Two Ways to Move Up The Corporate Ladder
The Amplified Impact Podcast
October 22nd, 2023
Let’s chat about a common question I get: should you write a book?
Writing a book can be fantastic, but there’s a catch.
Your book must be good, no shortcuts allowed. If you’re searching for an easy way out, a bad book won’t help your brand.
Realize this: writing a book takes time, possibly a year or more. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
If you can’t stay motivated for the long haul, don’t bother. Also, prepare for the possibility that your first book may not get huge readership.
Here’s my take: I want everyone to write a book, but only if you’re committed to putting in the time and effort. Writing is an art that deserves dedication.
Friendly tip: If you’re not a writer, start with blogging, tweeting, or newsletters. Write a million words before tackling a book. Writing a book is a long-term journey.
So, if you’ve got the dedication, go for it. Writing a book can be a highly rewarding accomplishment. If you’re not committed, save yourself the agony.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“Should you write a book? So here’s the thing with writing a book is, regardless of what kind of business that you have, there’s a lot of value that comes from distilling all your thoughts on a topic and creating a framework which is really just all a book is, and then sharing it with the world.”
– Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino:
Yo, what’s up, everybody? Welcome back to the pod the question we’re gonna explore today is whether or not you should write a book. And if you should write a book, then maybe we can talk about how to go about doing that. This is a question that I get a lot. People slide into my DMs, I get texts, I get emails all the time from people curious. Generally, they’re coming to me and saying, hey, I have this idea for a book I plan on writing. What do I need to do? What do I need to know? What are my next steps? And this is a question that actually really bugs me. It annoys me and I’ll break down why that is. But first, should you write a book? So here’s the thing with writing a book is, regardless of what kind of business that you have, there’s a lot of value that comes from distilling all your thoughts on a topic and creating a framework which is really just all a book is, and then sharing it with the world.
Anthony Vicino:
There’s an immense value to yourself for just crystallizing and distillating what you think on the topic and kind of like taking your expertise and articulating. It tons of value in that putting the book out there. There’s also a ton of value in that because it’s an immediate authority piece, right? When people come to your website or they find you if you have a book, it just resonates on such a deeper level in terms of like, oh, this person must really know their shit because they took the time to write out a book. And even if they didn’t really weren’t an authority on the topic before they wrote the book, by the time they finished the book, they should probably be pretty damn fluent in that particular language. And so it’s a way of instantly elevating your brand and people’s perception also because you’re probably going to be selling your book either through a traditional route or through a self published route, which is going to know on Amazon. There is a lot of exposure that can come from that. Amazon is the third largest search engine in the world, right behind Google and YouTube. It is where people go to find all sorts of things with the idea of wanting to make a purchase.
Anthony Vicino:
And so if you’re in a business, it’s a great place to generate a lead because somebody is probably already in the purchasing mindset. So those are all really good things. And that last one, that search engine of Amazon, was one of the reasons we have grown so much at Invictus capital over the last couple of years. The reason we’ve been able to raise so much capital from investors is mainly because our book has been ranked like top five in commercial real estate for two and a half years now. And so when people go googling commercial real estate books, our book pops up they read it, then they come into our funnel. Because if they like it, then they like us. They want to learn more. If they don’t like it, that’s fine.
Anthony Vicino:
They move on. And so there’s a ton of benefits that come from having a book, not to mention just the personal gratification of having the book out there. It’s kind of cool. It really is a project that if you can ever complete, you should pat yourself on the back and take yourself out for a steak dinner and reward yourself. Because it is very hard to write a book, regardless of how many times you’ve done it, it is difficult. It requires many hours of focus, concentration to be able to produce. And that leads to whether or not you should write a book. See, the truth is, if you’re going to write a book, it needs to be a good book.
Anthony Vicino:
It needs to be a great book, it needs to be a book worthy of the time and the energy that you’re going to have to put into it regardless. And I see so many people looking for the shortcut here. They’re looking for a ghostwriter. They’re looking for a service, somebody that can write it for them or like the easiest way. When people come to me looking for the easiest way to write a book, I tell them don’t bother because the book is going to suck, first of all. Second of all, nobody’s going to read it. And even if they do read it because it sucks, it’s not going to do your brand any favors. And so I’m really against writing shitty books.
