Write Useful Books: A modern approach to designing and refining recommendable nonfiction by Rob Fitzpatrick
Date read: 2/27/23. Recommendation: 9/10.
The best modern resource that I’ve read for writing a compelling nonfiction book and successfully self-publishing. Fitzpatrick offers advice on effectively scoping your book, adopting an iterative approach, testing with beta readers, navigating a successful launch, and hacking Amazon to optimize for sales and growth. If you’re interested in writing your own book, it’s a go-to resource and quick reference.
Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.
My Notes:
Positive reviews:
The secret to a five-star Amazon rating is to be clear about what your book is promising so people can decide if they don’t need it. Good books get bad reviews when they make their promise too broad, luring the wrong people into purchasing the book. State who the book is for and what they’re going to get out of reading it.
Pick your target:
“Nearly every author attempts to include too much stuff for too many different types of readers. But that’s the recipe for writing something mediocre for everybody and mind-blowing for nobody—every chapter that the amateur adores, the expert endures, and vice versa.”
Scope:
When someone decides to buy and read your book, what are they trying to achieve or accomplish with it? Why are they bothering? After finishing it, what’s different in their life, work, or worldview? That’s your book’s promise.
What does your ideal reader already know and believe? If they already believe in the importance of the topic, then you can skip the sections attempting to convince them of its worth. Or if they already know the basics, you can skip those.
Who is your book not for and what is it not doing? If you aren’t clear on who you’re leaving out, then you’ll end up writing yourself into rabbit holes, wasting time on narrow topics that only a small subset of your readers actually care about. Deciding who it isn’t for will allow you to clip those tangential branches.
Relevancy:
To stay relevant for years, you need to pick a promise that will remain relevant and important for 5+ years. And avoid overreliance on temporary tools, trends, and tactics. For example, The 4-Hour Workweek feels mostly dated at this point because most of its content relied on tools that are now outdated.
“To create a book that lasts and grows, the formula is simple: do the best job of solving an important problem for a reader who cares without anchoring yourself to temporary tools, tactics, or trends. That’s partly about good scoping and partly about writing something that delivers real results to the average reader. And to accomplish that second goal, you’ll want to begin testing the book’s foundations with real people, even before it has even been written.”
Learner’s goals:
“Readers aren’t buying your useful book for its storytelling or suspense. They are buying it as the solution to a problem or a path toward a goal. They’ll stay engaged for as long as you are regularly and consistently delivering on that promise.”
Arrange the content around the learner’s goals instead of your own convenience. That’s what makes it feel easy and engaging. Create rapid, consistent delivery of value in your book.
Editing:
Deleting entire chapters is mainly about scoping—the reader doesn’t need this. Deleting anything smaller is about a mix of editing and reader experience design.
“Your early drafts already contain plenty of value. The challenge isn’t to add more good stuff. It’s to delete all the fluff that’s delaying readers from getting to it.”
Front-loading:
“The likelihood of your readers recommending your book is based on the amount of value they’ve received before either finishing or abandoning it. And they’re most likely to abandon at the start.”
Can you delete or reduce the front-matter (foreword, intro, bio)?
If your book begins with value-enablers (theory, context, foundations), can you rearrange it to insert pieces of real value far earlier?
If your whole book is building up toward a grand conclusion, can you simply start with the big reveal?
The faster you can deliver value, the happier and more engaged your readers will be.
“A strong start can keep folks going through a weaker ending, but a strong ending can’t save a disappointing start.”
Beta-readers:
Find readers who want what you’re creating so badly that they’re willing to endure an early, awkward manuscript to get to it. They offer three types of insights:
What they say in their comments (qualitative)
Where they begin to become bored, start skimming, stop reading, and stop commenting (quantitative insights)
How they apply the book’s ideas in their lives (observational insights)
You’ll receive more helpful feedback by showing a less polished product because people will be less afraid to hurt your feelings.
Beta reading runs in interactions of 2-8 weeks. First week or two gather feedback. Next six weeks factor that into a major revision. After each iteration, the manuscript will get stronger, and its problems will get smaller.
Aim for 3-5 deeply engaged readers per iteration. Requires inviting 12-20 people who claim that they would love to read it. Roughly half won’t open it. Another half will submit one comment before giving up.
Aim for 1-2 full iterations of beta reading (should take 1-4 months, depending on how quickly you can do a rewrite). You should continue iterating until your beta readers have shown you that you’re finished.
Strong signals that you’re finished with beta-reading phase: It feels easy to recruit new beta readers since they want what you’re offering (desirable). Most of them are receiving the value and reaching the end (effective and engaging). At least some of them are bringing their friends (the recommendation loop is running).
Tips: move the manuscript into a tool that allows for live feedback, add instructions explaining the most helpful types of feedback that a reader can give.
Save the most influential readers for last. If an influential beta reader mentions they love what you’ve written, then request a testimonial for your book’s cover or Amazon page. Keep them in the loop on launch timelines and send them a few signed copies once the book is published.
The best way to detect boredom is to find where readers are quietly giving up.
Seed readers:
Get your book into the hands and hearts of 500-1000 seed readers before taking your foot off the gas.
Marketing options:
Digital book tour via podcasts and online events
Amazon PPC advertising
Event giveaways and bulk sales
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