52 books in 52 weeks. Writing them.

[LifeTransformer]

If you have read what I've posted here so far, you'll know that I've read 52 books in 52 weeks.

The other thing you will have noted is the fact that I've done fudge all as far as making myself a true fastlaner since joining.

"Enough is enough and it's time for a change".

(actually this isn't strictly true because I've been trying via pure action since I was 19, but swings meet roundabouts, and I want to build on what I've posted here rather than the past)

I've got about 5 business ideas I want to pursue, but before I can, I feel the need to build a somewhat passive income from somewhere that I can use as a stepping stone to my greater goals. (much like sensible people will view a job).

So 2016 is going to be me going flat out as a "publisher/author".

Why 2016?

1. The fact I actually seem to be one of those few people who works on a calendar year, despite not actually following it very well (I'm sure that will come to fruition in this thread.)

2. It gives me the rest of the year to prepare, which some may view as cheating.

3. There are some other personal things I want to attend to before hand.

4. Because I can.

I've started this thread with a goal in mind. If you follow it, you might see me score.

More to follow in the preparation phase until "NYE" then it will truly be an action thread.

Full disclosure; I've been thinking things about this as far back as before I joined here, this 52 weeks comes with a lot of preparation. The first event will be the first book that gets published, but it wouldn't have taken me a week to do.

More to follow........

 

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[DeletedUser394]

I think you need to read another 52 books. Better yet become the alpha male of knowledge and read 104 books in 52 weeks.

Keep planning as well. Never stop planning - you can start making changes in your life in 2037. There's no rush.

 

[LifeTransformer]

Action already taken:

1. Put GrumpCat on ignore.
2. Outlines for 10 books already completed.
3. Book covers designed for 5 of the books.
4. Domain names purchased for the pen names and websites built for 2 of them.
5. Useful software purchased (scrivener and one other Amazon tool I will reveal if it works).

Total investment thus far: About $100 and the time of course (might start tracking this).

 

[Digamma]

Interesting. I'm doing something similar starting this month, although not going for that quantity (I write longer stuff). Will follow.

What are you writing? Guessing non fiction?

Action already taken:

1. Put GrumpCat on ignore.
2. Outlines for 10 books already completed.
3. Book covers designed for 5 of the books.
4. Domain names purchased for the pen names and websites built for 2 of them.
5. Useful software purchased (scrivener and one other Amazon tool I will reveal if it works).

Total investment thus far: About $100 and the time of course (might start tracking this).

1. Weak. Grumpy actually gave you decent advice - start acting.
2. Why are outlining 10 books before writing one?
3. Why are wasting time designing covers?
4. Why are wasting time with 2 pen names instead of starting one and going for there? What do you need a website for?
   
5. Scrivener is great, this is a great investment.

 

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[Delmania]

Think of GrumpyCat as a drill sergeant. Since you're here, you want to join the Fastlane, right? A lot of people do, but few take action. His comments are aimed at that, take action.

In your case, outlines are good, designing covers are good, websites are good. I consider that taking action and not preparation. You do need to an idea before you can execute, and outlines and websites can help solidify that idea.

But To Digamma's point, with 10 outlines, that's enough preparation. Choose a book and write it. It's going to flop, but you're going to learn a few things so the next book you write won't flop as bad.

 

[Digamma]

I consider that taking action and not preparation.

I disagree. They're procrastination. And I say it because I outlined a ton of books, prepared a ton of landing pages for pen names, and all of that wrote you know how many books? None.
You cook the steak, then you worry about the side.

 

[LifeTransformer]

Interesting. I'm doing something similar starting this month, although not going for that quantity (I write longer stuff). Will follow.

What are you writing? Guessing non fiction?

1. Weak. Grumpy actually gave you decent advice - start acting.
2. Why are outlining 10 books before writing one?
3. Why are wasting time designing covers?
4. Why are wasting time with 2 pen names instead of starting one and going for there? What do you need a website for?
   
