Max / Obront The Scribe Method

The Best Way to Write and Publish Your Non-Fiction Book
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5445-1405-5
Verlag: Lioncrest Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet/DL/kein Kopierschutz

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

You're ready to write your book. You've accumulated hardwon knowledge and mastered the solution to a difficult problem. Now you want to put it out into the world- and be recognized for your expertise, like those you've watched reap the benefits of a published book. You know you have to write it. You've heard it from people for years: you should really write a book. They're right. It's time for you to write the book that cements your legacy and impacts other people-and maybe even the world. So why haven't you done it yet? The truth is, writing a book is scary. Is your idea good enough? How do you structure it, write it, and stay motivated? What if you actually finish it, and it's bad? Worst of all: what if you publish it, and no one cares? If this sounds familiar, The Scribe Method will help you navigate these fears on your journey to becoming a published author. Guided by experts Tucker Max and Zach Obront, you'll overcome the obstacles that have held you back with a simple, time-saving, effective method to writing a great book, and learn the step-by-step process that has created hundreds of bestselling titles.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Max, Tucker

Obront, Zach

Leseproben

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3. The Six Fears You (Could) Face Writing Your Book
“Your inward conflicts express themselves in outward disasters.” —Krishnamurti Now that you’re an author, you’ll have to deal with all the fears and anxieties that come with writing. You’re not alone. All authors start where you are. We start insecure, unsure, and afraid. We start with fear, and sometimes even terror, gripping us. And sadly, for some authors, these fears stop them from ever writing their book at all. I’ve been writing professionally for fifteen years, and the fears I’m about to detail are the same ones I’ve had to deal with in the past (and still deal with on a day-to-day basis). This chapter will detail the common author fears, explain how they are destructive to books, and provide insight into how you can reframe those fears to help you. You may not have every one of the six I list below, but chances are you will deal with at least four at some point in the process. (In the next chapter, I will show you a specific set of tactics for how to deal with the fears you face as you write so you can finish your book.) Fear: “I don’t have a book in me.”
Alternate Expressions of This Fear
“I’m afraid there is no book in me.” “I’m afraid I don’t have anything to say.” “What right do I have to be an author?” “Who am I to write a book?” How This Fear Will Impact Your Book
It’s very common for an author to be afraid that they don’t have the knowledge in them to write a book. For most people, this is a version of what’s referred to as Imposter Syndrome. Imposter Syndrome is when someone—even a very accomplished person with many credentials—believes they don’t actually know what everyone thinks they know. They believe that their ideas are either wrong or invalid or that everyone already knows what they know. People with Imposter Syndrome have this idea in their heads that everyone else has it figured out but that they are the imposter. In the most extreme cases, Imposter Syndrome is when authors feel that their book will expose them as frauds or as fakers. Example of an Author with This Fear
We worked with consultant Jonathan Dison on his book The Consulting Economy. He is a management consultant who has his own consulting firm that is doing very well. Hundreds of people he’d worked with throughout the years had asked him to write a book—one that would detail the method he used to help them transition from corporate employee to independent consultant. Despite all these people asking him for the book, he put it off because he thought he was not enough of an expert to write a book. Even though he literally made the life-changing transition himself and had coached hundreds of people through it, at some level he didn’t believe he actually knew anything. How to Use This Fear to Help You
This fear is beneficial when it forces you to really think about the value you’re providing to the reader and focus your book on that. I can’t tell you how many times Jonathan said, “Tucker, I have no idea what I’m doing.” I would then walk him through how he helped people transition from corporate employee to independent consultant. I would have him explain his process to me and tell me about the people he’d helped and have him tell me what they told him about his advice (always gushing praise). Then he’d admit, “Okay, yeah, I guess I do know something.” This fear can benefit you if you use it to think only about your potential reader. Why would they find the book valuable? What do they get out of it? How will the knowledge in the book change their life? Even if you believe you’re an imposter, you can still recognize that someone else will value what you know. Then you can write the book for them. That’s what’s so great about this fear. It’s usually easy to understand if it’s based in reality. Just ask yourself: are people coming to me and asking me for, or paying me for, my knowledge? If so, then you clearly have a book in you as long as the book is just you sharing that knowledge with people. You can overcome your Imposter Syndrome by focusing on that fact alone. Fear: “I’m afraid my book isn’t original enough.”
