Hard as it is to believe, I’ve written over a dozen books on technology and created training videos for LinkedIn Learning. Trust me, writing is a labor of love. My “day job” is to help my clients utilize CRM software to make themselves – and their businesses – more efficient, effective and profitable. For me, writing was a second job that required untold hours of my time during the evenings and weekends. And, because I normally was working under a deadline, procrastination was not an option.
People often tell me that “they could write a book.” I often ask these would-be authors how long it takes them to write a well-constructed, clear and concise business letter; the answer is usually “hours.” I then point out that if they want to write a 250 page book they need to multiply those hours by 250.
However, as hard as the actual writing is, by far the hardest part of writing a book is getting started. I was recently contacted by Jim Kukral who was in the process of writing a book about writing a book. In his book he first gets you motivated about writing a book and what the benefits can be to your career or business. He then gives you some tips and strategies on how to publish your book and use it to create publicity. He actually used me as an example as you can see in the following excerpt:
Karen Fredricks has used her books to become an instant authority in her field.
“I’ve written 14 books, 11 For Dummies books and two “cookbooks” (technology books), and created training videos for Lynda.com,” said Karen. “The royalties have been nice, but being able to leverage the books into a successful consulting career has been even nicer.”
How does she do it exactly?
“All the books include my e-mail address and contact information. I have links back to my website which provides me with a nice stream of prospects. When I come up against competition, or make a sales call to a large prospect, I plop down a copy of my book and tell them they can go with a lesser known competitor or with me, the expert.”
