Let’s Do a Book+0
 

In the title, we see the first error many people make when they set out to have a book with their name on the cover. They say they are going to write a book. I suppose there are those creative folks who actually can open their computers and just start typing. The first thing you know, they have written a book. The finished book seems to have simply flowed out of them.

 

I admit it. I’m pretty jealous. It would definitely be cool to just open the creative hose and out comes a book. But here’s the truth of it. I don’t think there are any people who can do that. Here’s why.

 

A book is not a spontaneous creation. Having produced a dozen or so fairly successful books, I have come to understand that a book is not a creation, it’s a construction. I doubt that it matters what kind of book it is or for whom the book is intended. Books are much more constructed than written.

 

Sure, the words, sentences and paragraphs need to be written. There is no good alternative unless you can get a really smart computer to do the tedious job of writing for you. Some folks hire a ghost writer to produce the words, sentences and paragraphs for them, but that does seem a bit like cheating. For us, outsourcing writing to a computer or ghost will not do. We will make those words, sentences and paragraphs appear on our computer screens all by ourselves. – OK, if you really need to do this with a pencil on paper, go for it. Just know that, at some point, it will all have to be neatly typed and double spaced.

 

But I am getting way ahead of myself. Not only have I skipped over the construction part, I haven’t even mentioned the hardest part of doing a book. Before I can do a book, I have to figure out what I want the book to do. And it gets more specific. I need to figure out what I want the book to do for me. Naturally it will be good if thousands of people want to read the book and all feel better off in some way for having spent the time and energy it takes to consume a book. That’s all well and good, but if doing the book is not doing something of value for me, I’m not likely to sustain the construction process through to the finished book. Even if I do, the finished book is not very likely to do much for anyone else.

 

Let’s draw an analogy. You are an artist painting a picture or a musician creating a country song. If you don’t find satisfaction in the process, how likely are you to stick with it? If you don’t feel good about your final product, how likely is that others will engage with it? If you don’t think it’s awesome, I probably won’t either. Yes, you may think it’s awesome and I think it’s trash, but the first opinion is yours and always counts the most.

 

So what do you want your book to do for you? You want it to make you rich and famous? You can probably only get away with that if you are already rich and famous. And if you are, you have a far higher standard for releasing your next book to the public. Alternatively, if you only want to have your name on the cover so you can tell your friends that you are an author, don’t bother constructing a book. Just write down everything you do or think about for the next few months and then get your local print shop to bind it with a nice cover featuring your name. There you go. You are an author.


What Will Doing a Book Do for Me?
 

I’m assuming that you are not an employee or contractor. I’m also assuming that you are not doing a book for hire. In either of those situations, most of the parameters change. You may or may not enjoy the work, but what constructing the book does or does not do for you is secondary. What it does for the person or organization paying the bill is primary. Unless you have carte blanch to do as pleases you, you are constructing someone else’s book. I know little to nothing about that kind of work. My focus is only on you constructing your book, on your terms with no external constraints.