Subscriber TT writes:<\/p>\n
“Maybe you can help me with my issue: If you have three ideas for
\nbooks in your head — how do you go about deciding to commit to
\none?”<\/p>\n
Many writers, including me, face this problem frequently.<\/p>\n
We have so many interests, so many subjects we want to write
\nabout, that we have a hard time choosing the one we want to do
\nnext — especially with bigger projects like books.<\/p>\n
So I told TT my simple formula for deciding which of multiple
\nbook ideas will be the one that I commit to writing.<\/p>\n
To begin with, here are the 6 criteria I evaluate when deciding
\nwhether I want to write a given book:<\/p>\n
1–Will it be fun for me to write?<\/p>\n
2–Do readers need yet another book on this topic?<\/p>\n
3–Will having written it benefit me in some way; e.g., elevate my
\nreputation or bring me more business?<\/p>\n
4–Is it important to me personally to write it and get it
\npublished?<\/p>\n
5–Do I have something worthwhile to say in it?<\/p>\n
6–Does it have the potential to sell many thousands of copies,
\nand am I in a position to help make that happen?<\/p>\n
Rate each book idea in each of these six categories on a scale of
\n1 to 5 with 5 = highest and 1 = lowest.<\/p>\n
Then add up the total score. And do this for each book you are
\nthinking about writing.<\/p>\n
And whichever book has the highest total score is the next one
\nyou should write.<\/p>\n
TT also asks: “If you DO commit to writing a book, how do you
\nstay committed until it’s done?”<\/p>\n
I accomplish this by writing virtually all my books for
\nmainstream publishers.<\/p>\n
When you do that, it is easy to stay committed — because you have
\nsigned a contract promising to deliver the manuscript to a
\npublishing house on or before a given date.<\/p>\n
If you don’t hand in a publishable manuscript by the deadline,
\nyou don’t get your money … the book won’t be published … and your
\nname will be mud with your publisher.<\/p>\n
That’s all the motivation and incentive I need to stay committed
\n… and probably all you will need, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Subscriber TT writes: “Maybe you can help me with my issue: If you have three ideas for books in your head — how do you go about deciding to commit to one?” Many writers, including me, face this problem frequently. We have so many interests, so many subjects we want to write about, that we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1666"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1670,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions\/1670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}