The Book Isn’t the First Step, It’s the Smartest Second One
Every week, someone brilliant tells me:
“I’ve been meaning to write a book, but I don’t know where to start.”
So they do what all clever people do:
- They wait. They overthink. They take another LinkedIn course.
- Meanwhile, their ideas are squatting in their brain, rent-free.
Here’s the truth:
- You don’t need to start with the book.
- You need to start with the book-shaped thing.
INTRODUCING: The Book Before the Book
This is the minimum valuable asset that gets you:
- Clear on your thinking
- In front of the right people
- Making money and testing traction
- Without writing 60,000 words in a vacuum
It could be:
- A diagnostic (with a smart name and 3-question clarity punch)
- A workshop built from the book’s core model
- A talk with a title that makes people lean in
- A canvas or framework that explains your whole thing on one page
- A mini-course that pays you to draft chapters, disguised as teaching
The Book Before the Book builds demand.
Then the book meets it.
ASSET TO BUILD: The 1-Pager Test
Want to test if your “book before the book” is worth building?
Try writing this:
- Working title: (Not clever, just clear)
- The transformation: “It helps [X type people] go from ___ to ___.”
- The format: Talk, guide, diagnostic, canvas, etc
- The offer behind it: What do they do after they read/attend/use it?
If you can’t write this 1-pager, don’t write the book.
Yet.
BONUS: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET THIS RIGHT
You stop writing for imaginary readers.
You build for real clients.
You gain traction while creating.
You look incredibly productive while secretly still figuring it out.
And when you do write the book, you’ll already have the model, the audience, and the sales path in place.
Less risk.
More resonance.
And fewer late-night panic edits about whether Chapter 3 still matters.
DISASTER FARM INTERLUDE – Chicken Coop Coup
The chickens staged a full-blown mutiny this week.
Flap, squawk, feathers, the lot.
All because one of them worked out how to peck open the feed bin.
Now they look at me like staff.
Publishing feels oddly similar.
TL;DR
- Writing a book too early is how smart people get stuck
- Build the thing that sells the book before the book itself
- Start small. Make it real. Test the idea with money, not musings
- If it’s useful now, it’ll be referable later
Come Talk to Us Online
We’re posting useful, strategic stuff over on LinkedIn — no fluff, just frameworks:
When everyone’s publishing, posting, prompting and producing at speed, how do you stand out without becoming a content machine? Find out: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/credibility-crisis-debbie-jenkins-opfaf/?trackingId=hdMnGo2LQzSzW2rKmwAW8A%3D%3D
Think you need a book to get clients?
You probably just need a framework, a name, and a slightly pushy landing page.
PS: If you published your book between 16th November 2024 and 31st May 2025 OR you’re planning to publish between 1st June 2025 and 15th November 2025, you may enter the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2025.
This is the type of announcement we make regularly to our members of the OnlyAuthors.club – join for more book award announcements and our regular author playbooks & strategy sprints to keep your book working for you.
– Debs
Strategic Publishing for People Who Hate Wasting Time