5. Scrivener is great, this is a great investment.

I'm writing fiction (short novellas) and non-fiction.

I've spent a bit of time finding niches, and also been thinking about what I can write about, and picked 5 niches from there. This kind of answers question 4 too, there will be 5 pen names total, one for each niche. The websites are to capture readers onto a mailing list, I'm also going to use them to test out some different ways of offering freebies, and the websites are also going to link to the books at various stores.

There is also another thing I'm going to try out with the websites that I haven't seen anyone else doing (AFAIK), that will get posted here if it works, don't want to give the game away at this time.

1. Yeah it was, but it was negative and I've got no time to argue with him.

2. I think outlining them with very rought drafts was a good idea, these were "brain dumps" when the ideas popped into my head, now they need filling out.

3. I've bought one cover from Fiverr for $10 (to get the PSD) and can chop and change that to suit for that pen name, I figure it takes me about 1 hour to design a book cover from scratch, so time Vs money I can probably do a decent enough job myself. If I get to the stage where I can pay a real professional $200-$300 for a high end cover, and I believe it's worth the investment then that will change.

4. See above.

5. I love it! I'm doing the learn scrivener fast tutorials too to help me out. The other software is meant to help with outlining, publishing and tracking, but so far I'm not 100% sure about it.

 

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[Delmania]

I disagree. They're procrastination. And I say it because I outlined a ton of books, prepared a ton of landing pages for pen names, and all of that wrote you know how many books? None.
You cook the steak, then you worry about the side.

I can understand that viewpoint, I just (respectfully) disagree with it. Before cooking the steak, it's helpful to have an idea of what meal you want to serve.

 

[LifeTransformer]

The little side conversation on Action in this thread is quite interesting.

I'll say I've started when the first book is published, this is preparation. Maybe I've done too much, maybe too little, only the results will tell me.

 

[LifeTransformer]

Okay f*** it, this week I'm going to do a dummy run.

It's Monday, so today I'm going to take one of my outlines, and start filling it out to a completed book, which I want published by Friday.

I'll check the thread at night, and update on my progress and reply to any questions/posts in the thread.

 

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[AllenCrawley]

I'm confused as to why you think 52 books in 52 weeks is the best way to go about this.

Could you detail your thinking behind this? My first thought is 52 books written in one year will lack quality content.

How are you planning to write this many books? Ghostwriters?

About how many words are you thinking each book will contain? How many words per hour can you write? How many hours to a day are you committing to writing?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

My first thought is 52 books written in one year will lack quality content.

It takes me one year to write 52 sentences.

 

[AndrewNC]

I've done what you are planning to do. From my first amazon book, writing a book so quickly left not enough time for editing, so the reviews went downhill. Hire a good editor.



I also put out 30 publications in the matter of a few months, outside of amazon. The quality was not great. On the other hand, another guy who started the same time as me and focused on one - he is still making a killing and has grown into an industry leader in the niche.

 

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[Andy Black]

"If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - without typos."

MJ DeMarco & Andrew NC

 

[Charnell]

Action already taken:

1. Put GrumpCat on ignore.
2. Outlines for 10 books already completed.
3. Book covers designed for 5 of the books.
4. Domain names purchased for the pen names and websites built for 2 of them.
5. Useful software purchased (scrivener and one other Amazon tool I will reveal if it works).

Total investment thus far: About $100 and the time of course (might start tracking this).

I'm curious what other prep you need?
I see that you're starting a "dummy run", why not have this be the actual start of your journey?
Have your self-published a book before?
Have you sold anything before?

52 books written in a year is a lofty goal. Stay safe.

See you next December...hopefully.

 

[BigBrianC]

I was going to do the same thing. 4 books a month, 1 book a week. But then Amazon changed and no longer can you get by posting mediocre, or even just okay, books. You're going to lose so much quality and the new Amazon system is going to eat you alive.

