For most non-fiction authors, the return on time invested is horrendous if you measure it only in terms of the expected value of book sales. People have a low limit on their perceived value of books.
- Want to be a Great Writer? Then Don’t Focus on Writing. (Do This Instead).
- No, you probably don’t have a book in you?
- The Late Scholar (Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane series Book 4).
- Crafty Mama: Makes 49 Fast, Fabulous, Foolproof (Baby & Toddler) Projects?
- Bedside Procedures in the ICU.
There is only one group of people who must focus on how many copies they sell: They need to worry about selling copies of books because book sales are their main source for making money! The good news is that a book can make you money, if you look at it from a different perspective. This is how most of our authors look at books: A book is a multi-purpose marketing tool with the special ability to create authority and visibility that authors can turn into profit. For entrepreneurs, consultants, professionals, and other business people, the book itself creates credibility and authority that is the means to selling other, larger opportunities that can be very profitable.
Should You Write a Book? Not if You Have These 4 Expectations
This establishes you as an authority and gives you credibility, as well as giving you a consistent pipeline of people looking for the exact type of skill and experience you offer. For example, you can also use a book to get clients or paid speaking gigs , promote your company , raise money for a fund , or launch a brand. There are dozens of examples of ways to use a book to make money here. Generally speaking, you need to sell about 10, books the first week to be certain you will hit the list.
This is not impossible. It can and does happen. However, hitting the New York Times Best Seller List is expensive, time-consuming, and an immense amount of hard work. It barely gets you any attention at all. What are your three favorite books? Yeah…I have no idea. You can go to Office Depot and get business cards. If you had one, it was a major signal of credibility and authority. But a book is a credential that is credible and meaningful. Because it is hard to write and publish a book—especially a good book. You can even pay someone to write an OK book for you.
“Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!” — Henry Miller
A book gives people the opportunity to see your knowledge and evaluate it. A book shows you can commit to something and follow through. It shows you get things done — things that are hard and prestigious and require a lot of skills. A book puts you in a place that most people are unwilling to go — being judged — and it usually requires a lot of work to do.
Lots of people want to be famous, and they think a book will accomplish that. First off, there are very few famous authors. The other people you name will be famous for something else, and you probably read their book because of their fame in another area. In fact, it goes the other way around in most cases; people get famous for something else first, then they write a book that becomes a bestseller.
In fact, there are only about 15, maybe 20, living people who are famous only for writing and nothing else. Malcolm Gladwell is one. You can probably name a couple more.
Should You Write a Book? Not if You Have These 4 Expectations
There are a lot of famous people in America, but virtually all of them got famous in some way other than writing books. A book—by itself—will not make you famous. But this is not to say a book will not help you become more well known. It can and it will.
Want to be a Great Writer? Then Don’t Focus on Writing. (Do This Instead)
And how do they know someone is an expert? Because they wrote the book. Once you have a book, media coverage is 10x easier to get. And it goes beyond books.
How many people in your field have you seen get a lot of attention simply because they wrote a book? If you want media coverage and visibility in your field, being the authority and the expert is key. People have a lot of fantasies about what a book will do for them, and almost all of them are not going to happen. I think this is summed up perfectly by Hugh Macleod, the renowned cartoonist and author: Tweed jackets, smoking a pipe, sitting out in the gazebo and getting sloshed on Mint Juleps, pensively typing away at an old black Remington.
- Good Friends Great Tastes.
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Bantering wittily at all the right parties. Anybody who wants to write books for this reason deserves to suffer. And happily, many of them do. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Cookie Policy , Privacy Policy , and our Terms of Service. I'm looking for a term to accurately describe a person who can only read but cannot write. While I'm primarily concerned with people who have never learned to write, I would also be interested in any additional terms used to represent people who have lost the ability to write as a result of disuse.
Called also graphomotor aphasia ".
A literary agent on why your good story isn’t likely to be a bestseller.
I do think you need to carefully make a distinction between the person who never learned to write and those who have lost the ability to write. One may be a learning issue, whereas the other can be the result of a neurologic problem, such as a stroke. Agraphia and dysgraphia are terms that imply that the ability was once there, but is now either impaired or lost.
Dysgraphia is the condition of being unable to write; one who suffers from dysgraphia could be called dysgraphic.
Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site the association bonus does not count. Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead? Home Questions Tags Users Unanswered. Term for a person who can read but cannot write Ask Question.