Month: July 2021

12 Steps Process To Write A Book

Neera 1 Comment

If you have been writing for some time, chances are you want to write a book. 

You get, I think there is a book in me, moments now and then, but you ignore them thinking writing a book is too big a project and you are not ready for it yet.

This is what I used to think too. 

For years I believed the books are written by people who are from some other planet. 

But then, last month, I worked up enough courage to write a book. That too in one week. That single act has been a game-changer for me.

It was as if some magic spell was broken, and I could see that writing books are a process like cooking a recipe or building a house or growing veggies.

Nothing more.

Most people are not able to write their books because it’s very confusing out there. There are too many things to learn and not enough time to learn them.

But if you are committed and willing to learn, you can break that barrier and build yourself a lucrative and fulfilling career as an author.

I have found, writing a book is a 12 steps process. Once you know what they are, it is easy to concentrate on them one by one, learn the basics and then start implementing them.

Without much ado, here they are:

1. Find a topic

Your first job is to find a topic. That topic needs to be exciting enough so that you can work on it. And it needs to be something that people want to pay money for. 

There is a big market out there on books about Cryptocurrency, but the topic hardly excites me, so you will not find any book from me on Cryptocurrency.

On the other hand, I am very much interested in productivity. It is a subject that intrigues me and baffles me. I would love to explore it from a different angle and see if I could write something different from what is out there.

Make a list of topics you are interested in writing about. It could be the memoir of your growing up in the countryside or a trip you took recently, or your grandmother’s recipes. Or it could be something you have already written about on your blog that could be developed into a book.

2. Outline your book

Once you have settled on a topic, the next step is to outline it. There are several ways to outline your book, depending upon how you want to tackle it. 

It could be a chronological occurrence of events. Or it could be like a document with headings and sub-heading. It doesn’t matter as long as you have an outline. 

You might be writing your articles or blog posts with an outline, but it is tough to write a book without an outline. An outline will scope your book and make sure you do not stray too much out of the scope. 

It is not there to restrict you. You can add to it or change it if it is not working. But you must have one before you start writing the book.

3. Write the first draft

This is the exciting part. Do not expect to write a polished product at this point. Let it be as messy as it comes out to be. The point is to get everything that is on your mind onto the paper. 

Do it as quickly as possible. I wrote mine in four days. It will be tough to get back to the book and pick up the pieces of thread if you leave too much gap while writing your first draft. So many writers are not able to finish their books because they leave their first draft halfway. Then they find it too hard to get back to it.

4. Get it structurally edited

Once you have written the first draft and think the book is hanging together, it is a good idea to hire a structural editor to look at it. The structural editor will be able to pick up the holes in your argument and will be able to tell you whether the book works as it is or you need to use a different structure for it. 

Fix the book based on the comments.

5. Get the beta readers to provide comments

It is time now to give the book to a few of your trusted fans who are familiar with your work and are willing to help out with your book. Asking their feedback early in the process will help you write a much better book than toiling away for months to figure out how to make it work.

6. Revise/Rewrite/Self-edit

Now is the time to polish your work. Revise it. Rewrite it if you have to. 

Once you have done the final draft, self-edit it for 4 Cs of writing — clear, clean, concise, and compelling.

7. Professional editing

It is time for someone else to work on your manuscript and turn it into the book you want it to be. There are many kinds of editors — line editors, copy editors, and proofreaders. I recommend engaging at least two of the copy editors and proofreaders. They are essential for your book to look professional. 

8. Cover design

If the book is for your family and friends, you can take the chance and design the book cover yourself. But if your book will compete with thousands of other books published each day, you will need a professionally designed book cover. It will cost you a bit of money but keep in mind that “books are judged by their cover.”

9. Pre-publishing tasks — book blurb, book price, formatting

Since you will be self-publishing your book, you will have to learn to do several pre-publishing tasks such as writing the book blurb (description), setting the price of the book, formatting for eBook and print version, selecting the categories under which to publish your book, and adding good keywords, so that your book appears in the reader searches.

10. Publish

There is a fair deal of learning in self-publishing. Much of it will happen while you are publishing the book. Although there are independent companies available who can help you with the process with a handsome fee, I would say do it yourself. You can learn while doing it, and once you have learned it, the knowledge will come in handy with other books.

11. Marketing

There is a lot to learn in this area, but luckily there is a lot of information. 

You don’t have to worry about it until you have written your book and are ready to publish it. 

