How to create a 200-page book without typing a word?
“It’s not the load that breaks you, it’s the way you carry it.“
– Lou Holtz
You know why you want to write a book. You also found a clear niche you want to write about and boom…you are now stuck with loads of ideas in your head and feel overwhelmed about how to actually write them.
Sounds like almost every author we worked with, including me!
Yes, having lots of passion and dedication towards your efforts is important, but knowing where to put these efforts makes all the difference. This is what separates pros from amateurs.
In this blog, we will share with you a bird’s eye view of our secret formula used to coach our Guided Author clients, who pay around $20,000 to help them finish writing their books with the least amount of effort possible. This includes:
- How to plan your book project
- How to create a 200-page book without even typing
- How this is different from ghostwriting, and why you should NOT use a ghostwriter
Let’s get one thing clear, contrary to what most people think, writing a transformational book is NOT a creative project. A book “project” is like any other project — it’s all about having a clear structure, roadmap, and planning.
Once you put that in order, the ideas will find their way out of your head into paper in a way that will serve your readers and give you the level of authority you aspire to have to writing a book in a weekend. Otherwise, the book will never be complete.
Think of it like the never-ending painting that an artist does, which they can’t finish because they are trying to perfect it. This is what happens when you treat your book with too much of an artistic approach rather than a structured approach.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that your book should be bland with finesse. On the contrary, we believe the only way to get to a masterpiece is to follow a bit of engineered mindset. Think about it would you rather your book be a supercar like a Ferrari or an artistic bicycle on display? You get the point.
The first thing you have to do once you are done with the previous steps stated in our publishing guide, which help you gain clarity on your book strategy, you follow the below steps to be plan your book project.
1. Decide on the list of chapters: in general, we suggest you keep your book between 7-12 chapters max, broken down as below:
a) We recommend that you always start the book with your personal story. This enables you to build a rapport with your readers so they understand who you really are and what is your passion & purpose
b) The second chapter should be a bird’s eye view of what you will cover in the book. This will help your audience understand your methodology and way of thinking, and makes them more invested in completing the book. In this chapter, you will bust any myths you want to alert people to, share any new definitions or concepts you came up with, and introduce the steps you want to teach throughout the book
c) From that point onwards, you simply teach each step or pillar as a chapter within itself
2. Breakdown the sub-outlines for each of the chapters covering:
a) What is in it for the reader; the benefits of going through the chapters
b) What you actually want to teach
c) Golden nuggets or Takeaways from the chapters
d) Action steps to take or questions to answer
3. Plan: we all know that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So the best way to plan your book to success is to:
a) Commit to when you will finish the book’s content, have a specific deadline for the completion and write a celebration plan to see yourself in your mind’s eye as already published, and holding your book in your hand. You can use our Passion Journey meditation along with the book celebration sheet to help you with this
b) Specify when you will finish writing each chapter so you can meet the deadline you specified. To give you an indication, you need an average of 2,000 to 3,000 words per chapter, or 20 minutes of recording if you will use our unique Your Voice, Your Words methodology, which we will explain in the latter part of this blog
c) Put those dates on your calendar NOW!
4. Create the content: simply get on with it!
All you have to do is just follow through and in a few weeks, and you will have your manuscript ready.
If this still sounds like a lot of work for you, another solution would be to be part of an anthology book (an anthology is a collection of works by a variety of authors, organized around a particular theme), working with other experts in the field.
We are launching a collaborative book called PASSIONATE EXPERTS…where The World’s Most Passionate Entrepreneurs & Professionals Reveal The Secrets Behind Success In The New World of Business, Health, Wealth & Lifestyle.
You can apply here to see if you qualify to be featured in the book.
Want to create a 200-page book without even typing?
Not a fan of writing?
Guess what, you are not the only one, most of our authors do not actually write. Also, remember that there is a huge difference between a writer and an author. You can be an author who is an authority in your respective field with lots of knowledge to share, but not be good at writing. It’s similar to how you can be a great driver without being a mechanic or be great at using your computer without having to know to put together a motherboard.
To create a great book, all you need to have is great knowledge and passion for your topic.
And then, you can use our unique Your Voice, Your Words system, which works with you speaking instead of typing. After all, none of us were born with a keyboard in hand, and one of the first skills we learned was to speak, not to write type. To date, it remains one of the most natural things we do!
If you can speak about your topic for an average of 20 minutes per chapter (total of 3-4 hours max.) this will give you an average of 30,000-35,000 words, which equals a 150-200 page book.
What’s even more amazing that we found from our experience is that books produced using this recording system flow more naturally and really sound like you because it is produced in a more natural way than if you type.
I recall most of the people who read my recent book Live Passionately would call me to say, “We can hear your voice in our head when we are reading your book.”
This is the methodology we used to create close to 50 books, a lot of which ended up being bestsellers as soon as they launch. You can browse the library of our published books here.
To be clear, we need to emphasize once again that for this to work, you will have to follow the exact previous outlining process. If you go straight into recording without any structure, you will simply end up with a very messy content that even you will find very hard to decipher.
Another thing to be clear is that this is NOT ghostwriting, and we highly recommend you against ghostwriting.
It’s simply because no one can be you.
Your voice is unique, your tone is unique, and the way you say it is unique. Anyone trying to pretend it is you through their writing will simply be downgrading your work because you are the only original. I say this from a personal experience, where I tried to use a ghostwriter during my first attempt to write a book. I paid her close to $7,000, spent weeks working with her on the book, but when the manuscript came to me, I honestly wanted to throw up.
I simply threw it in the garbage and my money was lost.
Yes, it sounds like a ghostwriting will make your life easy, but the reality has proven that it is totally the opposite. But with our recording system, once you get hold of the process, the rest flows naturally.
All this might sound too simple, but you know the joke “How do you eat an Elephant?… One bite at a time.” and so is it, with every successful project in life.
By now, the only thing left for you is to know how to publish your book, which we will discuss in the next blog, where we will be explaining the pros & cons of each of the publishing types and share with you the “Uber” type of publishing no one told you about.