Two. How much time does it take to write a book?

This is usually followed by, "I've heard it takes years." Or, "I've heard you can do it in three months. Is that true?"

Both are true. It depends on you and the book. It took Tolstoy six years to write War and Peace. But you're not writing War and Peace. You're writing a business book to serve clients and new prospects. Your book will take as long as you make it take. The timing of writing your book is up to you. At Nurturing Big Ideas we do six and twelve month programs. Some six month programs extend and some twelve month programs finish early. 

In this day and age, it's all up to you how quickly you want your book to be done. 

Three. I was thinking of self-publishing. Will being self-published be a mark against me and my book?

Self-publishing is too often equated with vanity publishing. In the old days of the 20th century - who remembers those? - vanity publishing gave a lot of self-published authors a bad rap. In vanity publishing you find a printer who is willing to print your book and you print off 5000 copies and put them in the trunk of your car and off you go.

It was called vanity publishing for a reason. Anyone could do it. Anyone could throw together something they called a book, with a poorly designed front cover, no back cover design, unedited content, and no throughline. What resulted was a poor excuse for a book and a reason for people to chide others for choosing 'self-publishing.'

In truth, many respectable, talented, well educated people have self-published. There are a few different flavors of it which we won't go into here, but understand that today's self-published author is more informed about what it takes to create a product like a book and they put in the effort needed. 

Today, with Kindle, and audio-books, and more, the fact that an author is self-published is widely accepted - as long as the product is well done.

Four. Why should I write a book?

I try not to bristle at this particular question. The better question is: Why SHOULDN'T you write a book? I covered more of the reasons in a recent post, but here are a few to get you thinking:

• A book builds credibility and respect. Just the fact that you took the time and effort to write a book brings immediate kudos.
• A book helps you get more speaking engagements. It helps you get better speaking engagements. Events love authors.
• A book demonstrates to your current clients, and your prospects, that you have a vested interest in them. Your book is your promise to be the solution to their problems. 
• A book is the foundation of webinars, workshops, and events you can create to serve your clients.
• A book is the foundation of masterminds - created to serve clients and prospects, in a peer group learning environment, with you as the fearless leader.

Those are a few of the reasons you should write a book. But the best reason, I tell the women I talk to, is this - your book could be the inspiration for another woman to finally go out and tackle her dream life. Now, wouldn't that be awesome?

Five. What would I write about?

When I first realized women were serious with this question, I was taken aback. "Why, write about what you know!" I spit out a few times.

As I listened better, I learned that the women asking this question weren't worried about having something to say, as I had surmised, they were worried about saying too much.

Many women have several books in them. They hesitate to write any of those books because they don't know which one to put first. Some of them have content from years of writing elsewhere, but don't know how to organize it into a book. Some of them have content from years of contributing elsewhere and have no clue if it's book worthy. 

Now I know that women who ask this question are really saying, "I could write about A, B, or C. I don't know which one to choose."

Those women need a developmental book coach. I know a pretty good one. She's writing this post.

Six. I've been thinking about writing a book, but it's not on this year's agenda. What difference will it make if I  wait a few years to get my act together first?

The first answer to this question is sure, of course you can wait. You're busy. You already have too much to do. You have work, and clients, and family, and so many other things to think about, writing a book is way down on your list of priorities.

However, the second answer is - waiting is not a good idea. Why? Because waiting means allowing dozens of other people to write and publish books about the same topic and create a boatload of competition during the time you're busy with 'other stuff'.

Let's be serious. Business is about competition. Each of us is competing with dozens if not hundreds of other people who do what we do, some better, some not so much better. The book industry is not slowing down! Despite rumors of the demise of print books, and despite the belief that no one reads anymore, books are being written and published by the tens of thousands, every year and successful business people, successful business women, are reading them.

If you're ever going to write a book, now is the time. Now, before hundreds of other books just like yours are published and marketed to your clients and prospects.

I refer you back to #Four in which I show you why writing a book is a good idea. All of those bulleted points serve to put you light years ahead of your competition. You want to be ahead of your competition, don't you? You want to be top-of-mind, don't you? You want to be introduced at your next networking event or conference or keynote speech as "the author of" - don't you?

I believe you do. I believe I have debunked enough of the questions - or are they excuses? - for writing a book for today. Watch our Books & Programs page for my newest book: 13 Excuses NOT to Write a Book This Year - because writing a book is hard and you're too busy and writing a book is for other people, not you. 

In the meantime, get on our mailing list for advice on book writing, reading, and how to make it all work in your busy life now. Smart News is delivered every Friday come rain or shine.

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