I would go to the length of saying, don’t worry about marketing your first book. Let it be a trial to learn the process of writing and publishing. Once you have done that and have all that knowledge, developing a proper marketing plan for your next book will be much easier.

12. Start Again

There you are. Your book is complete. Now start another.

In nutshell

Writing a book will change you forever. Even if nobody buys your book, the confidence you will gain from writing your first book will be worth all the trouble you went through.

Do you know what is the biggest secret  of authorpreneurship?

The only thing standing between you and your authorpreneur career is your first book.

I Feel A Door Is Opening And I Have To Walk Through It

Neera

I have been pretty strategic this year towards my writing, or at least this is what I would like to think.

At the start of the year, I set out to learn how social media works. I posted for 100 Consecutive Days on three platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn). I learned the benefits of learning in public, being a part of a scenius, and the art of self-promoting.

Four months later, I decided to up my game with Medium and publish 100 articles in 100 days. I got better at writing articles, reduced the time of writing an article to 1–2 hours, and build myself a system to write on Medium effortlessly.

In both these cases, I didn’t follow the common advice to succeed on the platform and pretty much did what I felt was right.

I am glad I made my own rules and set my own parameters of success.

The ultimate goal is learning, and success is when I have learned a certain skill.

To build a big following on Medium, you need to publish in big publications, but I chose to stay with smaller publications while learning the craft of article writing.

To earn a big check each month, you need to write articles that most readers want to read. I chose to write what I wanted to write, sharing what I was learning at that point in time.

Once again, I find myself at a crossroads where I am picking the path I think is the right one for me.

After spending two years on content writing, I think it is not the right path for me.

The demand to continually keep churning out content is too much. I somehow can cope with that. But what I can’t cope with is stagnation.

I am finding I am not growing by writing the same kind of articles all the time.

I think I am ready to move to my real passion — fiction writing.

I have been postponing fiction writing to learn to blog, audience building, and online marketing.

So much so that for the last two years, I have not touched fiction writing at all. I am afraid it will take me a long time to get back into it. It will be like walking through hell but that is exactly what I am going to do.

I will continue to write on Medium but put my primary focus on writing fiction.

I will continue to share my learning with you here in Authorpreneurs publication.

I am also working on a few non-fiction books, which I will be alternating with fiction work.

These books are based on the articles I have written so far. I have 350+ articles on my website and about 200 articles on Medium. Unfortunately, this backlist of articles will not get read again. They will keep sitting on Medium servers for eternity. The best way to preserve them is to turn them into books.

Books have a much longer shelf life than articles.

By turning them into books, we can reach a completely new set of audience — the book readers.

I believe we all need to look at turning our work into books.

In my next post, I will write about the process of writing a book.

It is not as hard as it might sound.

20 Journaling Ideas That Will Make You A Better Writer

Neera

As more and more writers are moving to write online, the habit of journal writing is dying. Yet journals are the breeding grounds of ideas, insights, and creativity.

I started journal writing more than twenty years ago, after reading Julia Cameron’s legendary book The Artist’s Way. In the book, Julia Cameron suggests writing morning pages. 

The morning pages are three pages of a daily longhand stream of consciousness written first thing upon arising. 

Almost every part of the instructions is non-negotiable.

  • You got to write daily.
  • You got to write by hand. There is something about writing with hands that opens the dark vaults of your mind and brings out all that is troubling you.
  • You got to write first thing in the morning. You can make a cup of tea or coffee if you can’t function without it, but that’s about it. Don’t try to put away the dishes or make the bed. You got to start writing while your mind is still in an alpha state.

Of all the writing advice in the world, morning pages are the most successful tool for writers. Yet, most writers are not aware of them.

And if they are, they don’t follow the advice.

I have been writing morning pages for twenty years now. That single habit has made me a better writer than anything else. The pages clarify my thinking. They are not real writing because I am not writing drafting an article or working on a story but writing whatever comes to my mind.

They are basically ramblings. But hidden between the unless thoughts, to-do lists, and daily frustrations are deeper thoughts and impulses that form the material for my writing later in the day.

