Is writing a book fast lane?

[Kid]

Writing a book isn't fastlane.

Writing a book about "how to write a book" is.

 

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[LiveEntrepreneur]

Interesting stuff.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I had a question sorry if its silly, but do you think its a bad idea to make a project like a book and get it out there even if you think there is a low chance of getting your money back if any of it? Or is it a good idea because you are getting entrepreneurship experience, and you are learning to operate in different areas?

Not a silly question at all. Writing a book is a big project. Marketing it is another big project. Why take that on, if you don't have a business plan for it?

I agree with all the comments about value for the reader. If your book idea is nonfiction, I would recommend, just use a blog, video channel, podcast, social media, or forums. Share your ideas in a way that's free, and so easy to do a little bit at a time. If you get an enthusiastic audience, then work on a book. Your first book could simply be a collection of your best, most popular essays or articles or transcripts. That would be a very low risk way to start.

If your book idea is fiction, then there's no substitute for writing a book. But be aware you will need to endure a lot of rejection before you find a publisher. And most publishers would probably want to know what the author can do to help with marketing. You could self-publish it, but again, what would be the marketing plan so anyone even finds the book?

Maybe telling the story is your total passion and you'll never have inner peace until the story's written out for others. It that's what's in your heart, then it doesn't matter if you can make a profit. It might be that artistic fulfillment is super important for you. That's great, and I'd never tell someone to not make their art for passion. But that's also not a business model.

 

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[wade1mil]

And there is no book called “Unscripted fastlane”.

Who said there was?

 

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[WTF]

I'd opt to say: No, not in most cases.

It is POSSIBLE for you to become mega-wealthy through writing a book whether fiction or non-fiction, though considering your competition is going to be against the other 1.3M books that have already been published this year, less and less people are reading books as time progresses, some people devote their entire lives to being good writers, and the low-margin sales you'd likely get from selling a book (which you may or may not sell many of) -- it seems like a huge waste of time.

Even if you were to spend 10 years writing 1000 books (averaging 100 books a year), your profits likely wouldn't justify all the time you spent writing re-hashed books full of unoriginal ideas.

Find a better source of passive income. Start a better business.

 

[Late Bloomer]

These are two different books by MJ DeMarco.
And there is no book called “Unscripted fastlane”.

• The Millionaire Fastlane : Crack the code to wealth and live rich for a lifetime.
• Unscripted : Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship.

I think there's crosstalk going on about a misunderstanding of grammar and punctuation.

I think the original question was:
Could you say about MJ's two books ("Millionaire Fastlane " and "Unscripted "), that writing these books was a Fastlane-style activity for MJ?

But the way it accidentally came across to Galaxy, because the final word fastlane isn't in italics:
Are the titles of MJ's two books "Millionaire Fastlane " and "Unscripted Fastlane"?

Hope we can now return to the regularly scheduled discussion...

 

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[wade1mil]

Could you say about MJ's two books ("Millionaire Fastlane " and "Unscripted "), that writing these books was a Fastlane-style activity for MJ?

Bingo.

 

[Shepherd]

Sorry to come late to the party, but I want to point out I never did believe writing fiction was Fastlane. If I said anywhere else that I 'no longer' believe it, I misspoke.

For the record, I came here to the forum with my long-time ghostwriting client after he discovered Held for Ransom's legendary fiction thread. That's where I met @ChickenHawk, and that's what started my client down the fiction road. He still believes in fiction for Fastlane, but I'm preparing for the time when he stops believing it.

For me, Fastlane means a business with residual passive income whose products I can outsource when I have it established. The three keys there are residual (as ChickenHawk pointed out, in self-publishing there are diminishing returns on a fiction backlist), passive (meaning I don't have to turn out 3-4k words daily to prop up the backlist with 4-6 week new releases) and outsource (ironic, since that's exactly what my client does, and I'm the provider).

Five years after joining this forum, I still haven't found that fast lane, and I continue to write as a freelancer to support my search. I know why, and it's the same reason I quit writing under my own pen name. I resist marketing.

Which brings us back to the original question. ChickenHawk's, E L James', and J. K. Rowling's (among a very few others') experiences to the contrary (because they are outliers), without constant marketing the answer is no - writing a book isn't Fastlane.

