“Have you ever written a paper more than 15 pages long?”

That's the first question we ask students starting out in the Book Creators author experience. Not surprisingly about 19 out of 20 say no.

So the next question is usually this:

“How in the world can someone write a 195 page book in four months?”

Great question. We asked it ourselves before we created this program.

We don't say students in the Book Creators program "write" a book, we say you create a book.

Why?

The reality is that we've developed our own approach and methodology to enable anyone to create the content for their book (by following our process and a little bit of hard work).

What's our secret?

Well, it's not really a secret, it's just a process. It's a couple key things we do to make the content creation process much more efficient. It's a 4-step process:

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1. We spend the first month after you've selected your topic helping you "Get Smart" through interviews and research.  This process helps you develop the knowledge and the stories to create the content required for the book.

2. We teach you how to write in a simple story format -- a process that enables our authors to create compelling and insightful manuscripts that "show" rather than "tell" their readers.

3. We utilize our customized approach of Interview Dashboards, Research Dashboards, Story Index and 7-Part Introduction Method to make the process simple and efficient.

4. We assign you a developmental editor whose sole job is to help you "develop" your ideas into the stories, lessons and chapters that eventually become your manuscript.

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When people think of writing a book, many imagine someone sitting at a typewriter pulling their hair out trying to write every word.  That's not how this is. We focus on helping you create the content and turn that content into a great manuscript.

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It's create vs. write.  Read this blog post about our approach.

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The Book Creators experience is a week-by-week experience that helps you keep on track without burdening you (or without over-burdening you).  Our students tell us the workload is consistent with a typical college course that has writing projects or papers over tests.  A few students said it was a little more work, but ending up with an actual book is 100% worth it.

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Not everyone is able to create a first (or second) draft manuscript that can be published. Sometimes you'll need more time. If more time is needed, you can delay the publication process until you get something that meets your standard: a book that any prospective employer, partner or investor would be impressed by.

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We're probably the first and only course (at least that we've ever heard of) that uses some of the key principles of startups and entrepreneurial methodologies to create a book. Not only will you learn how to create a 190+ page book, you'll also learn how to reimagine your book as a startup product you'll launch. You'll learn how to identify your customer, nail down the problem you're solving and ensure your solution (what you propose in the book) is actually something the customer wants.

 

Open learning is key. Our course is 100% open and transparent -- everyone in the course posts their assignments publicly in a shared tool (Quip) and feedback is 360 degrees and open for all to see. It truly does take a village to launch a book -- and you'll be a part of a pretty amazing community of other signal authors and mentors.