This is the part of writing and publishing a book no one talks about.

This is the part of writing and publishing a book no one talks about.

When you put a search into Google for why to “write a book” -- or “what are the benefits of writing and publishing a book" -- the list of usual suspects pops up.

Credibility.

Reach.

A book can serve as your calling card.

etc, and so forth.

Rarely do you see an entire post dedicated to what I think is the most important reason to write and publish a book:

To experience a radical personal transformation.

All the other side effects are cool, certainly.

But if they are the main goal(s) for writing a book, the results are often disappointing.

Then, of course, you’ll find folks camped out around a fire of thought suggesting books are irrelevant in the TikTok age.

These yahoos believe reading is for amateurs, that no one reads books anymore when you can get everything you need from 3 seconds of the latest influencer’s video.

So why bother creating something no one wants?

Are Books Still Relevant in the TikTok Age?

Whether you run with the crowd who believes books are the new dinosaurs, or you're more like me, and you think books are going to continue to play a role in our education, and our personal and professional development practices -- books still matter, perhaps more than ever.

And the process of writing books still matters.

We need more people writing them.

Cha-cha-changes...

Unfortunately, like so many other creative endeavors, technology has changed and in many cases sullied the process of writing in its attempts to “make things better.”

I’ve written about AI in other posts, and am not against it per se. I love when new tools come along that can make my job as a creative faster, easier, better.

BUT.

The downside to some of these newer tools is they have created the illusion that writing a book is simple. And fast. And it’s easier to do than ever. And that everyone should do it.

The promise goes -- All you gotta do is have this app and that app and boom, presto magico. Up the book goes onto a platform like Amazon and you're off to the races, raking in the cash. Phone ringing off the hook. Becoming “instafamous.”

Rarely -- if EVER -- does it happen like this.

Hacks Need Not Apply

Writing and publishing a book that has your name on the front cover deserves more than a hack approach.

Despite what tons of marketers on the Internet claim, writing a high value book can't be done in an hour after dumping a handful of prompts into Chat GPT.

It can’t be done on a weekend.

It can't be done just because you open up a voice app on your phone and dictate your ideas.

Writing and publishing a book is a process that involves numerous layers. It requires creativity, analysis, dedication, grit. It’s a process that touches on every level of Bloom’s taxonomy of critical thinking:

• Remembering
• Understanding
• Applying
• Analyzing
• Evaluating
• Creating

Every author worth anything will put into practice each of these thinking tiers numerous times throughout the book writing and publishing process.

It Takes Time

While technology has increased speed to market for books, along with providing writing frameworks and software programs to help with brainstorming, organization, dictation, and collaboration, writing a book still takes time.

No one will argue that the tools we have today to write, for example, are better and more sophisticated than ever. Insert Chat GPT here.

With ease comes limitations. The fundamental process of writing and publishing a book has not changed, meaning you, as an author, or a potential author, must have an idea worth writing about.

Back in the 20 teens when I was working with first time authors on getting their book out into the world, one of the early exercises we did had to do with my father who loved trains.

Not only did my dad love real trains, he loved model trains. He loved calendars of trains. He loved magazines about trains. He loved books about trains.

As such, he had folders on his hard drive devoted solely to trains. He had bookcases in the house devoted solely to books on trains. And he subscribed to at least half a dozen, if not more, different magazines, all about trains.

He also had a phenomenal model train set in the basement that he built over the years that still sits today exactly the way he left it.

Now, my father is a perfect example of somebody who is interested in a subject and is always going to be looking for something else to add to his collection. If someone wrote and published a new book about trains that said something slightly differently about trains, boom. Dad was first in line to buy it.

The number of topics to write about are infinite. The key for any aspiring author is to choose a topic that a. Interests you and b. Has an existing audience.

It’s a myth that you must know your subject inside and out to write about it. Many well-known authors based their books on research they did as they were writing. The writing process helped them to hone their theories, discover new insights, and drive the final product.

Almost no writer publishes a book the way it looked when they first sat down to write it. That’s because writing a book is a process and process, by its nature, involves change.

Hence, back to my main point about the most important reason to write a book:

To experience a radical personal transformation. 

So, Is It Worth It? Writing and Publishing a Book?

I don't think you'll meet any published author anywhere who will say, "Wow, I wish I hadn't written and published a book,” even if the book is no longer relevant to what they're doing now.

The universal process of creating something from your ideas, your experiences, your wisdom, and putting it into a physical form such as a book that then becomes a guide for someone somewhere is hard to beat. Outside of becoming a parent, I can't think of much more that's better than that.

I really can't.

There's a reason why some people call their books their “babies” -- writing and publishing a book is literally like giving birth to something. (It's also why a lot of entrepreneurs call their businesses their babies because they put so much of themselves into what they build.) Not to mention the transformation they experience through the process of building a company much like growing a human.

So if you’re driven to experience something magnificent on an emotional, psychological, spiritual, and physical level, and you are called to make a difference through your ideas and words, seriously consider writing and publishing a book.

Otherwise, TikTok will be more than willing to welcome you into its mud pit.