How to Write a Bestselling Book (5 Tips from Self Published Wall Street Journal Bestseller) | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Pat Flynn shares tips on how to approach the book writing process to increase the chances of writing a best-selling book, emphasizing the importance of research, validation, outlining, focus, and finding the right editors.

Key Insights

• 😥 Researching the target audience's problems and pain points can provide valuable insights for determining the topic and content of a book.
• 🙃 Validating a book idea through engagement indicators, such as blog post views or email sign-ups, helps ensure there is demand for the topic.
• ✍️ Outlining the book before writing helps maintain focus and structure.
• ✍️ Treating each chapter as an individual piece and utilizing separate documents or tools can prevent feeling overwhelmed while writing.
• 📔 Both a copy editor and a developmental editor are essential for ensuring a book's quality, with the developmental editor focusing on the overall structure and flow of the book.
• 📔 Success as a book author should be measured by the value the book provides and its reach to those who need it, rather than solely by best-seller status.
• 👨‍🔬 Writing a best-selling book requires time, effort, and potentially financial investment, emphasizing the importance of thorough research and proper editing.

Transcript

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Questions & Answers

Q: How can research help in determining the topic of a book?

Research, such as conducting audience surveys, can provide insights into the target audience's most pressing problems and pain points, helping to inspire the book's topic and content.

Q: How can one validate their book idea?

Validation can be done through blog posts, podcast episodes, or creating a lead magnet, collecting email addresses to gauge interest and the potential audience's response.

Q: What is the importance of outlining a book?

Outlining a book helps maintain focus and structure, ensuring that all the necessary points and stories are included in the correct order. It provides a roadmap for the writing process.

Q: How can one stay focused while writing a book?

Treating each chapter or section as its own blog post can help maintain focus and prevent feeling overwhelmed. Using separate documents or tools like Google Docs can eliminate distractions and keep attention on the specific topic at hand.

Q: What types of editors are needed for a book?

Both a copy editor and a developmental editor are crucial. A copy editor ensures proper grammar and spelling, while a developmental editor focuses on the overall structure, flow, and coherence of the book.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Proper research is essential for determining the topic and target audience of the book, using methods such as audience surveys.

• Validating the topic idea can be done through blog posts/podcast episodes, collecting email addresses, or creating a lead magnet.

• Outlining the book is crucial and should be done using a specific process outlined in a separate video.

• Focusing on individual chapters or sections at a time can help overcome the overwhelming nature of writing a book.

• Hiring both a copy editor and a developmental editor are important for ensuring proper grammar/spelling as well as overall book structure.