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You can divide nonfiction books into two categories by their purpose to the reader: Pleasure-givers (“interesting”, “fascinating”, “beautiful”) Problem-solvers (“useful”, “actionable”, “clarifying”)
tangible outcome, such as to: Achieve a goal or undergo a process Answer a question or understand a concept Improve a skill or develop a toolkit Resolve a fear or inspire a change Adjust their perspective or improve their life
Here’s the secret to a five-star Amazon rating: be clear enough about what your book is promising that people can decide they don’t need it.
Your book’s promise should appear in (or at least be strongly implied by) its title and/or subtitle.
When someone asks what you’re working on, attempt to describe the book in just one or two sentences. And then you need to do the hardest thing of all: to shut up and listen to them completely misinterpret and misunderstand what you’re trying to do. Each time you try describing it to someone, you’ll get a little bit closer.
you must be willing to define and defend what your book isn’t.
nobody recommends the second-best solution. So you need to become the best.
Desirable — readers want what it is promising (Chapters 2 and 3) Effective — it delivers real results for the average reader (Chapters 3 and 5-6) Engaging — it’s front-loaded with value, has high value-per-page, and feels rewarding to read (Chapter 4) Polished — it is professionally written and presented (Appendix)
The can opener would be a product with a desirable promise (“I want to open a can”), but which failed to follow through with an effective solution (“But I still can’t”). And while this is thankfully rare in the realm of kitchen appliances, it’s dishearteningly common in nonfiction.
recommendability removes competition. This has considerable implications for marketing, pricing, and profits.
“back catalog.” They’re the books that defy the odds, remaining relevant and recommended for years.
Pick a promise that will remain relevant and important for 5+ years Avoid overreliance on temporary tools, trends, and tactics that are likely to become quickly dated
If you’re writing about a fast-changing topic like computer programming or regional tax law, then there’s no way to avoid tying yourself to today’s minutia. If that’s the case, then you can compensate by regularly releasing updated editions. That’s a bit of a chore, but it’s also a competitive advantage when done well.
You’ve been dealing with X recently, right? Would you mind talking me through what you did and how it went? How did you decide to do it that way? What else did you try? What did you give up on or find unhelpful? Where did you search for help or guidance? What were the most frustrating moments? How did you eventually get over them? Did you read any books or blogs about it? Why (or why not)? Which ones were helpful and which were a waste? Why? What’s still worrying or blocking you? Are you doing anything about it, or is it not that big of a deal?
Just remember that these sorts of conversations are not about pitching (or even describing) your book idea.
throughout the design and writing process, treat your ToC as what it really is: a detailed blueprint of your book’s education design, learning outcomes, and takeaways.
by “becoming the book” and teaching its contents to your future readers. By helping them through the process yourself, you’ll learn what they need, and in what order. You’ll figure out which examples resonate and which exercises work.
Sit down and attempt to teach that slice of the ToC to them. Don’t just describe what it will contain — help them to actually receive its value and achieve its promise.
The reason I bring this up is that I’m starting to work on a new book about the topic, and helping you through it would be super useful for me as research. And hopefully I can be helpful in return.
Incidentally, teaching conversations can also cure imposter syndrome. Instead of attempting to believe that your advice is worth sharing, go out and prove that it is by helping real people and seeing if it works.
reader conversations: you don’t need that many. Plus, you don’t need them all at once — a few at the start and one or two per week throughout a book’s creation is more than enough.
Don’t worry about front matter (introduction, foreword, etc.) or back matter (appendix, resources, etc.). Focus on the core content. The introduction will typically be the last thing you write, after understanding exactly what the book has matured into.
writer’s block, try drafting the book in your email client. Put one section’s title in the subject line of a fresh email and address it to a friend who knows what’s going on. And then, in the body, simply type out the shortest possible explanation or justification of the subject line — that’s your first draft of that section.
Stop writing for an anonymous crowd; imagine yourself writing to a specific individual who you know, and who wants your help. Stop trying to sound smart. Use the same tone and language that you would use to explain something to a friend or colleague.
