The other day, a first-time author asked me for advice about writing a book. They caught me in an especially reflective mood, so I shared with them the following pointers, drawn from my experience writing Disrupt Yourself, Build An A-Team, and Smart Growth.
1. Don’t Rush Publication!
Don’t put your book out in the world until you’re ready to put your book out in the world. Of course, you can (and should!) have a deadline to keep yourself on track, but give yourself some grace and flexibility around that date. One of Nintendo’s famed game designers, Shigeru Miyamoto, once said, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” You’ll know when it’s time.
2. Get Diverse Feedback
The first step here is to find readers who are willing to be critical of your work. Those closest to you will hopefully want to support you in your journey, but sometimes that crosses over into self-censure – which does nothing to improve your drafts. I have a friend who’s a fiction writer, and she will absolutely eviscerate what I’ve done. As disheartening as that might sound, her contribution is incredibly valuable. And don’t discount the usefulness of AI as a tool here as well! It can provide a unique insight into your work, and if you feed it other things that you’ve written, it can identify patterns that human readers might not be able to.
You’ll also want to diversify the backgrounds of your readers. Instead of focusing on those familiar with your writing, look beyond – a journalist, sci-fi writer, mentor, or teenager. The more perspectives you can apply to your draft, the more it will resonate with a broader audience once it is published.
An added benefit of finding non-expert readers is that they can catch jargon you’ve used a million times. If someone says, “I have no idea what you’re saying here,” that can end up as some of the most helpful feedback you get.
3. Include Primary Research
Make sure that you include plenty of primary research in your book instead of leaning on what others have discovered. It allows you to speak with more conviction and clarity from the stage, and serves to establish your ethos – your credibility, the “why should I trust you” that needs to hook readers from the very beginning. You must prove that you’re worthy of putting your stake in the ground; primary research is a great way to do that.
4. Write to Your Strengths
This point is simple – don’t try to be something you’re not. Think about all your strengths, and then ask yourself – what kind of book would I write? If you’re great at non-fiction narrative arcs, because you spent time in college working for the school newspaper, then do that. If you’re instead better at executive summaries and breaking down complicated topics, then lean into that. Forcing dialogue into your book, for example, because you feel like you have to, will stick out like a sore thumb to readers.
5. Embrace the Journey
Above all, love the process. Adore the S Curve of bringing your book from the realm of daydreams, onto a bookshelf. I was conversing with my family about how I wish I had a month just to study math, piano, tennis, or skiing, and then I realized I do have that time – if I choose to take it. The only obstacle in front of me is me. And when you’re climbing that S Curve, you should expect that love to translate into personal growth. Every time I write a book, a personal transformation is taking place in parallel. The areas in which I need to develop as a person come up during the writing process, and I have to wrestle with those in order for me to finish the book. And that’s hard! But the important part is saying to yourself, “I’m not struggling with the book right now. I’m actually struggling with myself.”
