Many leaders have a book they mean to write. Years pass, the notes pile up, and the draft stays a draft. The cause is rarely a lack of talent or even a lack of time. It is usually that the book was never defined. These four questions fix that, and you can answer them in an afternoon.
1. Why do you want to be read?
Most people carry three reasons at once: authority, opportunities and legacy. One of them always leads. If you want authority, the book needs to be the definitive word on a subject. If you want opportunities, it needs to show your thinking to the people who invite speakers, appoint boards and fund work. If you want legacy, it needs to preserve something that would otherwise be lost. The same material, written for different reasons, becomes different books. Decide which reason leads before you decide anything else.
2. Who is the one reader you are writing for?
A book written for everyone reads like a book written for no one. Picture a single reader: a first-time manager, a pastor in a small town, a graduate student starting a thesis. Write down what they already know, what they are afraid of, and what they should be able to do after reading. When a paragraph does not help that person, it can go.
3. What is the promise in one sentence?
Finish this sentence: “After reading this book, my reader will ______.” If it takes a paragraph, the book is not yet focused. A clear promise gives you a test for every chapter. It also gives you the sentence you will use on the back cover and in every conversation about the book.
4. Where are you starting from?
There are three honest starting points. You may have a finished manuscript that needs editing, design and printing. You may have a draft, sermons, talks or notes that need shaping into a book. Or you may have an idea or a story and no pages yet. None of these is better than the others, but each needs a different first step, and knowing which one is yours saves months of wandering.
Put the answers on one page
Write the four answers on a single sheet and keep it next to you while you work. When you feel stuck, the page tells you what the book is for. Our free guide, The Storicracy Method, includes exercises for each of these questions that you can fill in on screen, and a workbook that takes you from here to a chapter map.