This week I read a great post from someone who said how dreadful his experience of writing a book was. He wrote his book. He sweated over his book, eventually, he published and then he felt deflated. He thought writing a book would be:-
- Be fun
- Make money
- Position him as expert
When you don’t enjoy the writing process
Sadly, he didn’t enjoy the process and I don’t know why. I know when I first started writing books I was like a possessed banshee and had to get it done as quickly as possible and it took practically every waking hour.
These days I take much longer to write my BIG books. A book I am writing called Healing Osteoporosis Naturally will have taken about 2.5 years by the time I publish. So far, I have improved my bone density by 2.2% and a whisper away from normal and I want normal before I publish.
I threw myself into the process and then when I had a great manuscript I moved onto something else. When I come back to it, I’ll see it with fresh eyes and I’ll enjoy completing it.
What works for me: If I do things in chunks and take time out I see my project with fresh eyes and perspective and that is when it’s more enjoyable.
When writing a book isn’t fun
He also said that it wasn’t fun. Again, I have no idea why it wasn’t fun, but I can guess that he reached what I called the hump stage when quite simply you have had a gutsful of your book.
I recently had this with Blog Your Book In 30 Days. Again, towards the end of the book, I knew I needed to stop and do something else. When I started this book, it was great fun and then one day it wasn’t.
My clients feel the same way and my advice is to do something else so that you give your brain a chance to refresh itself. Makes sense right?
What works for me: What I did was create a program and recorded a course of the same name. In that space, I found a way to stay with the project, create other products and find a new perspective.
Focusing on a completely different project
In the space from this book, I also created a journaling book called Colour My Life, it was great fun and I did it in a day. I have also completed a series of monthly life journals for my journaling business – that was fun too.
Don’t let writing a book become stressful
The reason books become stressful is that you don’t take breaks from it and put too much pressure on yourself to publish. Now, it doesn’t make sense to delay your book for years, unless you want to prove a health point, for example. All you have to do is write your book in chunks. When you get to a certain stage stop and do something else, like the cover design, lead page or your marketing plan.
What works for me: The bottom line is writing a book will take time and energy and if anyone tells you it doesn’t, they are lying. It pays to be realistic about every project you take on and do it in chunks.
What about making money from your book?
Well… Your book is a product and I think what a lot of people do is that they don’t maximise their products. As a self-published author, a book for me is a blueprint that I use to create other products from, and I sell alongside related services – coaching – online courses – programs and workshops.
It takes a lot of effort to constantly sell a book, but if you are selling a well-rounded portfolio and you use your book to position yourself as an expert that is when it will pay off (over time).
If your book is important to you, then you will create a marketing plan, a product roadmap and take consistent action to promote it.
What works for me: We all have different priorities and a book for me is the blueprint I talk about and becomes part of a product portfolio.
If writing a book is not the right thing to do what can you do?
If you create a blueprint, which for me a book outline is, you can use that to create lots of other products. If for example, you started with an online course, when you get your captions done you can also get a transcript and that you can use as the basis of your book. You can do the same with a program if you record your sessions.
You could make the whole thing simpler by creating a workbook rather than a full-on book, that you use when you deliver live training, consultancy and coaching and you can sell alongside your online course and program. Later if you feel inspired then you can turn it into your BIG book.
Keep it simple
More and more I am writing simpler books and this latest round of writing journaling books has been refreshing and fun. Will they make me money? Yes. How much is too early to say as I have not started to promote them or my journaling business – it launches soon. However, you’ll be pleased to know that I do have a plan.
And finally. Before you throw your book project out of the window or decide to not even start, ask yourself why do you want to and if you don’t what else could you do with that knowledge?
And if writing a book feels like hell, don’t do it. You can build your brand in other ways. Life is not meant to be hard, is it?
Book yourself in for a pick my brains session and we can thrash your ideas around and come up with a plan of what to do next.