 

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[Charnell]

I was going to do the same thing. 4 books a month, 1 book a week. But then Amazon changed and no longer can you get by posting mediocre, or even just okay, books. You're going to lose so much quality and the new Amazon system is going to eat you alive.

As though Amazon is the only player in the game.

 

[BigBrianC]

As though Amazon is the only player in the game.

Oh, of course not. But it just seems the most common, and the only place I could give advice/contribute.

 

[AndrewNC]

"If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - without typos."

MJ DeMarco & Andrew NC

One, of the MANY...MANYYYYYYY lessons learned.

As some people on here know, and others don't....I'm in the process of writing my first REAL book (I know you said you liked the last one Andy, but that one didn't have an editor either and there is so much more to writing a book than putting words on paper).

I wrote over 700 pages so far, and don't even feel close to done. I could spread it out into 20 watered down books, or condense the best quality information and entertainment into one.

Right now, I have The Game by Neil Strauss on my desktop and I spent the last two hours deciding on what my first sentence should be. Neil Strauss is a 6 or 7 times best selling author. He must know something about making books popular.

The start of his book goes:

The house was a disaster.

Doors were split and smashed off their hinges; walls were dented in the
shape of fists, phones, and flowerpots; Herbal was hiding in a hotel room
scared for his life; and Mystery was collapsed on the living room carpet cry¬
ing. He'd been crying for two days straight.

Why did he write it this way? I'm not even paying attention to the words. The words are just the start. The WHY is what makes it best selling.

My best guess is curiosity... Definitely engages me and makes me want to learn more. I think that is one of the emotions I read about in Cashvertising that drive human behavior.

So now how can I structure my book with the same principles in mind.

After 2 hours, I think I got about 4 sentences in for my first 'real' draft.

 

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[LifeTransformer]

I'm confused as to why you think 52 books in 52 weeks is the best way to go about this.

Could you detail your thinking behind this? My first thought is 52 books written in one year will lack quality content.

How are you planning to write this many books? Ghostwriters?

About how many words are you thinking each book will contain? How many words per hour can you write? How many hours to a day are you committing to writing?

These got me thinking, thanks Allen!

I'm going to start by doing it all myself, writing + cover design and everything else. Not sure if this is a good idea but we'll see what happens, if I find bits I'm doing myself (formatting, editing, cover design etc) start to be time wasting, then I'll outsource those parts of the work. If spending $X on a cover frees me up to concentrate on the writing then I'll do that.

I see your point about quality, I believe they will be of good quality for the niches I've selected. I guess my reviewers will be the judge there.

I've been thinking the plan over for a while now, if my books are going to be in the short 10,0000-20,000 words region, then I should be able to write each one in 5 days maximum, leaving me 2 to do the cover and get it published. That's spending about 4 hours per day doing it (this might change, I'll post updates of course).

Why 52 books in 52 weeks? Because I want to try these five niches out, that will probably become 2 or even 1 by the end of the year, I could focus from the start on the one I think will be best, but I think I'm being smart testing the waters.

 

[Delmania]

Have you validated any of these niches?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LifeTransformer]

I'm curious what other prep you need?
I see that you're starting a "dummy run", why not have this be the actual start of your journey?
Have your self-published a book before?
Have you sold anything before?

52 books written in a year is a lofty goal. Stay safe.

See you next December...hopefully.

Great points, maybe I don't need any more prep. I guess I'll find out at the end of the week.

Not self-published before, and yes I've sold stuff before, I even try and work some copywriting into my classified ads .

I didn't quite answer the question on why 52 books in 52 weeks above did I?

Why not? (I'm joking). Because it's a challenge is the real reason, but I think it's an attainable one, and I like the format of being able to split it down from the whole year to a monthly and weekly basis. The deadline effect will motivate me.

What would be sensible? Probably to do 1 book every 2 weeks, or 1 per month but where's the fun in that?

 

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[LifeTransformer]

One, of the MANY...MANYYYYYYY lessons learned.