Alternate Expressions of This Fear
“I’m afraid everyone has already said all of this.” “I don’t think I have anything new to say.” “Everything I have to say is stuff everyone already knows.” “How will my book be any different from other books on this topic?” How This Fear Will Impact Your Book
The funny thing with Jonathan Dison (from the example above) is that once he admitted that he knew something, he’d say, “But this is obvious. No one needs to be told this!” This is a common feeling. And it’s almost always wrong. Many authors have the idea that a valid book must have a new insight that no one has ever considered. That’s ridiculous. Very few books are profoundly original, and the few that are tend not to be that valuable (because they are too esoteric). A book is valuable if the knowledge within it is accessible and usable to the audience. If you can write a book on a deeply covered topic, providing a unique perspective that sheds new light on the subject and helps your audience understand something they were missing, that is very valuable. Even if you feel you don’t have a brand-new perspective on the subject, if you have a unique voice and perspective around key concepts tailored for your audience, you will help them see old concepts in a way that finally clicks for them. No reader cares if the idea is new or old. They only care if it’s USEFUL TO THEM. Example of an Author with This Fear
My favorite example of this is Meetings Suck by Cameron Herold. How many business books are there on meetings? According to Amazon, there are over 50,000. Surely, if there was one book that did not need to be written, it was this one, right? That’s what Cameron thought at first. We walked through what he knew and helped him realize that though his methodology for meetings had no single insight that was truly original, the way that he combined all his insights and presented a complete plan for how to run a meeting was deeply useful to everyone he coached and taught. With ninety-nine reviews and 40,000 copies sold, it’s obvious that his take is engaging with people in a way that none of the other books on meetings have. That’s why Meetings Suck has done so well—because it explained a lot of old ideas in a way that no one else had before. How to Use This Fear to Help You
This fear is useful because it will force you to clearly define your audience and the value that you are providing to them. This is a key aspect of the Scribe Method (which we’ll get into in detail soon). We have our authors look deeply at who derives value from their knowledge, which helps the author define their audience. Once they know their audience, they can then think, “What did I teach those people that they found valuable in their lives?” And your fear has led you to define both your audience and the value you provide them. Fear: “I’m afraid my book won’t be good enough.”
Alternate Expressions of This Fear
“I’m afraid my book won’t be perfect.” “I’m afraid I put too much in.” “I’m afraid I didn’t put in enough.” “I’m afraid I’m going to forget everything I want to say.” “I’m afraid of leaving things out.” How This Fear Will Impact Your Book
This is almost always perfectionism. How is perfectionism related to fear? As the author dives into the book, they become obsessed with every detail. They fret over every word, every punctuation mark, and every phrasing. This is not about trying to make the book as good as possible. Excessive obsession with every detail—beyond the point of reason—is a way of masking a fear that the book is not good enough. Authors will get stuck in one of the perfectionism rabbit holes so they can avoid publishing the book. Books can get stuck here in various ways: The author will try to put everything they know into the book, and this causes the book to bloat and become unmanageable. The author won’t stick to a subject and will jump around to different ideas. The author’s perfectionism becomes an excuse to delay or avoid actually working on the book. The author edits and adds in never-ending cycles, spinning in circles and never actually finishing the book. Example of an Author with This Fear
Deb Gabor is a great example of this. Deb is a brilliant brand strategist. She’s worked with companies like Dell, NBC, and Microsoft on their branding strategy, and she wrote a book called Branding Is Sex about how companies can use branding in new and innovative ways. She started...