MBA2170 Q&A Wednesday: Should I write a book?

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Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals like business management, strategic planning, and effective communication. And you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella. Edu.

I want to first state something. I am not a published author. I haven't written a book and sold it on Amazon or hit any bestseller lists. I've written some smaller ebooks, guides, tutorials, but not an actual book for sale that I can call myself a published author. Having said that, I've had this question myself and I've asked this question to a lot of experts, people in the book publishing industry, people that help people write books, book coaches, marketers, editors, people that are in this world. And they all actually gave me pretty much similar advice, and I want to share it with you today. When it comes to deciding to write a book, you have to be crystal clear about why you have to have a singular goal. And as you could see in Tony's question, he has many goals, many reasons why he would want to write a book. But you really need to focus on one. Just choose one. Maybe the other things will happen as a byproduct. But by having a singular goal, it allows you to evaluate if it's worth you achieving it, because maybe you'll achieve the other goals as a byproduct, but you need to have a singular goal because it allows you to evaluate if it's worth all the work it's going to take to achieve it. Basically, you're going to work backwards from that singular goal. So you might say, I want more leads, I want more customers, I want more notoriety, I want more authority. These are all great, but just choose one. And maybe your goal is, I just want more traffic to my website because people read my book and were interested and came to my website. If the book achieves that, then it's successful because you probably know if you can get that traffic, you can convert them so they can become clients and all that and more. So if this is your singular goal, you're just trying to get more traffic to your website with this book, then everything you do when it comes to writing and marketing and selling this book is to work towards that goal, to get more traffic to your website. This is just an example, but let me walk you through this example. When you have a singular goal, how easy it is for you to be able to do that. So now you're like, okay, what is this book going to be about? How much time and effort will I put into this? How many people will I have helped me do this with research and editing? Well, in order for me to get more traffic to my website, the book actually has to be really good. It has to really get people saying, man, this person knows what they're talking about and I want to learn more. So it means I'm going to have to spend some time, money, effort to create a high value book. So again, we're planning out the steps to see if it's worth it. Let's say you say, okay, I'm going to do this. This is going to require me to spend 10 hours a week for the next year to create this book. Now, when it's time to sell the book and you're setting the price and things like that, are you going to price this book like any other book? $15, $20, 10 for the Kindle, 20 for the hardback. Your margins will be pretty good for a book. Does that align with your goal? You're writing a book so you can get more traffic to your website. That means if more people read the book and consume it and get value from it, they're going to come to your website. So what's going to increase the likelihood of more people reading it? Well, a more affordable price. So maybe you price it down to 299. Some people play the game on Amazon and sell their book on Amazon and when I say play the game, they research how much money will Amazon get versus how much will I get when I sell on Amazon. And they actually will price it. So Amazon makes more money. Why? Because they know if they do that, then Amazon is going to market it for them. They're going to push it for them. Again, if the goal is more traffic, then this is the strategy I should go with. I'm not trying to maximize every penny. I'm actually trying to get into more hands. What gets people to buy a book in the first place? Well, good reviews. So you might have a system built out so you can get reviews for the book. Or obviously, if the price point's right, more people will buy it and you'll have more likelihood of a review. Some authors have this technique by the end of the second or first chapter, even if they said, if you've gotten value from this book already, click this link and pop me a review. It makes a big difference and allows me to reach other people just like you. And on the Kindle version, this is actually quite easy to do. And they can review right from the Kindle. If it's a paperback or a physical copy, they can go ahead and do it on their phone. Give them a pretty link that forwards to your page on Amazon, a shortened link that makes it easy for them to just pop right into their phone again. All our decisions are aligned to that singular goal. Now, once we do that and we write down all our plans of this is how much is going to take in terms of money, time and effort. It's going to take me to write the book and create the COVID and publish it and market it and sell it and get reviews and spread the word and get on stages and all that kind of stuff. I look at all the effort and time and money that's going to take, and I ask myself if I can get a steady flow of traffic to my website because of this book every single month, is it worth it? If the answer is yes, then you go ahead and execute. If the answer is no, then it doesn't necessarily mean don't do it. You might need to change your goal, because maybe if the goal is different, it will be worth it. Some people, their goal is like, I'm gonna write a book. And the reason why I'm writing a book is so I can get on the New York Times bestseller list or the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. Because if I have that against my name, I'm gonna be able to get on stages. I'm gonna be able to sell my products and services easily. I'm gonna be an authority, and that's worth it to them. So be mindful that if you evaluate and say, oh, no, it's not worth it, that Maybe it's the goal you need to change and not just throw out the whole idea altogether. Now a couple of tips here or reminders. Many of us feel like I'm not ready. Maybe I'm not good enough to write a book. I'm living proof, and I've heard this from many entrepreneurs that that talk, that feeling never goes away. Doesn't matter how much you learn and grow over the years, you still feel the same way. So if you do have something valuable to share with the that you can put in a book, then do it. And it's not a once and done thing. You can create a second edition. You can write another book. You can just focus on one topic. Not everything you know. You don't need to write the masterpiece of a lifetime from the first time you pick up the pen and put your fingers on the keyboard. That's ridiculous. Get your feet wet and enjoy the process.

Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals like business management, strategic planning, and effective communication. And you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo I want.

To give you a couple more tips when it comes to deciding if you should write a book or not. When it comes to writing a book, you have a lot of options. You can traditionally get a publisher and get them to help you publish the book. You can self publish and there's a lot of choices when it comes to self publishing on your own website or you can use Amazon system and they make it even simpler than ever. You can go with a smaller local publisher in your area. There's a lot of choices here. They all have advantages, disadvantages and a resource I recommend you check out is an interview or discussion between Noah Kagan and Ryan Holiday, who's one of my favorite authors, who's the author of the New York Times bestseller the Obstacles of the Way. Stillness is the key Perennial Settler Courageous calling There's so many great books that Ryan has written and in that discussion on YouTube you can find it on YouTube they discuss all the different options when it comes to publishing with traditional publishers. Self publishing advantages disadvantages so you can get real insights from an actual author who's written 10 books. The next tip is a lot of people think they have to write a Book in sequence. They have to just write beautiful writing from the get go on the page and go from chapter one all the way to chapter 12 or whatever. You can write a book the way you want to write a book. You don't need to follow any linear order or any traditional order. Some people like to just write outlines, some people like to write little notes. Some people, like Ryan, write ideas on note cards. And then they compile these note cards into paragraphs and into chapters. The point is just to get your ideas, get your information out of you and onto a screen or a piece of paper. Why? Because that's the most important part now, putting it together, making it sound good, making it cohesive, knowing where to put that information in what chapter. That's what an editor's for. And an editor can really help you out with that. You can hire an editor online, there's tons of them. If you're working with a publisher, they can maybe assist with that process. But the point is, is that you don't need to really worry about that part. Some people even like to record a voice memo of all their ideas, get it transcribed, and they edit an editor to organize things for them. The point here is that don't be overwhelmed by the blank page. Just get ideas down. Even if they don't make sense in the moment. Write it down. Say, I think this would be good in the book. Maybe it'll make it in the book, maybe it won't. But the point is that just get it out of you. There you have it. Thanks so much, Tony for asking this question on Q and A Wednesday. If you've got a question you want to ask here on Q and A Wednesday, go ahead and ask me over at omar100.mba.net. just pop me an email. I'll make sure to answer your question and help you and others who are listening to the show. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. This is a long process. Writing a book, selling it, marketing it, enjoy it, find the joy in the work. Like many projects, you're going to look back at that time when it's all done and dusted and say, man, that was a good time in my life. I wish I enjoyed it more. I wish I appreciated more in the moment. So enjoy the process of writing a book. The struggle, the thought provoking moments, even the moments where things are just not coming to you. Maybe some writer's block or something like that. That's okay, that's part of the process. Appreciate it. It's a privilege to be able to even be in the process of writing a book. This is a part of your life. This is a part of the experience of being an entrepreneur. When you are enjoying the process, when you're doing it with joy, that feeling, that vibe, will permeate in the book and the reader will get it somehow. They'll feel it somehow, because you created this piece of work with joy and therefore the joy is in there somehow. It's infused. It's a part of every line. It's a part of every point you're making in that book. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals like business management, strategic planning and effective communication, and you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo.