One of my good Facebook friends, MamaRed Knight, recently wrote an article chock full of ways to write a book to support your business. Ways that don’t involve a lot of thought, time or… work. (Click here to read her article.) One the questions she asked, “What IF you could do a series of teensy weensy books focused on a very narrow topic so you don’t overwhelm your often-overwhelmed readers?” is something I discuss with aspiring authors at least once a week.
How do you chunk your book idea down into a series of “mini” books? How do you focus on writing a huge tome of everything you’ve learned in your entire lifetime bundled into a neat little package of only 500 pages?
This is exactly the main reason I started writing the 21 Ways series.
Keep These 3 Things in Mind When Publishing on the “Mini” Path
- Know your audience. Your audience may be the type to demand that 500 pages of insight downloaded from your brain. Or they may not. My target audience for the 21 Ways series are busy entrepreneurs who don’t have time to sift through the fluff found in most books.
- Know your purpose. If your purpose is to tell the life story of a celebrity or decipher the meaning of life, you’ll need more than a few pages in your book. But if your purpose, like mine, is to make clear, simple, actionable steps a target audience can then execute and immediately see results, the “mini” book idea is a fantastic path for you.
- Have accurate expectations. As with any book, don’t expect your sales results to make you an instant NYT best-selling author. If you plan to condense your book idea down to a “mini” book, be prepared to write a series to get sales results. With my 21 Ways series, I didn’t see real book sales results until the fourth book in the series was published.
Writing a Mini Series
Writing a book “mini” series is an excellent way to build additional credibility as a published author. When I wrote and published 21 Ways to Write & Publish Your Non-Fiction Book, I instantly gained new clients and increased my bottom line income $18,000 in less than 30 days. Despite not selling a single copy. Then when I released 21 Ways to Powerfully Network Your Business, I received an invitation to host a book signing at the Niche Affiliate Marketing Systems workshop which in turn led to me being a staff instructor at the workshops. This additional credibility brought my business an additional $15,000—a total of over $30,000 in new business credited to two books that were barely selling. It also grabbed the attention of JVs I’d been trying to establish relationships with and opened doors to opportunities I used to grasp at straws to achieve.
If you’re interested in writing a mini-series of helpful guidebooks, boosting your credibility and bringing your business more income and you more opportunities for JV relationships, collect your thoughts and ideas and start organizing them. Start writing and don’t over think it. Focus on writing short tips, blurbs or blog posts to get your mini book written fast, and quit trying to write a huge book. Get your mini book done today!
