Book Idea

[Rem]

I have been contacted and approached on numerous occasions by people who think I should write about writing with 8 kids as a stay-at-home-dad. I had thought about this before but I tend to quickly dismiss the idea for a number of reasons. One of them being I could write about my process in about 10 pages. For some reason people feel inspired by my story but it's totally romanticized. I lead a fairly dull life, all I do is read and write and bark at the kids to clean up their shit.

I get it. I can create a beautiful cover, slap on a catchy and clever title, with a blurb about how I'm some superDAD who pumps out novels for a living. Hell, I'd buy it too. But the realities always settle in. What is between the pages? Sure I can probably whip up some "wordy" and "repetitive" manuscript and relate writing to a work-out regime such as plugging away at it every day, finding your "why", focusing on "action", not sugar coating success and inspiring writers, persevering to the very end by hard work and dedication, and then coming out a hero on the other side.

I am bringing this topic back up because lately I have had a record amount of people tell me they would love to read something like this from me. (people I know and don't know). Just because people say this doesn't mean I should do it. I have talked with a few close friends and some family members about this and have gotten their input. I think I want to put this out there to those who may not know me and to a group of people who are success driven to see what you guys think about the idea. Maybe we can toss around some ideas and I can get a better understanding of the realities of this potential endeavor.

So, what are your thoughts on this? Is this something that you think the market truly wants? Why or why not?

 

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[Rem]

I'll reply to my own thread. One idea I have is to title it: 39 Lessons I Learned From My 8 Kids About Writing

I could spend time bulleting out what those 39 things are and then writing 7 or 8 pages about each one with a bit of a comical twist, potentially dissecting each section into 3 parts.

1. Something one or some of my kids have done (or do)
2. How does this relate to writing
3. What has it taught me about writing

Thoughts?

 

[EricZ]

Definitely write a book!
I'm helping a young teen here in the forum write his first book; and there's NEVER a reason to NOT write about your stuff -- or are you afraid of actually making money???
If you are privvy to knowledge, even if you don't think it's special, others want to hear it -- that's a series of books right there!

However, I hear you, family and friends ALWAYS say you're great and should write a book blah blah.
That's why there's a thing we call PRODUCT VALIDATION. This is where your friends get to put their money where their mouth is:

Step one:
Make a cover

Step two:
Send an email to your friends "Hey friends! I'm making a book indeed! Paypal me 5$ and pre-order it.
If I get X orders I'll make it!"
--put your paypal link in the mail

-- see how many actually order it. If they don't then confront them "what about you telling me to write a book dude!?"

Step three:
If your book passes validation -- WRITE IT!

You can also go for other techniques like free giveaways see this one here:
www.befreud.com

VALIDATION is an art, sometimes one technique like the pre-sale technique above doesn't work but another does, like free giveaways etc. When you are really good you can even try kickstarter.

My favorite techinique is the 40blogs in 40nights technique.

But whatever you do, start writing and validating now.
Post here often.
Checkout Chickenhawks, Aimees, and Girouds self-publishing threads. This Forum is ripe with ideas.
Checkout my posts here too of course.

Hope this helps
E.



More:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...e-written-a-story-now-what.56498/#post-415747
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...-an-e-book-and-launch-fast.56045/#post-410875

 

[Rem]

@EricZ thanks for the reply. I like what GaryVee has to say here about promoting your book well in advance and providing value before launching it.

 

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[DawnW]

Was is it that you have to loose?