Even if you have never thought about writing your own book, after reading this book, I believe you will begin writing one. This book makes the whole process from start to end so simple that it is hard to get stuck. The subtitle of the book “The Paint-By-Numbers System to Write the Book of your Dreams-Fast!” is a bit corny, but after you get into the system, it starts to make sense. Below is a personal review I have done on this book (which I received for free) and would like to share with you why this is a book worth reading.
The best part about this book is the layout and delivery method. Everything is broken up into short, easy to read, and quickly understand sub-sections. Short stories and examples help move the process along and after a brief intro into how the system works, the book begins actively engaging with you to help start you out.
The direction provided by Dan Janal is backed up by his work career starting with his being part of the initial AOL public relations team, followed up as an award winning journalist, and also from the thirteen books he has written on business and coaching.
To help pick the topic of your book, Mr. Janal asks what format and style your book will have. Will it be a summary of blog posts, or a large thought leadership novel? This helps set the stage that your book will stand on when you get into what the book topic will be.
Personally, I decided to use the ‘Blog Post’ book style, and to model the ‘How To’ genre. This was even before I knew what my topic was going to be! By picking these two options I was directed into topics that I knew about and have already written about to get moving forward. I have been working on a side project for a few years to make folios and notebooks. It has been a struggle to find US manufacturers that will work with startup companies, and I want to help other people locate and pitch their idea to manufacturers so they can start working on a prototype right away.
From here, the Mr. Janal helps take all the proper next steps to push you through writing out a great book. The book itself even acts as an example for how something should look when it describes what you need to focus on. If you ever get stuck, there are also lots of reference pages on the website www.writeyourbookinaflash.com/worksheets
For my book, the chapter outline worksheet was the most exciting. I felt like I could start writing my book right away after I did this exercise. Mr. Janal recommends using 10 chapters to start with and name a theme for each one to get a solid working structure. His point in doing this is very clear,
“Your book could have 10 chapters or 20 chapters. It could have 2,000 words or 65,000. So many choices! That’s where a lot of would-be authors get stalled. They don’t know how many words, how many chapters, or how many “anythings” they need to put in their books. They don’t even know when they are done!”
One last item I will mention is that we have all heard of the importance of storytelling, with anything we write or talk about. This book actually goes into the mechanics of becoming a storyteller so you don’t even need to be good at it. This is a relief for me, as I have never thought of myself as a good storyteller and it is a great help to have this guidance.
In summary, this book is short, it is only 175 pages, but it is a must have item if you ever need to write a book. I highly recommend it and I have already decided that this year in November I plan on writing my book for National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. I also have been hesitant in the past to write a book because of how few people actually read books. The upside I recently discovered is that it is easier than ever to have self-published books turned into audio books. On ACX.com and Upwork.com you can find professional readers, and they will do all the production work.
I wish you the best of luck if you are planning on writing your own book and let me know if you have any questions!
I received this book free of charge from the kind folks at http://www.tckpublishing.com/ but all the above are my honest thoughts and hope they help.
Cheers,
Mike
