Writing a book

Today I have started writing my book. It all started with the idea to write a book about the subject I talk about a lot 🙂 How to get clients via the internet for small business owners.

Since I need some structure I thought it would be a good idea to find first a publisher and then start writing the book. This route should give me some deadlines that I need to finalize the book at all.

The first contact with my publisher started via my friend Martijn Aslander. He invited some friends to the Lifehacking Academy. These publisher friends, that published the Dutch translation of the book ‘Upgrading Your Life‘ by Gina Trapani, were in my presentation during that day. The presentation was about online networking. An article or two from lifehacking.nl that I wrote is in this book.

During my trip to Las Vegas in January 2009 (Dutch article on it) I met some great people. Some of them wrote books that I wanted to introduce to the publisher. The book that really got my interest was that of Rohit Bhargava – Personality Not Included. I read it during the flight back and at the airports and in the train back home. By the time I was home I almost finished reading it.

It is a great book! I love the way it is build up – 2 parts. The first part is the theory and the second part is about techniques, guides and tools. The book is well designed. The website for the book is fun and smart. Rohit is a very nice and smart person – SVP of the Digital Strategy and founding member of the 360 Digital Influence group at Ogilvy Public Relations. You can read a lot of his writing online for free at the Influential Marketing blog.

So I introduced the book with A.W. Bruna and they loved it too. After a month or so they purchased the rights to publish the Dutch translation of this book. So this book will be out in October 2009 in Dutch!

At that first meeting with Bruna I also talked about my idea to write a book. They liked the subject that I want to write about. So now I had to write an outline of the book. A proposal about the subjects that I wanted to discuss in the book.

After another month it was clear, A.W. Bruna was ready to accept the publishing of my book. I received a contract and now I need to start writing the book. Luckely I already write a lot and don’t find it difficult anymore. The subject is in my vaines. It is all about strategy and structure now. Every Friday for the next 4 months is now blocked in my calendar.

So today I started to collect books that I want to use for the book either as a reference or for more information on a subject. See the collection:

So now I am analyzing the books to determine my book strategy.

What I like about the book (the hard cover)

• titel can be reduced to PNI
• Personal note on the bookmark with icon (chicken) and email pnibook@gmail.com
• References in the book to ‘secret’ parts on the site
• Book in 2 parts
• Tabs on the side for chapters 1-6 ith the theory
• Theory with 2-3 examples
• Part 2 with Techniques, Guides and Tools

What do I like about the site for PNI

• Order book on home page
• icons on the right
• readers community facebook
• readers community backcover
• bibliografy met alle boeken in een eigen Resource bookstore op Amazone
• Media Kit – with photos on Flickr
• Reviews & Buzz with links from Delicious
• Blog – of course
• Making of – that is what I want to start already so you can enjoy the journey

Rohit also created this great presentation

How To Write A Book: The Making Of Personality Not Included