andrewlb notes

Write Useful Books

Published:

Write Useful Books

Metadata

Highlights

  • You’ll still need to grind your way toward reaching the first several hundred readers yourself, which does involve some hands-on effort. Without that original seed audience, there would be nobody able to recommend your book and organic growth couldn’t happen. (Location 80)
  • Unfortunately (and understandably), publishers don’t want to blow their marketing budget on an unproven book, so they prefer to “wait and see” until it has been de-risked, which typically means that you are either already a best-selling author (reputation), already possess an adoring audience waiting to buy your stuff (platform), or have already sold at least 10,000 copies of your book (momentum). (Location 109)
  • Writing [a book] is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. (Location 131)
  • Authors tend to view reader recommendations as a bit of a happy accident. But you don’t hope for recommendations; you design for them. (Location 148)
  • Pleasure-givers (“interesting”, “fascinating”, “beautiful”) Problem-solvers (“useful”, “actionable”, “clarifying”) (Location 163)
  • The word “problem” in “problem-solver” is being used somewhat loosely, and could include helping a reader to receive any sort of tangible outcome, such as to: Achieve a goal or undergo a process Answer a question or understand a concept Improve a skill or develop a toolkit Resolve a fear or inspire a change Adjust their perspective or improve their life (Location 167)
  • Problem-solvers (i.e., useful books) behave differently. Their success is more meritocratic and within your control. Importantly, this category of books can be reliably designed, tested, and proven to be valuable to your readers, even prior to publication, which massively reduces the uncertainty and risk around creating something successful. (Location 179)
  • Here’s the secret to a five-star Amazon rating: be clear enough about what your book is promising that people can decide they don’t need it. (Location 185)
  • You can’t fully prevent bad reviews from ever happening, but you can certainly make them a rare exception by plainly stating who your book is for and what they’re going to get out of reading it. (Location 187)
  • Your book’s promise should appear in (or at least be strongly implied by) its title and/or subtitle. (Location 217)
  • When someone asks what you’re working on, attempt to describe the book in just one or two sentences. And then you need to do the hardest thing of all: to shut up and listen to them completely misinterpret and misunderstand what you’re trying to do. (Location 223)
  • The reason this matters is that nobody recommends the second-best solution. So you need to become the best. Not for everyone, but for someone. (Location 255)
  • Pick the piece you’re best at, for the people you care most deeply about serving, at the moment in their journey where you can really help them, and forget about everything else. (Location 258)
  • The scope of a useful book is like the executive summary of a new business. It’s an as-brief-as-possible description of what it is, who it’s for, and why they’ll pay for it: Scope = Promise + Reader profile + Who it’s not for + What it won’t cover (Location 260)
  • I didn’t fix the scope by figuring out what to add (or how to write it more beautifully), but by figuring out what to delete. The path became clear after asking one crucial question: What does my ideal reader already know and believe? (Location 276)
  • If you’re a tech entrepreneur struggling to run useful customer interviews, this book will help you understand why the conversations are going wrong and how to run them properly. (Location 283)
  • Who is your book not for and what is it not doing? If you aren’t clear on who you’re leaving out, then you’ll end up writing yourself into rabbit holes, wasting time on narrow topics that only a small subset of your readers actually care about. Deciding who it isn’t for will allow you to clip those tangential branches. (Location 297)
  • 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 (Appendix) (Location 308)
  • “pseudoteaching.” (Location 324)
  • Once you start measuring the student’s actual results (the outcome) instead of the teacher’s performance (the input), you’ll find that a polished and energetic delivery is worthless unless the teacher has first spent the time ensuring that the underlying lesson works. (Location 327)
  • Listen, it’s terribly written and full of typos and has a cover that appears to have been drawn by a distracted toddler, but it’s got something inside that’s just too important to miss. It’s going to change your life. You’ve got to read it. Trust me. (Location 334)
  • A new entrepreneur is starting a business. Everyone is telling them to “go talk to their customers.” So they try, but it’s harder than it sounds. Maybe the conversations are awkward, the feedback is unreliable, or they can’t even find anyone to talk to. During their next meeting with an advisor or peer, they mention how tough it has been. And the other person says, “Oh, I know the solution to your problem. It’s this book called The Mom Test.” (Alternatively, they type their problem into Google and find an article written by another entrepreneur saying essentially the same thing.) (Location 347)
  • book’s organic growth will live or die based on its recommendation loop. If your current scope doesn’t lend itself to strong recommendability, then consider adjusting it until it does. (Location 365)
  • The recommendation loop for The Workshop Survival Guide is triggered by the stressful preparation before an important workshop or presentation. The cost of failure is high and the event’s date can’t be moved, which makes it an urgent, must-solve priority. (Location 367)
  • Recommendability creates a mini-monopoly and pricing power (Location 383)
  • Most books drown in a sea of undifferentiated competition. Recommendability offers a boat and a moat. Of course, for recommendability to deliver maximum benefit, you book must be built to last. (Location 397)
  • The industry term for these enduring titles is “back catalog.” They’re the books that defy the odds, remaining relevant and recommended for years. And entering the back catalog is ridiculously profitable. (Location 409)
  • Pick a promise that will remain relevant and important for 5+ years Avoid overreliance on temporary tools, trends, and tactics that are likely to become quickly dated (Location 417)
  • The bigger design decision was about staying clear of trends. At the time I wrote it, customer conversations were closely tied to the then-buzzing world of Lean Startup. By choosing to discuss the enduring foundations while staying mostly clear of the temporary trend, I ended up writing something that will (hopefully) continue to be valuable. (Location 421)
  • 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 to the average reader. (Location 445)
  • Listening/understanding conversations — to verify and improve your scope and rekindle reader empathy Teaching/helping conversations — to refine your table of contents and iterate on the book’s underlying education design and structure (Location 469)
  • You’ve been dealing with X recently, right? Would you mind talking me through what you did and how it went? How did you decide to do it that way? What else did you try? What did you give up on or find unhelpful? Where did you search for help or guidance? What were the most frustrating moments? How did you eventually get over them? Did you read any books or blogs about it? Why (or why not)? Which ones were helpful and which were a waste? Why? What’s still worrying or blocking you? Are you doing anything about it, or is it not that big of a deal? (Location 499)
  • In the context of building reader empathy, pitching will prevent deeper learning by both exposing your ego (which discourages negative feedback) as well as by suggesting that you’ve already figured out the details (which discourages big-picture feedback). You want insights into their life, not opinions about your idea. (Location 516)
  • throughout the design and writing process, treat your ToC as what it really is: a detailed blueprint of your book’s education design, learning outcomes, and takeaways. (Location 555)

