Julie Broad identifies five requirements for writing a nonfiction book: real commitment beyond inspiration, a specific audience with urgent needs, your own perspective, emotional readiness, and willingness to get help from editors and marketers. Without these, you're not ready yet.
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Starting any big project is a little like baking a cake. You need to make sure you have the time to finish it, the right ingredients, and, of course, the right tools. Without them, you risk failure. But how do you know what you need to get or what you need to have to write a great book? Well, if you're wondering what the ingredients, time, and tools are for a book and whether you have what it takes, well, this video is for you. Hey, there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers, and we're just gonna dive right in to the ingredients to help you figure out if you're ready or not to write a book. All right. Ingredient one is not inspiration. It is commitment. You're committed to the project. You're not just inspired. Inspiration is fleeting. But a book project takes commitment. Let's be real here. Many authors feel like writing and publishing a book is like making and delivering a baby, but the reality is that they will give birth and then let their baby die because they aren't committed to it. Successful book publishing and authoring requires a commitment to the process and a commitment to getting the message out and nurturing it for a long time. And if you've got that, you're ready. Ingredient two. Audience. You have a clear audience in mind that you want to write to, and you have a message for that audience. When I speak to an author and ask them who their audience is, and they say, it's for everyone, really, I know we have work to do before they are really ready to write. I remember meeting a publicist who had a client who'd written a book about heart health, and he said, well, everyone has a heart, so this book's for everyone. So she explained she can't market the book to everyone. So who needs his message, like, yesterday? And he said, well, someone who has just been diagnosed with heart disease desperately needs this. She's like, great, let's start there. So maybe your book has a wide appeal, like appealing to everyone with a heart. But if you can't identify an audience that has an immediate and pressing need for your work, you're not ready. If you can tell me what they're crying about to their best friend or what they're dreaming about or what is holding them back, or, we're off to a Good start. Ingredient 3. Your own secret ingredient. You have an opinion. Bonus points if other people disagree with this opinion. There's something unique about your perspective or the lens you use to look at the world. And this is vital today because you're now competing with AI that can write a book, but AI doesn't have personal experience or opinions without a human giving it to them. So you must have this before you can write a book that will sell. Your perspective should be strong enough and different enough that people will go, I thought I was the only one. Or they'll stop and go, I wonder why they're saying that now you can write a book without this. But we're all about writing noboringbooks at Book Launchers, and you need this to make a book interesting and not boring. So I'm saying this that you're not ready until you can clearly identify what opinion or personal experience you're going to share for that audience that needs your message today. That's your secret ingredient. Ingredient four is a clear reason to write for that audience. I think writing can be very therapeutic, and getting it out of your head onto the page can be a powerful way to process things that have happened. But if it's still really raw or emotional, whether it's a firing, a rejection, a death, abuse, abandonment, or some other trauma, these things take time to process and to really learn from them before they can be shared with others in a way that really adds value and perspective for others to gain from. I've chatted with many authors who want to write a book out of revenge or spite because they're still so angry or hurt by what happened. They want to tell it to the world and stick it to the person that hurt them. And that's about you and your emotions. You can write a book, and maybe you should as a way to work through it, but you're maybe not ready to publish it until you can rewrite it and in a way that will benefit your reader. There's no time I can put on this. It's just saying that you really have to get enough healing in that you can see how what you went through has massive value to others. A great example of this is AJ Coleman's Keep those Feet Moving. With his book, you can learn to cope with grief, job loss and single parenting as you walk in the footsteps of a widower, which is aj. AJ Coleman was devastated when he lost his wife to cancer, leaving him alone to raise their baby daughter. He felt an almost debilitating mourning as he faced this and other challenges besides becoming a single father. He also had to accept a hearing impairment, learn to deal with anxiety and panic attacks, and recover from job losses. Keep those feet moving is his gift to other widowers and people suffering losses and challenges. It's there to encourage you with his heartfelt advice that he has gained from his journey. After reading his true story, you hopefully realize your own strength comes from your response to change and adversity. And really, AJ was only able to write this book because he had processed all the things that had happened to him. So that was his secret ingredient. All right, Ingredient five you're ready for and seeking support and feedback. Writing, publishing and promoting a book and doing it really well is not a one person job. You will need other people. I love Dan Sullivan's book and principle of who not how and and that is how most successful people I know are achieving great things. And a book, my friend, is exactly the kind of project where you should ask yourself who not how will help me make my book goals a reality. You do need an editor. Really. You need several. You should have a great cover. You need a good layout, and you will need to have your book set up for distribution, printing and have a marketing plan that you can execute. Forget about actually getting the darn thing written, which is a whole other skill too. Every one of these things and a lot of the other pieces that you need for successful book launching are things that you likely have the skills to excel at. One or two pieces, but you don't have the skills to be amazing at all of them. And you also need other opinions and viewpoints on your book to make it great. What else do you think you should do or have before you write a book besides hiring Book Launchers to be your team? Which you can do by setting up a quick call with us right here@book launchers.com apply. Let's chat about the other things in the comments below. And when you comment on the day a video is released, you get entered to win some sweet noboringbooksswag. So go ahead, say hi in the comments below and then head over to watch this video that is the latest and greatest from the channel or this one on three Reasons Nonfiction Books Don't Sell Because I I don't want that to happen to you. Both are going to be great and I'm hanging out there waiting for you. So click on over and say hi.
