How to Write A *High-Quality* Book In 60 Days or Less That Generates Both Passive Income For You and Warm Leads For Your Core Business
Plus, pre-order my new book at motm.co/books and save 20% :).
Have you ever wanted to write a book, but felt intimated by the multi-year process of traditionally publishing something you’d be proud to put your name on?
If you’re someone like me - who has done a TON of podcast interviews, paid keynote speeches for companies or groups like TEDx, or perhaps even created an online course - then this is a GAME CHANGER for you.
When I announced earlier this week on Facebook and LinkedIn that I was pre-selling my third book called How To Build A World-Class Network In Record Time, some of the responses I got (even from my mom, lol!) were…
Wow! Legendary…Third one?!? What in the world….
Oh! Love the cover - this makes a lot of sense for you…
I didn’t know you were working on another book?! Congrats!!!
This book weaves together intellectual property, keynotes, and examples from fellow subject matter experts in networking and relationship-building that I’ve created or curated over the last SEVEN YEARS of my career…
…which is how I know it will be:
valuable to readers;
interesting and engaging (some of the stories I’ll be putting in the book have been shared hundreds of times on stages, podcasts, TV, radio, etc);
and strategic for our business in that readers of this book will want to learn more about Meeting of the Minds, earning us a higher ROI for our efforts in creating this book rather than publishing something completely new or “left field” with no ties back to our core offers and experiences.
Want to know how I’m making this book easy to write so that I can publish it by January 2021 (after deciding only weeks ago to pursue this project)?
Here’s how…
Focus on High-Leverage Activities and Delegate The Rest
As I wrote about extensively in October (“How To Save 10+ Hours Of Your Time Each Week By Focusing On Your Highest Leverage Activities”), you can accomplish more at work (like creating and publishing a book in 60 days) when you prioritize and delegate to trusted partners or collaborators.
For me, high-leverage activities for this project are curating the best content for the book, developmental editing, and promotion.
To actually “write” the book, I have enlisted an amazing team member, Elaina, who is executing most of the steps shared below as I stay focused on our Meeting of the Minds and “VIP Day” clients.
🙏🙏🙏 THANK YOU ELAINA!!! 🙏🙏🙏
Transcribe Videos, Interviews, and Other Recordings You Already Have On Your Subject Matter Expertise
For this process to work, you MUST be publishing a book on something that is truly your Zone of Genius (read “Identifying Your Zone of Genius”), for which many would say that networking and relationship-building is what I’m world-class at doing for myself and teaching others.
Elaina is taking an entire online course on networking and relationship-building that I spent thousands of dollars and endless hours/days creating, and she’s transcribing all the videos into text using a tool called otter.ai.
She’s also combing through webinars, keynote speeches, podcast interviews, templates, newsletter articles and all other intellectual property I have on networking and relationship-building and dumping everything into one central document.
From there, we will outline and edit the book (which are tasks that I’ll be leading as “high-leverage activities”).
Crowdsource an Affordable Book Cover Using 99Designs or Hire A Friend To Help You (Because Books ARE Judged By Their Covers!!!
For our book cover, I used a service called 99designs and shared Branding Guidelines we’ve established for Meeting of the Minds with the designers competing for our business through this platform.
After getting to four semi-finalists, I asked my network via LinkedIn for feedback and we settled on the winning cover design option.
Other than the book’s content, spend a majority of your time choosing a compelling book title, subtitle, and cover.
Our working subtitle right now speaks to our Ideal Clients, letting them know this book is “The Ultimate Guide For Creating Deep, Meaningful Connections and Leveraging Those Relationships to Build an Exciting Business.”
We may shorten the subtitle, but we still have 4-6 weeks to make that decision ;).
And because we’re focused on SPEED, we’re trying to get these ideas into the marketplace as soon as possible, instead of obsessing over every detail in private like I’ve done with previous books.
However, you should be willing to spend some money here.
This is not the place to cheap out or rush because most people won’t buy your book unless the cover is compelling and the title/subtitle convinces potential customers of the benefits they’d receive by reading your book.
Outline and Edit (…and Edit, and Edit Again)
One of my New York Times bestselling buddies recently told me…
“The more outlining you can do, the better.”
This is especially true with longer-term, more traditionally-published books, but you must also invest a considerable amount of time outlining the main topics of this type of book as well.
Some of the outlining is already done for me by 2018 Jared, as the online course I’ve transcribed and will be updating as a bonus for readers who pre-order (like yourself, hopefully!) had a thoughtfully-crafted curriculum.
Where I find new information to add to the book, I can record new videos for the online course to add material for the manuscript while also creating content that can be shared as bonuses and/or as part of a $399 retail price online course that will be relaunched with the book in 2021.
When it comes to editing, I happen to be experienced in this from curating my previous two award-winning books 2 Billion Under 20 and 3 Billion Under 30, where we brought together 75 stories from top-performing Millennials in each book.
In that series, there were language barriers, writing styles, and various levels of articulation for our contributors.
