WRITE A BOOK IN THE NEXT 30 DAYS

You can write a book in the next 30 days. I know this because I've done it and I've helped others do it. There's no fancy secrets to this. It's just a matter of knowing the various myths that the gatekeepers of publishing try to hide from you and then the techniques I describe below.

Many people used to tell me, "You can't do that". But when someone says that it usually means they can't do it.

There are many reasons to write a book: Make money, Establish expertise, Practice for writing more books, a Creative Outlet, to lend Authority to other projects.

For instance, if you want to be a public speaker and a conference is deciding between you and another equally talented speaker with the same skillset as you - the person who has written a book will get the speaking gig.

Below is the first of several "30 day book challenges" that I'll release through this newsletter in the next few months.

The definition of a book has changed. The definition of a good successful book has changed.

Here are some old myths: some people use these myths as excuses and some people actually believe them.

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1) MYTH: You NEED a publisher.

I recently interviewed David Goggins, who self-published.

Because he self-published he got no advance (he was offered over $300,000 but turned it down), and he will never make the NYT bestseller list.

But HE SOLD 250,000 copies in the first week and his audiobook is #2 on Amazon after Michelle Obama’s. He went on to sell over a million copies of his book.

Hugh Howey, author of the self-published novel, "Wool", did a study of all the books on Amazon. He found that, on average, self-published books had higher-star ratings (i.e. they were better) than mainstream published books, and they had higher rankings on Amazon (they were selling more copies).

People feel good when they are “chosen” by an agent a publisher. I feel good when that happens. But it's just one way to get published and not the only way.

(My most successful book, "Choose Yourself", was self-published and sold over a million copies)

2) MYTH: A book is 250 pages, give or take.

This is the publisher’s definition. And the bookstore’s definition. I can give many examples of people who pay all of their bills from a 20-50 page book they wrote 5+ years ago.

The new definition of a book is… no rules.

3) MYTH: “But I have no platform”.

First off, neither does the publisher. Second, even if you have a big platform, (e.g. 100,000+ Twitter followers), less than 1/2 of 1% will buy your book.

People buy books that look good, that are on topics they are interested in, or books their friends buy for them or suggest they buy.

And success is not measured by book sales. It’s measured by people you impact.

The biggest pleasure I get is when someone stops me on the street and says, “Your book changed my life.” This is an ego trip for me but I am afraid I love that feeling.

But don’t book sales translate to money? Yes. But more money is made from the byproducts you get in life from writing a book.

I call this the spoke-and-wheel approach. Your core idea is what makes money. That is the "wheel". A published book is just one spoke on that wheel. I will cover this in great detail in a future newsletter.

("50 Shades of Grey" was originally self-published and sold 250,000 copies before a major publisher picked it up).

4) MYTH: There is a stigma to self-publishing.

See the mention about Hugh Howey's study above. That stigma is going away. See the example of David Goggins above. That stigma is going away.

See EL James (who originally self-published “50 Shades of Grey”). 150 million copies later I bet she doesn’t care about stigma. See “The Martian” (and my podcast with author Andy Weir). I doubt he cares about the stigma (he originally self-published “The Martian” when he couldn’t find a publisher).

Nobody will ever ask, “Who is your publisher?” If they like the book, then they like it because of the writing. Because of you.

5) MYTH: IT TAKES YEARS TO WRITE A GOOD BOOK.

I'm going to give you a "30 day book challenge" right here. I've seen dozens of people write books in 30 days after one of these challenges. I know you can write this and the best way to get better at writing is to... write.

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THE IDEA LIST BOOK PUBLISHING CHALLENGE #1

THE CHALLENGE: Write a 30 page book about HABITS and upload it to Amazon in 30 days.

TECHNIQUE:

A) Search “habits” at SSRN.com . SSRN is an archive of about 1 million academic and scientific articles all from academic journals and publications. If you search "habits" there are 1,544 results. This is why the same book-writing technique given to everyone will produce completely different results by each person. There's other archives of academic research as well, like JSTOR.com.

Why "habits"? Because people love (with good reason) books that will help them have better habits. On Amazon if I search "Habits" there are over 50,000 results. Books ranging from "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" to "The Power of Habit" to "Atomic Habits" are all major bestsellers with millions of copies sold.

("Atomic Habits", published in 2018, is still in the top 10 of all Amazon books)

I also know quite a few self-published authors who write new books on habits almost every month. The economics are great. If you write a 30 page book on "Great Habits of Entrepreneurs" and let's say you price it at $3.99 and sell just 500 copies a month. Amazon gives you 70% so you are making $1400 a month from this book.

With this technique I am showing you, plus other book challenges I will release in future newsletters, you'll be able to write a book a month. This world could be locked down or "remote" for quite some time and the math adds up.

B) Search a subcategory if you want. Like "entrepreneur" or "negotiation" or even "golf". You can do this with "habits" or without.

C) Pick out 10 academic papers that intrigue you.

For instance, when I search on "habits" I see a paper: "What makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?"

It's a case study published in 2008 by the University of Virginia Business School. In other words, nobody's ever read it and it's boring.

Pick out ten papers like this.

Each chapter is:

A simple summary of the research. The title of this particular chapter might be the same title as the research report. You even say, "According to research by..." and you summarize what experiments they did and what their conclusions are. This is useful because almost all academic research is boring. I really do want to see a summary instead of slogging through some academic research.

