Seems like it took forever to close the deal with Penguin Portfolio to write a book about corporate blogging. Although my wonderful agent, Elizabeth Wales, tells me that two months from start to finish is fast. So… sigh of relief.

Now comes the hard part: writing the book! I’ve been conferring with colleagues, friends and recently-published authors. And I’ve come up with a few tips to get organized and get the ball rolling. Here they are:

1. Speak the book into a tape recorder for 30 minutes every day for two weeks. Then get it transcribed and you’ll have the beginnings of a manuscript (courtesy of Seth Godin).

2. Create a hanging folder for every chapter. Dump into each folder scribbled notes, previously published articles, clippings of articles from newspapers and magazines; print-outs of blog posts, etc.

3. Set up my first draft in Word so that it mimics a printed page in a book: 1.8″ margin at the top; 2.3″ at the bottom; 2.5″ on the left; 1.9″ on the right. Single-space in a font like Book Antigua or New Century Schoolbook. Don’t use Courier.

Note: I hate single spacing when I write so I probably won’t do that.

(Thanks to Jill Konrath of SellingToBigCompanies for the last two tips. She got them from publishing guru Dan Poynter. Jill has just finished writing an eponymous book to be published by Dearborn in December 2005. Go Jill!)

I’m sure there are a dozen other tips I can employ as a first-time book author. I’m kinda messy when it comes to organizing information so I could really  use some help. Click that Comments link below and tell me what you know. I’d love to hear your ideas.