https://youtu.be/N6ByjCQtPnM

Sweet information on Your Book Bakery

This page is about your book bakery.

Here, you’ll find information on Your Book Bakery. This group-coaching program arose and was built over the course of years, as Jennifer Harshman, The Book Baker, helped her clients and students. Since 2009, she has run Harshman Services, a small writing, editing, and publishing services agency. In 2020, she came up with the recipe metaphor after having helped many authors through the process of planning and writing their books before Jennifer edited them. Writing a book is like baking a cake. If you can follow a recipe to bake a cake, then you can write a nonfiction book.

Video about writing coaching program

This short video explains what Your Book Bakery is. But first, let me tell you that you can write a book! All you need is a recipe and the willingness to follow directions.

Click the image below to get a copy of the book that came out of this program.

This is the cover of Your Book Bakery: Making it easy to write a book, which is a book with a Foreword by Dan Miller.

This is the cover of Your Book Bakery: Making it easy to write a book, which is a book with a Foreword by Dan Miller and John Stange and earned a badge for #1 New Release in Research Reference Books.

Click here to register for Your Book Bakery and join us!

Need to know more information on Your Book Bakery first? Keep reading!

More information on Your Book Bakery

As the video said, Your Book Bakery is a book boot camp, but sweeter. Most of us are familiar with the concept of “boot camps” for various things: weight loss, physical fitness, even book writing.

I’ve coached authors for years. I started group coaching programs to make coaching more affordable to people who were new in business and didn’t have big budgets for business development or growth yet. Over time, I developed a system for helping people get their first draft done smoothly.

When some people asked me to host a 12-week program to get them through the writing of their books, someone suggested calling it a book boot camp.

A sweet book boot camp

The phrase does convey the message that attendees will have the desired result at the end. It also conveys that it will be harsh and unforgiving, with lots of yelling and such. That’s not how I roll.

I prefer to help people select the right ingredients, put them together in an effective way, and bake their product to completion. Some would-be authors don’t know which things are needed. Others lack leavening to raise their product to the right height on their own. Yes, sometimes kneading will be necessary. I have been providing all of that to authors of helpful books for many years. These are just a few examples of books I’ve helped authors produce.

 Cover of a book edited by Jennifer Harshman: The Art of Everyday Negotiation without Manipulation Book edited by Jennifer Harshman Better Leaders Better Schools book cover      books-edited-by-jennifer-harshman-roadsend cover shows golden door surrounded by ivy Book edited by Jennifer Harshman How to Live Until You Die Book edited by Jennifer Harshman: The Heart Healer by Cyndy Bartelli Book edited by Jennifer Harshman Life is a Project

How this is different from NaNoWriMo

A few people have asked about this, so I thought I’d list some of the ways The Book Bakery is different from NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

  • NaNoWriMo is really for novelists (fiction writers). The Book Bakery is for nonfiction. It’s excellent for people who want to use their book to serve people, open doors, and grow their business.
  • NaNo allows 30 days for writing a minimum of 50,000 words. This program allows three times as many days, and the minimum word-count requirement is only 5,000 words—one tenth that of NaNo. Your book doesn’t have to be long to be effective.
  • NaNo has very little structure to it: just dump 50,000 words onto your screen in 30 days, and then figure out on your own how to proceed from there (very few people actually do anything with that draft). The Book Bakery has a step-by-step “recipe” that guides you through what to do every week and tells you what to do after the program.
  • NaNo is a solitary pursuit. The Book Bakery gives you a coach and an accountability partner.
  • NaNo gives you a website to use to track your words, and badges when you hit milestones—IF the site works (it never worked right for me, skipping most of the badges I earned and denying me the title of “winner” even though I earned it).  The Book Bakery is a small group run by a real person who sends you treats.
  • NaNo is free. The Book Bakery has a price tag. With both, the price is appropriate.

Who this writing program is for

This program is a good fit for coaches, consultants, subject-matter experts, and other leaders or helpers. Whether you consider yourself an expert, or you’re just getting started, or even if you haven’t begun, if you want to write a book that will help others, and if you are already knowledgeable on a topic, this is for you.

Those who need to do massive amounts of research before they can begin writing their book will want to contact us about a different package that is custom suited to them. The same goes for people who are looking for a ghostwriter or other extensive help with the writing portion.

Impostor syndrome makes everyone worry that they’re not good enough to write a book. You are good enough to do this. Something that’s important to know about Your Book Bakery is that you don’t need to know anything about writing a book to join us. We will start from scratch and go through the process together. As long as you have a message you want to share and you keep your commitments, this is for you.

Technical requirements

Something important information on Your Book Bakery is that it has an online component and tech requirements. You must have (or obtain) and be able to use the following:

  • A computer of some kind (writing an entire book on a smart phone isn’t wise)
  • Word-Processing software/platform (MS Word is much preferred)
  • Internet access
  • Email and text capabilities
  • Zoom for video conferencing

If you want to participate and are missing any of these, let us know. We might be able to help.

This page has information on the group-coaching program, Your Book Bakery: 12 Weeks to a Manuscript, which makes it easy to write a nonfiction book.

Help writing a nonfiction book

Because “boot camp” seems rough and less than loving, I wanted to come up with a different name. The name should convey the following:

  • This program has a proven recipe for producing a book.
  • If the participants put in the right ingredients and follow the directions, they will end up with the finished product they desire.
  • The process, although it will be tedious and challenging at times, will also be delicious and leave the authors with a good taste in their mouth, so they’ll want to do it again and again.

Sign up for writing program

Now you know the information on Your Book Bakery and how it was born. Join us, and end up with a finished nonfiction book draft in your hands at the end of 12 weeks. You’ve been wanting for so long to write your book, but it’s hard to do it alone. And it’s even harder to do it when you don’t have a good recipe to follow.

A professional course developer told us it should be priced at $5,000. Jennifer is too nice and wants it to be available to as many people as possible, so she’s priced it at less than half of that. Your investment is $2,000, and this is what it gets you:

  • A proven recipe for writing a book, from picking the topic and title all the way to typing “The End”
  • Attention and help you need, helped by limited group size
  • Accountability to keep you on track
  • Coaching and instruction via weekly live Zoom calls with the group and daily check-ins
  • A guarantee that if you follow the directions, you will have a finished manuscript at the end
  • A steep discount on editing services if you’d like them
  • A treat in the mail before the program begins
  • A special surprise at the end for everyone who completes their first draft in 12 weeks

This page has information on Your Book Bakery, a group-coaching program, and this image represents the program.

You want to see your book among the ones Jennifer Harshman has helped bring into the world, right? Just click the image above to go to the signup form, and bake your book with us!