Stop Writing Books Nobody Reads

When you're trying to reach your target audience effectively, nothing beats a well-written business book. But it's also tough to get right. Poorly written business books litter the virtual bookshelves. Your book needs to be so interesting the reader devours it, and then wants the next one. As moreish as the next Netflix series. Bitesize, useful, life changing content. Atomic, valuable, business-growing books. Built around your expertise and their most important problem. After more than twenty years of helping clients turn their thoughts into things, coupled with my engineering background and love of constraints (not that kind!), I have come to the conclusion that the only way to turn your thoughts into things, and get your ideas out into the world is to: Make the ideas atomic - the smallest workable unit (a Minimum Valuable Asset(R)) Have a proven system that works to produce the "thing" (this book for books) Set a constraint - time, money, resources - and be accountable to the constraint Iterate and improve yourself, as well as the process. Many people don't get their ideas turned into things (books written) because they skip an element in the process, reinvent the process or don't even have a process to start with. When you have the process you can turn your thoughts into many different things. This book gives you the process so you can write your book that will be read and referred! To write a book that people read & refer: Make sure there's a business case before investing your time & money Focus on what the reader needs to hear not what you want to say Write value not volume Use a framework for the process, not for the idea Choose yourself, not the publisher Produce a book that markets itself You'll find all that and more inside... Learn how to accomplish your author brand-building goals and create an outstanding book that is virtually guaranteed to be picked up, and read.

When you’re trying to reach your target audience effectively, nothing beats a well-written business book. But it’s also tough to get right. Poorly written business books litter the virtual bookshelves. Your book needs to be so interesting the reader devours it, and then wants the next one. As moreish as the next Netflix series. Bitesize, useful, life changing content. Atomic, valuable, business-growing books. Built around your expertise and their most important problem. After more than twenty years of helping clients turn their thoughts into things, coupled with my engineering background and love of constraints (not that kind!), I have come to the conclusion that the only way to turn your thoughts into things, and get your ideas out into the world is to: Make the ideas atomic – the smallest workable unit (a Minimum Valuable Asset®) Have a proven system that works to produce the “thing” (this book for books) Set a constraint – time, money, resources – and be accountable to the constraint Iterate and improve yourself, as well as the process. Many people don’t get their ideas turned into things (books written) because they skip an element in the process, reinvent the process or don’t even have a process to start with. When you have the process you can turn your thoughts into many different things. This book gives you the process so you can write your book that will be read and referred! To write a book that people read & refer: Make sure there's a business case before investing your time & money Focus on what the reader needs to hear not what you want to say Write value not volume Use a framework for the process, not for the idea Choose yourself, not the publisher Produce a book that markets itself You'll find all that and more inside... Learn how to accomplish your author brand-building goals and create an outstanding book that is virtually guaranteed to be picked up, and read.

There's a mantra that real writers know but wannabe writers don’t. And the secret phrase is this: NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T. Recognizing this painful truth is the first step in the writer's transformation from amateur to professional. From Chapter Four: “When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, you develop empathy. You acquire the skill that is indispensable to all artists and entrepreneurs—the ability to switch back and forth in your imagination from your own point of view as writer/painter/seller to the point of view of your reader/gallery-goer/customer. You learn to ask yourself with ev­ery sentence and every phrase: Is this interesting? Is it fun or challenging or inventive? Am I giving the reader enough? Is she bored? Is she following where I want to lead her?

WHAT IS THE STORY GRID? The Story Grid is a tool developed by editor Shawn Coyne to analyze stories and provide helpful editorial comments. It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not. The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult). The Story Grid is a tool with many applications: 1. It will tell a writer if a Story ?works? or ?doesn't work. 2. It pinpoints story problems but does not emotionally abuse the writer, revealing exactly where a Story (not the person creating the Story'the Story) has failed. 3. It will tell the writer the specific work necessary to fix that Story's problems. 4. It is a tool to re-envision and resuscitate a seemingly irredeemable pile of paper stuck in an attic drawer. 5. It is a tool that can inspire an original creation.

Not loaded with theory, Skip's invaluable book contains concise, easily understood and applied advice for both writing and marketing any kind of book, article, story, play, screen-play, report, proposal or anything else you can think of.How to Write What You Want and Sell What You Write is for every writer or wannabe who needs to sort out his or her desires, capabilities and strengths and, even more importantly, learn the particular formats for the kind of writing in which he or she is interested.

All Groan Up: Searching for Self, Faith, and A Freaking Job! is the story of the GenY/Millennial generation told through the individual story of author Paul Angone. It’s a story of struggle, hope, failure, and doubts in the twilight zone of growing up and being grown, connecting with his twentysomething post-college audience with raw honesty, humor, and hope.

Every twentysomething needs a little black book of secrets. Our twenties are filled with confusion, terrible jobs, anticipation, disappointment, cubicles, break-ups, transition, quarter-life crisis, loneliness, post-college what the heck, moderate success sandwiched between complete failure. We need a worn and weathered guide stashed somewhere close by to help shed some light on this defining decade. That guide is this book. Expanded from the blog post "21 Secrets for Your 20s" that spread like Internet wildfire with nearly a million readers in 190 countries, 101 Secrets for Your Twenties will encourage, inspire, prompt a plethora of LOLs, and kick-start your life forward with its witty, honest, and hilarious wisdom-stuffed pearls to help you rock life in your twenties. This is the perfect gift for college graduation. Or the best Christmas present you can give to the 20-something in your life. For everyone and anyone who is struggling through becoming an adult ... You need 101 Secrets for Your Twenties.

Ready to write your book? So why haven’t you done it yet? If you’re like most nonfiction authors, fears are holding you back. Sound familiar? Is my idea good enough? How do I structure a book? What exactly are the steps to write it? How do I stay motivated? What if I actually finish it, and it’s bad? Worst of all: what if I publish it, and no one cares? How do I know if I’m even doing the right things? The truth is, writing a book can be scary and overwhelming—but it doesn’t have to be. There’s a way to know you’re on the right path and taking the right steps. How? By using a method that’s been validated with thousands of other Authors just like you. In fact, it’s the same exact process used to produce dozens of big bestsellers–including David Goggins’s Can’t Hurt Me, Tiffany Haddish’s The Last Black Unicorn, and Joey Coleman’s Never Lose a Customer Again. The Scribe Method is the tested and proven process that will help you navigate the entire book-writing process from start to finish–the right way. Written by 4x New York Times Bestselling Author Tucker Max and publishing expert Zach Obront, you’ll learn the step-by-step method that has helped over 1,500 authors write and publish their books. Now a Wall Street Journal Bestseller itself, The Scribe Method is specifically designed for business leaders, personal development gurus, entrepreneurs, and any expert in their field who has accumulated years of hard-won knowledge and wants to put it out into the world. Forget the rest of the books written by pretenders. This is the ultimate resource for anyone who wants to professionally write a great nonfiction book.