From time to time, I introduce little questions in my morning pages, making me go deeper to dig out the answers. Here are twenty questions if you want to bring some structure to your morning pages:

  1. What excited me yesterday? What made me feel alive?

2. What drained my energy? How am I going to handle it next time?

3. What did I learn yesterday?

4. Did I observe something different yesterday? A person, an event, a dialogue?

5. What did I learn about myself yesterday?

6. What went well?

7. What didn’t go well? 

8. How did I cope with it?

9. What will I do differently next time?

10. What did I read yesterday? What did I learn from it?

11. What makes me angry?

12. What makes me happy?

13. Am I going on the right path? Is there anything I need to change?

14. Did I achieve everything I set out to do yesterday?

15. Am I being too hard on myself?

16. What 3 things are I grateful for?

17. If I am to write a love note to my (spouse/child/friend/enemy), what will I say to them?

18. What are my secrets? Why am I so afraid to share them?

19. What is blocking my creativity?

20. What is my inner critic telling me now?

Morning pages make us intimate with ourselves, and in turn, we become more compassionate with others. 

We become more comfortable in our own skin and can withstand other people’s scrutiny. Our relationships improve. 

Our expression improve. We learn to voice our feelings and thoughts. We unblock our creativity.

I would love to hear whether you write morning pages as well. If you do what has been your experience?

Photo by Ana Tavares on Unsplash

Mission Accomplished - 100 Articles in 100 Days

Neera

This year, in mid-April, I set myself an outrageous challenge. To write 100 articles in 100 days. It was outrageous because I averaged just 2–3 articles a week, spending 5–6 hours per article. 

If I were to make article writing an integral part of my routine, I have to reduce that time to 1–2 hours per article. 

The only way I knew how to achieve that was to follow Violinist Hilary Hahn’s 100 Days of practice model. So I announced my crazy idea and started keeping the score on Austin Kleon’s PRACTICE to SUCK LESS grid.

My aim was threefold.

  1. To get better.
  2. To bring the article writing time down from 5–6 hours to 1–2 hours.
  3. To build a system to publish every day.

I told myself, I will not worry about whether my headlines were good or not, or whether my article was plain right boring; I will aim at publishing every day.

I didn’t bother to send my article to prestigious publications. Instead, I published them on my profile first and then sent them to those publications that accepted pre-published articles (usually on the same day).

I didn’t look at the stats or monthly statements to check how much money I was making. I just kept writing.

Some days, I wrote fluently; other days, I struggled. Some days I managed to write and publish within an hour; other days, I had to stay up late at night to finish the damn thing. But I didn’t miss a day.

Now here I am, 100 days later, proud that I kept my promise to myself.

Here are some of my humble achievements:

  • Published 100 articles in nine publications — The Ascent, ILLUMINATION, World Traveler’s Blog, DataDrivenInvestor, Age of Awareness, The Shadow, Age of Awareness, Loud Updates, and my own publication Authorpreneurs.
  • 62 of my articles were chosen for further distribution. All of my short stories (except one) and all of my travel articles (except one) were chosen for further distribution. 
  • I became the top Travel Writer twice.
  • My follower numbers grew from 900 to 2195.
  • Earned a bonus check of $500 in May.
  • My average article writing time now is 1.5 hours. 
  • I wrote and published my first book in one week, in the public eye, writing a daily article to share my progress.

But real achievements were different.

  • My confidence in myself has grown through the roof. Not only can I write for long hours, but I wrote for three and half months without breaking the chain.
  • I have won several friends who are my cheer squad, my motivators, and my bedrock. Without their encouragement, I would not have been able to keep going. So a big thank you to you all.
  • I have built myself a system to write. 
  • I wrote what I wanted to write rather than what other people were writing. I went where curiosity took me and aimed at things, habits, and topics I wanted to learn. I am surprised that 62% of my article were curated. It meant my offbeat topics were noticed.
  • I chose speed over quality. Speed comes with consistency, and with consistency comes quality. I knew if I continue to take 5 hours to write an article, sooner or later, I will give up because I don’t have that many spare hours a day to write just one article. But I can certainly spare 1 -2 hours a day to write an article. Now that I have achieved speed, I will aim for quality.

Where to from here?

First, I would love to have a break. 

Not a long one, just small ones.

I am going to take weekends off. After reading Abraham Joshua Heschel’s The Sabbath, I see the importance of taking time off regularly. 

I would aim to write five articles a week. However, if, on certain weeks, I could only manage two articles, I will not kill myself over that. 

I will be directing my focus to write books from now on. 

I have already published one, the second one is in the draft, and the idea of the third one is not letting me sleep at night. I intend to write and publish six books this calendar year. 

I am also going to concentrate on writing for my publication Authorpreneurs. It is a small publication to serve a small niche of readers who want to take their writing to the next level.

In the past decade, self-published authors have started dominating the writing industry, and the trend is not only going to continue but explode. If you are serious about your craft, you should consider writing books and building a business around it simply because books have longer shelf life than articles. 

