A book is like a cake. If you can follow a recipe to bake a cake, you can write a nonfiction book. I can hear you questioning that statement.
Baking a cake is easy. It’s a skill most people can learn. Those of us who are comfortable around the kitchen will gather flour, eggs, sugar, oil, baking powder, and other ingredients and then create a masterpiece. Even if you’re not a natural in the kitchen—or if you like convenience and speed—there are tools you can buy to make the task simpler.
You could buy a cake mix. Add eggs, oil, and water—and perhaps a handful of chocolate chips or coconut shreds to create your own masterpiece.
A book is like a cake. Writing a book is also a skill most people can learn.
How a book is like a cake
Just as with baking a cake, writing a book requires assembling the right ingredients in the correct order. You might be asking how a book is like a cake—which “ingredients” go into baking a book.
- The desire to write a book, or the will to do it, is one of the first ingredients. If you don’t have the drive to show up and write it (or the budget to pay someone to write it for you), then it simply won’t happen.
- They have a specific audience and/or purpose. Every cake you bake has an intended recipient or occasion: “I want to bake a cake for Johnny’s birthday.” Your book starts with a similar idea. “I want to write a book to help small business owners market their company.” Of course, you might be like Jack and want to bake just because you have a craving for cake. That’s still a purpose.
- A book is like a cake in that they both require some research. Before you bake that birthday cake, you’re going to do a little bit of research about your intended audience. How many people will be at the party? Are there any food allergies? What is Johnny’s favorite flavor? Writing a book is the same. What marketing knowledge do small business owners seem to lack? Where are they currently getting their marketing information?
- A plan is needed for both. When you bake a cake, you’re following a recipe, however loosely. Completing a book involves creating a plan and then following that plan.
- An appropriate place to work is a must. You wouldn’t try to bake your cake in the garage. To be successful in writing, you need an appropriate workspace. This doesn’t have to be a physical location, although that helps. It could be a laptop, which you can move to different locations.
- Another way a book is like a cake is that both take time. When you’re baking a cake, you mix the ingredients into a bowl, pour them into a pan, and put the pan in a hot oven. While in the oven, the cake batter transforms and solidifies. When you take it out, you set it on the counter to cool. That’s when the cake settles and becomes the final version of itself. Your book is no different. You will choose your ingredients in the kitchen of your mind. Then you will sit down to write, which is mixing your batter and baking your book. After that, you’ll send your book to your editor. That’s the cooling and shaping stage. Then it goes to the designer, who frosts the cake. A book is like a cake in the final step, too: displaying it, also known as publishing and marketing your book.