However, writing a non-fiction book to support or advertise your core business is a terrific idea, time-tested and approved.

I have a novel (Thriller/Mystery) I wrote a few years back nearly ready to go. Cover is done, has been professionally edited. Probably a couple weeks of work and I could self-publish. It could easily translate into a series. And yet I procrastinate.

I started writing simply because I wanted to see if I could do it. The marketing part I'm not really excited about. With the day job, my farm business and trying to have somewhat of a life, it's hard for me to see it as more of a hobby long-term that brings in a few extra dollars. If I had the time, I don't see myself cranking out more than 3 per year. The saturation and low barrier to entry seems real.

 

[COSenior]

At least you're self-aware, and that's the first step to fix it.

I resisted marketing, too, but ultimately realized that if you don't deal with this limiting belief, you won't succeed in business (or many other things for that matter, because you're selling yourself in one way or another every day).

Absolutely true, and working on it now. I finally found someone who could coach me through that conversation - with clients and with myself - so I don't feel sleazy doing it. Not implying that it is - just that I felt that way.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

Is The Millionaire Fastlane or Unscripted fastlane?

I guess.

 

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[LiveEntrepreneur]

View attachment 19857

View attachment 19857

Yeah I probably should of done that first, my bad.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

One book is unlikely to "be Fastlane" -- but a slow and steady output of GOOD WORK can.

I see, thanks.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

I think the two main factors in this equation are Productivity and Scalability. How much time and effort does it take you to write the book? What else could you have been doing with that time? Then once the book is done, how will it get into the hands of people who would like to read it, and how will that in turn scale up to more money?

Will you get paid for selling the book itself, or is it the key that unlocks the door for a much higher paying business relationship? In the book ghostwriting contract I'm in that got approved today, the ultimate client is the owner of a technology and consulting business, who wants to get more big corporations to pay for their $50k software + training package. It really doesn't matter how many people buy the book, as long as some of them are inspired enough to buy a deployment package. I hope from doing this project this year, that I'll see how to use the same process for promoting my own business next year. So it's not directly Fastlane, but it is a great way to get paid to learn some things that might soon help me steer my own vehicle more skillfully.

On the other hand, the are authors like JK Rowling who didn't write a book in order to get paid for more phone calls to personally tell bedtime stories to individuals, but to write out the story once and ultimately sell millions of copies.

A book is a tool, like a hammer or screwdriver. Different people might have different purposes for having a hammer in their toolkit. One might use it to assemble new houses all day, another might use it to demolish condemned buildings all day. Which of them is the better business user of hammers? It depends!

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I had a question sorry if its silly, but do you think its a bad idea to make a project like a book and get it out there even if you think there is a low chance of getting your money back if any of it? Or is it a good idea because you are getting entrepreneurship experience, and you are learning to operate in different areas?

 

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[ShellShock]

What value can you provide by writing a book (or books)? Something to think about.

 

[Late Bloomer]

until Amazon deals with their Kindle Unlimited mess

Thanks for the interesting post! I don't know anything the Kindle Unlimited mess. What's going on?

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

Your first book will almost certainly fail, just like any other product you'll create. You need to learn by experience, and putting out a book is a fairly affordable way to learn by practice.

I see, thanks for that.

Write the book to provide value not to chase money.

Stop thinking of reasons not to, just do it and see what happens!

Do, learn, adapt, do better.

Yeah that's my goal, I'm not thinking about money its all about value.

 

[HackVenture]

These are two different books by MJ DeMarco.
And there is no book called “Unscripted fastlane”.

• The Millionaire Fastlane : Crack the code to wealth and live rich for a lifetime.
• Unscripted : Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship.

He meant..

Is [The Millionaire Fastlane ] or [Unscripted ] fastlane?

 

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[Late Bloomer]

I finally found someone who could coach me through that conversation - with clients and with myself - so I don't feel sleazy doing it. Not implying that it is - just that I felt that way.

I was about to ask about that. What is it that kept you from feeling okay about marketing? I guess the answer would be a Mindset/Motivation post, rather than relevant here.