In Authorpreneurs, I will be sharing insights about writing, publishing, and marketing books. 

Join the publication if it is the direction you want to go as well.

Last but not least.

Thank you for reading and encouraging me all through the journey. 

Below is a list of 100 articles, in case you missed any.

List of 100 articles:

100 Articles in 100 Days

So You Made A Mistake (Chosen for further distribution)

A Writer’s Graduation

What I Learned About Being Vulnerable Online This Week (Chosen for further distribution)

Can Acceptance of Death Make Us Live Better (Chosen for further distribution)

I Announced My First Course And Was Too Glad When Nobody Bought It (Chosen for further distribution)

Five Rules To Overcome Self-doubt (Chosen for further distribution)

3 Habits Of A Freshman Writer

Why I Am Not Intimidated By A Blank Page And Why You shouldn’t Either

I Posted On Social Media For 100 Consecutive Days (Chosen for further distribution)

Why We Write (Chosen for further distribution)

3 Habits Of A Sophomore Writer

Why I Want To Write Fiction In 2021 (Chosen for further distribution)

I Have Banned Myself From Buying Any More Online Courses

Get Fast Before Getting Good (Chosen for further distribution)

Oh My God, I Am All Over Twitter

Three Kinds Of Mentors (Chosen for further distribution)

Clap Or Not To Clap, That Is The Question

I Am Over The Moon, Happy As A Larry, Overjoyed, Buzzing With Excitement

Rest Assured This Is Not A One-Off Bonus

3 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Starting A New Project (Chosen for further distribution)

Everything Changes When You Start Working From The Fourth Level of Consciousness

You Only Need To Learn Five Types Of Sentences To Write Fiction

Time Management Doesn’t Work (Chosen for further distribution)

3 Pieces of Advice For Creative People (Chosen for further distribution)

How To Make Sure You Listen To Inspiration When It Whispers

Do You Have Any Regrets (Chosen for further distribution)

If You Want To Change Your Life, Make Your Bed

How to Create From the Higher State of Consciousness

Edinburgh — The Tale Of Two Cities

Filing is a Critical Skill That Most Writers Ignore (Chosen for further distribution)

A Question To All Fiction Writers On Medium

How To Look Death In the Eye And Live Intensely

How To Write Stories From Everyday Life (Part 1) 

How To Write Stories From Everyday Life (Part 2) (Chosen for further distribution)

How To Write Stories From Everyday Life (Part 3) (Chosen for further distribution)

Telling Stories With Images

The Art of Noticing

I Am Half Way Through My 100 Articles In 100 Days Challenge

I Am Learning About Crowdfunding (Chosen for further distribution)

Crowdfunding for Writers (Chosen for further distribution)

Shout-out for Three Fellow Writers (Chosen for further distribution)

Is Worry Wearing You Down

What Is Your End Game As A Writer (Chosen for further distribution)

What Is The End Game For Literary Writers (Chosen for further distribution)

The Half-year Reset

Three Articles That Impacted Me This Week

An Afternoon At The Redhill (Chosen for further distribution)

Forget About Year, Forget About Months — Focus On Days

I Am Writing An eBook In A Week (Chosen for further distribution)

Day 1 — Writing An EBook In One Week (Chosen for further distribution)

Day 2 — Writing An eBook In One Week (Chosen for further distribution)

Day 3 — Writing An eBook In One Week (Chosen for further distribution)

Day 4 — Writing An eBook In One Week

Day 5 — Writing An eBook In One Week

Day 6 — Writing An eBook In One Week (Chosen for further distribution)

Day 7 — Writing An eBook In One Week (Chosen for further distribution)

7 Lessons Learnt By Writing And Publishing an eBook In One Week

I Am Forcing Myself To Do ‘Nothing’

When You Can’t Put Together Your Writing In Any Coherent Manner (Chosen for further distribution)

Why Is Everyone Around Me So Irrational? (Chosen for further distribution)

Let’s Talk About Writing Books (Chosen for further distribution)

Publications Are Still The Key To Reach The Wider Audience (Chosen for further distribution)

Five Future Technologies That Will Change The Game Of Writing Forever

How To Read Books

You Are Not On Medium To Make Money

So You Want To Be A Blogger (Chosen for further distribution)

First Read, Then Write (Chosen for further distribution)

I Am Reviving Authorpreneurs Publication

Finding Balance (Chosen for further distribution)

Building A Bliss Station (Chosen for further distribution)

Make Someone’s Day (Chosen for further distribution)

Writing Books Is A Mindset Shift (Chosen for further distribution)