Anthony Vicino:
I’m really against trying to find shortcuts to get your book out there. And most of the time when people want to write a book, when they come to me with this great idea that they have for a book, they’re thinking, oh, in the next 90 days I’d like to publish a book. And the truth is, no matter how good you are at writing, it’s probably going to take you at least a year. A year from the moment that you have the idea, do the research, start outlining it, start writing it, start editing it, and then start going through the post production process to get it out there and distributed, it’s probably going to take at least a year. And that’s if you know what you’re doing and you’re really good at the process, most likely it’s going to take two years, maybe three years to write a book. And I’m not saying that to turn anybody off. I’m just saying that realistically so that you understand that just because you have this idea burning in your soul right now at this moment, if you’re not confident that you can A, maintain that motivation for three years or replace that motivation with the discipline to follow through and do the thing, then don’t even embark on the journey. I see so many people get this enthusiasm for writing a book.
Anthony Vicino:
They’ll spend two months writing and they’re like, Look, I’ve come so far on this thing, and then a year goes by and it’s nothing to be seen. They stopped. And I just see this over and over so many times that the number of people who reach out and ask for advice on how to write the book and the process that I recommend, the number of people that actually follow through and do it is maybe one, maybe two people ever have actually followed through. So when I get the question from people asking, how do I write this book? And whatnot, I don’t even respond in a lot of cases anymore because it’s not a good use of my time. I’ve hopped on so many Zoom calls, excited to share what I know about writing books with people. And then they’ll take the notes, and then they’ll start to realize, like, oh, this is more work than I thought it was. And it just ends up being a waste of my time because they don’t actually use anything that we talked about. And so it’s a question that everybody has to answer for themselves.
Anthony Vicino:
There’s an immense amount of value that comes from writing a book. If you’re going to write a book, you have to commit to getting it done and recognizing it’s going to take a lot of time and effort and energy to get there. And you need to be okay with the fact that maybe nobody’s going to read it. And if you’re okay putting in the two, three years that it takes to write the book and okay with the idea that nobody might read it, then yeah, do it. There’s tremendous value in it. I want everybody to write a book because I think everybody has a book in them. Everybody has the idea for a book, but I don’t know if everybody has the discipline and the ability to follow through and write the book. And so if you can be one of those people that can stick it out and write and finish and publish the thing, then you can do very well because the barrier to entry is fairly low for the number of people that actually complete and publish.
Anthony Vicino:
Now, the other side of this is, if you are not a writer by trade, if you’re just thinking that you have an idea for a book and you would like to pick up the pen and start writing, your book is going to suck. You’re probably a shitty writer. And so I would encourage you to start with microblogging or blogging. Go to Twitter and start posting consistently. Do a newsletter. Do a blog on your website. Do that first so you can start to hone your voice and your process for writing. Because if you have not written at least at least a million words over the last decade, then you’re not in a position, I think, to write a great book yet because you haven’t developed your voice and you’re not a great writer yet.
Anthony Vicino:
A million words for context would be 3000 words every single day for a year. It’d be 1000 words every single day for three years. It’d be 500 words every single day for six years. 500 words is probably a pretty reasonable amount for people. Thousands a lot. 3000 is an incredible amount. And so that’s just kind of a guideline to be thinking about here. It’s a lot of writing a million words is a lot of words.
Anthony Vicino:
But I think that’s what you owe your readership if you want it to be good, if you want it to be worthy of their time. And that’s what you’re really creating when you’re writing a book, is something that you’re hoping somebody’s going to be willing to invest eight to nine to 10 hours reading. And so you owe them the least you owe them is to at least make it as good as you can and so do the work. Become a writer before you ever think to write a book. If you’re not already a writer, you’re not interested in writing, don’t bother. Don’t write a book. It’s going to suck. You’re going to hate every minute of the process, and at the end of it’s not going to be very good.
Anthony Vicino:
And so those are the things that I want to spill because somebody asked me the other day how to write a book and I just noticed it elicited these feelings of frustration. I just have been on so many calls with people who are well intentioned and want to write a book, and then they never do anything with it, and it frustrates me. So wanted to share this with you guys. Sorry if I’m a little bit of a grumpy old man yelling at people to get off his lawn, but hopefully this brought you a little bit of value. And if you’re thinking about writing a book, do it. I think it’s one of the greatest things any of us. It’s the coolest accomplishment that you can do, I think, like, to have a book written is phenomenally cool. So do it if it’s something that you’re called to do.
Anthony Vicino:
If you’re not called to do it, don’t do it. It’s going to end horribly. So that’s all I got, people, I love you, as always. Thanks for being here. I’ll catch you back around these parts tomorrow. Until then, though, stay hyper focused, my friends.
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