How to write a book in public? 📚

I'm part of @robfitz 's community and it is all writers, it can be helpful to you.
https://writeusefulbooks.com/

I can also share my experience writing in public. I broke it down to a few steps:

1. Been engaging in the topic before I wrote anything
2. Lightly shared that I'll be working on this (no one cares)
3. Share my writing to early readers, get feedback
4. Share learnings publicly (write something people would care about): see here: https://twitter.com/kevon69/status/1347014935331573760
5. Break down to parts and launch one by one (I launched part 1 here: https://twitter.com/kevon69/status/1350986857597837314)

Hopefully this can help you out :)

Hey Steven check this out i think it will help a lot https://taylorpearson.me/jesusmarketing/

There are two aspects around writing a book in public. The first is the phase where you collect data and ideas. In this phase, what I have seen people doing is either writing blog posts or hosting podcasts. Blog posts have the advantage that they can be easily translated into a book, podcasts have the advantage that allow you to get in touch with relevant people you would not have access to in other settings. Blog posts allow you to test ideas and receive early feedback. Blog posts or podcasts allow you to be recognized in a niche. Both tools are great to start collecting early potential customers, perhaps building a mailing list, grow your Twitter profile, or find the niches where your content makes a difference.

Then, you have the phase of actually sitting down and writing a book. Once you already have the materials, the research done, etc. you have to structure it into a coherent work. Doing this in public, in my opinion, does not add too much value nor to you nor to the audience you may be targeting (unless, of course, you are writing about writing). In this phase you are not collecting feedback on ideas themselves, you are collecting ideas on your grammar, page setting, etc. This feedback requires qualified people, someone who reads consciously, looking for typos, etc.

For what I understand, you have already surpassed phase 1, but didn't share that knowledge in public, so now you have to decide whether to embark directly on phase 2, or to go back and transit phase 1 even if just as a marketing stunt. Making the decision is up to you, depending on your timeline, budget, access to opinion leaders in your niche.

You can think of a book as a product, and you can use the usual tools: define an MVP, test assumptions, check interest, build a persona of your reader. But you can also think of a book as a personal project. Does not matter if you sell 1M copies and become Tim Ferris, you may find pleasure in having it out there, like a milestone. This is what I've done. I sell a fair amount of copies per month, enough to pay the hosting of my websites and have a bit of surplus for designers and pocket money to indulge myself with something I would not have done during holidays (think going to an expensive restaurant, or paying for a personal guide instead of a group tour, etc.).

If the real goal is to sell people on your app, this plan seems over-complicated. I think the only reason to package these writings as a book is if you are selling the book itself. Otherwise, you can package your writing in other ways that will more directly help app sales.

Presumably you're targeting busy people with bad time-management. How many of them will be interested, but feel like they don't have the time to read a book? Or they start reading the book, but don't finish it? If your app's sales funnel depends on people reading this book, you're losing all these possible leads!

Why not just build the app in public? The content you'd write in the book would still be useful, broken down into blog posts or as installments in a drip marketing program. Having separate posts that people can link to will be better for SEO and social sharing than if they are hidden away in a book, and no one will feel like they need to read all of them before they are ready for the app.

@arvidkahl probably has some thoughts and resources around this.

Hey Steven,

I recently posted a similar question about writing a book on Twitter.
So I'd be interested in following along your journey.

I am currently building my public projects, and I assume writing in public is not any different.

Announce it and take the people on a journey with you.

However, don't assume people would come.

Make sure that you also engage with the community and provide value on the way.

You can check out my Twitter account from my profile to see how I'm building in public.

In summary:

• Make the announcement
• Try to update daily (Include the wins + struggles)
• Be transparent
• Be honest

The right people would come.

🔥