Dear Writers, A Fellow Writer Needs Our Help (Chosen for further distribution)

Writing eBooks Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Do A Print Version (Chosen for further distribution)

How To Structure Your Novel (Chosen for further distribution)

Your Productivity Problem Is Over-Expectation, Not Distractions

My Ultimate List of Writing Advice (Chosen for further distribution)

One True Fan, Was All I Needed (Chosen for further distribution)

Work-Life Balance — Have We Got It All Wrong (Chosen for further distribution)

Don’t Make Earning Plans, Make Learning Plans (Chosen for further distribution)

Travel

Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral (Chosen for further distribution)

Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and the National Gallery (Chosen for further distribution)

The London Eye, Palace of Westminster, and Westminster Abbey (Chosen for further distribution)

Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge (Chosen for further distribution)

Edinburgh — The Tale Of Two Cities (Chosen for further distribution)

Inverness and the Monster of Loch Ness (Chosen for further distribution)

Edinburgh — The Writer’s Museum (Chosen for further distribution)

London — Museums and Art Galleries (Chosen for further distribution)

Paris — the City of Dreams (Chosen for further distribution)

Paris — Louvre (Chosen for further distribution)

Paris — Versailles (Chosen for further distribution)

The Hidden Gems and Secret Paris

Istanbul — A City of 3,200 Mosques (Chosen for further distribution)

Short Stories

The Flight (Chosen for further distribution)

Aunt Olivia (Chosen for further distribution)

A Christmas Wish

The Blessed (Chosen for further distribution)

The Goddess (Chosen for further distribution)

The Teapot (Chosen for further distribution)

Don’t Make Earning Plans, Make Learning Plans

Neera

Do you know what we writers lack? 

Do you know what we writers lack? 

A proper curriculum to do develop writing skills. 

Most of us have embarked on writing without any proper training. Some like me got into it because our writing sucked, and we wanted to get better at it. 

No wonder writing is such a hard skill to master. 

Every other artistic field has a way of teaching the basics. Two years ago, I learned how to draw cartoons. I followed a curriculum for six months that taught me all the basics. Once I learned that all I needed to do was practice every day. Today I am a confident cartoonist.

Every professional invest in the continuation and enhancing of their skills. Doctors, Accountants, Teachers, Insurance, attorneys, and every other professional — all spend a ridiculous amount of time and money training each year to stay on top of their professions.

There is no such requirement when you are a writer and working for yourself. 

Shouldn’t writers be staying on top of their profession? 

Yes.

Some of us do online courses and seminars in a haphazard way which, rather than enhancing our skills, leaves us baffled and frustrated.

Since we are left to our own resources, wouldn’t it be better to make our own learning plans?

A learning plan is a secret weapon that you can apply to anything you want to learn by yourself, whether it is writing, sketching, painting, or playing a musical instrument.

When I joined Medium, I got terrified by the number of things I needed to learn and the sheer size of the platform.

After weeks of frustration, I made a list of everything I thought I needed to know to come across as an informed writer. I called it my Medium Learning Plan. I broke each item on the list into bite-size pieces to make it easier for me to learn.

Then every day, I picked something from the list and learned it either by reading about it or watching videos, or practicing on my own. I didn’t stop until I felt confident enough to cross it off my list. 

Some topics were simple, and I only needed a basic understanding of them. Others like ‘Categories,’ ‘Setting,’ and ‘Publications’ were complex, and I had to go back to them repeatedly. But the key was I invested in my continuing education. 

What surprised me was that once I had a written plan, I was not intimidated by the size of the list. In fact, it was really easy to learn them in bite-size pieces, one tiny skill at a time.

After just a few weeks of my learning plan, my knowledge took off. Within a year, I have a knowledge base to write several articles based on what I learned.

That should be your goal too. Anytime you find yourself thinking, there is so much I need to know but don’t know where to start, make yourself a learning plan. 

If you don’t take the time to make the plan, your learning will be haphazard, and you won’t grow.

My original Medium Learning Plan has grown over the months, and it will keep growing, but here it is to get you started with yours:

My Medium Learning Plan

My learning plan had four sections. I keep on adding to it as I realize there are more things I need to learn and cross off the ones I become competent in. 

