12 things I learned from Write Useful Books: A modern approach to designing and refining recommendable nonfiction by Rob Fitzpatrick (Author)
This was the 100th book I have read since 1/1/2023, and it is a good one. These concepts can also be applied to any media: video, podcasts, blog posts etc.
- Desirable — readers want what it is promising (Chapters 2 and 3)
- Effective — it delivers real results for the average reader (Chapters 3 and 5-6)
- Engaging — it’s front-loaded with value, has high value-per-page, and feels rewarding to read (Chapter 4)
- Polished — it is professionally written and presented
1. Defining the correct scope of your book is very important in reaching the ideal customer
The formula:
Scope = Promise + Reader profile + Who it’s not for + What it won’t cover
Don't fix the scope by figuring out what to add (or how to write it more beautifully), but by figuring out what to delete.
What does my ideal reader already know and believe? If they don't already have the background information that you are not covering, the book is not for them.
Scope your book to a very specific topic that your really care about.
2. Non-fiction that tries to write for everyone at once will not work
Beginners would be overwhelmed and experts would be bored and your book would be twice as long as it should be.
3. Your book should make and deliver a promise: what will be different in your reader's life, work or worldview?
4. For a problem-solver to be recommended frequently enough to endure and grow, it requires four qualities, represented with the acronym DEEP
5. For a problem-solver to be recommended frequently enough to endure and grow, it requires four qualities, represented with the acronym DEEP
6. Are people searching for the answers that your book provides?
Is finding a solution a top priority or simply a nice-to-have?
7. Play the long tail game: your book should be helpful for at least 5 years. Avoid trends and fads
"To create a book that lasts and grows, the formula is simple: do the best job of solving an important problem for a reader who cares, without anchoring yourself to temporary tools, tactics, or trends. That’s partly about good scoping and partly about writing something that delivers real results."
8. Avoid the curse of knowledge: Reader Empathy
Put yourself in your reader's shoes: you are writing for the you of 5 months or 5 years ago: not a peer who knows what you already know.
9. Avoid Clickbait: your Table of Contents should be useful takeaways
"Your ToC is the blueprint of your book’s education design. To serve its purpose as a tool for design and feedback, it must be built from: Clear, descriptive language Detailed subsections."
"With one small adjustment, your ToC will become an x-ray view of your book’s “takeaways over time,” allowing you to visualize, debug, and improve its reader experience. You do this by adding word counts to the titles of your sections and chapters, allowing you to see how many words (and thus how many minutes — 250 words per minute is typical)"
10. Create a high value-per-page: rapid and consistent value
"At least every few pages, you want your reader to be thinking, “Oh wow, I can use that.”"
11. Arrange content around your learner's goals instead of the teacher's convenience.
12. "Your manuscript is your marketing"
Show your process, publish excerpts. Everything should be useful.
"Gary Vaynerchuck, founder of the content marketing powerhouse VaynerMedia, has championed a similar strategy to produce hundreds of pieces of content per day by repurposing and reusing snippets from a single piece of lengthier source material. Here’s their process:[32] Create “pillar content,” which is a larger piece of work that can be clipped, excerpted, and highlighted (such as a podcast interview, conference talk, training video, or your book’s manuscript) Repurpose it into “micro content” like articles, quotes, images, stories, remixes, rants, etc."
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