My book, The Professional Woman’s Guide to Managing Men, launched last week. It’s been quite a journey since I announced I was writing a book over a year ago. A lot of work went into writing the book, and I learned a lot. So, today I wanted to share some of those lessons I learned.

Here are 10 things I learned writing my book:

1) Writing a book is a lot harder than it looks.

I had been writing a blog for three years so I thought I could just gather together a few posts and make a book. How hard can it be? Wrong! Writing the content was actually the easy part, but the editing process was what I wasn’t prepared for at all. When I publish a blog post, I barely ever have anyone review them. But, I will tell you this book is my best writing ever because I spent a year making it as excellent as possible.

2) Writing a book takes a lot longer than you think

If you have been following this book writing journey over the past year, you know I promised you this book in May-13.  Well, it’s now February -14, and it was finally released. Lesson learned – always add on some buffer time to ensure that you don’t over promise!

3) Deadlines are necessary 

If I didn’t have deadlines set by the publisher, I never would have made it a priority to write.

4) In order to write a book, you have to be creative

You need to think about your life and stories. I continually hear that the best part of my book are the stories in it.

5) Books open up opportunities.

Speaking events and interviews are now continually coming my way which means I get to impact and help more women!  Totally worth it. My book is now my new business card.

6) You must have a supportive network

I continually bounced book ideas off of my husband and friends about the book. Along with the official editors, my mom and my husband both read every word in the book to make sure it was good enough to publish. There were some moments when the publisher and editors wanted me to write something different. I counted on my mom and my husband to make sure the changes fit me and I wasn’t writing a book that wasn’t me. It’s my book, and I had to make sure that my voice came out in it otherwise it wouldn’t represent who I really am.

7) You don’t have to be an expert 

The process of writing a book makes you the expert.  I read so much and interviewed 25 other career and leadership experts while writing my book.  It’s amazing when I would read something or hear something during one of my interviews, and it perfectly fit with what I was writing in my book.  They do say people who read are better writers, and I totally believe that!

8) Coffee is good for editing.

And wine is good for creative writing when you don’t have to focus on spelling and grammar and just want to get ideas and stories out!

9) You have to make writing fun

My mom and I would plan coffee and writing dates that helped me get out of the house and focus solely on writing. I looked forward to those dates instead of worrying about how I was going to write 15 pages in two days.

10) Don’t worry too much about what other people think

The topic of my book was kind of scary for me and I was definitely worried what other people were going to say about the topic and content. But, I had to get out of my comfort zone and face my fears so that I could realize my goals and dreams.

If you have a big goal that seems crazy and time-consuming, in the long run, it will be totally worth it.  Just take it one day at a time.