I’m Writing a Book for Writers. I’d Love Your Insights as I Write it.
I’m writing a book.
I think you can help to make it better.
For those short on time: The TL;DR
I am looking for people I can trust during the writing process of this book with your insights into what would make the book valuable to you.
Working Title: Be The Principal
The topic: How to Write & Publish the Book that Dominates Your Niche.
The ask: Hop on a Zoom call to offer your perspective, comment on book outline and chapters as they’re written.
But first, I’d like to take you on a meandering little journey through my backstory, so you can trust that I value your time and that your contribution would be worthwhile…
Who am I?
I’ve been working in and around the publishing industry — primarily with independent and self-publishing authors, but also with small presses and some of the Big Five Publishers — since 2010.
That’s 14 years during which my author service businesses have helped hundreds of people become published authors.
Some did it to further their business.
Some did it is a passion project for something they valued.
Some went on to sign publisher contracts and multi-book deals.
What was my role in all of that?
Over that time — from our origins as a book design agency — we’ve built an array of services that have helped those clients to publish more than a thousand books with combined sales of many millions to date.
Services such as:
- Writing
- Editing
- Design
- Publication
- Marketing
That’s a whole lot of experience about what makes a book read well, look good, and sell. And what makes it fail to do any of those things.
We’ve worked with authors of both fiction and non-fiction titles. Now we’re focused solely on authors of business and transformative non-fiction. But the experience and lessons we’ve learned across all genres in that time is treasure that we want to share more widely.
Why write this book?
I believe that a well-produced book for actual and aspiring Premium Business Authors could help break down the perceived barriers that hold a lot of people back from publishing their expertise.
Too many people have knowledge stored in their heads that would hold enormous value to readers — were they to get it out into the world.
But here’s what many miss: it’s also a huge value opportunity to the author themselves. Because disengaging your knowledge from your time by getting it all into a book allows you to transform what you know — and often wrongly assume to be common knowledge — into a product that thousands would happily pay for.
The reason that so many true experts never get round to writing their book is that they simply don’t have the time. The irony is therefore that often the people writing the books are those not fully engaged in the field they write about.
They preach, but they don’t practice.
They talk the talk, but they don’t walk the…
…well, you get the point.
But here’s the real kicker…
This dearth of true experts authoring definitive books for their industry or niche flings the doors of the market wide open. Wide open for true Principals to enter the arena with well-produced books that capture attention and position them as the authority they always should have been.
Missed opportunities
Often for people with expertise the book is a gateway to all kinds of opened doors and new possibilities, enabling them to monetise their knowledge via:
- Courses
- Webinars
- Coaching
- Seminars
- Speaking Tours
In short, keeping that knowledge wrapped up in their head is costing them and their business a great deal.
In this new book, I’m going to teach what I know.
And that’s where this request comes in.
Because the truth is that I could write this book from any one of many different angles. I could cover the topics I think people might be interested in.
But what a wasted opportunity that would be.
I want to write about the things that actually matter to people – perhaps people like you – when you think of publishing. The things that would be valuable to anyone like you considering becoming a Premium Business Author or aspiring Principal in your field.
Practicing what we preach, in fact…
As I thought about this book and how I’d approach it over recent months, it wasn’t lost on me that this whole venture is in fact the very embodiment of the Premium Business Author model we teach, coach, and sell.
All very meta, indeed!
But then it also occurred to me that this in fact is what makes the whole venture so worthwhile in the first place.
It all becomes an exciting teaching opportunity in itself.
Nathan Barry, the prolific entrepreneur and founder of ConvertKit (now simply Kit) lives by this mantra:
Create every day. Teach what you know. Build in public.
And it’s become clear to me that this is precisely the approach I want to take to writing this book.
What this is all about
Over the coming weeks I’ll lift the curtain on the entire venture of writing a book; the exact processes we work through with clients of our own.
It will contain all of the advice we give to clients, but that we never (until now) set aside the time to condense into a single, authoritative volume.
So here’s the ask…
I’m looking for people who will have a little time every so often over the coming months to discuss the book, its purpose, and its development.
I’m looking for three specific types of people:
- If (for one of many possible reasons) you ever considered writing a book some time, or perhaps started but never finished, then your insights would be my bounty. I’d love to chat with you.
- If you did already write a book, and have thoughts to share on the experience, then my ears are open. I’d love to chat with you, too.
- If you’re an existing client of ours who worked with us on all or part of the book production process, then I’d love you to join the small crew of other clients who already offered their insights with this venture. Drop me a note, because I’d also love to chat with you.
Who is this not for?
This is not for anyone who has zero interest in authoring a book.
Nor is it for anyone whose interest is in writing fiction.
Why? Simply because it’s the very perspective of the non-fiction author that is valuable to me in this process.
If that sounds like you, then you could contribute to a much better book than I could write without you.
It’s into your head that I want to climb so that I can truly understand your problems, the roadblocks you meet, and battles you face.
I am not trying to sell you anything
This is not a sales pitch.
I’m not trying to trick you into buying a book, or convince you to buy any of the services I offer in my businesses.
In fact, quite the opposite.
Everyone who participates in a review session with me will be sent a free digital edition of the book when it’s published.
It will be my thank you for your time.
What might you be asked to do?
At different points in the process, it’s likely I’ll ask you to help in one of the following ways:
- Hop on a Zoom call with me to talk through your perspective on the pains and joys of authoring a book.
- Offer your thoughts on the book outline.
- Provide structured feedback on chapters as they’re written.
- If you’d be happy to, write an honest review of the book when it’s complete.
I will always respect your time, and I will never ask too much of a single contributor.
How to get in touch with me
You can drop me a DM on X (@abaloo) or on LinkedIn.
Or you can email hello@principal.pub and I’ll get back to you there.
I’ll also be writing about it all here on Medium.
So please: Clap, Comment, Follow or Subscribe to come with me on the journey as I work through the entire book production process.
It would mean a lot.
