Write Useful Books: A modern approach to designing and refining recommendable nonfiction

by Rob Fitzpatrick

You can divide nonfiction books into two categories by their purpose to the reader: Pleasure-givers (“interesting”, “fascinating”, “beautiful”) Problem-solvers (“useful”, “actionable”, “clarifying”)

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.

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

I didn’t fix the scope by figuring out what to add (or how to write it more beautifully), but by figuring out what to delete. The path became clear after asking one crucial question: 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.

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)

It’s because the former (1) convincingly solves (2) a painful problem (3) for a certain type of reader (4) who often mentions it to me.

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.

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?

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.

At least every few pages, you want your reader to be thinking, “Oh wow, I can use that.”

By arranging the content around the learner’s goals instead of the teacher’s convenience, the experience stops feeling like a drag and begins to feel easy and engaging.

A book should be as long as is necessary to convincingly deliver on its promise, but never any longer.

you’ll receive more helpful feedback by showing a less polished product.

You also need to tell your beta readers what type of feedback you need. Otherwise, they’ll spend all their time flagging typos when you’re still trying to figure out the core content.

My top four suggestions for seed marketing (in no particular order) are: 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)

all of these seed marketing strategies are about starting organic growth, not replacing it).

One slightly sneaky trick is to research relevant events while your book is still being written, and coax a few organizers into becoming beta readers.

Stop trying to figure out how to “market your manuscript” and start realizing that your manuscript is the marketing.

While writing and editing, maintain a second “cutting room floor” document.

To review the options of what you might post: Share your writing, drafts, and excerpts Share your research and references Share your process and progress

Your immediate goal is to get 20-40 verified reviews (for social proof) as well as a steady, organic stream of daily sales and reviews (for Amazon’s algorithm).

here are a few ideas that have worked for me to create small percentage boosts in monthly sales (in approximate order of impact):

A typical pricing scheme is $10-30 for the book, $50-75 to add the digital educational bonuses, and $150-250 for the full set of tools, templates, and time-savers. This feels high for consumers, but is a no-brainer for business customers, who value each hour of time saved at hundreds of dollars.