Then you pick out a real life case study of an entrepreneur and how it applies to the habits in this paper. For instance, does Steve Jobs apply? Write it up. Elon Musk? Write it up.

Now, if possible, you write up a little story from your own life about how you've used these habits or how you would like to use these habits.

Boom! You have a chapter. It's probably about three or four pages, it's useful and it's proven academic research on successful habits of entrepreneurs and the reader can see a real life example in how you show how Elon Musk (for instance) inadvertently uses these techniques (or Walt Disney, or Steve Jobs, or whoever). And then to tie it all up with a nice story from your life is icing on the cake.

Do a chapter every day or so.

For instance, there's an article on the second page (of 400 pages of search results) about "Shattering Negotiation Myths". I'd read a chapter in your book about that. That one appeared in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review in 2002.

Again, the chapter title might be "The Biggest Myths of Negotiating". And then you have "According to an experiment documented in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review...", which gives your chapter "authority".

And so on. Find your ten favorite academic papers, summarize each paper in a new chapter, find historical examples, put in a page or two on your own story, and you have a solid 30-40 page book that's very useful if someone wants to develop the habits of entrepreneurs - based on the latest research and historical examples of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.

Your own story weaves in and out of there: your good habits, bad habits, your heartbreak, your successes, and so on. Leave your blood stains on every page.

Your story and the stories you share of others will show how good habits increase your well-being in terms of "connection", "master", and "freedom" - the three building blocks of positive psychology.

D) LOAD IT UP TO AMAZON

On Amazon, you can create a paperback book, an ebook for the Kindle, and an audiobook. Ideally do all three. It costs you nothing. At kdp.amazon.com you can get all the information you need about how to self-publish.

You'll need a cover, so go to 99Designs.com and you can have people bidding to do your cover for super cheap. You can even hold a contest to see who makes the best cover.

You can record your audiobook on Garage Band or equivalent software.

E) GROUP POWER

Put it for sale, at first, for 99 cents and tell me the day it is released and I'll include the list of books in one of these newsletter issues.

Then you’d be a “bestselling Amazon author” and you can use that to get speaking gigs or consulting gigs.

I can’t do this for everyone but if someone writes a good book on this topic and it’s a topic I like then I’ll interview you about the book and your experiences on my podcast.

Don’t worry if you don’t go on my podcast. Write another book.

Again: I'll put up more 30 day book challenges if you like this one. Tell me in the comments.

F) FOCUS GROUP CHAPTERS

If you go to Quora.com you can find many questions about habits, entpreneurship, negotiation, etc etc.

Find one of the questions that maybe one of the research papers you are summarizing applies to. Answer the question. See if people like your answer. Remember to tell a story. This is a good way of testing out a chapter before you put it into your book.

G) TRY THE HABITS

Even if you have no personal story where you use the habit or habits you are writing about, try some of them out in your life now. For instance, negotiate with your boss for a raise using a technique from the negotiation chapter we just discussed. See what happens.

H) GET YOUR FRIENDS TO WRITE REVIEWS THE FIRST DAY

Get 10 friends to read your book and write honest reviews on Amazon on the release day.

Since your book will only be 20 pages and also easily skim-able (everyone can see the habits in the table of contents) it should be an easy read.

I) KEEP THE F-K SCORE LOW.

The Fischer-Kincaid Score is a measure of the grade level of an article or book. If a chapter has an F-K score of 8 then it is written at an 8th grade level.

That is too high!

"The Old Man and the Sea", the book that guaranteed Ernest Hemingway the Nobel Prize in Literature, has an F-K score of 4. Hemingway wrote his best book at a 4th Grade reading level.

The simpler the better. This is why academic research is so unreadable. All of the papers on SSRN or JSTOR probably have F-K scores of 12 or even higher.

(the F-K score of various writers - Hemingway at a 4th Grade level. The Affordable Care Act at a 13th Grade level).

The F-K score of this article is about 7. So at a 7th grade level. Honestly, a bit too high. You can check the F-K score of your text, here.

J) BLEED

Bleed in the first line, first chapter, first line of each chapter.

Try to have a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter.

Like “Doing pushups every morning for the first month made my negotiating better than I could have imagined. But then I found one more technique that I could not even believe would work and yet…”

K) HOW TO MARKET YOUR BOOK

Start the second book as soon as you finish and upload the first book.

If you don't want to write about the habits of entrepreneurs, pick another topic that you will have fun with.

I just went to JSTOR.com for instance and searched on "Golf". I know nothing about golf and have no interest. But one of the first articles I see is: "Three-Dimensional Motion Analysis and Inverse Dynamic Modeling of the Human Golf Swing".

Not sure why they had to say "of the human golf swing". Do any other animals play golf? But this shows you why academics are not writers. From what I can gather, they do all sorts of scientific research to determine the ideal golf swing. Perfect for a chapter in a new book, "12 Scientific Secrets That Will Make You a Better Golf Player".

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Everyone has a book in them. Some people want to write books so their great-great-great grandchildren will know who they are.

Some people want to write books that will help people.

I first wanted to write “the great American novel” because I was so insecure I thought it was the only way I’d meet a woman.

Some people have a need to tell a fun Western Romance after spending a day of drudgery at a cubicle.

This “challenge” is not so you write the best book in history.

It’s a challenge to write your first book. Maybe even your second or third.

This is practice.

I look forward to the day when I read the best book in history.

By you.