Word for word, over multiple drafts, I personally edited each book and have honed those skills over a weekly email newsletter over the last two years.
After my own edits, I worked with two types of editors for my past two books.
There’s Developmental Editors who will give you “big picture” guidance, assist with outlining, and work through storytelling and sentence structure with you.
Then, there’s Copyeditors who look at every word, use of grammar, and punctuation mark to ensure you’ve limited and/or eradicated all mistakes in your manuscript.
Further still, if you were to work with a traditional publisher, there would be a legal review of your manuscript, but personally I feel this is unnecessary for a self-published book created in the high-speed manner we are discussing right now.
For How to Build A World-Class Network In Record Time, we will hire at least two different copyeditors from Upwork in order to create the best book possible.
I’ll largely play the role of Developmental Editor for the first edition of this book, but may choose to later hire a company we’ve worked with previously who has advised bestselling business book authors like Ryan Holiday, James Altucher, and Tucker Max.
Publish As An eBook First And Utilize Print-On-Demand To Have “Update” Flexibility
My first book was traditionally published with one of the big New York publishers, and so my co-author and I weren’t in control of printing or distribution.
For my second book, which I self-published, I went directly to the same vendors that major publishing houses work with and ordered 10,000 beautiful hardcover copies of 3 Billion Under 30 in addition to selling eBooks through Kindle and Apple.
With How To Build A World-Class Network In Record Time, we are starting with an eBook and offering paperback print-on-demand copies through Kindle Direct Publishing and/or another print-on-demand platform.
We plan to push multiple “updates” to the book after the first edition is published in January 2021, so that similar to the Apple App Store, we can offer complimentary upgrades to readers and edit the information in the book at will for future readers as we get feedback from early adopters.
Admittedly, this is an experiment and is not required for you to be successful with this method of self-publishing. However, I would NOT recommend printing thousands of hardcover books if you’re a first-time author as this strategy creates inventory challenges and logistical nightmares you may not plan for in advance.
My my, do I have some stories for you re: printing 10,000 books. Ask me sometime over a socially distanced coffee or cocktail 😂.
Go Market The Heck Out Of Your Book and Company!!!
The guide above should give you 98% of what you’d need to execute this strategy on your own.
Then, you can spend the bulk of your time leveraging the “event” of a book launch to appear on podcasts, get featured in major media outlets, and entice friends to share your work on social media, all of which will subsequently elevate your profile and help more people learn about your core business.
You’ll also want to sell books through your own website in addition to Amazon so you can better “funnel” people to other offers, such as products or services that your core business offers.
Finally, think about the staying power of your book and how it can continue generating both passive income and warm leads for your business for years to come.
Can you add links to buy your book on social media and in your email signature?
Can you hire someone to regularly pitch your book to associations, conferences, and online communities where your Ideal Clients are hanging out?
Can you offer a free copy of your book to new leads, partners, or hires so they can better understand your company before working with you?
These days, books are one big, expensive business card, so think about how you’ll promote a book before spending time and money following this guide.
If you have further questions about traditional vs. self-publishing, I wrote an in-depth guide including extensive pros and cons, in this article for premium subscribers.
If you click that link and you’re not a paying/premium member of this newsletter, then you’ll have to subscribe to get access to those resources.
Premium subscribers will also get access to other helpful articles that are otherwise “locked” to you if you’re only a free subscriber, such as:
21 Marketing Channels To "Experiment" With To Find More Ideal Clients (perfect for creating a marketing plan for any book launch)
How to Keep Your Cool, Build A Position of Strength, and Save LOTS of Money in High-Stakes Negotiations (perfect for hiring top designers, editors, and vendors at affordable prices)
The Ultimate Guide to Starting A High Margin Launchpad Business - Without Any Upfront Capital or Pre-Existing Clients (perfect for converting readers of your book into clients for your core business)
A 194 page playbook from one of Silicon Valley’s top CEO coaches (perfect for learning how to run your company more effectively so you can spend more time on strategic projects such as building thought leadership and writing books)
PLUS, premium subscribers will get a FREE copy of the new book!
Technically, you could sign up for only $12/mo and cancel after one month if you want to save $8 on pre-ordering a copy of the new book, but hopefully you’ll subscribe to the newsletter above, get a ton of value from the premium articles and guides, and then also enjoy a complimentary book when it goes live in January :).
If you ARE working on a book, want support when it comes to developing thought leadership, and/or need guidance on marketing your core business, then you can always reply to this email and I’d LOVE to help you.
Happy Thanksgiving and I hope this is helpful.
-Jared
P.S. - We don’t do Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales, but if you’d like to get 20% off the new book and receive over $400 in bonuses, you can pre-order a copy today at motm.co/books (or become a premium subscriber to the newsletter!).
You can also get Early Bird pricing on our December “Deep Dive” until Mon, Nov 30 to save $300. Learn more at motm.co/december.
Almost everything we offer, from the book to the premium subscriptions, Deep Dives, and quarterly Meeting of the Minds summits comes with a “More Than Money Back” guarantee, so there’s no risk to invest in yourself and your business :).