I was so impressed by my friend Barbara Wayman’s article about her new book that I asked her if I could share it here on my blog. It’s an honest look at why she wrote her book and the results she has gotten from book sales and going through this entire process. If you know Barbara, you know that she’s a deep thinker and has super-amazing, original thoughts and expert insights popping up all day long, so I simply couldn’t wait to learn more about her secrets to living an extraordinary life! I was not disappointed. In this article below she shares a lot about her book (which I highly recommend only if you want to live an extraordinary life), some of the reasons she wrote it, the obstacles she overcame, and how these things may help you to write that book you’ve always dreamed of. As the author of two self-published books myself, I say “bravo!” to her insights here.

Enjoy!

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An Eternal Asset — 7 Reasons To Write A Book

A guest post by Barbara Wayman

Last month I published my first book. It’s a non-fiction, self-help book designed to teach women (and interested men) specific ways to step into their power and own their greatness.

By far the number one question about the book I’ve received is, “How is your book selling?”

The answer is that it’s selling well and I am quite happy. But what people don’t understand is that most self-published books on the market sell less than 100 copies. Ever. Most publisher-published books on the market don’t fare much better. They average 250 sales per year.

You may be surprised to hear that. I think we assume that the books we see at the bookstore are selling tens of thousands of copies, if not hundreds of thousands. But that simply is not the case for the vast majority.

Technology has made it easier than ever to publish a book.

Right now, there are over 4,500 new books coming out every single day and that number will only increase over time. With so much competition, it’s hard to make an individual book stand out, which is why most of them typically sell to the author’s and publishers’ established communities.

I understood this reality before I undertook my own book project. I knew I was never going to get rich from creating this one book. But there are so many other great reasons to put forth the effort anyway.

These days, writing a book isn’t about income, it’s about outcomes; your service to others and your personal and professional growth.

Here are seven reasons why I wrote the book despite the odds, and why you might want to write one too.

1. I achieved a life-long dream — I have wanted to be an author for decades. Sometimes when I’d meet authors at book signing events I’d get sort of star struck, amazed by their achievement. Now that wall between us is broken down forever. I can add “author” to my lifelong bucket list and no one can ever take it away from me. To do this, I had to get past a lot of internal resistance around “Who am I to write a book?” and guess what? I got past it.

2. I chose myself  — By self-publishing I didn’t wait for a gatekeeper to tell me my idea had merit. I didn’t waste years creating and refining a proposal and then sitting around and hoping an authority figure would like it. I simply got to work researching and writing and then I tackled each and every next step until I had a finished product in distribution. I believed in myself. And now I completely own all rights to my work. For better or worse, this book is 100% mine and I didn’t need anyone’s permission.

3. I organized and articulated my message —  I’ve long been passionate about my topic but I had never sat down and broken my expertise into a set of distinct strategies before. Now that I’ve done that, I’ve laid the groundwork for future speaking engagements, workshops or teaching products. I can more easily express my point of view and back up why it matters to anyone who asks. Just this one outcome alone would have made producing my book worthwhile.

4. I provided evidence of my authority  — I supported my ideas with facts and experiences. If people ask me what makes me such an expert on women owning their own power, I’ve got 114 pages of proof that’s available 24/7 on Amazon. This fact allows me to more fully own my own power. I can relax when questioned knowing that I’ve already demonstrated why someone might want to learn from me.

5. I enjoyed myself  — Tell me, if you decided to take up photography and spend happy hours in nature photographing butterflies, would people suggest your hobby had no merit unless you then sold your pictures for lots of money? We recognize the pursuit of many art forms as life enhancing in and of themselves but somehow with writing, there’s this idea that the marketplace has to get involved and deliver a stamp of approval.

This idea is wrong. Creatively, there is no difference between someone holed up in the attic writing novels vs. someone holed up in the attic knitting striped socks as long as they are happy and enjoying themselves. Some people just like to write.

6. I created an eternal asset  — What really blows my mind is that this book is now available online, where it can sell each and every day for the rest of my life and beyond. For decades and decades to come, this book is out there, offering people useful information and compensating me for my one-time effort.

It’s a brand new revenue stream I created and its revenues are not tied to hours of my time. I believe if more and more people used their free time in the pursuit of creating eternal assets such as these, everyone would benefit. And now that I know how to do it, it’s going to be so much easier to do it again. And again.

7. I gave a piece of my humanity back to humanity  — One of the big things that got me over my resistance to writing a book was the sudden and shocking loss of some wonderful people in my life. It really sunk in that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, all these tremendously helpful lessons it has taken me decades to learn will be lost. No one else will benefit from all my studies and experiences.

It feels like such a relief knowing that I did my part to put these strategies and stories together so that others can be helped by them, even when I am no longer around.

When you gift your humanity back, humanity responds. The very best part of the entire process was after my book came out. I heard wonderful things from friends and family. They told me how my words and ideas had impacted them, how I’d shifted their thinking and specific things they were going to do differently moving forward. Finding a way to help those you care about is a beautiful thing and always a worthy endeavor.

Barbara Wayman is the author of Living An Extraordinary Life — 9 Transformational Strategies to Live Your Best Life Now