I remember the first time I wanted to write a book. I was in the third grade, and we all made a little book of sorts that we wrote and painted. Mine was about snakes.
Thirty years later and I still haven’t written a real book. I’ve started several. I have notes on dozens. And I have produced some small e-books that are pretty good. But still no real book.
There is nothing that I can hold in my hands, and nothing I can put on a shelf and see my name on the spine looking back at me.
Three years ago I started my real book. I thought it would only take a few months to write. I was wrong.
There were distractions. There were other priorities. There was procrastination and doubt and fear and everything else that haunts a writer and tricks him into not writing.
That’s over now.
My book is almost done. At nearly 30,000 words and 160 pages, it’s very real. It is my opus (so far). I think it’s great and I’m looking forward to sharing it with the world.
But the truth is that I’ve done it all wrong.
I’m writing a book on planning but didn’t plan my book very well. On the plus side, that gives me lots of lessons to share on how not to do things.
I should have written more and produced more instead of putting everything into this one project. I should have built my audience first.
The truth is I simply don’t have a big enough audience to sell my book to. The secret to best-selling books is not the quality of the writing…it’s the number of people in the audience willing to buy (some great books do grow an audience…and Oprah’s endorsement helps!).
But I won’t be disappointed. I’ll finish it and sell it.
And if I sell 100 copies this year, I’ll be happy. If I sell 1000, who knows what crazy stunt I might pull to celebrate. But I’m not worried about volume.
I just know it will help those who read it and put it into practice.
And my second book? Well, somehow I think doing the first one will make that one easier. Then the third. Then the fourth. And so on until I’m done and gone.
I am a writer. I will write.
If you would like to be notified about the upcoming book, sign up for my Newsletter (which will be sent about the 18th of each month). You’ll also get a copy of my first e-book, “Show Me the Money”. Thanks!
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