Design MATTERS - #EvansBook ep. 3

Welcome to episode 3 of my book writing journey. Today I want to talk about design. Design matters. Not just the design of, you know, your book and what you're writing, but everything in your life, right? The design of your products and services, the design of your website, the design of your environment, the design of your office, your space, your desk. How things look matter. They have an impact on how you feel. and it's important that you design things that mean something to you in a positive way. And so how does this relate to my book? As part of the process of getting a deal with a publisher, I had to create a proposal, and the proposal that I made was very different than the proposal that actually got submitted. What my team wanted to do, my agent wanted to do, was put it in a way that they were used to seeing. You know, I have very different views on how things should be and how my book is going to get released. I have very different views than what most traditional books look like. And I wanted to incorporate that into the proposal, and my agent advised me against it, saying, "They're used to seeing things a certain way, and we want to present it in a certain way. It'll give you the biggest chance of getting a book deal." And so I went back and forth, and at the end of the day, I decided, "You know what? I'm going to trust in my agent." He's led me to positive places so far, so I'm going to trust in his wisdom and guidance. And he said, once you get a deal with the agent, then you can make it look like whatever you want. And so we made this proposal, and it was funny because they started asking me for more and more information to add to the page, and I refused to edit their Google Doc. My agent set up a Google Doc, and I refused to edit it because I didn't like how it was designed. It wasn't designed how I would design it. And when I looked at it, I didn't get inspired, right? Like, I couldn't write. It hurt me to write in their design. And when I write with my design, the fonts and the spacing and the layout— and maybe I sound really anal right now, but when I, when I write with my design, I'm in a positive place. I feel happier. I'm more in my flow. And so design matters. And, you know, creating an environment that you've designed, you know, what does your office look like? You know, when I write outside, for example, it's a different energy, it's a different design than when I'm inside. When I write on the floor, where I had my first video, it's a different kind of feel than other places. And so instead of just being reactionary, I'd encourage you to design things on purpose. It's starting to rain, so I gotta get to the Q&A quick. Let's get to the questions you guys asked. Crapstuff wrote in to say, "Great video, by the way. What is the status of the book? I want to purchase one today." Book is not ready, friend, crap stuff. It is going to be— I don't want to give a timeline. It's part of the contract, working it out, but I'm working on it. You can follow along in the series. Next, Dirt Patch Heaven. I love Stickman in the background. That was Hayden on my last video. But on topic, I'm trying to write an ebook and feel like my biggest issue is when to stop picking at it and allow it to be finished. You know, that's a tough thing, especially if you're detail-oriented and you want it to be perfect. I would say I would assign specific time to it. Like, I would say assign specific times in the week. So like Sunday morning you're working on it, or Friday afternoon you're working on it, or multiple times a week you're working on it. And don't just have it something that every now and then you pick at it because then you're never going to get it done. So I would pick a time during the week, figure out how much time you need to write it. For me, I'm doing Tuesdays and Fridays mostly when I'm doing, doing the books, and that helps. The other thing that helps is having a deadline when it's imposed on you and other people. I'm working with a publisher. We're working on a tentative deadline. I'm waiting for the official agreement. That's a gun to the head. I got to get it done for that time. If you commit to somebody else to have it done by a certain time, you're more likely to follow through. I think that'll light a fire a little bit under you to make you want to do it faster. Next up, Lucy, who asked a bunch of questions. I'll just go rapid-fire through them. One, I'd like to write a book. How do I find the right publisher? My process was a little bit different. I went through an agent, right? My agent— I have a talent agent who books gigs for me and corporate deals and that kind of stuff. And he introduced me to a literary agent, and the literary agent then set up all the deals with the publishers. And we set up kind of a meet-and-greet where I talked to, I don't know, 6 different publishers, 7 different publishers. The proposal went out to a lot of them. I had phone calls with about 6 or 7 of them, and then 3 of them wrote back with bids, and it ended up being a bidding war, one going against the other, kind of like a hot real estate market. And my initial offer from the publisher I went with ended up almost doubling. And so I really valued their— the wisdom and leadership of my agents to help guide me through that process. Next! It is raining, it is raining, I got to go fast. "Is it necessary to get an agent to get your work out there?" I think if you want to get a good price and you want to get a good contract, you're probably better off getting an agent. Just like you could sell your house yourself, but you've got to do a lot of research. You could be your own agent. I had publishers coming to me before I started writing the book, before I ever wanted to write a book, but they weren't the top publishers. I didn't have those connections in and could I have done it myself? Probably. Would it have taken enormous amounts of time? Absolutely. Could I have been able to line up, you know, 6, 7 people to have interviews on 2 days and then have a bidding war? Probably not by myself. You know, you have to have the right connections for that. So literally I had one, I believe it was like a Friday where I had 3 calls and then a Monday or Tuesday the next week that I had another 4 calls and it was just all back to back to back to back. And everybody knows that, you know, the other guys are in on it. And that's what ended up creating the bidding war. And could I have done that myself? Probably not. Could I have gotten a book deal? Absolutely. Could I have gotten the book deal that I wanted to? Probably not. So that's my answer. Next. Boom, boom, boom. When writing, my mind starts with one topic, then it mushrooms and derails to unknown places. This happens on a regular. It's all relevant but not structured. Any tips on how do you keep on topic when writing. My issue in writing is I have a hard time seeing the big picture and the little picture at the same time. I can either see big picture, and for me big picture is plotting out what's going to be in each chapter, what's going to be in each section, what's the structure going to be, and just seeing everything as a big whole, as a whole instead of like a hole that you go through. But But then when I actually get to writing, I have to be very narrow and very focused. So like, I'm going to write this page today on this topic and this page on this topic. And I have a hard time jumping between the two. That switching hurts my head and produces crap content for me. So I find I have to have like a day where I'm working on the bigger picture stuff and then multiple days where I'm working on the actual delivery and the, you know, in the business, I guess, kind of analogy. So what I find helpful, and maybe you can apply the same thing for your book, is spend the time to plan it out properly at the start. You know, plan out what chapter is going to go where, how you're going to write it, how it's going to flow. Design it and take a day to do that. And then, and then have another day where you're writing. And if other ideas come to you, what I do is I just send myself an email. Any idea for a new chapter, new way, new place I want to take it, I send myself an email. And then when it comes down to the day of my planning design day, the big picture day, then I look at that and see where I can fit it in. I think that's natural. I get tons of ideas when I'm shopping, when I'm sleeping, when I'm lying in bed, when I'm out and about. That's when you're going to get a lot of creative ideas. I find just emailing it to get it out of my head and into my inbox, and then I have a set time to be able to deal with that, I find that that really helps me. And the last question from her, from Lucy, was, "Your son is so cute." That's great. Thank you. I agree. He is out right now, but he had a lot of fun on the video last week. It is raining like crazy, so I'm going to stop. And if you guys have any questions that you want me to answer for you about my book or the book writing process, how to write a book, any of that stuff, leave it below and I'll do my best to respond. Thank you guys so much for watching. I'm enjoying this series, so we'll see where it goes. Take care. Continue to believe. I'll see you soon. Okay, I gotta get out of here. Holy cow, it's raining. How you doing, babe? You coming in? You want to be in my video? Nina's checking out her greenhouse. It's raining, you gotta come inside. Come. How's the greenhouse doing? Yeah, you're in the video. We're going inside together. What are you doing? I don't have makeup on. Oh, Nina doesn't have makeup on. Okay, well, good. Here we go. Toby, talk to you next week.