

Here's what it's like to start writing a book - louisdorard
https://medium.com/p/1e68538617d3 

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zrail
Like Louis I started writing a book[1] after reading Nathan Barry's Authority.
I did it mostly as a learning exercise, and boy did I learn a lot. For
example, the first email I sent to my list had blue underlined words that were
supposed to be links but didn't get linked. Never gonna let that happen again.

Writing and self-publishing books seems like it might be a little faddish
lately, but I couldn't be more excited. A book, even a short one like mine[2],
lets you expand on thoughts so much further than you can in a blog post or a
tweet. I'm delighted to see all of this longer form thinking taking place in
our community.

[1]: [https://www.petekeen.net/adventures-in-self-
publishing](https://www.petekeen.net/adventures-in-self-publishing)

[2]: [https://www.petekeen.net/mastering-modern-
payments](https://www.petekeen.net/mastering-modern-payments)

~~~
louisdorard
This is exactly how I see these new ebooks, not so much as actual competitors
to the oreilly kind of books (because they are more concise), but as longer
form thinking than blogs. There's a lot of enthusiasm on self-publishing
books, and maybe it will be short-lived, but I hope that in the long term
we'll have more and more experts in our community who will share their
knowledge on niche topics in the long, self-contained and polished form that
books are!

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snippyhollow
I feel like setting yourself a "words/period of time" ratio is only good if
you do not fear deleting these words afterwards. It's like setting a
"LOC/period of time" ratio, focusing on removing bugs and increasing features
(as an f-score ;-)) is a better optimization objective, but you've got to
start somewhere...

~~~
louisdorard
That's a very good point. These 1000 words often get replaced or deleted. I
guess that in many creative activities it's painful to edit down, but it
usually pays off. Sometimes you don't just delete what you wrote but you
rephrase it. I find it much easier to formulate a complex idea when I already
have a first version in front of me (even if it's terrible), than to start
from nothing.

~~~
henrik_w
I agree completely, and for me it applies equally to writing and coding.

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clarky07
That's a pretty good summary. Writing a book is hard, but it is rewarding to
actually publish a book.[1] I'm still not sure how I feel about selling them
with an average price of $80 though. I'd probably make more money overall that
way, but I haven't been able to make myself do it yet. Perhaps at some point.

[1] - My Book -
[http://buildanappbusiness.com/](http://buildanappbusiness.com/)

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nathanbarry
It was a fun surprise to casually read through this and then see my blog
mentioned. Glad my work is an inspiration! Let me know if there is anything I
can do to help.

~~~
louisdorard
Here's what it's like to be an authority ;)

