It’s a new thing for me here – I want to feature a couple of blog posts each week that simply resonate with me. I pray you enjoy them too.
My first two featured posts are:
Thank you Melissa! What a powerful testimony to the power of that sugar monster…
It’s Time to Recover the Dream of You
Marva, thank you for sharing The Dream of You, Jo Saxton’s newest book. I think we all need to read this blog post – and book!
Now, on the the weekly post.
Overcoming Objections: Defeating Your Top Book-Writing Hurdles
You know you need to do it. You’ve had it on your to-do list for years. Your own mother or mentor has told you time and again that this is the year you must get your book in print.
And yet…nothing.
It’s not that you don’t recognize the benefits, or that you don’t want to have a published book under your belt or on your resume. You just struggle with it, and probably for the same reasons many others resist publication. u must determine that overcoming objections is possible.
You don’t have time. Here’s a biggie. Everyone is busy. We all get that. But that’s not a good excuse when it comes to growing your business and enhancing your credibility. So how do you do this overcoming of your own objections?
Rather than lamenting your lack of time, you can prioritize your day to accommodate the important things, like writing your book. Maybe that means getting up 30 minutes earlier for a focused (if short) writing stint every morning, or turning off the television after dinner so you can write, or even setting aside several hours each Saturday morning until your book is done.
The point is, you must choose to make this a priority. Block out the time in your calendar, and treat that time as sacred. Pretend it’s an appointment with the most important person you know, and do not allow anything to get in the way of keeping it. If God placed this desire in your heart, honor His vision for you – and keep that appointment!
You can’t write. Many, many people claim they cannot write; yet when you look at their blogs, there are hundreds of posts. What that statement really means when someone says they can’t write is that they don’t like to.
Luckily, you have plenty of options for overcoming this particular hurdle. Hire a ghostwriter. Start with PLR. Repurpose your blog posts into a book (Darren Rowse of Problogger.net did this with great success) and I did it for my Finding Calm in the Chaos of Life ebook. You may opt to simply write short stories and link them together.
And if all else fails, speak. Use software such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, or simply record using your favorite MP3 app and then have it transcribed.
Rev.com transcribes an audio or video file for $1.00 per minute. Most of us speak about 150 word per minute.
My newest eBook, Don’t Go Through Life Naked is about 18,000 words. So let’s do the math to determine what that would have cost me to simply speak my book into existence. At 150 words per minute, that’s 120 minutes to speak it – two hours.
Amazing to think how fast you can speak a book into existence. The cost would be about $120 to simply have my words transcribed into a word document for editing. What an AWESOME option for saving time. Plus you have a bonus when you launch your book – audio or video to share!
You can’t organize a long project like a book. Ok, so you’re great with blog posts, and you don’t mind writing them, but the thought of writing an entire book makes you stare at your blank screen like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.
First, if you can write a blog post, you can write an entire series of books. I heard that whisper in your head saying, “No I can’t.” Yes you can – quit listening to the lie from the liar telling you can’t or that is is impossible. My mom said can’t never could – and you CAN. Yes you can!
How do I know you can? God’s Word tells me so. Read it – He’s reminding you of His truth now and wants you to renew your mind and your thinking to align with His Word.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13, NKJV
And
Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
Matthew 19:26, NLT
Yes, everything is possible with God. So create the structure and discipline for successfully writing YOUR book. I close the door to my office, turn off all media notifications, set the clock for one hour, and write.
The process is all the same for writing a book as a blog post, after all. It’s just putting words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into pages, etc.
But if you really feel you can’t manage a long project, then an outline is going to be your best friend. Start with a broad overview of your project. Post that idea on a huge piece of paper or whiteboard. Dump every idea down on that piece of paper. Then do it again to make sure you have your ideas captured.
Take those ideas and group them. An outline or flow of ideas typically appears as you work through this process. Then break it down by sections, then chapters. Make notes about what you’ll cover in each, and then it’s just a matter of filling in the blanks.
I do all this on huge pieces of 3M sticky wall chart paper. That way, I can review my ideas and outline/flow prior to writing, as this saves me valuable time. A white board or wall painted with chalk paint would be a great place to brain dump too.
There are dozens of reasons to write a book. It’s important for establishing your expertise, for growing your audience, and for solidifying your message. But none of that will happen if you don’t actually write it. So it’s time to get beyond your hurdles and get your book done.
Here’s the most important reason to write YOUR book. I believe your words hold healing for someone. We are told we overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the words of our testimony.
He has prepared you for “such a time as this.”
If you are ready to write your book, consider taking a course that will teach you how to be successful. I took Chandler Bolt’s Self-Publishing School to learn his secrets for success and love it. Click here to watch his free webinar.
Not ready to spend any money? That’s great too. You may want to watch the free webinar anyway. Chandler has some fabulous content in it that could be exactly what you are looking for to get started writing your book.
If you do choose to take the course after watching the free webinar, let me fully disclose that this is an affiliate link. Any money earned helps me support the cost of maintaining this website, so I humbly say thank you.
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