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October 3 - October 10, 2021
Writing [a book] is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
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.
The scope of a useful book is like the executive summary of a new business. It’s an as-brief-as-possible description of what it is, who it’s for, and why they’ll pay for it: Scope = Promise + Reader profile + Who it’s not for + What it won’t cover
What does my ideal reader already know and believe?
Who is your book not for and what is it not doing? If you aren’t clear on who you’re leaving out, then you’ll end up writing yourself into rabbit holes, wasting time on narrow topics that only a small subset of your readers actually care about. Deciding who it isn’t for will allow you to clip those tangential branches.
For a problem-solver to be recommended frequently enough to endure and grow, it requires four qualities, represented with the acronym DEEP:[4] 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)
Beyond creating something DEEP[6] and useful, you must obey two additional requirements for your book to enter the back catalog: 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
To create a book that lasts and grows, the formula is simple: do the best job of solving an important problem for a reader who cares, without anchoring yourself to temporary tools, tactics, or trends.
As the author, you’ll typically be more experienced than your readers. To write something useful, you’ll need to get back inside their heads and see the topic from their perspective.
The likelihood of your readers recommending your book is based on the amount of value they’ve received before either finishing or abandoning it. And they’re most likely to abandon at the start. So if you withhold value at the start of your book — either intentionally or accidentally — then you end up frustrating your readers and decimating your word of mouth. Nonfiction authors make this mistake all the time via the inclusion of lengthy forewords, introductions, theoretical foundations, and other speed bumps that come from a place of author ego instead of reader empathy.
The faster you can begin delivering your book’s core value, the happier (and more engaged) your readers will be.
Just remember that your goal at this stage is not to finish a perfect book. The immediate goal is to create something just barely coherent enough for your beta readers to begin working through.
If you can’t find any readers, consider that a nudge to do a bit of soul-searching about whether you’re writing the right book for yourself and your readers.
People will only recommend your book if it has successfully touched their lives. “Sounded good in theory but didn’t work for me” is a death blow to an otherwise recommendable book.
As numerous creatives have noted over the years, the optimal career strategy is simple: Make things and tell people.
Share your writing, drafts, and excerpts Share your research and references Share your process and progress
However you decide to do it, find some way to (respectfully) capture emails in order to convert today’s audience into tomorrow’s customers.
