How to Write a Book That Changes the World* and Makes You Famous** and Rich***

The most successful business and personal growth books promise to give readers what they WANT…

• Influence

• The 4-Hour Work Week

• Obviously Awesome (Products)

• How to Win Friends and Influence People

• Atomic Habits (Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results)

…then actually give readers what they NEED.

• Sense of control and security

• Freedom (by working WAY more than 4 hours a week)

• Competitive and customer research techniques

• Hope during the Great Depression

• Framework for building consistency

This technique also works with blog posts. You want to write a book that changes the world and makes you rich and famous.

Now let me tell you what you need:

You need to forget what YOU want, and start focusing on what your READER wants.

Writing a book starts as a selfish endeavor (again, see the title of this blog post). But to really get what you want, you need to deeply, deeply understand your ideal reader.

This type of discipline is difficult because authors see their wisdom as universally applicable, and I get it. Success in one field often holds the kernels of success in other fields.

Plus, you want to change the world and be rich and famous! That means everyone needs to read your book, right?

Not quite.

Let me ask you a few questions that may help you actually get what you want:

*Whose world do you want to change?

My friend and author Jim Fielding has his own version of this idea: “May we leave our corner of the world better than we found it.”

Books are niche products—especially business and personal growth books. Most don’t sell more than 200 copies. 100,000 copies is a massive hit. Only a few books each decade reach a million sales. So even at the peak of success, your book won’t even reach an audience the size of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

So the first decision you need to make is, “Who am I writing for, and why should they care?”

Let’s extend that line of questioning a bit more:

1. Who are you writing for?

2. What do they want?

3. What do they need?

4. What’s standing in their way?

5. How have they tried that hasn’t worked?

6. How can YOU help that’s different than other solutions?

7. Why should they care?

The answers to these questions need to be informed by real conversations with your ideal reader. You need to be obsessed. Then you need to write DIRECTLY to them.

Many great books were written with ONE specific person in mind. Tim Ferriss did this when writing The 4-Hour Work Week.

After struggling with the first few drafts, he shifted his perception. He imagined writing a long email to a couple friends who were trying to escape the rat race like he did. His writing became more natural, empathetic, and impactful.

Changing the world starts with ONE person.

**In what rooms do you want to be famous?

Books become hits when they go viral. They are passed from one person to the next, then the next, and so on. (Granted, the vitality is a bit slower than the online virality we know today, but word-of-mouth is much more powerful.)

So the next decision you need to make is this: Who is your ideal reader sharing your book with? And what are they saying about your book that convinces others to read?

I call this the Happy Hour pitch: Imagine your ideal reader is at a bar with their friends, colleagues, and like-minded folks. They just read your book and are eager to tell others about it, but it’s loud and there are a lot of other conversations going on, so they only have a few words to convince the other person.

In this scenario, what is your ideal reader saying about your book?

Try to imagine what this short conversation might sound like. What is the main idea that’s going to cut through the noise (literally) and infect the other person with a desire to read your book?

Take Obviously Awesome by April Dunford. I’ve recommended this book to founders and marketers more times than I can count. Here’s what I tell people:

“This is THE book on positioning products and services. The Trout and Ries book defines positioning, but Dunford shows you HOW to do it.”

Remember, your book won’t make you famous worldwide (and you probably don’t want that anyway). But you DO want to be famous in a few small or medium-sized rooms.

What are those rooms and how will your story spread?

***How can you expand your book IP to make you rich?

(Rich is relative. Many business authors don’t need a hit book to be well off. So let’s think of “rich” as a symbol of value)

How to Win Friends and Influence People has sold over 30 million copies since it was published in 1936. It has easily earned the Carnegie family over $100 million in royalties over the last 88 years.

The Dale Carnegie Training franchises earned $130 million in 2023 alone.

Here’s a cliche piece of book advice I know you’ve heard: The real value of writing a book is in the opportunities it generates for you.

While true, many authors and publishing experts use this fact as an excuse to not try to sell their books. This is stupid.

The better your book sells, the more opportunities you will have.

Book sales are like the principal funds you put into an investment account. The more you put in, the more you will benefit from compounding interest.

The most common ways of expanding your book IP are:

• Speaking engagements

• Consulting

• Coaching

• Premium products

• Building a business

James Clear charges $100,000-$200,000 for speaking gigs. He already three such gigs scheduled for April 2024 already.

Most authors make the mistake of not thinking about IP expansion until after their book is written. But again, we need to think about your ideal reader.

Imagine the products and services your ideal reader will demand from you in the future, so you can craft your book towards that end today.

Your book is just one link in the value chain. What are the other links? How will each link progressively help your readers get what they want and need? How is your value chain different than others?

Your book is not the end of your ideal reader’s journey with you—it’s the beginning.

Will answering these questions help me write a book that changes the world and makes me famous and rich?

Will your brilliant new product idea catch fire and make you a billionaire?

Maybe!

You can’t know unless you try.

But just like building a great product, you can increase your chances of success by deeply, deeply understanding your end user (i.e., your ideal reader).

1. Who are you writing for?

2. What do they want?

3. What do they need?

4. What’s standing in their way?

5. How have they tried that hasn’t worked?

6. How can YOU help that’s different than other solutions?

7. Why should they care?

Let me know if you agree. Happy writing.