1. Medium Platform

a. What are the different features of the platform?

b. How to set up my profile page?

c. How to write and publish an article?

d. All the features of Medium Editor.

e. What information does Medium stats provide, and how can I use it (topics, categories, views, reads, fans, engagement, earnings, backlist)?

f. Various settings and how to use them effectively.

g. What is Control Your Recommendations and how to use them effectively?

h. What is Partner Program and how it works?

i. What are fans and followers? What is the difference?

j. How to get more followers and fans?

k. How do comments work? When and how to provide and respond to comments?

l. Do and don’t of the platform. Read Medium Policy and Medium official blog 3 Min Reads.

2. Publications

a. What are Medium publications?

b. Which are the prestigious Medium publications?

c. How to write for publications?

d. Which publications should I be targeting? What are their publishing guidelines? What kind of content that those publications are seeking?

d. How to start my own publication (technical know-how).

e. What are the benefits of starting a publication?

f. What niche will my publication serve? 

g. How to grow my publication (subscribers and writers)? 

h. How to provide value with my publication? And everything else.

3. Writing

a. How to write my background story?

b. How to write an article?

c. Anatomy of good Medium articles?

d. How to write articles that are useful even for years to come? 

e. How to write them in a reasonable amount of time (1–2 hours)?

f. Article templates.

g. How to build an acceptable frequency for publishing?

h. What will be my system of writing regularly (time of the day, place, location)?

i. How to generate ideas for articles?

j. How to do research?

k. What will be my editing strategy. Will I do it myself, or can someone help me—my self-editing checklist. 

l. How to write great headlines?

m. How to get interesting images?

4. Habits

a. Write every day.

b. Write using a stopwatch. 

c. Master Pomodoro Technique.

c. Write ten ideas a day.

d. Walk/Gym every day.

e. Four-hour writing day.

Hope this is helpful.

Make your own learning plans.

Read articles where people share their experiences. Makes notes from them and keeps them handy.

Do not cross off an item until you are fully competent in that skill.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

One True Fan, Was All I Needed

Neera

In 2008, Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of Wired magazine, wrote one of the most famous blog posts in internet history: “1000 True Fans.”

Kevin’s 1000 True Fans concept was made popular by many gurus of online audience-building and monetization, just like Malcolm Gladwells made Anders Ericsson’s 10,000-hour practice rule popular through his book Outlier.

Kevin Kelly’s idea was simple but novel. He wrote:

To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.

He presented this concept at a time when creators were doing anything they can, including spending a lot of money to attract as many clicks as possible to their websites.

Clicks were considered the equivalent of ‘foot traffic” in brick and mortar stores, and the online entrepreneurs and creators were obsessed with increasing the number of visits to their stores.

Kelly showed them an alternate way using simple math.

If you have a thousand fans and they buy $100 worth of product in a year, you earn $100,000.

Of course Kelly had two criteria:

But this simple math had a major flaw.

Many creators, in fact, thousands of them, didn’t even have 1000 followers, let alone 1000 true fans.

I am one of them.

I have been writing online for almost three years now my email subscriber number is still in two digits.

My LinkedIn follower number is, 930

My Facebook followers are just 270

My Instagram followers are merely 80.

Most of them are family and friends. They are not buyers. I can’t launch a book or a course and expect to make a sale.

But then something happened last month.

I asked a simple question on my three social media platforms.

One person responded. She chose option one.

She wrote, “Please write the first one, and stick to basics. I will buy it because you explain things in simple terms.”

That one reader gave me all the confidence I needed to write the book.

I wrote the book for her.

And she bought it.

It was a big thing for me that someone paid $2.99 to buy the book that I wrote.

That single true fan gave me more confidence than 2.1 followers on Medium and 1000+ followers on social media.

You don’t need 1000 true fans. You just need one.

I don’t know how many followers I need to get 1000 true fans. Fifty thousand? One million? Many million?

I don’t know whether I will ever get them.

But I have learned that I don’t need them. I just need one person to believe in me, to buy my book, or to take my course to get me started.

Having a single buyer or client can give you enough confidence to get you going. The key to online business isn’t skill or even knowledge.

Instead, it’s confidence.

Most of us start with fancy titles like “book coach, yoga teacher, life coach, etc.” when in fact, we’re still right on the bottom rung of the ladder.

When a single client pays us even a tiny amount of money, it gives us just the boost we need to keep going. Aiming for a thousand clients, in the beginning, freezes us in our tracks.

I sold 18 copies of my book on the first day. I know six of those were my family and friends, but the rest 12 were true buyers.

I am starting my second book.

Once again, I asked my tiny little following, would they like to read the story of my journey from competitive to creative life in the form of conversations between my inner critic and me?

Three people responded in the affirmative.

I am going to write the book for them.

You don’t need 1000 true fans, you just need one.