Primary Assessment and the Go/No Go— Do You Have A Book In You?

Primary Assessment: Do You Have A Book in You?

In start-up ventures, there is a gate phase known as the “Go/No-Go.” It’s when the entrepreneur or the main investor makes a decision to go forward with a launch, with the company or a product.

It’s probably goes back to NASA. A launch is “scrubbed” and will be delayed a week, due to safety or mechanical issues with the booster rockets.

The light turns green. The Universe wants you to move forward, and so do the drivers lined up behind you.

You may think you have a book in you. Your friends and family concur, but I would offer a hard challenge: Do you really?

Are you an expert in your field?

Are you asked to speak at industry conferences in your field, at a national or international level? I’m sorry, but the local Kiwanis and Rotary club circuit may not count if you’re looking for a publisher straight away.

Do you publish in industry trade journals, or contribute guest columns? If so, what is the circulation (journal) or number of unique monthly visitors (website)?

Are you a big fish in a big pond?

Are you quoted? Are you a frequent source for journalists in industry trade journals or local business publications? Have someone written a profile about you?

Is Your Book a Game Changer?
You may be an expert in your field, but what you have to add to the discussion may be limited. To merely parrot (but not plagiarize) the thought leadership of others is not only embarrassing, you won’t stand out in any meaningful way, especially in the Amazon bookstore.

Does your book topic break new ground?

Does your book mimic the status quo of the market or is it bold and defies conventional wisdom on the topic? Here are some examples of compelling 180-degree “Jedi mind shift” book topics:

Piece of Cake Sales: Cold Calling is Incredibly Easy to Do

Gen Dependable: Millennials Are the Most Stable Sector of the Workforce

Poverty: The New Wealth

Fast Track: Master Quantum Physics Over the Weekend

Building blocks

A 150-page paperback book can be written from scratch (raw materials), but it is much easier if you have some intermediate (finished goods, components) to use in assembly.

Do you have any blogs, guest columns or presentations that could serve as “placeholder” chapters under the larger theme of the book? Do you have any kind of musings on your book topics in written sentence and paragraph form that you can build upon?

Said another way, a 150-page business book probably consists of 30 five-page chapters, organized into three to five main sections to help guide your reader.

Another way to tackle the entire scope of a book is to list all the possible chapter titles. Don’t worry if you only have 22 chapter titles for a 30 chapter book; you’ll come up with 8 more naturally in the writing process. Or sometimes a chapter becomes overly long, and you’ll want to break it into two pieces at a natural juncture.

I use the five-page chapter metric (1,250 words approximately), because that makes a chapter about the length of a very long blog post (this one is 1,300 words btw). If you tend to write short blogs, you might consider having 50 three-page chapters, i.e. many subtopics and a bit harder to organize coherently.

Tip: I tend to organize the structure of a book and project manage the production of it in Excel, even though I write it in a single flowing Word document. Sometimes I stand back and visualize an overall snapshot of the book (or the main sections) in PowerPoint slide format.

Promotional Considerations

How large is your Linked In Network? Think of that as a natural education and selling channel, even promoting your book for pre-sales and advanced reviews.

How many Facebook and Twitter followers do you have?

And if your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter following is under 2,000 contacts, start identifying people in your field or friends who have over 10,000 contacts. My colleague Carolyn Bass, founder of LitChat, has 18,000 Twitter followers. A lifelong friend, Joan Walsh, is a columnist for The Nation and a political pundit for CNN, and has almost 17,000 Facebook followers. Influencers like these can leverage their networks if I can get them interested in my book.

Do you have a built-in bully pulpit? In the early 2000’s, I ran a seed fund for start-up ventures that covered a 12-county area. Entrepreneurship was a hot topic and as CEO I was quoted weekly by local publications and was invited to be a guest pundit on a regional PBS business show broadcast on 22 affiliates in the Carolinas. I could send out a press release and my name would be picked up, at a minimum, statewide if not throughout the Southeast in my area of expertise.

Later, when I worked in a national business development role in the emerging field of regenerative medicine, I had an international stage and access to the leading healthcare organizations, the FDA and Medicare/Medicaid, patient advocacy groups and major philanthropic foundations and public policy think tanks.

Once I left those high-profile jobs and went out on my own as a consultant and freelancer, I lost my natural promotional channels.

The Go/No-Go

Much of my questioning above is based on writing a reasonable selling book, which might in a good year sell 250 copies on Amazon, netting you a 1099 form with $1,250 worth of personal income on it (assuming a base royalty of $5 on a $15 list price).

But don’t think a major business trade publisher will pick up a book from a first-time author. Below is a direct quote from a name brand business publisher, based on a book on artificial intelligence (AI) I was helping to develop and edit:

I see the need for this book and the author is well qualified but I’m going to have to pass because I don’t see a path for us to selling 10k-20k copies in the first year, which is our sales target.

This should be a wake up call for all of us.

Even ten thousand copies is a high bar for a debut book (selling about 200 copies per week consistently)

That level of sales volume (10k-20k right away) would have to be supported by an immense investing in marketing and publicity by a publisher, and at least a 26-week book and promotional tour, which would probably include weekends. Say goodbye to your family and hello to dinner most nights from the Days Inn or Amtrak vending machine.

But if your book only sells 40 copies in the first year and it launches your consulting or speaking business at virtually no cost but your time, go for it.

Your launch decision on a book should be based on your personal goal.

If your stated goal is “I just want to have a finished book” for the pure satisfaction and accomplish of it, then go for it.

If your stated goal is “I just want to have a finished book to show my mom because my sister wrote a book last year” (an actual motive), then let the sibling rivalry begin. By all means, write your book.

But if you want to quit your day job and live off your book royalties from a first publication, that is somewhat delusional.

The print-on-demand economics of CreateSpace and Amazon, mean your only cash outlay up front would be fees for a ghostwriter, editor, proofreader and book designer. It’s not a lot of money and it is a business write-off under the tax code.

Here’s a reasonable litmus test. If you are an expert in your field, have a unique take or perspective, have a reasonable size LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook following, and have the discipline to commit 6–15 hours per week to writing and editing your manuscript for at least six months, then by all means proceed with your first book.

That’s a green light above your windshield, hoss. Take your foot off the brake and shift into first.

Extend your wings and start flapping them as soon as you feel the updraft thermal lift you upward.

Note: This post is a chapter excerpt from the forthcoming “Creating Your First Business Book” (copyright Tomol Press 2018).

Photo Credit: Brian Ketchum via the Lunapic Picasso filter