You’re a smart cookie, so you know writing and publishing a book takes a lot of time, energy, and brain power. It’s not a fast win. Is writing a book worth it right now when we’re so busy? We have work to do, families to feed, and episodes of Ted Lasso to rewatch.
You have a million other things to spend time on, but you don’t want to reach the end of your days and regret never writing that book that’s in your heart.
I get it
I write books and coach authors for a living and, obviously, I love books. I believe writing a good book is one of the most generous contributions you can make to this world.
But I’m also a fan of:
Creating a profitable and fun business.
Having time to build a fort out of sofa cushions with my son.
Not feeling bad when I want to re-live the epic romance of Roy and Keeley (if you know, you know) instead of locking myself in a dark room to write.
The question
I truly believe writing a book is a brilliant thing to do. The question is:
Is it a brilliant thing for you to do right now?
There is no right or wrong answer here. Jokes about TV aside, writing a book is not the only noble thing you can do with your time. Making an informed and empowered decision NOT to write a book can free you up to do all sorts of other wonderful things.
My goal is not to convince you to write your book.
It’s to empower you to stop feeling bad for not writing, and instead make an informed decision you feel really good about.
The time Amy Porterfield told me no
Amy Porterfield emailed me once, and it was not as awesome as you might think.
If you don’t know her, Amy Porterfield is a mega-star in the world of building online businesses. She’s THE person you go to when you want to learn about teaching and selling online courses.
Yonks ago, I wanted to create a writing course so I could help more people than I could serve one-on-one. But I didn’t know what this course would look like.
Back then, I was getting great results with clients but hadn’t quite codified what I did with them. It felt like magic that I hadn’t yet demystified.
So I emailed Amy Porterfield and asked if her course about courses (yes, very meta) would guide me through that process of codifying.
She told me no. She told me I wasn’t ready to take her course, and that I needed to figure out my process first.
That was a bummer.
I wanted to be told I could figure it out as I went along and it would be okay.
And the truth is…
The truth is I COULD figure things out as I went, but it wouldn’t have been smart. It would’ve been putting the cart in front of the horse course.
Amy Porterfield knew I’d be wasting my time trying to create a course before I was really ready for it.
Samesies for a book
The same is true of writing a book. If you’re not really ready yet, it will be harder. Not impossible, but harder.
You will be pushing against the tide. You’ll be putting your cart in front of the horse. It’ll take you longer to create a strong outline and longer to write compelling chapters. It will feel hard. Frustrating.
You’ll be spending your time on something that’s not well-suited to where you’re at, and have less time to do other important things in life. (Fewer Ted Lasso reruns. Disaster.)
OR you could be so afraid of diving in before you’re ready that you never take the leap.
Amy had one question
How do you know if you can dive into this big commitment project without setting yourself up for a hard time?
Amy Porterfield asked me one question to help me discover if I was ready to create a course:
Can you codify what you do with a client and have clients repeat it on their own?
At that time, my answer was no.
From that question, I came to understand that creating a course would not be a reasonable use of my time right then. And I found freedom in that!
I wasn’t committing to NEVER creating a course. I later did figure out the magic, and quickly and painlessly created the awesome Write Your Book course. (Doors are closed right now, but click here if you’re curious.)
Amy Porterfield asked one question that helped me realize I wasn’t ready to create a course. In my next post, I’m going to share three questions to help you decide if you’re ready to write your book without making it harder than it needs to be.
Three questions because I’m three times better than Amy Porterfield.
Just kidding.
So stay tuned for next time. I’ll tell you what the three questions are, we’ll look at each in detail, and we’ll talk about what to do when you’ve answered those questions.
Thanks,
Liz “Are You Ready for It?” Green
Editor, Book Coach, and Ghostwriter
Green Goose Writing
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