Julie Broad explains how constraints make writing faster and better, using Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham as an example. Seuss wrote it with only 50 words and sold over 200 million copies. She suggests three constraints for your book: pick a specific niche audience, set hard deadlines, and write in short increments with limited goals.
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Did you know that Dr. Seuss created his book Green Eggs and Ham using this simple strategy and that book sold over 200 million copies. And that same strategy actually was a bet. Now that same strategy applied in different ways also led to many other best selling books for Dr. Seuss and many other authors. If you want a simple strategy to write a better book faster, then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book broad from Book Launchers. We're your professional self publishing team helping you write, publish and promote a nonfiction book that will impact your reader, grow your business and make you money. Our superpower is caring more about you and your book. And what we do differently is we work really hard to help you sell your book, sell those copies into readers hands when it's all done. And the best part, you keep all rights and royalties and have full control. James Clear wrote an article on his site that told a story of Dr. Seuss that I didn't know before. Bennett Cer, the founder of the publishing firm Random House, bet Dr. Seuss that Dr. Seuss would not be able to write an entertaining children's book using only 50 different words. Of course Dr. Seuss did. And that book was Green Eggs and Ham, which has now sold more than 200 million copies. He wrote the Cat in the Hat by only focusing on grade one vocabulary list constraints like 50 words or a single vocabulary list vocabulary list, that's a tongue twister. Constraints are powerful and and always lead to a better book done faster. But they're the opposite of what most authors do. Please allow me a moment to explain before I give you the ideas of how you can use constraints to make your book better and faster. Here's what most authors I speak to are doing. They'll say things like my book is for everyone. I want it to be a bestseller. This book needs to cover all the background and all the history so people understand why this message is important. Or I want the book to be the best it can be, however long that takes. Or. Or I just need to tweak it and read it just one more time. Or I'm going to write my book when I get time, or I want to launch it when it's ready. I hear those things all the time. And it's not that these approaches are wrong, it's that they're general. It's like setting a goal to be rich, fit or happy. What does that actually mean? Let's try to put a powerful constraint or two around your book project and see what happens. So here's Some constraints I've seen work incredibly well. Number one, narrow your audience down to a very specific type of person. You may feel that this constraint is limiting, but I want to tell you something. Would you rather get 0.01% of a wide audience or 10 to 20% of a very specific audience to buy your book or pay attention to what you're saying so that all of the people in that audience actually know who you are? Likely the math actually works out better for you to get the focus and attention of the smaller audience. It's also easier to create that feeling of being everywhere with a small audience, which makes exponential growth actually way more possible. Here's an example. If you have a book about being a cancer survivor, you may want to make your book something that would appeal to anyone with cancer. But I actually think that's a mistake in most cases. If you had skin cancer or prostate cancer or breast cancer, write very specifically to that audience about your experience, about what you tried, about what you felt. When you do this, it will be easier to write because you won't always be questioning yourself. You won't be making any assumptions that can bite you later. And you'll also find that your audience actually naturally widens out from what you start with. But you will have a very specific and very clear audience to promote your book to when you launch. It will be much easier to get the attention and support of a niche cancer group than trying to get the Cancer Society of Canada or the Full Cancer Society of the United States to pay attention and support your book. Try it. Number two, limit the time you have for things. For example writing. Set a timer for your writing session. Do nothing else but write until that timer goes off. I find 30 to 40 minute increments works great and you'll get a ton done during that time deadline. Set a hard deadline of when you'll turn the draft over to an editor no matter what, or when you'll give your friend the first chapter or the next chapter. Amazingly, you'll get more done as the deadline approaches. Guaranteed. Or set your launch date so long as you actually give yourself enough time to do things properly. Set a launch date and make it public. And then make yourself get it done so you're not embarrassed. Not sure how much this is going to take. Watch the video on the time it takes to publish your book. In James Clear article about this Dr. Seuss story, he said, this is why I believe that professionals. Professionals set a schedule for their production, while amateurs wait until they feel motivated. Constraints and deadlines work finally Number three, put a constraint on your goal. I know you're gonna resist this one, but try it on for size. So what can you do to create a constraint that will be of value for you? My suggestion is to look at what you find yourself complaining about. I don't have a big enough audience. Okay, now create the constraint that you can only promote your book by reaching out to people that do have an audience. Maybe you say, I don't have time. Okay, now you create a constraint that you can only write your book in 20 minute increments and you set a timer and try to do this every day. Or maybe you're thinking, I don't think I'm ready yet. Set a date, make it public and go for it. So tell me, what are you gonna do to limit yourself? Post it in the comments below and we're gonna hold you to it. And bonus points if you tell me the real name of Dr. Seuss. And when you comment on the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet book launcher swag. Like our oh so Soft journal and our no Boring books. There are new videos every Tuesday and Friday, so make sure you subscribe to the channel and you've turned the notifications on so you know when the new videos come out. Now it's been absolutely delightful hanging out with you today. I'm going to put some coffee on so we can keep hanging out. YouTube recommends that you check out this video right here. This video right here is a great video with Michael Buenar on how he got a ton of reviews for his book on launch. So go ahead, choose one of these videos. I've got the coffee on. I'll see you there.