If you feel more comfortable speaking than writing, record the first draft of each section (following the ToC) as audio and use an AI transcription service to inexpensively extract the text.
the more common approach is to pick a time when you’ll sit at your desk and then sit there, religiously, even if you aren’t getting anything done. You don’t have to write, but you aren’t allowed to do anything else. Eventually, the boredom outweighs the writer’s block and you start typing.
From a reader’s perspective, your book is a multi-hour journey experienced as value received over time spent. If too much time passes before arriving at the next piece of meaningful value, a reader’s engagement drops and they’ll drift away.
Visualize the reader experience by adding word counts to your ToC
how many words (and thus how many minutes — 250 words per minute is typical)
Even if it’s only a brief section, finding some way to reduce its word count by 50 percent will double its value-per-page, and your reader will receive twice as many insights per minute of their time. That’s a big deal.
Can you delete or reduce the front-matter (foreword, intro, bio, etc.)? If your book begins with value-enablers (theory, context, foundations, etc.), can you rearrange it to insert pieces of real value far earlier? If your whole book is building up toward a grand conclusion or set of tips, can you simply start with the big reveal?
Josh Kaufman’s The Personal MBA weighs in at nearly 500 pages, but every page is dense with value.
Consider what would happen if I asked for feedback on a beautiful oil painting that I’d clearly poured huge amounts of time into. You’d almost certainly just compliment it, perhaps offering some small, inconsequential suggestions to show that you’re paying attention. After all, it’s practically finished, so how could I even use your big ideas?
Beta reading runs in iterations of 2-8 weeks: the first one or two weeks to gather the bulk of the feedback, and the remainder to work that feedback into a new revision.
I aim to find a new set of 3-5 deeply engaged beta readers per iteration, which typically requires inviting 12-20 people who claim that they’d love to read it.
You’ll rarely be able to reuse beta readers across multiple iterations. This is partly because they’ve already given you a lot of their time, and partly because the helpfulness of their feedback degrades on subsequent reads.
If you need a timeline, plan to run at least two full iterations of beta reading (which should take one to four months, depending on how quickly you can do each rewrite).
far better to hear it now — while you have a chance to fix it — than to be blindsided later by the slings and arrows of outrageous Amazon reviews. The moment you start disregarding or rationalizing negative feedback is the moment you lose your ability to improve your book.
Distracted and busy readers are a fact of life. And if your manuscript was sufficiently valuable, they would have made the time.
You’ll never cure boredom by adding more words, which only dilutes the value further. Deletion is your savior.
if your book intends to change their behavior, mindset, skills, work, or life, then you’ll also need to watch what they’re doing in the weeks after they’ve finished reading.
follow-up email. It was always hand-written but sounded like this: Hello, huge thanks for all your amazing comments and feedback. We really appreciate it and wanted to return the favor by making ourselves available to help with any questions or problems. Have you had a chance to design or run a workshop since reading it? Did anything not work? Are you stuck on anything? We’d love to help.
Nearly everyone should pay the few hundred dollars for a good copy editor (for sentence-level improvements) and proofreader (for typos and grammar).
Digital book tour via podcasts and online events (most scalable) Amazon PPC (pay-per-click) advertising (easiest but unscalable) Event giveaways and bulk sales (fastest if you have the contacts) Build a small author platform via content marketing and “writing in public” (most reliable and valuable, but time-intensive)
Podcast hosts and digital event organizers are in the business of finding interesting, valuable content for their audiences; if they believe you can provide that, they will gladly have you on their show.
When someone wants to interview me for their show, I ask them to send me some questions a week in advance.
Sivers describes himself as a “slow thinker.” But with time to reflect, he’s a deep thinker, and he’s found a way to use that. Play to your strengths.
When someone searches on Google or Facebook, they’re looking for information or entertainment. When they search on Amazon, they’re uniquely open to the idea of paying for a book. The intent-to-purchase is unparalleled.
Your book’s cover and title/subtitle are its advertisement — you can’t just add a compelling photo or catchy tagline to make it more clickable. So if your cover is illegible and your title/subtitle mysterious, then your ads won’t work.
I would never suggest wasting time by setting up a stall and trying to sell books at an event
