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Next steps for e-book?

I am about halfway through writing my e-book robust UI:
https://www.samdawson.dev/robust-ui

The problem is I have released a lot of the content on my blog already:
https://www.samdawson.dev/articles
I am now thinking the purpose of the e-book would be to better organize the content.

I am lacking the motivation to finish it as well.

My current thinking for the next step would be to release it as a work in progress at a low price e.g $5. Then finish off the content when the inspiration strikes or there is more demand. Currently, I have 50 subscribers to the books mailing list and 1 pre-order.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

  1. 1

    Thanks everyone for the advice!

    I've decided to release an incomplete version of the book and then try to finish the rest of the book in the coming months. I think releasing early and getting feedback will be beneficial and it might provide motivation to complete it.

  2. 1

    I am lacking the motivation to finish it as well.

    I struggle with this all the time, and will share with you a hard truth that someone told me:

    Motivation is BS. Discipline is everything.

    Motivation only works when you feel like it. It's fleeting and it's in short supply. If you're banking on feeling motivated in order to reach your goals, you're not going to reach them.

    Discipline is eternal. Discipline doesn't care if you're tired, not "feeling it", distracted, wanting to do something else, etc. Discipline says: This is the thing you're going to do because you decided to do it.

    So figure out what it would take to get the project done, and then decide to do it, regardless of how you feel.

    (By the way, I wrote this mostly as a reminder to myself to take this advice.)

  3. 1

    You can make a book only using your blog posts. Gathering knowledge in one place and giving it an order has a value on itself.

    That being said it's probably better to create something additional for the book. You can extend your chapters with additional knowledge, re-write it, change some things (I bet you changed some opinions) or even shorten it to make a book more digestible.

    For the motivation, I've struggled with it too. The thing that worked best was setting a time everyday to write, and not doing anything else. I could write or do nothing for an hour. Doing nothing gets boring fast, so writing usually won.

  4. 1

    I'm doing something similar. I'm writing an ebook in progress based on a collection of blog-like posts originally published to Google+. I first released the book a year or so ago and I'm still revising, updating, and expanding it.

    My motivation is putting together a portfolio of info products, which works for me.

  5. 1

    One thing that helped me get started is just allocating 10 minutes a day. Slowly but surely you build momentum and eventually you can't go a day without working =D

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