Book Details:
Book Title: Don't Write a Crappy Book by James M. Ranson
Category: Adult Non- Fiction, 210 pages
Genre: Business, Authorpreneurship
Publisher: Master Wordsmith Media, in association with Thanet House Books
Release date: Oct 1, 2018
Tour dates: Oct 8 to 31, 2018
Content Rating: PG for occasional mild swearing (hell and damn, mostly, one instance of "shitty")
Book Description:
A great book can launch your business into the stratosphere. Unfortunately, most self-published business books rank somewhere between “meh” and “flaming pile of crap.” But your book doesn’t have to suck!
In “Don’t Write a Crappy Book,” editor and entrepreneur James Ranson unpacks the most common–and toxic–mistakes that first-time nonfiction authors make. Peppered with wisdom from a panel of industry experts, this book debunks the dangerous myths that can torpedo your text and offers clear, practical guidance for writing a book you’re proud of. This is the resource for the aspiring authorpreneur who wants to write and publish a book with minimum hassle and maximum results.
This book will teach you:
- How a self-published book can make or break your business (and the THREE factors that determine which it does)
- The biggest blind spots no one tells authors about (and how to look for them BEFORE it's too late)
- How to write a first book that will get positive reviews on Amazon (and why that’s a better goal than becoming a bestseller)
- When writing a business book is the right move for you (and when you should NEVER write one)
- How to self-publish on Amazon to actually get good results for your business (a lot of it happens before you even start writing!)
- What NOT to do when you’re looking for an editor (and how to find a great one)
- Why trying to write and publish a book in 90 days or less is a recipe for disaster (and why no one tells you that!)
- How to avoid do-overs, sunk costs, and other self-publishing headaches (and how to get out of them if they sneak up on you)
Stay out of the crap pile! Discover the secrets to creating a highly valuable book that will expand your influence and grow your business for years to come.
To read interviews and guest posts, please visit James M. Ranson's page on iRead Book Tours.
Interview with author!
How did you land on the idea for this book?
I’ve had the idea for this book bouncing around in my head for a while. In 2016, I wrote the book that I thought was going to be this book, and I ended up having to redo it over the next couple of years because I didn’t have quite the experience to pull it off yet. So that was actually a crappy book that I wrote, which is kind of funny! But what I learned after starting and stopping that book became what I wrote for this one.
The more I worked with authors who were writing books for their businesses, the more I realized that they just weren’t getting the results from their books that they wanted. And a lot of the guidance they were getting around how to write a book for their business was overlooking a number of mistakes that these authors didn’t even know they were making. So they were shooting themselves in the foot without realizing that they were doing it or learning how not to. The more I saw that and worked with authors who really did want to write high quality books that would help their businesses for years to come, the more I realized what a need there was to name these mistakes and talk about why people might make them without realizing it, and how to avoid and counter them. This book grew out of that desire.
If you had to pick ONE mistake for every authorpreneur to stop making immediately, which one would it be?
Well, I could cheat and say, “Not reading my book,” hahaha! This is not an easy question! You know what? I’m going to give you 3. Mistake #1 is not writing a book that you’re proud of. If you’re writing a book that is just kind of any old book, something that you wrote really quickly or don’t feel any real connection to or investment in, chances are that it’s not going to represent you the way that you want to be represented. Mistake #2 is not connecting that book to your audience specifically, to who they are and what they need, because then it’s not going to resonate with the people you want it to resonate with, and it’s not going to really help your business that much. It’s just going to kind of sit there. And mistake #3 is not getting good professional help. Because as good as you are at running your business, and as much as you know about your topic, you are frankly too close to any writing that you would do about that topic to know what it needs and how to make it the best it could be. You need an expert in books, in writing and editing, to help you make the book the best it can be.
What was the most surprising thing you learned from writing this book?
The most surprising thing I learned was what all of the professionals I talked to said was the number one mistake authors make. It wasn’t the one I thought it would be. I thought it was going to be not working with an editor. And that one did show up quite a bit. But the mistake everyone actually said was number one was not making an outline. When you think about it, though, it makes sense, because making the outline allows you to not make the 3 big mistakes I just talked about. With an outline you can make sure that what you’re saying is organized and phrased in a way that you’ll be proud of. You can make sure that you tie your audience in from the very beginning of planning the book out. And you can easily identify the parts of your book where you’re going to need help. Without an outline, you’ll struggle to avoid those three big mistakes.
Do you write every day? What are your creature comfort writing necessities?
I actually don’t write every day. I love the idea of writing every day, and if I decide to do more general content for myself, I’ll probably move more toward that, but when I was working on this book, I did not write every day. I wrote it more in bursts, in chunks of a few hours at a time, or maybe a day or two at a time. In terms of creature comforts, uninterrupted time is huge for me. Time where I know that it’s my time and nothing else is going to encroach on it, that’s so necessary. Also, a combination of silence and music. I like to have music in the background and sometimes that’s really helpful; other times I just need silence. But the ability to choose between those two things is really helpful. Oh, and when I was responding to edits for this book I ended up working in a couple of cafés, which was actually kind of nice because then I could have food, and food is always nice.
Coffee, tea, smoothie or something stronger?
Tea. Always tea. I love tea. Both when I’m writing and in general. Though when I’m kicking back after having written or getting done with work, something stronger may also be on the menu.
What would you like your readers to remember about you?
That I want you to write the best book that you can. And that it probably won’t look like the fastest book you can write. I know it won’t look like the cheapest book you can write. And it probably won’t look like the book you think you’re going to write right now. But if you avoid the 3 big mistakes that I was talking about earlier - if you make sure that it’s a book you’re going to be proud of, that it is connected to you audience and that you do get really good professional help with it, you will look at it and think, “I didn’t know that it could be this good.” That’s the feeling that I want for everyone reading this.
What do you love about the work you do?
Getting to help people have the feeling I just talked about. I’m a little bit of a minority in the editing world in that I love talking to my clients on the phone. I love to work 1:1 with people that way, where we are literally talking through what we’re going to do to make this book amazing, and how I support you in making this book amazing. I could do that every day for the rest of my life.
Buy the Book:
Meet the Author:
Connect with the Author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook
Enter the Giveaway!
Ends Nov 7, 2018
Interesting book can't wait to read it.
ReplyDelete