I'm Writing My Book In Public.

I’m currently writing my 5th book and I am going to be documenting every step of the way.?

Writing a book is like climbing Mount Everest.?

Publishing a book is like doing K2.?

And successfully marketing a book and building a business off the back of it is like going back for seconds on both of them.

Add all that up.?

It’s pretty damn hard.?

For some reference here, the perennial bestseller Atomic Habits by James Clear has been in the top ten on Amazon for a cumulative 170+ weeks.?

To be in the top ten on Amazon, it requires somewhere between 3-7K books sold A DAY.?

AND it’s a constantly refreshed list updated hourly.?

That means if you strike gold for a moment and then the sales fall off, it will reflect immediately.

Not a lot of forgiveness.

Cold Hard Results.?

Thats much harder than the WSJ Bestseller list BTW, which is merit based.

That takes about 7-10K books sold from pre-launch through the first week. (A total of about 90 days)

(NYT Bestseller is a big horse and pony game, it's editorially selected, not based on sales. Plus the NYT sucks anyways.)

Cracking the top ten on all of Amazon, is WAAAY harder.

Spending 170+ weeks in the top ten on Amazon is akin to Clear being a mountain goat that sips his morning coffee on a cliff edge that most people would have a heart attack just looking at.?

“See very informative Figure 1.”

Figure 1.?

So yes, James Clear is not only the GOAT, he’s a freaking mountain goat.?

All that is to say, I know I will crack the top ten eventually, but it might take 20 years. That, and anyone who publishes non-fiction knows that most authors make most of their money on a business the book leads to.

Like Ryan Deiss for example. Get Scalable has amazing info and his goal, if I were to guess, is not to get his book in the top ten on Amazon, but to grow his business and use the book to drive leads. Which it does very successfully. (Cause it's a great book.)

Or Donald Miller. His Business Made Simple content is incredible and certainly works to grow his business.

Moving forward, my goal is a bit of a hybrid, it's definitely to optimize for book sales AND to drive intrigue and sales towards my company.

So, I am documenting this for multiple reasons.?

Though it is my goal and belief that I will get there one day, I want to enjoy the ride as much as possible, and I think this will be a fun way to talk about something I love doing.?

Book writing.?

Below are a couple of additional reasons why i’m excited to publish this weekly.?

1. Because after 10+ years deeply involved in the creative process, I feel that I have a relative hold on it enough to confidently narrate as I go.?
2. I think that many people would like to have this experience and hopefully they can live through me as I go down this journey again.? --- Let me warn you though, a book IS actually like climbing an enormous mountain, it involves lots of change, development and growth on the authors apart, so I will do my best to reflect that in the pages to come.?
3. I'm excited to build relationships with people.
4. I have some solid “selfish” reasons as well.

The public goal setting is going to hold me accountable to consistency on multiple fronts.?

Namely consistency and the act of publishing.

I have no problem creating behind closed doors, I do it incessantly, I can do it all the time, I will actually use it as an avoidance mechanism.

It’s revealing these creations where I start to shutter a little bit on the inside and launch into self sabotage mode.?

So I am nipping that in the bud here by committing to a weekly newsletter on the creation process of this book.?

Like I mentioned, writing is no problem to me, I don't have writers block...I had publishers block.

But NOW!! No more! - Be gone you old hag!

I find it a shame that I am not using this aspect of my life to build relationships and an audience that I can have an amazing back and forth with on things we are both passionate about.?

For example, how my clients are winning and growing their companies.

Many frequently have 6-7 figure breakthroughs. (On everything from strategy, marketing, sales, operations, execution, workflows, mental blocks, self sabotage, and much more.)

Why have I not tapped into this? Fear of publishing.

What a waste.

There can be incredible Win-Win relationships all around.?

I really want to lean into topics that I genuinely love and could literally write about all day. (Which is basically what I am already doing, I just don’t publish my work.)?

So that ends and starts now.?

Believe it or not, this took me almost 10 years to do.?

CRAZY! I know!?

(Fun fact: when I was 19 I self funded a cross country journey that lasted MONTHS where I went and basically filmed a documentary, but I never published it because I was so self conscious. Lol. Anyways, you live and you learn. I'll get around to that as well, it was basically about how 99% of people waste their college education and how college is mostly a profiteering ripoff that doesn't set kids up to succeed in the workforce. But I wont get carried away with that here.)

Below is a picture of me embarking upon that roadtrip. It was epic BTW. ?I filmed and interviewed over 100 people across the country.

Lastly, a deadline is a very good thing. I’ve used it successfully before in a self imposed fashion, but this time I would like to take a different approach and run an experiment of sorts.?

I will publicly declare my first draft date to be accomplished in an aggressive but manageable timeline based on my current situation.?

After that, or somewhere along the way, I will announce my new ‘aggressive but manageable’ timeline for the next checkpoint.?

On a high level, I want this book to be published within the year.

With God's help, the first draft will be done by Passover 2025, April 12th, which is exactly two months from this writing, Feb 12th.?

I figure If I can write 1K words a day for 60 days that gives me 60K words.?

I’m already at 15K words, which equates to about 45 pages in Google Docs.?

For reference, today was a pretty strong day and I got out about 2,600 words, about 8 pages worth. (Separate from this post)?

So the total should be somewhere in the 75K-100K words as a first draft, finished by April 12th.?

What I have so far is VERY rough and will most certainly get trimmed down, but I can tell the essence is in there and I’m liking the direction so far.?

There is an added layer to this challenge which is this.?

I have to do a fair bit of research for this book.?

On top of my other work / life requirements I have, dedicating significant time to research will be a bit challenging.?

There is more to say, but I think that covers the important stuff for now.?

I think this format of documenting the journey, from raw creationism, outlining, first drafting, designing, editing, re-editing, marketing, finalizing, and finally launching will serve everyone involved.?

I am DEFINITELY not the most successful author out there in the world.?

But it’s also not my first rodeo.?

I’ve written two non-fiction books, both of which I have self published.?(Latest one here. edited by a NYT and WSJ Bestselling Editor and Ghostwriter.)

And two fiction novels, both of which are first drafts.?

My plan is to get to the novels eventually. But right now I’m plowing ahead with this.

So here goes nothing.?

If you want to stay tuned you can follow along this journey by following my page here on LinkedIn, and by subscribing to my newsletter where posts like this will go in the future.?

Next week I will be talking about what I do at the start of all my books and how I collect good book ideas.?

Subscribe to the newsletter here.