Creating rewards

Writing is a building process. You assemble a series of passages to bring readers to discover an idea. If you told the idea on the first page, no one would read the rest of the book. So you build on the material around the idea in order to create a bigger impact when the idea reveals itself. Then the reader has more foundation, their own image of the concepts, and more time to think about how they work and make the ideas work for them.

In Matthew Frederick's 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School he talks about "Denial and Reward:"

"Divert users onto an unexpected path to create additional intrigue or even momentary lostness; then reward them with other interesting experiences or other views of their target. This additional "work" will make the journey more interesting, the arrival more rewarding."

Think about this as you build your next book.

Selling yourself: "A pain in the ass"

Technology has empowered people to accomplish many things. Bands can put their own CDs out, people can create their own videos and upload them to the web, and authors can write books and self-publish them. The power is in the people's hands - who needs publishers anymore?

Well, we all do. Publishers have a lot of connections, resources, and abilities that neither our internal staff, friends, or the internet can provide. Ability is one thing, human effort and relationships is quite another. But before I go any further, this Scalzi post explains things quite sensibly and thoroughly.

There are certain benefits to self-publishing, but again, it depends on your purpose for writing and what you want the book to really accomplish.

Seth sez

Here's another one from the archives, this time from Seth Godin. For those of you who haven't read it, Seth gives 19 essential tips for authors, from when to start promoting the book to smart ways to do it. Since the time of his blog post, his figure of 75,000 non-fiction books published per year has increased, so using these tips is even more critical now. Check it out.

Jim Champy: blockbuster and beyond

Jim Champy wrote one of the most important business books of the 90s: Reengineering the Corporation. It sold over 3 million copies and is still moving units today. I recently talked with Jim about the experience of writing such a major book, and how he approached subsequent books to help his consulting and ideas continue to grow.

Listen to our conversation here.

Pink recommends

Author Dan Pink posted recently on his top 5 favorite books on writing. It's especially interesting to see what Dan's picks are for this as his new book is in a very unique format for the Western business book world: manga. Writing is tricky enough alone, but in his case, Dan had to condense everything, and let a lot of the message be communicated by visual illustrations. I'm sure it was a process for him to think differently about what he was going to say, and reduce it to a concise statement that could fit within a series of quick talk bubbles coming from the mouths of the characters in the story.

Nonetheless, his picks for books on writing are dead-on, whether you're writing essays, novels, or comics.

Wildfire

Dave Rendall published a manifesto at the ChangeThis site, and then reported in his blog the response that occurred around the world. We all know that blogs can spread messages, but this example just goes to show the importance of spreading your idea out and continuing to let it grow. However, wherever, and whatever you publish, keep it growing; keep telling people about it, and keep the idea exciting and alive.

Based on Dave's example, three things come to mind:

1. Get your idea published in other forums (ex. ChangeThis, magazines, newspapers, etc.).
2. Post about those other publications and your article there.
3. People like me will find out about it all and write about what was written, widening the footprint even further!

The reason for writing

Some things stand the test of time, and Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba's blog had a great post in 2006 about the reasons a person should have to write a business book. Admittedly, they got some of their insight from the very first 8cr Pow Wow, but, with two books under their belts, they've had plenty of their own experience to base their ideas on. Be sure to read all the comments posted after the article for even more advice.

100,000+ sold

Might be interesting for authors to see which books sold over 100,000 copies in 2007. The list is below. Even more interesting, would be some insight into how each of these authors accomplished this. Authors, if you're reading, feel free to comment!

* The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss. Crown, (332,272 copies sold)

* Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca. Scribner (310,000 copies sold)

* Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Morrow (275,000 copies sold)

* Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. Free Press (239,966 copies sold)

* The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Random House (199,784 copies sold)

* Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Random House (161,053 copies sold)

* Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance by Marcus Buckingham. Free Press (140,574 copies sold)

* Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work by Cathie Black. Crown Business (139,806 copies sold)

* What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter. Hyperion (123,732 copies sold)

* The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't by Robert I. Sutton. Business Plus (115,954 copies sold)

* Talent Is Never Enough: Discover the Choices That Will Take You Beyond Your Talent by John C. Maxwell. Thomas Nelson (104,971 copies sold)

WEbusiness

I'm surprised there aren't more contributions to the business genre portion of the WEbook site. As authors, it's likely that time is filled up by writing your own books and blogs, speaking, etc., and maybe non-fiction demands more direct payoff over fiction? However, take a look around the site, and you'll start to sense the community there. Readers chime in and offer thoughtful feedback to writing, and writer ratings get boosted. If not just for self promotion, there's certainly some personal benefits to contributing or starting your own project there.

If anyone has taken part in this, post a comment. It would be great to hear about the experience.

On style

Grant McCracken has an interesting post at his blog about his conversation with a fluid writer who happens to work for a major corporation. What this conversation reveals to McCracken, is that business writing needs to learn a thing or two from literature, even citing a new business book that uses poetry within its pages.

He states, "What we want is a "management literature" that reads like literature. Why must our writers work for the corporation and write, like Wallace Stevens, as if in another life? Everything in the corporate world is now changing...why not this?" I agree. It could make some books more interesting beyond the first 15 pages, but more importantly, it would help us understand, process, and reflect on the material differently, which can't hurt. As business thought drives toward shorter content, this would also be a way to make a stronger case for writing a book in the first place, and potentially ensure your name on the shelves among the classics.

Even if that's not the case, literature is an important consideration. No matter what you're writing, reading books (all kinds) will help. If those non-business books start to have an effect on your content and delivery, it will set your style apart from your peers.