary from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.

Finding a ghostwriter that fits your goal, budget, and skill requirement often takes time and effort. However, you don't have to look for a single ghostwriter to get your idea off the ground. Some publishing companies offer several writers to cater to authors in different book categories.

The usual ghostwriting process involves you talking to the writer about your idea and vision of your book. You can explore ideas and agree on which direction to pursue. Depending on the type of writer you get, you'll either build a detailed outline with them or give them the things you want in your book, and they will take it from there.

For the usual ghostwriting services, the whole deal ends here. The writer hands over the complete manuscript, and you start with your book's printing, packaging, marketing, publicity, and eventual publishing. Trust me; this is where real challenges surface. You will soon discover that finishing writing the book was only the beginning. The hard work lies in publishing and promoting it.

However, working with a publishing company, such as Authority Publishing, will remove the heavy lifting off your shoulders. They will handle your book's whole publishing and promotion and, even better, get it into the bestseller lists, which will be one of the milestones to celebrate.

I'm Ready to Write and Publish My Book. Now What?

Once you've chosen the path that fits your objective, there's nothing else to do but see it through. You'll need some help if you choose to write your book idea. We have a lot of articles on our blog that cover important topics about the process. Feel free to take a look at your leisure.

If you want a helping hand in ghostwriting, publishing, and promoting your book to a #1 bestseller, Authority Publishing offers different packages for different needs. Schedule a chat with us to explore the options that are best fit for you.