public: true

title: Write Useful Books longtitle: Write Useful Books author: Rob Fitzpatrick und Adam Rosen url: , source: kindle last_highlight: 2022-09-21 type: books tags:

Write Useful Books

rw-book-cover

Metadata

Highlights

  • You’ll still need to grind your way toward reaching the first several hundred readers yourself, which does involve some hands-on effort. Without that original seed audience, there would be nobody able to recommend your book and organic growth couldn’t happen. (Location 80)
  • Unfortunately (and understandably), publishers don’t want to blow their marketing budget on an unproven book, so they prefer to “wait and see” until it has been de-risked, which typically means that you are either already a best-selling author (reputation), already possess an adoring audience waiting to buy your stuff (platform), or have already sold at least 10,000 copies of your book (momentum). (Location 109)
  • Writing [a book] is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. (Location 131)
  • Authors tend to view reader recommendations as a bit of a happy accident. But you don’t hope for recommendations; you design for them. (Location 148)
  • Pleasure-givers (“interesting”, “fascinating”, “beautiful”) Problem-solvers (“useful”, “actionable”, “clarifying”) (Location 163)
  • The word “problem” in “problem-solver” is being used somewhat loosely, and could include helping a reader to receive any sort of tangible outcome, such as to: Achieve a goal or undergo a process Answer a question or understand a concept Improve a skill or develop a toolkit Resolve a fear or inspire a change Adjust their perspective or improve their life (Location 167)
  • Problem-solvers (i.e., useful books) behave differently. Their success is more meritocratic and within your control. Importantly, this category of books can be reliably designed, tested, and proven to be valuable to your readers, even prior to publication, which massively reduces the uncertainty and risk around creating something successful. (Location 179)
  • Here’s the secret to a five-star Amazon rating: be clear enough about what your book is promising that people can decide they don’t need it. (Location 185)
  • You can’t fully prevent bad reviews from ever happening, but you can certainly make them a rare exception by plainly stating who your book is for and what they’re going to get out of reading it. (Location 187)
  • Your book’s promise should appear in (or at least be strongly implied by) its title and/or subtitle. (Location 217)
  • When someone asks what you’re working on, attempt to describe the book in just one or two sentences. And then you need to do the hardest thing of all: to shut up and listen to them completely misinterpret and misunderstand what you’re trying to do. (Location 223)
  • The reason this matters is that nobody recommends the second-best solution. So you need to become the best. Not for everyone, but for someone. (Location 255)
  • Pick the piece you’re best at, for the people you care most deeply about serving, at the moment in their journey where you can really help them, and forget about everything else. (Location 258)
  • The scope of a useful book is like the executive summary of a new business. It’s an as-brief-as-possible description of what it is, who it’s for, and why they’ll pay for it: Scope = Promise + Reader profile + Who it’s not for + What it won’t cover (Location 260)
  • I didn’t fix the scope by figuring out what to add (or how to write it more beautifully), but by figuring out what to delete. The path became clear after asking one crucial question: What does my ideal reader already know and believe? (Location 276)
  • If you’re a tech entrepreneur struggling to run useful customer interviews, this book will help you understand why the conversations are going wrong and how to run them properly. (Location 283)
  • Who is your book not for and what is it not doing? If you aren’t clear on who you’re leaving out, then you’ll end up writing yourself into rabbit holes, wasting time on narrow topics that only a small subset of your readers actually care about. Deciding who it isn’t for will allow you to clip those tangential branches. (Location 297)
