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The questions people ask
26 March 2023
‘So when is book 2 coming out?’
If I had a pound for every time someone has asked me that, I wouldn’t need to write another book (but I always appreciate the questioner’s interest). I’m still catching my breath from getting my first business book The Future of Time
‘out there’ and to mark its recent first birthday, I thought I’d share some reflections on the experience.
Like training for a marathon or any other long-term challenge, you have to really want to write a book. It’s a daunting task to churn out 500 – 1,000 words each day, week after week, month after month. I needed visible proof of my progress, aside from the words on the page, so I set up a daily tracker charting my snail’s pace advance towards my target 55,000 words. For ages it felt like I was plodding along not getting very far, then suddenly I found myself on the home straight with the finish line in sight. Weirdly, at that point I speeded up and wrote like a demon - much like the one and only London Marathon I ran in 2018, where mile 26 was my fastest of all (I still haven’t figured that out). Looking back, the actual writing of the book is what I’m most nostalgic for and what I’m itching to return to.
But writing the book is only one half of the task - getting it ‘out there’ requires an equal or even greater investment of effort. Book ‘visibility’ is a hungry monster that demands constant feeding and the more resources you can afford to throw at the task, the bigger the impact you can have. I was disheartened to discover it’s surprisingly hard to get your business book stocked in a physical bookshop, partly because comparatively little space is allocated to business books versus other genres, and partly because the buyers understandably rely on safe bets by established authors, celebrity CEOs and long-running classics.
Few writers I’ve spoken with expect to make a steady income from one book or even a few books. Many view their books instead as calling cards that convey their expertise and credibility with distinction and weight. ‘Don’t give up the day job’ has more than a ring of truth to it and compounding this, authors are often expected to speak for free in return for the ‘marketing opportunity’ offered. But once you factor in the years honing your expertise and then a year or more of of researching and refining ideas into book form - forgoing income-earning opportunities at the same time - I’ve concluded that the marketing opportunity rarely comes close to matching the full value of the talk’s content.
Selling truckloads gratifyingly keeps you at the top of the bestseller rankings and keeps your publisher – who has worked incredibly hard to support your book - rightly happy. And undoubtedly, opening the quarterly sales statement and seeing a satisfying number in the ‘sales this period’ and ‘cumulative sales’ box brings a warm fuzzy glow to any author. But when I reflect on how my book is doing, honestly for me it’s not just about the numbers (although don’t tell my publisher that).
I still hold the book in my hands with pride and not a little incredulity at knowing that somehow, I brought this to life. Much to the amusement of my family, I still give a little pat or word of affection to my now scruffy and dog-eared copy as I pass by.
Like training for a marathon or any other long-term challenge, you have to really want to write a book. It’s a daunting task to churn out 500 – 1,000 words each day, week after week, month after month. I needed visible proof of my progress, aside from the words on the page, so I set up a daily tracker charting my snail’s pace advance towards my target 55,000 words. For ages it felt like I was plodding along not getting very far, then suddenly I found myself on the home straight with the finish line in sight. Weirdly, at that point I speeded up and wrote like a demon - much like the one and only London Marathon I ran in 2018, where mile 26 was my fastest of all (I still haven’t figured that out). Looking back, the actual writing of the book is what I’m most nostalgic for and what I’m itching to return to.
But writing the book is only one half of the task - getting it ‘out there’ requires an equal or even greater investment of effort. Book ‘visibility’ is a hungry monster that demands constant feeding and the more resources you can afford to throw at the task, the bigger the impact you can have. I was disheartened to discover it’s surprisingly hard to get your business book stocked in a physical bookshop, partly because comparatively little space is allocated to business books versus other genres, and partly because the buyers understandably rely on safe bets by established authors, celebrity CEOs and long-running classics.
Few writers I’ve spoken with expect to make a steady income from one book or even a few books. Many view their books instead as calling cards that convey their expertise and credibility with distinction and weight. ‘Don’t give up the day job’ has more than a ring of truth to it and compounding this, authors are often expected to speak for free in return for the ‘marketing opportunity’ offered. But once you factor in the years honing your expertise and then a year or more of of researching and refining ideas into book form - forgoing income-earning opportunities at the same time - I’ve concluded that the marketing opportunity rarely comes close to matching the full value of the talk’s content.
‘How is the book is doing?’ is another recurring question.
By this, I think people tend to mean ‘have you sold lots of copies?’ because that is the classic, if narrow, measure of book success. From my limited experience, I’ve observed some books explode into the public consciousness and onto the radar of the media like attention-grabbing rockets. Others launch more sedately then, like those fireworks that gracefully spiral upwards before delighting you with a late ‘whoosh’, they pick up pace. And some fizzle along steadily and quietly, doing their thing and garnering quiet nods of appreciation without dominating the headlines.
Selling truckloads gratifyingly keeps you at the top of the bestseller rankings and keeps your publisher – who has worked incredibly hard to support your book - rightly happy. And undoubtedly, opening the quarterly sales statement and seeing a satisfying number in the ‘sales this period’ and ‘cumulative sales’ box brings a warm fuzzy glow to any author. But when I reflect on how my book is doing, honestly for me it’s not just about the numbers (although don’t tell my publisher that).
I still hold the book in my hands with pride and not a little incredulity at knowing that somehow, I brought this to life. Much to the amusement of my family, I still give a little pat or word of affection to my now scruffy and dog-eared copy as I pass by.
And I’m unashamedly revelling in some of its ego-stroking external indicators of success, from its little orange ‘Amazon bestseller’ tag to its airing at the renowned Cheltenham Book Festival and most recently, its UK Business Book Awards 2023
‘finalist’ badge (keep your fingers crossed for me at the awards night on 16th May).
But I get a far deeper sense of satisfaction from hearing readers tell me how the book has crystallised into words something they were wrestling with, given them a way of framing and communicating this and provided practical help in solving their work or organisational challenge.
I’m proud of how it brings people together in conversation to acknowledge problematic aspects of the way we work today and to figure out better approaches. At the end of a leadership session I’ve led, hearing the business leaders say ‘we need to be talking about this every time we meet’ makes me feel that the blood, sweat and tears poured into the book were worth every drop. If I can help remove some of the barriers that get in the way of people doing their best work, thriving and succeeding in their organisations, I’m satisfied beyond measure.
It's been a full-on two years book-wise, so it feels a good time to pause, reflect and catch my breath over the Easter break. I’m going to down tools, hide tons of eggs around the garden and eat hot cross buns for breakfast, lunch and tea. Then suitably revived, I’ll cast my gaze forward again to fresh book adventures that this second year might bring. And just possibly, there may be a little seed labelled ‘book 2’ beginning to germinate.
I’m proud of how it brings people together in conversation to acknowledge problematic aspects of the way we work today and to figure out better approaches. At the end of a leadership session I’ve led, hearing the business leaders say ‘we need to be talking about this every time we meet’ makes me feel that the blood, sweat and tears poured into the book were worth every drop. If I can help remove some of the barriers that get in the way of people doing their best work, thriving and succeeding in their organisations, I’m satisfied beyond measure.
It's been a full-on two years book-wise, so it feels a good time to pause, reflect and catch my breath over the Easter break. I’m going to down tools, hide tons of eggs around the garden and eat hot cross buns for breakfast, lunch and tea. Then suitably revived, I’ll cast my gaze forward again to fresh book adventures that this second year might bring. And just possibly, there may be a little seed labelled ‘book 2’ beginning to germinate.
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