You Want to Write a Book? Write one.

As I built my marketing career, I never thought of writing a book. As I worked through my turnaround career, never once thought of writing a book. Even when I starting teaching at SDSU and working in the entrepreneurship center, not once did I think of it. So why have I written three books in three years? Because I wrote the first one. In 2013, I did a TED talk and that inadvertently led to the writing of my first book on entrepreneurship. Did not really know how to write the book, screwed it up and my publisher worked with me to rescue it. I actually owe the first book to him. In the past two years, wrote two more books on creativity and branding. Here it what I learned about writing books:

• It's not that hard to write a book. You do have to be a domain expert in order to share what you have learned.
• Do the research. I spent more than 8 months doing research, on average, for all three books and only about 30 days writing each book.
• Be disciplined about writing the book. I picked a time frame (3am to 6am ) then I would write seven days a week until the book was done. Each book took about 30 days (50,000 + words, 200 pages).
• Understand no one will want your book. So you have to be prepared to have your marketing plan in order (speaking, events, podcasts, email marketing, etc.)
• It's not about sales. It's about building your brand and your network. And that will lead to other opportunities.

I recently appeared on a podcast about why and how authors should brand themselves...take a listen and hopefully you will earn something valuable. Enjoy.

https://www.smithpublicity.com/2018/03/podcast-building-author-brand-guest-bernie-schroeder-author-brands-bullsht/