 

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[srodrigo]

Timing. Oh man, where do I start? Like most Fastlane ventures, timing plays a huge role. Right now, if you're writing genre fiction, especially romance, the timing is horrible. In fact, if you had a terrific romance book that you were itching to publish, I'd suggest holding off until Amazon deals with their Kindle Unlimited mess. A couple years ago, I'd say, "Don't wait, hit that publish button now, baby!" You've got to look at your niche and see what it looks like, and then act accordingly.

That's unfortunate... I was reading HFR's and @ChickenHawk 's threads and the whole thing sounded like a lot of work but quite rewarding (shipping books regularly) and possible to make money. But it seems like those good days in 2013 are gone...

I was really thinking about spending a few months and see if I got traction, but if it looks so bad at the moment I might forget about it, specially given I was thinking about writing fiction, which looks worse than non-fiction as per @ChickenHawk 's comments.

 

[srodrigo]

I'd like to address just this one sentence from your long post. You mentioned 'books' of 10k-20k, which are actually short stories to novella-length. It is quite possible, with a bit of lead time, to publish even novel-length books of some genre categories once a month. However, you need to know what that means.

If you're an 'ok' writer, you'd probably benefit from some developmental editing, which takes some time. You'll certainly need a proofreader and copy editor or combination, no matter how expert you are with grammar and spelling - every author does. More time. A cover will take some time, though you can get that done while you're still writing the book or having it gone over pre-publication. All of it takes a little money (or a lot, depending on the length of the book and the level of expertise you hire).

In other words, it isn't just the writing. Now, in contrast to Chickenhawk, who polishes every word and sentence before showing it to others, I write fast and let my support people do the polishing. If I were to start over, I'd write two books in quick succession, turning over the first one to be edited as I wrote the second. I'd turn over the second to be edited, and while that was happening, I'd write the third. Only then would I begin to publish, and with that kind of lead time, I'd be able to publish at least every six weeks or so (based on the category length of my genre and how much time I want to devote to it). That said, it's a brutal schedule unless you can write 1000-1500 words per hour or write in a category that tolerates shorter novels.

I say all this not to discourage you, but to help you understand the industry better than I think you do at this point. Better to learn the truth now IMO, than to burn a pen name or two, or worse yet, your own name, because you didn't understand the timing.

I don't for a moment believe that there's no more opportunity in publishing. On the contrary, I see new authors breaking in all the time. It's a matter of professionalism, learning the ropes, and yes, productivity. If you want it badly enough, you can do it. I just urge you to do it right, to give yourself a chance to succeed.

Thanks for the context. I think I read another post where the author started writing 8-20k fiction novellas, before I posted that. A few pages later, I read that the same author in the same niche was publishing longer books because shorter ones didn't work anymore (if I remember correctly). That makes sense, as the market gets more saturated, people get used to more content/quality for the same money or less.

I'll leave it for now, as I decided to focus on something else (funnily, something with quite a few things in common). I had a "taste" of writing for a few days, to see whether it's for me or not. Apparently, I'm 'ok' (a few good reviews, a few ok reviews), but it felt like going that route was wasting many years of experience in other fields that have a lot of opportunities. Also, I could only write about 600 words per hour haha, and that's rough text, not even polished, which obviously took me a long time to refine. I enjoyed it, but I don't hate writing software enough to write books instead

I might keep writing on the side though, it was a great experience, and already have one hungry reader waiting for more chapters, lol.

 

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[COSenior]

I'll leave it for now, as I decided to focus on something else (funnily, something with quite a few things in common). I had a "taste" of writing for a few days, to see whether it's for me or not. Apparently, I'm 'ok' (a few good reviews, a few ok reviews), but it felt like going that route was wasting many years of experience in other fields that have a lot of opportunities.

That sounds like a good decision. You can always write for enjoyment while doing something else for money. Learning when to say no to an opportunity is as important as learning when to say yes.

Best wishes!

 

[Galaxy16]

Is The Millionaire Fastlane or Unscripted fastlane?

These are two different books by MJ DeMarco.
And there is no book called “Unscripted fastlane”.

• The Millionaire Fastlane : Crack the code to wealth and live rich for a lifetime.
• Unscripted : Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship.

 

[NanoDrake]

These are two different books by MJ DeMarco.
And there is no book called “Unscripted fastlane”.

• The Millionaire Fastlane : Crack the code to wealth and live rich for a lifetime.
• Unscripted : Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship.

