I’ve been writing my monthly newsletter for over 7 years and each year my editor and I compile the best articles into a longer format white paper to use as a marketing piece for the next year. Last spring I thought, “Why not compile an even longer work and market it as an eBook?” Sounds like a simple project. We have done something similar several times, it should be a snap! That snap you hear is actually caused by a rift in the universe when I monumentally underestimate the time and effort that a task is going to take. Yes, I started my ebook last spring, it’s launching this week, roughly a year behind schedule. So I thought that I’d share some of my “lessons learned” with all of you.

1. Writing a book is hard. OK this might not be such a revelation to most people; but writing a book is a lot different from writing a blog post, article or even a white paper. It really takes a lot of work to sustain the reader’s interest in a single topic or theme through multiple chapters. I can usually sit down in a couple of hours and pound out a 750 word article without a lot of thought; but a successful book needs a good plan from the beginning. I didn’t have one of those.
2. Writing a book takes twists and turns, ups and downs. Despite starting without a plan or clear theme, I had a lot of good material that I was starting from. I knew there was a book in this material – but it just fought with me as I was trying to work it out. Sometimes the book won’t go where you want it to. I worked for a long time on one angle and it just didn’t work; so I had to scrap that and work from another angle. I also went through so many moods. I loved the material, I hated the material, I thought the book worked, I couldn’t believe that anyone would read this crap. It was so helpful to have an outside editor who could help me see what really was good and cut what wasn’t.
3. The title is so important. I think I had over 1000 titles for this book. I’m not exaggerating, 1000. My editor wanted to kill me over the title. I think it could have been easier if I started with a title, but the title was really the last thing I finished. This is a problem. Once you’ve written the book there are only so many titles that make sense. Start with a title, make it catchy, unique, creative, all the things you want your title to be. You’ll probably change it later, but at least you have something to go back to.
4. Writing is only half the battle. Once it’s written you need to edit it (a tedious task), design it (fun, but also perplexing, too many choices), and figure out how to distribute it (which turns out to be harder than you think). THEN you get to promote it! Yes, it’s a terrific $25 business card, and that may be enough; but if you want people to read it you are going to have to spend time promoting it. One formula I heard is that you should spend one hour writing and 4 hours promoting what you write. If that’s true I’m going to finally be done with this book in 2012!
5. Write a book you will really love. Because you are going to spend a lot of your life with it.

Still interested in seeing the book? Hop over to www.BusinessOwnersChampion.com and check it out. You can buy it right there for $24.79 or there’s a free sample of the first chapter that you can download to see if it’s for you.

Do you have a book you’ve been itching to write?

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Brad Farris is a small business advisor with Anchor Advisors, Ltd. in Chicago, Il. Since 2001 Anchor Advisors has been helping creative professional firms to grow, by helping them clarify their purpose, get the most from their people, keep their eye on key performance measures, and implement consistent processes. Brad is also the author of The Business Owner’s Champion: 6 Practices to Build your Nerve and your Business.