When I got the contract to write my first book, I had already written several successful business articles. I assumed that writing a book would be the same as writing a very long article. Boy, was I wrong!
Many of my coaching clients today show up with the same assumption. They’re good writers, and they think the move from writing articles or blog posts to writing a book will be easy, the same thing, just more words. But writing a book is different in at least four important ways.
Books are way longer than articles or posts.
When you write a blog post, it may be a couple of hundred words. An article is probably at least a thousand words, maybe as many as five thousand. But if you’re writing a business book, you’re going to need 30,000 words or more. That difference in size drives many of the reasons that books are a different animal.
You’re supposed to use all those words to describe ideas. If you try to stretch a one-idea article into a 30,000-word business book, you’re going to write the kind of book that readers abandon after the first chapter. Greater length means you’re expected to have more ideas and link them together in a logical and readable way.
That makes your job as an author harder. There’s more to keep track of.
Books are way more complex than articles or posts.
Most articles and blog posts are pretty simple. Books are complex. That means that if you make a change in one part of a book, it’s likely to require changes in another part of the book. You must keep the whole book and all the connections in your head and make all the necessary changes.
When you write a book, connections and transitions are important. That’s how you enrich ideas and maintain a smooth flow through the book.
You could certainly do some planning before you start writing, but you won’t be able to plan the errors and surprises out of your book project. Instead, you’ll have to adapt as you go and as you grow.
Before you start writing, analyze your idea to see if it has the potential to become a book that helps you meet your objectives. Do some research. Outline the key points and transitions. But be prepared to be surprised and to grow.
Books take way longer to write than articles or posts.
The size and complexity of a book project mean that you’re going to have to commit a lot more time than you would to just writing a bunch of articles. It will probably take you a year or more to write your book, assuming you’ve already done most of the research.
That means you’re going to have to arrange to take a chunk of time out of other parts of your life for at least a year. It will be important to maintain momentum. You need to write regularly, but you’ll surely miss a couple of sessions. Just don’t make it two in a row.
Articles and blog posts are usually timely, but books should be as evergreen as possible. That’s because the world and your readers will be different by the time you’re done writing and publishing your book.
Books last way longer than articles or posts.
You’d better love your topic, because your book will represent you for a decade or more. That’s why you don’t want to use contemporary examples. They’ll make your book seem dated.
Since your book will last a long time, build a business around it. Think about products that you can sell that relate to the book. Develop services. Train others in your concepts and license them.
Even if you’re a good writer, writing your first book will be a challenge. Since books are much longer than articles, they require a range of solutions. You will need more and deeper thinking and connections between your insights. Writing your book is more like a marathon than it is like a half-mile run. You’ll have to keep working on the project and find long blocks of time to work consistently for a year or more. Once your book is published, people will use it to judge you and your thoughts for years, maybe decades.
It’s a lot of hard work to write a book, but the rewards can be immense. Whole businesses and reputations have been built based on solid business books that continued to deliver value for decades.