Quite sure you aren't getting what he said...

 

[Fastlane Liam]

yes absolutely

 

[wade1mil]

Quite sure you aren't getting what he said...

I guess not. Fill me in.

 

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[LiveEntrepreneur]

Your first book will almost certainly fail, just like any other product you'll create. You need to learn by experience, and putting out a book is a fairly affordable way to learn by practice.

I see, thanks.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

Not a silly question at all. Writing a book is a big project. Marketing it is another big project. Why take that on, if you don't have a business plan for it?

I agree with all the comments about value for the reader. If your book idea is nonfiction, I would recommend, just use a blog, video channel, podcast, social media, or forums. Share your ideas in a way that's free, and so easy to do a little bit at a time. If you get an enthusiastic audience, then work on a book. Your first book could simply be a collection of your best, most popular essays or articles or transcripts. That would be a very low risk way to start.

If your book idea is fiction, then there's no substitute for writing a book. But be aware you will need to endure a lot of rejection before you find a publisher. And most publishers would probably want to know what the author can do to help with marketing. You could self-publish it, but again, what would be the marketing plan so anyone even finds the book?

Maybe telling the story is your total passion and you'll never have inner peace until the story's written out for others. It that's what's in your heart, then it doesn't matter if you can make a profit. It might be that artistic fulfillment is super important for you. That's great, and I'd never tell someone to not make their art for passion. But that's also not a business model.

Thanks for the advice some great information here.

 

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[Late Bloomer]

Interesting. I finished reading a book yesterday that mentioned making an MVP, starting with only a couple of chapters and post articles, and if there is an audience go for it.

For working with a standard nonfiction publisher, it all starts with a proposal. The proposal has table of contents, sample chapter, competitive analysis, why the author is well qualified to write the book, and suggested marketing plan. With a strong proposal, the author can get an agent and a publisher. The book itself doesn't have to be written until the publisher provides an advance, usually at least a few thousand dollars.

 

[srodrigo]

Happily, Amazon has done a lot in the last few months to clean up their Kindle Unlimited mess. This was long overdue, because scammers were in the process of destroying any integrity in the fiction bestseller lists, not to mention making it really hard for honest authors to gain any traction.

It's true that the "easy money" days are behind us, but the market has definitely improved. If you have a knack for writing and are willing to put in the time, now might be a pretty good time. Good luck regardless of what you decide!

Well, that sounds much better than the situation 6 months ago I think I need to do more research on my own, I'm clearly lacking understanding of the current platforms/situation.

Different people say I'm actually an ok writer (at least not a terrible one), which is a good start for a software developer who hasn't written any books (although I always liked writing anything). I've been doing some work this week and I'm 2k words into a book that I was hoping would be around 10k, but looks more like 20k at least, if not longer. I'd like to try something around 8-10k as a first "test" to see how everything works, from writing to publishing, so I outlined a short story last night and today I'm going to start writing it.

I'm not really looking for easy money or big money per se (although that'd be great!), but something that is quicker to iterate than my current niche (video games, which take ages to make for a single person, and the market is also saturated).

The only "problem" is that I'm not an English speaker, so I'd be writing in Spanish. Fortunately, it's one of the 3 most spoken languages in the world, but the market is smaller than the English one. This might be good and bad.

Both fiction and non-fiction are more difficult now. It's because the platform is getting more and more crowded and readers are now used to low prices. Before, getting a good book for $3 or $4 wasn't that easy so any self-published author who was good enough (not even the best) had it relatively easy.

Today, even high-profile authors with incredible books sell them for just a couple of bucks. As a new author, it's difficult to compete with them.

So the same race to the bottom in prices that other industries are suffering. That s*cks. Although it's still less "risky" than what I've been doing for two months (and I haven't even got anything I can sell). As an author, I think you can ship at least one short book per month? Compared to that, video games are much slower to make, I can't see anything shorter than six months, and that's using pre-made tools and stock art/music, which usually feel like "too standard" for catching people's attention, not to mention the race to the bottom in prices. Players are getting really picky these days, and got used to great games, that can take years to make, for 10 bucks. I would rather spend one month writing a book and selling peanuts than 6 months or longer making a video game that also sells peanuts.

Thanks both for the info