Time To Write That Book? 4 Ideas to Kickstart Authorship
- Dia Bondi, Author & Communications Coach
You have a distinct voice. Full of operating principles, methodologies, and smarts. You lend that voice to your venture, daily. Maybe it’s time to lend it to us.
For nearly 20 years, I loaned my voice to my clients through private coaching and strategic projects. It was fulfilling, and we won—a lot. But the audiences were small, the circles tight and my impact limited. When the right idea hit, I knew becoming an author would expand my reach. If it’s time for you to put pen to paper and amplify your voice, consider these tips as you take your ideas from beginning thoughts to printed pages.
Know Your Why
Author Heather Kernahan uses her book to encourage other women to become business book authors. Mine is designed to help one million women ask for more and get it. Whatever your goal, get clear on why you’re writing the book so you can get it into the world and into the right hands.
Make Models
Crystalize your thinking into models with visual or mnemonic devices. This helps elevate your ideas, and lets them rise above the noise. Models make the ideas sticky enough to travel using the best viral tool: word of mouth. People read what friends recommend. When your model is simple and clear, people will talk.
Unconventional Is The New Convention
On my journey, I got lots of advice that was rarely right. “Write a one page proposal,” they said. Mine was 65 pages. “Publishers need a huge social following,” they said. False. “Get a literary agent.” I didn’t. Not in the conventional sense. Don’t be afraid to break the rules—it’s part of the game.
Meet Women in Tech: Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, a serial tech entrepreneur, angel investor and builder of high-performing teams.
Fall In Love With Your Goal
You will be confronted with resistance, false promises, criticism, doubt and rejection. Shield yourself by falling in love with your book’s goal. Protect that goal the way you would the most important people in your life. Putting your voice in print requires wielding a sword and slaying the dragons that threaten its life.
This advice isn’t step-by-step. It’s the fuel in your engine, the wind in your sails, the Gorilla Glue for your skiff. Still, you do need to get started. So here’s what you can start with: workshop your book’s central idea. Find people and teach them. Dinner tables, one-on-ones, industry events. You’ll refine your model, see enthusiasm and drop what doesn’t work. You’ll soon know to go to the next step and write that proposal. To find that literary agent—or not. To advance your book’s mission in an unconventional way. To disrupt what needs disrupting in the way only you can.
Author - Dia Bondi
Dia Bondi is a communications coach and author of Ask Like an Auctioneer: How To Ask For More and Get It. See all her work at diabondi.com. Watch her TED Editor’s Pick TEDx “Why the word YES is holding you back”
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