Everyone has suddenly woken up to writing books.
This ‘suddenly’ might have something to do with Tim Denning sending an email to his subscribers — “New Way for Writers to Earn Money.”
The ‘new’ way is, in fact the ‘old’ way.
Books were the only thing writers used write (other than the occasional articles in magazines and newspapers) before content writing became a thing.
Writing a book was not an easy job then. Only 1% of the world’s population ever wrote a book
Publishing was even harder. Writers had to go through numerous publishing houses, collect rejections until they were able to fine one who liked their work enough to give them a chance.
Then Amazon came into the picture and changed the landscape forever. After that, self-publishing became a norm rather than an exception.
Now anyone can write and publish a book.
Still most of the content writers never think about writing a book.
I was too surprised to learn that Tim Denning had overlooked book writing.
The reason he didn’t get into book because he dreaded writing them.
He has written one book,which has earned him handsome $5000 but he had to block a month to write it. And he didn’t have a month to block.
This is a writer who has been churning out an article a day for years now. There isn’t a topic he hasn’t written about. He has so much material that even if he does write anything for a year, he can repurpose his old posts and none of us will notice.
He could easy block a month and write a book.
But Tim never thought about it.
What is Tim’s problem is in fact every content writer’s problem.
Why content writers don’t think about writing books?
Two reasons.
One, they get hooked on working on small pieces. They go through quick cycles of — ideation, writing, editing, and publishing. They don’t have time and stamina that a book needs.
Second, they are on the content creating hamster wheel and don’t know how to get off.
Yet writing books is our only rescue.
Let’s find out how.
Books have much longer shelf life.
An average article lasts just for a day at the most on Medium. A good article lasts for a week. An amazing article goes viral and might last for a few months.
But a book lasts for years.
You can keep it current by releasing a new version once or twice a year and it can keep on generating income for decades to come.
A well written book on an evergreen topic never goes out.
One good book can help sell the whole backlist.
When someone reads your book and likes it, it is highly likely that they will buy the whole series.
Even if you come up with one bestseller (and I am not talking about New York Times bestseller but Amazon bestseller) it is highly likely your readers would buy your whole backlist because they like your work.
Since eBooks are not very expensive, I have bought all the books of certain authors because I know even if I get one idea from each book I have got my return on investment.
You learn a lot from writing books.
Even if you don’t make any money out of your book, it’s worth writing one just as a learning experience.
Writing books requires more research, better flow of thoughts and better command of language than writing articles. Writing one book can make you better writer that writing 1000 articles can. The time and effort you put into writing a book is like doing a graduate degree.
By opening yourself to new ideas, you’ll educate yourself on a broad array of things related to writing. You’ll feel invigorated by how much you learn during the process and emerge as much informed and experienced writer as a result of it.
Even if for nothing else, you should write a book for the experience.
A book helps you establish yourself as an authority.
Writing a book is the fastest way to gain credibility, and establish yourself as an expert in your field. You can build a professional reputation. You can use it as a promotional item or a marketing tool for your business.
Alternatively, a book provides an opportunity for you to write and publish something you are passionate about. We all stand for something. We all want our message to be heard. By writing a book about it you can share your message with others in a more effective way.
Writing a book is just a skill. Anyone can master it.
Anyone can learn how to write a book.
Writing a book is just like learning to ride a bicycle. It is a skill that you can master with focused practice and repetition.
Most of people learn to write book by reading books on how to write book.
You should write your first book just to learn to write a book.
Last week I wrote my first book in one week. I self-taught myself everything and recorded my whole process in the book so that anyone who reads it can just repeat the process.
In nutshell
By writing a book, you set yourself apart from the masses.
Whether your book is a non-fiction, a memoir, or an anthology, the fact that you can call yourself a published author gives you an air of authority to your professional endeavours.
Becoming a published author boosts your confidence. You would accomplish something a very few people would in their life.
If you are committed to become a writer, you should make writing a book your priority. You will become a better writer just because of it.
Photo by Ugur Akdemir on Unsplash