One of the greatest feelings on earth one can experience is joining the ranks of published authors. Once his book is published, he joins the ranks of the immortals. You start rubbing shoulders with legends like Homer, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Frederick Douglass, Virginia Woolf, Tom Peters, Peter Drucker, to name just seven.

With the advent of the internet, many are eagerly joining the bookwriting bandwagon, but the vast majority are held back by pervasive myths about bookwriting and the book trade in general. This article sets out to debunk the top 8 myths, clearing the way for you to jump into the fraternity of book writers and get your New York Times bestseller published from now on. Dive in, the water is hotter than you think, but first, the myths.

1. Book writing is for the most educated people.

The most educated people are the professors, some with triple doctorates. People like Marshall Goldsmith, Michael Porter, Ali Mazrui come to mind. But do you know that the first writer did not have any kind of education? Homer, one of the earliest writers whose works date back more than 2,500 years, did not have an academic degree. If Homer could do it then you have no excuse with all the resources available on the internet, Google, Amazon, that make writing a book a walk in the park.

2. Only old people write books

This myth is connected with the fact that the first drawings and works of art by writers always depicted them with long white beards. The early writings of the prophets, the apostles, and the disciples all had this nuance. While that might have been the case in ancient times, today a writer can be any age. Dorothy Straight was just six years old when her book, How the World Began, was published in 1962. Christopher Paolini, the author of The Inheritance Cycle, a best-selling book series that has sold more than 20 million copies, was 15 years old when she published the first cycle. . So he starts writing your book like young people also write books.

3. You have to be wise to write a book

This myth is closely aligned with myth one, but it takes the myth one level higher. Wise men, by definition, are stellar educated, have white beards and a blessing showered from on high, the saying goes. Nothing could be further from the truth as myth two, already debunked above, clarifies. Some of the world’s most beloved authors are ordinary men and women who have found their passion and a message to share with the world. Such is the case of the Delany sisters, Sarah Louise Delany and Annie Elizabeth Delany, who wrote their first book in 1994, aged 106 and 104. Sarah was a school teacher and Annie a dentist. Her book, Having Our Say: The First 100 Years of the Delany Sisters, set the world of reading on fire and became a New York Times bestseller. The importance of the story is that you are never too old or too young, and you don’t have to be a wise person to write a book.

4. You must be an expert before you can write a book

This myth is closely related to myth two, also debunked above, but with the added twist that you have to be a celebrity recognized around the world as an expert in your field before you can write a book. In this regard, Ben Carson, widely recognized as one of the most talented neurosurgeons in the world, quickly comes to mind. Ironically, none of Ben Carson’s 10-plus books, including The Gifted Hands, The Big Picture, and A More Perfect Union, deal with neurosurgery. Neither are Bill Gates’ books The Road Ahead and Business At the Speed ​​of Thought on computer coding and programming. So you don’t have to be an expert to write a book as you can write on any topic that tickles your fancy.

5. You need an agent to publish your book

This must have been the case in the long gone era when powerful, monopolistic publishers ruled. Today, with self-publishing companies, once widely derided by powerful publishing monopolies as vanity publications, helping lesser mortals like you and me get our ideas and stories out there, anyone can write a book and get it published. So say goodbye to literary agents and get your book off to a great start from now on.

6. It is very expensive to publish a book

This was the case in the analog era when literary agents held sway. It cost a small fortune in those days to get a literary agent. Literary agents were like investment bankers, they charged by the hour and only the financially wealthiest could afford them. Thanks to technology, today that is no longer the case. In fact, some desktop publishing technologies, such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Create Space, and ACX, are so simple that you can produce an eBook, paperback, or audiobook from the comfort of your laptop alone. You don’t even need to convert your book to any arcane language like mobi or epub, Amazon platforms do everything for you. Write your book in MS-Word and leave the rest to Amazon platforms and you will be a published author. So, is it very expensive to publish a book? The answer is obvious.

7. You need seven years to write a book

This point is both a myth and a fact. It is a fact, in the sense that anything worth doing is worth doing well. Take Michael Jackson, widely revered as the “King of Pop,” as an extreme example. On average, it took between three and five years apart to put out his mega albums like Off The Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987). At the same time, you don’t need seven years to come up with a well-crafted story. John Locke, who has written more than 12 books and sold more than a million e-books, publishes his books an average of nine months apart. I recently learned a “secret” from Chandler Bolt on how to write a 200-page book in 90 days, so rest assured, you don’t need seven years to write a thriller.

8. Writing books is hard

This myth is a summary of all the other myths we have covered so far. If you’ve read this far, you’ll agree that writing a book and publishing it is easy and within everyone’s reach: baby, man, woman, educated, and not-so-educated. Anytime any of these myths rear their ugly heads, take a deep breath and yell at the top of your lungs: I know what it is, it’s just a myth and I’m going to write and publish my book right now.

There is no better time in all of human history than now to write a book and make your voice heard around the world. Everyone has a story, tell yours as others have told theirs. You could become a New York Times best-selling author. Take the case of JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame. Her first book was rejected by several publishers, but she persisted and today she is one of the richest people in the UK. The same can be said for Jack Canefield and Mark Victor Hansen of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame. According to them, the first book in the series was rejected 400 times, but they went ahead and today the Chicken Soup for the Soul series has sold over a billion copies. So she starts writing even if you hate writing. There is a trick you can unleash to start loving writing. I promise to reveal the secret to you if you’re willing to let me show you. This is the secret: start writing now. Take a sheet of paper and a pen and write on top of the blank paper I LOVE TO WRITE and keep writing until you have written 250 words. Wasn’t that easy?