Write Your Book in a Flash summary

Every week, newly published authors contact Janal, seeking help with promoting their books. Janal usually starts by asking them what their book is about. Surprisingly, most authors can’t answer this question in a clear and straightforward way. Instead, they ramble on about their writing journey and how much the printer overcharged them. Janal is often left with no idea who the book is for or what anyone will get out of reading it.

Once you’ve written the summary of your book, the next step is therefore to articulate what it’s about and who it’s for, in just two simple sentences. If you’re not certain of these details yourself, you won’t have a clear direction when you start writing. These sentences are called your positioning statement or elevator pitch, and should let people know immediately where your book sits in the market.

Countless people set out to write books every year. But only 20 percent of them ever finish the job. Why? Well, writing a book is hard work. You may start off well and find it easy to get into a flow state – where the words just seem to pour out of you. But at some point, you’ll hit a bump or roadblock. Self-doubt will slip in. You’ll lose your motivation and before you know it, you’ll have stopped writing altogether.

This happens to every writer – even professionals. The difference between being paralyzed by a roadblock or moving beyond it comes down to how you react when writing gets hard. 

Glee, a musical comedy-drama about a high school choir, is one of the most popular American TV shows of the past decade. Given that it ran for five years, you might be surprised to learn that its writers outlined the entire series before the show first aired. Heroine Rachel’s journey was carefully mapped out from the opening scene until the final credits. While writers made changes along the way, like when one of the actors unexpectedly died, they always pre-planned their storylines using an outline.

In the context of business book writing, an outline is a list of points and subpoints, each of which represents a chapter or subheading. In essence, it’s a guide to the book you want to write. It might not seem all that important, but it is actually the secret to writing quickly, and writing well.

When it comes to writing a business book, freedom is not your friend. If you don’t know how many chapters you should have, or how many words you should write, you won’t be able to decide what to include, or recognize when you’ve completed your chapters.

Weighing options leads to procrastination, delaying your start, and wasting valuable time. But you can follow a common structure that many business books use. Begin by assuming your book will have ten chapters, and will be about 200 pages long, which is about 40-50,000 words. In reality, this may vary, but adopting this structure as a starting point will help you create your outline.

Imagine you’re holed up for a week in a hotel room to write your book. Would you already have all the information and ideas you need to complete a first draft? Or would you hit a wall after a few hours and realize that you don’t have everything you need?

A true thought leader will likely fall into the first category. But most authors will identify clearly with the second. And that’s perfectly OK. You don’t need to know everything before you start writing and you don’t need to rely solely on your own views. In fact, quoting experts and additional sources in your book shows readers you know your field.

With your positioning statement refined, your detailed outline prepared, and your research solid, you’re now ready to start writing. But you’re still at risk of becoming one of those authors who never finish their first draft.

Often, authors believe their first drafts have to be perfect. But when they realize they’re not, they end up with writer’s block. So, one of the most important things you can do to support your writing journey is to let go of perfectionism, focusing instead on getting your ideas on the page. There are a number of tricks you can use to achieve this.

Imagine you’ve finished your draft, given it a polish, and are happy with what you’ve produced. You can’t wait to see it in print and read your glowing reviews. But there’s something important you need to consider before you send your book into the world. Who would you rather tell you that it isn’t great – a friend or a critic?

Before you publish, get some feedback to ensure your arguments are sound, your ideas clearly expressed, and your content engaging. Without taking this last vital step, you won’t publish the best possible book you can.