If you can read a book, you can write a book. Authors don’t like to tell you that, but it’s true. You don’t even have to do everything yourself. You can hire help with writing and research and editing and marketing and just about everything else.
Before you reach for your checkbook, though, here are three things you must bring to the table. Your odds of success go way down without them.
You Must Have A Big Why
You must have a compelling reason to write your book. You may want a book to establish yourself in the marketplace and increase your prestige and your fees. Perhaps you want to check something off your bucket list. Or, you could want to put basic explanations in writing, so you don’t have to keep repeating them to people.
The reason doesn’t matter, but you need one and it must be important. Writing a book takes time and hard work. You already have a busy life, and this will put one more important thing on your calendar.
There will be days when you don’t want to work on your book, but know you need to. That’s when a big why can get you going. Your big why will remind you of the important purpose you have for writing a book.
You Must Bring Deep Knowledge of Your Topic
If you want to make a difference in people’s live, know what you’re talking about. There are already plenty of lightweight books out there that don’t help people make a difference in their lives and business. They sink beneath the waves. That’s what your book will do unless you bring deep knowledge of your topic.
You Must Bring Discipline
Discipline gets the work done. Some days, you need little discipline. You need to get up and get started. Other days, it will take every bit of willpower you have to do what needs to make a little progress.
Writing a book is hard work over a long period. It’s easy to make an exception, “Just for today.” That’s okay, we all do it. But you can follow today’s exception with another exception tomorrow and one the day after that. If you string exceptions together, then your book becomes the exception and your book grinds to a halt.
Bottom Line
You can hire writers and editors and researchers. You can find an accountability partner to work with you. You can hire a ghostwriter or writing coach. But if you want to write a great book, you need to bring the big why, deep knowledge, and discipline.