Episode 70:
I have been busy and I haven’t booked the next tranche of guests for the show yet. So I needed a show topic and nothing came immediately to mind. When this happens I often turn to services like http://answerthepublic.com/ and https://www.quora.com which contain commonly asked questions about a particular topic.
I saw one question “Why is it Important to Write a Book?” and that roused my interest. For many people it is an irrelevant question as they don’t have any interest in writing one. But they aren’t the people who would be reading this post or listening to the podcast. The fact you are means that it is important you do write a book.
So then the question becomes why?
- You’ve seen other people write books and you feel at equal to them. The world and his wife are writing books and you want to keep up. There is no shame in this.
- There is a point you have been looking to make and it’s not something that you can do in a form of something short. A blog post or a medium article just won’t do. You need to write it down!
- You are an expert but no one takes you seriously. All the other experts in your area have books. So you need to write one.
- There is a big idea inside you, but you haven’t formulated it yet. It bothers you that you can’t quite articulate it. Writing a book about it will allow you to consolidate your thoughts and make it work.
- You have a story (or two or three or a million) that you need to tell. Writing a book gives a way to let those stories be shared.
Notice I’ve not included the following:
- You want to make money.
- You want to be chosen.
Frankly with these two reasons there are better ways to get these itches scratched. Creating a video course or a coaching programme is a much better way to make money. If you want to be chosen then being a startup company getting venture capital is a much better way to be chosen than getting a derisory advance from a traditional publisher.
That’s my ideas as to why people would write a book. Have I missed anything? Please let me know in the comments below or e-mail me at timlewis@stonehampress.com.
If you liked this show then you might like When should you go with a traditional publisher?, Author Income : How Many Books Do You Need to Sell to Make Money? or Book Reviews, Dr Who and Mo Farah