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Who said there was?And there is no book called “Unscripted fastlane”.
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Free registration at the forum removes this block.Who said there was?And there is no book called “Unscripted fastlane”.
Quite sure you aren't getting what he said...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 guess not. Fill me in.Quite sure you aren't getting what he said...
I see, thanks.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.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.
Yeah that's my goal, I'm not thinking about money its all about value.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.
Thanks for the advice some great information here.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.
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.
If you look at the post, Money-Chasing Burns Bestselling Author, there are some links on the bottom of the original post to news stories that provide a good summary of the problems. In short, Amazon is a mess right now with "authors" stuffing books to scam the Kindle Unlimited System. Hope this helps!Thanks for the interesting post! I don't know anything the Kindle Unlimited mess. What's going on?
So I've had this idea for a while for writing a book. I had some ideas which I think could really bring value to people, and know roughly what I would be writing. Just curious on peoples opinion on writing a book as part of joining the fast lane.
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.
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.You're going to get crapped on for asking this question lol. But here's my take, you just need to ask yourself if you're satisfying CENTS. Needs, entry barriers, control, scalability, and time.
Needs - is there a need for what you're writing about, or for another book about the subject? This is the part where people are not honest with themselves, or do not scope out/test the need, and end up playing themselves. Do you want to invest all the hours into writing a book and find out you were wrong about the need? Writing is also incredibly saturated so you have to be exceptional.
Entry barriers - relatively low, anyone can write about what you write about. I find authors need to build their brands before they have any real "barriers" that keep other authors from biting their content.
Control - Don't know the book market very well but many people entrust amazon or some other channel in distributing their product. You don't control it.
Scalability - Relatively good as you can sell a book to anyone anywhere (if you have online distribution)
Time - Relatively good, as once you write the book once, you can continue earning income on it forever.
Bingo.Could you say about MJ's two books ("Millionaire Fastlane " and "Unscripted "), that writing these books was a Fastlane-style activity for MJ?
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.This is an interesting question, and actually one I've been pondering a lot lately, especially after on a related thread, @COSenior said that she no longer believes that writing a book is fastlane.
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.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 know why, and it's the same reason I quit writing under my own pen name. I resist marketing.
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.
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.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).
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.
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...
specially given I was thinking about writing fiction, which looks worse than non-fiction as per @ChickenHawk 's comments.
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!
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.
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.As an author, I think you can ship at least one short book per month?
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.
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.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.
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