  • 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 (Appendix) (Location 308)
  • “pseudoteaching.” (Location 324)
  • Once you start measuring the student’s actual results (the outcome) instead of the teacher’s performance (the input), you’ll find that a polished and energetic delivery is worthless unless the teacher has first spent the time ensuring that the underlying lesson works. (Location 327)
  • Listen, it’s terribly written and full of typos and has a cover that appears to have been drawn by a distracted toddler, but it’s got something inside that’s just too important to miss. It’s going to change your life. You’ve got to read it. Trust me. (Location 334)
  • A new entrepreneur is starting a business. Everyone is telling them to “go talk to their customers.” So they try, but it’s harder than it sounds. Maybe the conversations are awkward, the feedback is unreliable, or they can’t even find anyone to talk to. During their next meeting with an advisor or peer, they mention how tough it has been. And the other person says, “Oh, I know the solution to your problem. It’s this book called The Mom Test.” (Alternatively, they type their problem into Google and find an article written by another entrepreneur saying essentially the same thing.) (Location 347)
  • book’s organic growth will live or die based on its recommendation loop. If your current scope doesn’t lend itself to strong recommendability, then consider adjusting it until it does. (Location 365)
  • The recommendation loop for The Workshop Survival Guide is triggered by the stressful preparation before an important workshop or presentation. The cost of failure is high and the event’s date can’t be moved, which makes it an urgent, must-solve priority. (Location 367)
  • Recommendability creates a mini-monopoly and pricing power (Location 383)
  • Most books drown in a sea of undifferentiated competition. Recommendability offers a boat and a moat. Of course, for recommendability to deliver maximum benefit, you book must be built to last. (Location 397)
  • The industry term for these enduring titles is “back catalog.” They’re the books that defy the odds, remaining relevant and recommended for years. And entering the back catalog is ridiculously profitable. (Location 409)
  • Pick a promise that will remain relevant and important for 5+ years Avoid overreliance on temporary tools, trends, and tactics that are likely to become quickly dated (Location 417)
  • The bigger design decision was about staying clear of trends. At the time I wrote it, customer conversations were closely tied to the then-buzzing world of Lean Startup. By choosing to discuss the enduring foundations while staying mostly clear of the temporary trend, I ended up writing something that will (hopefully) continue to be valuable. (Location 421)
  • 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 to the average reader. (Location 445)
  • Listening/understanding conversations — to verify and improve your scope and rekindle reader empathy Teaching/helping conversations — to refine your table of contents and iterate on the book’s underlying education design and structure (Location 469)
  • You’ve been dealing with X recently, right? Would you mind talking me through what you did and how it went? How did you decide to do it that way? What else did you try? What did you give up on or find unhelpful? Where did you search for help or guidance? What were the most frustrating moments? How did you eventually get over them? Did you read any books or blogs about it? Why (or why not)? Which ones were helpful and which were a waste? Why? What’s still worrying or blocking you? Are you doing anything about it, or is it not that big of a deal? (Location 499)
  • In the context of building reader empathy, pitching will prevent deeper learning by both exposing your ego (which discourages negative feedback) as well as by suggesting that you’ve already figured out the details (which discourages big-picture feedback). You want insights into their life, not opinions about your idea. (Location 516)
  • throughout the design and writing process, treat your ToC as what it really is: a detailed blueprint of your book’s education design, learning outcomes, and takeaways. (Location 555)