Days 5 and 6: Creating the product and no book cover yet. (Gumroad 14 Day Product Challenge)

These last two days I have focused on creating the first draft of the e-book:

“I know what I want to say, I just can’t write it!”

Mindset strategies to bring ideas from mind to paper

My main goal is to have the content of the product ready, have some early feedback on it and then I decide on format and book cover.

So far I have focused on unpacking the problem given in the title of the book (“I know what I want to say, I just can’t write it!”), explaining three possible causes for that feeling. Then I come into chapter 2 listing good well-intended advice that just does not work :)

I have never thought about “the voice” for the book, I just faced that when starting drafting. It started “too academic and distant”, when I wanted something more “personal” since the book is a personal take on a problem I faced multiple times and have helped other people with the same issues. When writing a blog post I tend to give me own personal perspective, when writing an academic article I let the content take precedence. For the book I really was not sure how I wanted to write. I ended up writing more like “my advice for you”, which is a voice I don’t really like. I prefer more “this is my experience and I am sharing it with you”. So, despite having drafted two chapters, I may still change the tone all over the place.

Meanwhile I am also engaging with my target audience, not only for “sales purposes” but to keep engaging on the discussions, learning from them and also adding value where I can. In addition I have also planned some talks on the content of the book, what may help me promote it and get feedback. Let’s see how it goes :)