As some people on here know, and others don't....I'm in the process of writing my first REAL book (I know you said you liked the last one Andy, but that one didn't have an editor either and there is so much more to writing a book than putting words on paper).

I wrote over 700 pages so far, and don't even feel close to done. I could spread it out into 20 watered down books, or condense the best quality information and entertainment into one.

Right now, I have The Game by Neil Strauss on my desktop and I spent the last two hours deciding on what my first sentence should be. Neil Strauss is a 6 or 7 times best selling author. He must know something about making books popular.

The start of his book goes:

The house was a disaster.

Doors were split and smashed off their hinges; walls were dented in the
shape of fists, phones, and flowerpots; Herbal was hiding in a hotel room
scared for his life; and Mystery was collapsed on the living room carpet cry¬
ing. He'd been crying for two days straight.

Why did he write it this way? I'm not even paying attention to the words. The words are just the start. The WHY is what makes it best selling.

My best guess is curiosity... Definitely engages me and makes me want to learn more. I think that is one of the emotions I read about in Cashvertising that drive human behavior.

So now how can I structure my book with the same principles in mind.

After 2 hours, I think I got about 4 sentences in for my first 'real' draft.

From the very first sentence, the reader must want to know what happens next.

Wired for Story, Lisa Cron.

 

[Delmania]

So, to break this down, you've got 5 niches, and you've got ideas for books. Rather than writing a series of books, why not make choose a 2 niches, and make some sites? Do some rearch with Google's keyword planner, figure out what the best keywords for those niches. Then build a site for each niche, take you book ideas and placing them as blog posts. That way you can both improve your writing and validate which niche has the most potential.

 

[LifeTransformer]

Have you validated any of these niches?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes I believe so, I've done a lot of research to get to the 5 niches I've picked.

Right, every question responded too I believe. Here's an update:

I went through all my drafts/outlines to see what I had to build upon, and I found one book that I'd kind of forgotten about that was half done and the ending finished (start with the end in mind). I've also already done the cover for this book (took about 30 minutes to do this one).

So, I had half a book that had a cover and just needed finishing.

I've now got 3/4 of a book with a cover that needs finishing.

This is going to validate the challenge itself, If I can't finish this half done book and get it published by Friday, then how the hell am I going to do a whole book in a week?

Plan for next week (getting ahead of myself perhaps?) is to do it again with a fresh book from start to finish.

 

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[wade1mil]

Wrote this without reading all of the replies. Later discovered I'm repeating what some people have said and you decided to do something instead of prepare. Thought I'd share anyways in case it did anybody any good. But mainly it's to make me feel better about not wasting my time. I'm so selfish.

1. The fact I actually seem to be one of those few people who works on a calendar year, despite not actually following it very well (I'm sure that will come to fruition in this thread.)

If you don't follow it very well, then it actually seems that you aren't one of the few people who works on a calendar year.

2. It gives me the rest of the year to prepare, which some may view as cheating.

I think most view this as procrastination, not cheating.

3. There are some other personal things I want to attend to before hand.

This is another form of procrastination. Not doubting you have other things to deal with, but I'm positive they can be dealt with while you're not writing.

4. Because I can.

Anybody can plan and procrastinate. Not everyone will acknowledge it and do something about it.

I'm also not sure you're doing the right thing. Meaning chasing money. It's so crazy how much easier things can be when you focus on providing value rather than extracting money. Anyway, I wish you good luck.

 

[LifeTransformer]

Wrote this without reading all of the replies. Later discovered I'm repeating what some people have said and you decided to do something instead of prepare. Thought I'd share anyways in case it did anybody any good. But mainly it's to make me feel better about not wasting my time. I'm so selfish.

If you don't follow it very well, then it actually seems that you aren't one of the few people who works on a calendar year.

I think most view this as procrastination, not cheating.

This is another form of procrastination. Not doubting you have other things to deal with, but I'm positive they can be dealt with while you're not writing.

