Write Your Book in a Flash Book Summary - Write Your Book in a Flash Book explained in key points

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Name: Write Your Book in a Flash
Rating: 4.8 (81 reviews)
Author: Dan Janal

Dan Janal

The Paint-by-Numbers System to Write the Book of Your Dreams—FAST!

4.8 (81 ratings)

22 mins

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Skills Writing Success

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Write Your Book in a Flash
Summary of 8 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? A formula for writing your business book quickly and successfully.

As a leader in your industry, you’ve probably known for a while that you have a book inside you. You have knowledge and insights to share, both to build your personal brand and to help others reach their potential. But you have no idea how to start. Or perhaps you’ve tried a few times already, but your words have stopped flowing and you don’t know how to turn the faucet back on.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The author, Dan Janal, has helped thousands of business executives just like you to not only write their books, but to write them in record time. He’s done this by developing a reliable plan that anyone can follow to draft a non-fiction book. These blinks will provide you with a roadmap to follow, so you can produce a high-quality book fast.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

the simple tool that is the secret to writing a great business book;
what business writers can learn from the TV show Glee; and
how hanging out in Q&A forums will help you write a better book.

Your book summary is your starting point.

Think back to the last time you were browsing the shelves of a bookstore. If a book caught your eye, you probably took it down and read the blurb on the back. It may have piqued your interest, or you may have dismissed the book as irrelevant to you and moved on to the next one.

Either way, that one little blurb is responsible for whether or not you decided to buy it. And since it holds the power to motivate potential buyers, it’s the first step of your writing journey.

The key message here is: Your book summary is your starting point.

It may seem strange to write a summary for a book that doesn’t exist yet. But doing so will force you to focus on what you want to share with your future readers. To write it, you’ll need to clarify your vision for the book, and the overall message you want to convey.

Start by writing down 400 words that cover what your book’s about, who it’s for, what answers it provides, and the benefits readers will get from those answers. The summary should make readers feel that you understand the challenges they face, and that the book will give them actionable solutions, not just a bunch of theory. It should also explain why your book is better than other similar titles on the market, and why you are the authority on this subject.

Once you’ve written a summary that covers all of the above, it’s time to get out the scissors and cut your summary down to 50 words, while still addressing all those crucial points. This is the length you’ll often find in online bookstores. You might wonder why you have to write 400 words if, in the end, you only need 50? The reason is that it’s far easier to edit than it is to write a pithy summary in the first place.

Review at least five blurbs of competitors’ books, taking note of what stands out for you and what turns you off. This will help you understand what makes a blurb compelling. Your summary isn’t just the essence of your book. It also serves as a valuable sales tool, so make sure you invest the time you need to do it well.

Clarify your book’s market to clearly communicate its intended audience.

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.

To succeed in writing your book, you must foster the right mindset.

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.

An outline will help you write a better book in half the time.

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.

Outline your book using a reliable structure.

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.

Including other sources in your book increases your credibility and makes it easier to market.

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.

Put systems in place to help you write your first draft.

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.

Getting feedback before you publish enhances your book’s quality.

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.

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What is Write Your Book in a Flash about?

Write Your Book in a Flash (2018) provides a comprehensive roadmap to writing non-fiction business books. By following its clear system, you can create a quality book quickly and effectively, to showcase that you’re a leader in your field.

Best quote from Write Your Book in a Flash

Readers buy your book for one purpose.

—Dan Janal

Who should read Write Your Book in a Flash?

Thought leaders wanting to share their knowledge
Business executives seeking to build their personal brand
Non-fiction writers struggling with procrastination

About the Author

Dan Janal is the author of more than a dozen business and marketing books. He has helped over 10,000 experts build their business platforms, and supported countless other executives writing books. He has taught at Stanford and Berkeley, and has spoken at conferences across the globe.

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