Getting Started

It takes years to write a book, right?


Well, the truth is that it can take years to write a book. However, that time frame is reserved for people who are writing their magnum opus or life story. So the myth that it must take years to write a great book just doesn’t apply.

But it still takes a long time, right?

The time it takes to write a book is entirely up to you. If you’re writing a book on a subject that you know nothing about, say Quantum Physics, then it could take several months or maybe even years to complete. You’d have a lot of research and learning to do before you could sit down and write.

Here’s the thing

You’re already an expert. You've written an abundance of content on the topic, and you’re in touch with your audience. That’s all you need to be able to write a book for your business.

I'm going to break it down in a bit but, for now think about how many blog posts you publish each week and how much you already write. If you wrote two blog posts a day for a month and pulled them all into one file, you’d have between 30,000 and 40,000 words. That’s a book!

And writing a book is much easier than writing 50-60 blog posts.

What on earth are you going to write about? This can be a difficult question. There are, after all, probably hundreds of potential topics to consider. When writing your book, choosing your topic is the single most important step in the process.

Why This Is The Most Important Step

Your book topic is the foundation for the rest of the writing process. It dictates your overall approach, including any existing content or resources you leverage. It also is the start point for the structure of your book.

For example, a book about the 10 Steps to Mastering Mindset would logically have ten chapters, each chapter being a step. A book about why mindset is important for success may have a much more fluid structure because there’s no clear need to break it up into ten distinct steps. So let’s work through the process of identifying your book’s topic.

If you’re still scratching your head and wondering how on earth you could start and finish an entire book, take a look at the following questions and answer them for yourself.

  • Are you an authority on a subject?
  • Do you possess a skill or information that others wish to learn?
  • Do you have specialized knowledge or unique experience?
  • Have you created a process or system that can help others?
  • Do you have a desire to tell a story, share information or teach others?
  • Can you talk about your subject?
  • Do you already have an abundance of information published on your topic (i.e., video posts, blog posts, interviews, etc…)?

That last point is an important one. You probably already have much of the material you need to write your book. In fact, you've already written it. The key now is to create a cohesive and compelling theme and to pull it all together.

Complete and Continue