Course Catalog / BMU 350 / Getting started

Getting Started: BMU 350 Write and Publish Your First Book

About 4 minutes to read. Read this once before your first lesson.

Welcome from BMU Learning

Welcome. We are glad you are here. This course was built for busy adults, so every lesson is short, plain, and practical. You can go at your own pace, and you can come back to any page as often as you need.

About this course

Many people want to write a book, but the idea keeps growing and never gets finished, and publishing rules can feel like a maze full of scams. This course gives you a clear process: define your reader and promise, outline, draft on a schedule, revise with feedback, choose a publishing path, and build your book's storefront from official, dated rules. You finish with a Publish Ready Package. You do not have to publish to complete the course, and the course makes no promises about sales or income.

Who it is for:

• You have a book idea, such as a guide from your work, a memoir or family history, or a first novel
• You have notes or a partial draft but no plan to finish
• You want to self publish or query agents without falling for scams. BMU 150 or BMU 250 helps but is not required

Who made it: BMU Learning wrote and checked this course. There is no live instructor and no made up teacher. When audio and video are added, the narration will be an AI voice, not a real person, and captions and a transcript will be on the page.

How support works: BMU Learner Support answers questions about the course, your progress, and technical problems. See How to get help below.

What you will be able to do

• Write a one page book plan that names a specific reader, a one sentence promise, and an in and not in scope with a target length and format.
• Build a chapter outline in which every chapter has a purpose that serves the promise, and keep a dated drafting schedule tracked in a word and session log.
• Revise at least one chapter in three passes (structure, lines, proofreading) using structured feedback from beta readers or an editor, and screen publishing offers for scam red flags.
• Choose traditional or self publishing and justify the choice in writing using goals, budget, and timeline, applying dated copyright basics.
• Assemble a publish ready package: interior checklist, cover brief, title and subtitle, description, seven keywords, three categories, ISBN decision, author bio, and AI disclosure answer, each checked against current platform rules with dates.
• Write a 30 day launch plan that reaches target readers and follows FTC and Amazon review rules, with no paid, swapped, family, or fake reviews and no misleading claims.

How to find your way around

1. Start with the Pretest. It is not graded. It shows what you already know.
2. Take the 7 lessons in order. Each one builds on the last.
3. Inside each lesson, the parts come in the same order: why it matters and what you will learn, the teaching, a worked example, strong and weak examples, practice with feedback, a short check, and a recap.
4. Do the Try it step in your real life. That is where the skill sticks.
5. Finish with the performance task, then the Posttest.

Your map of the whole course is the syllabus. Words you may not know are in the glossary.

What you need

• A phone, tablet, or computer with internet. Keep your web browser up to date.
• About 15 to 30 minutes at a time. Printing is optional.
• No special software. Answers open with a tap. Pages work with a keyboard, a screen reader, and zoom.
• Prerequisites: none. If you can read this page, you can take this course.

Your Course Project: each lesson tells you which part of the Course Project it builds. The page checks each part for you and saves your work on this device.

How to get help

• Quick answers: the BMU Help Center can help with your progress, your certificate, billing, and tech problems.
• Ask a person: use the Contact BMU support form and pick a topic. Please do not send card numbers or passwords.
• Something not working: refresh the page and try a current browser. If it still fails, contact support, choose Technical problem, and tell us the page, your device, and your browser.
• In crisis: BMU support cannot respond to emergencies. Call or text 988, or call 911.

If you fall behind or get stuck

• There are no deadlines and no late penalties. If you miss a week, pick up where you left off.
• Start each return visit with the Quick review at the top of the next lesson.
• Missed a check question? Open the feedback, reread the section it points to, and try again. There is no limit on tries.
• Still stuck after two tries? Contact BMU Learner Support with the lesson name and the step. We will point you to the right part.

How you finish

To complete the course, you need two things: build your Course Project until every part passes its automatic check, and pass the Posttest with 80% or higher. The Certificate of Completion unlocks when both are done. You can revise the project and retake the Posttest as many times as you need. The survey at the end is optional and never blocks your certificate.

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