Begin With The End In Mind---Use A Book Cover, in 3D
When
I set out to write the book/guide, I began with an outline of my
potential reader's thought-flow. This thought-flow is simply what I
expect readers to ask upon picking up the book. Obviously, their
first encounter with the book will be with its cover and the title.
Since the title is actually a call to action, it's grabby and the
word “backyard” also makes it personal since virtually everyone
has a backyard and can take advantage of this opportunity.
So
upon picking up the book, readers will like to know what this
backyard opportunity is. This is where I talk about my experience
with my project, which I did right in my local community, which is my backyard
if you will. The next question I think might come up is whether this
project is for them and what can they get out of it, the benefits of
it. So next I wrote out a short chapter on the benefits of doing a project and who exactly it's for. Based on that thought-flow, I began writing out the chapters:
Introduction, the benefits, and etc.
Use An Outline For Chapters
I
used an outline, or sorts, to write draw out a road map of where the
book should go in content. Take a look here of what I wrote, in the beginning:
Table
Of Contents
Introduction
List
Who
Is This For?
What
Are The Benefits?
Getting
Started
Nuts
& Bolts
My
Lessons And Why Other People Could And Should Do It
Technicals---how
to introduce yourself, set an appointment, emails, follow-ups,
interview, interview structure, survey, etc
My
Daily Log
What
All Of This Means
Why
I need your help for review---If you would like to read the whole
book and help me with feedback, send me an email here:
acouplethings70@gmail.com.
With
this rough outline, I I now have a map in mind and can simply follow
it. I like to write with a finish line in my head, and seeing the
table of contents laid out like that tells me the book is already
finished. All I have to do now is flesh it out with value, the contents.
Update: The outline has since changed a bit, and rightly so, because you remember things to add to it and change to make it better, but the basic outline is what got me started.
Write A Little Everyday
I'm
sure you have heard of the saying that a little bit goes a long way,
or a bite at a time eats an elephant. I applied the same thing to
writing my book. I took each chapter, sat down and wrote it out . I
didn't do this perfectly in the beginning, but I simply poured out my
thoughts on to the paper and stepped back.
At this point I am not
worrying about how good my writing is, all that matters is that I
have something sensible on paper. With that done, I set the ball
rolling---I know I have a rough chapter down. In a few hours or the next day, I sit and rewrite it to make it
clearer in language and add things I forgot or missed on the first
write. This is how all of my chapters came together.
Always Think About How To Improve
Another
thing I found useful during this whole process was thinking
throughout the day about how to improve the content. I go throughout
the day thinking about how readers will think of the book , and if I
am answering all of their questions. I actually put myself in their
shoes, and ask if I would get value out of reading my own book. If
my mind says no, then I ask what I can do to correct that.
Questions
like this help:
Is
my writing clear enough?
Can
it be easily understood?
Am
I using too many unclear words---I like to write with simple
language that many people can understand.
This
bring me directly to my next lesson: Take something to write with
wherever you go.
Carry & Pen and Paper/Notepad With You At All Times
This
lesson is not only for writers, but for all creative people. Why? You
never know when an idea could hit. I know ideas could hit when I sit
to write, but when I am out and about, when going about daily things,
my mind takes in many things and with me thinking about my book, I
come up with things that I could add or take out of my book. This is
how I came up with the idea of launching my book in packages.
I
came across this idea from reading a Nathan Barry post about the
power of packages, and I found it clever. Nathan talks about how he
himself heard it from Chris Guilleabeau, and applied in the sales of
his products---the App Design Handbook, Designing Web Applications,
and Authority.
But
without thinking constantly about how to present my book or how to package, I may not have
remembered that. And by carrying something to write with I was able
to make a note to myself to do that when I get back home to my
laptop.
Share Your Ideas With Others
Besides
thinking and writing things down throughout the day, I also took the
opportunity share my book with others. I would meet random people at
the Starbucks where I usually go to write or at The Barnes &
Noble Bookstore and discuss different things with them about my book.
How
do I do this? If I notice someone reading a book or working on
something similar, I would simply would introduce myself and ask a
few minutes of them to help me think through something.
An example was my meeting with a lawyer at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore a few weeks ago. We sat across from each other, and after a few minutes of working on my book, I had a question about the cover I wanted to use.
I show him a picture of it on my laptop, and after sharing his thoughts with me on the cover, he pointed out a small issue with my title.
Initially, I wrote the title so: Get To Know, Your Backyard Opportunity. I wrote it this way to mean "Get To Know," as a noun that meant your backyard opportunity. Obviously this didn't make sense. He pointed that out, and I took away the comma.
See? Little things like that could change a whole lot. But I wouldn't have known if I didn't take the initiative to get this opinion on the cover I was working on.
7. Learn From Others
This goes back to checking out Nathan Barry's Sales
page on his website. I wanted to see how someone else had gone about theirs and learn from it. Not copy, but simply figure out the reasoning behind it, and see if I can apply some of it to my own.
Keep in mind, though some people may claim original rights to an idea, no idea really is new. Ideas get recycled over and over again throughout time, and show up in a different guise as a new one.
This is what the great book meant in the book of Ecclesiastes when it said this: There's nothing new under the sun.