Anybody can plan and procrastinate. Not everyone will acknowledge it and do something about it.

I'm also not sure you're doing the right thing. Meaning chasing money. It's so crazy how much easier things can be when you focus on providing value rather than extracting money. Anyway, I wish you good luck.

I didn't explain that calendar thing did I? I meant in a positive way. You'll see it happen in this thread at some point hopefully.

Thanks for the rest of your thoughts and insight too. I'm not money chasing, if I were I'd probably be doing those adult coloring books.

 

[Choate]

Hey man I just wanted to come in here and say I think this is a great idea. So far you have faced a lot of negativity and naysayers but I would stick to your guns. You came in here with a decision to make 52 books in 52 weeks in 2016, so I think that is what you should do. I don't recall you asking for advice, so I won't give any. I'm inspired and think its a great idea.

Its a large project; a book a week definitely requires lifestyle adjustments. Its not something you can just start tomorrow and do it effectively. I believe if you have your mind to it, you can write a quality book in a week. 3 months is good enough time for planning, training your mindset, and preparing for what's about to happen. If you want it bad enough each week, and your mind is focused, you could write a hell of a book. I don't doubt you'll do it - but what is your experience so far? This is like running a long marathon... have you trained for it? Are you going to burn out and slow down at some point (say, 30 weeks in?) or are you going to have the resilience to stick it through even if the books aren't selling? These are the correct questions to ask. I would brush off people criticizing your existing process of pen names, covers, domains etc; you're merely setting up the systems so that when its time to write, its time to write!

You wouldn't buy a franchise or start a new business without doing due diligence, so why would he start tomorrow? This responses to this thread are akin to reading JackEdwards "$15,000 to 10 million" original post and asking right away, "So how you going to spend the $15,000 tomorrow?"

 

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[BigBrianC]

So the rest of the year, the whole 3 months of it, you're going to "plan"? Why not just start next week and work from October 11th, 2015 to October 11th, 2016?

Or freelance and get a feel for writing books the rest of the year, so you have experience when you write yours.

 

[LifeTransformer]

Hey man I just wanted to come in here and say I think this is a great idea. So far you have faced a lot of negativity and naysayers but I would stick to your guns. You came in here with a decision to make 52 books in 52 weeks in 2016, so I think that is what you should do. I don't recall you asking for advice, so I won't give any. I'm inspired and think its a great idea.

Its a large project; a book a week definitely requires lifestyle adjustments. Its not something you can just start tomorrow and do it effectively. I believe if you have your mind to it, you can write a quality book in a week. 3 months is good enough time for planning, training your mindset, and preparing for what's about to happen. If you want it bad enough each week, and your mind is focused, you could write a hell of a book. I don't doubt you'll do it - but what is your experience so far? This is like running a long marathon... have you trained for it? Are you going to burn out and slow down at some point (say, 30 weeks in?) or are you going to have the resilience to stick it through even if the books aren't selling? These are the correct questions to ask. I would brush off people criticizing your existing process of pen names, covers, domains etc; you're merely setting up the systems so that when its time to write, its time to write!

You wouldn't buy a franchise or start a new business without doing due diligence, so why would he start tomorrow? This responses to this thread are akin to reading JackEdwards "$15,000 to 10 million" original post and asking right away, "So how you going to spend the $15,000 tomorrow?"

Thanks for that! Very encouraging words.

I'm doing the dummy run on a half finished book this week, so we'll see how that goes.
Then I'm going to do a book from scratch dummy run after that is completed.

If either of these fail, then that's the plan out the window. You could say these will be the training.

Today's tasks:

Make some mods to the website for this particular pen name's website.
But first, finish writing the book, 5000 words to go but will not stop at that if I think the book isn't finished.

The other reason I wanted to start in 2016 was to get Xmas out the way. But just as I write that sentence, it's given me an idea for a Xmas related book.

Back later with progress.