hello everyone welcome to another
YouTube hang out super excited to be
here I am joined by John Dee Webster and
he is a comedian and author of five
books and today we’re going to talk
about how he’s written five books before
the age 30 how you can do it too and
offer his ten tips ten ways on how to
write an exceptional book John Holcomb a
bargain but merde so for my audience who
may not be familiar with you can you
give a little context a little bit of
background and then let’s hear some tips
sounds good sounds good the genres that
I’ve written in our polemics poetry
satire and comedy and I’ve recently been
working on a self-help book that I’m
getting ready to finish up and actually
actually mention you in the self-help
book one of the chapters is the tops and
personal development channels on YouTube
with the most substance and I’ve gone
over the UK channels and I actually
actually named your channel as number
one channel with the most substance on
YouTube hi I appreciate that and now
you’re adding more substance to it too
here we are yeah there you go cool so so
for someone who wants to write a book
let’s get into some of the tips what do
you what do you recommend for someone
who’s I mean I’ve been doctoring in my
process so I’m writing my first book
it’s just finished is in pre order right
now with penguin Random House what are
some of the ways that people need to
know maybe maybe I should have listened
to this before I wrote my book but but
here we go let’s hear some tips i’ll be
going over 10 different tips they are
how to ensure quality routing how to
make everything you write see more
intelligently written how to never waste
a good idea how to develop a habit to
write how to be at your best when you
write the six key parts to selling your
book how to get your book noticed when
people search on amazon how to market
your book
how do you get good reviews and most
importantly how to get it done that’s a
lot of stuff so I know where where we
don’t have an insane amount of time
we’ve got just over half an hour and we
also got some reader questions coming in
or viewer questions which women which
one he feels like let’s start from the
most important what’s the what’s the
most important most valuable one most
may be controversial or most you know
looked over one that the people really
need to know that will help them write
their book okay the one that has helped
me the most my first book was a book of
quotes in a genre then went to rot in
and that basically researched a lot of
books that are the subject that I wanted
to write about and I selected the best
ones and one of the best practices you
can do before writing a book is to do
research and find some of the best
quotes and passages that you think a
peel to you the most and figure out why
you lock them and then take those
lessons and apply that to your routing I
love it so Xena was writing in he’s
right he’s asking was it a goal for you
to write five books before you were 30
no no yeah I just kind of a kind of
creep up on me uh the way it happened
was is after I graduated college my step
dad wrote a book and then my mom murder
book and I kind of solved that it could
be done you know when a it’s kind of
like a that guy breaking the four-minute
mile I think you know when somebody else
does it you realize that you know it’s
possible so i had to people very close
to me write a book and I was like well
they can do this this is something I’ve
always wanted to do then I can do it and
my heart my first book took me three
years to rot and as they always say with
everything the first time you do
something is the hardest and after that
pretty much cranked out a book a year
and that seems to be the
rate them that I go with my process
awesome um Cape of Good Hope is asking
what makes a good motivational story a
compelling backstory on it is important
um people tend to identify with
struggles um Anthony Robbins with
janitor um Brian Tracy um I think lived
on a assistance for a while and if
somebody knows the in from the bottom
the top they’re more likely to respect
you and realize that you know you’re
you’re a lot like them I think people
have a lot more people think identify
with more if they know that you’ve you
know struggled in the gone through hard
times but it’s also important to include
accomplishments in your in your story
with my a self-help book I have each
section divided into who what and how
for each out him and with the who
brought about successful people such as
Steve Jobs Bill Gates and so forth and
like I say I was sure to include that
their biggest struggles as we’re as well
as the biggest triumphs in that so a
compelling backstory is very important
to a story I think to at least in my
case I am obviously writer now but most
of my content creation comes with the
videos you want to create something that
motivates you if you want to if you’re
asking how to create a motivational
story it should be something when you
read it over you get motivated by or
when you watch that video you get
motivated by the first motivational kind
of video that I did was it actually
cheered the story of the four-minute
mile I was called believe has over
million views now and someone close to
me was in the video business hated that
video and said no YouTube video should
be longer than six minutes and this is
just way too long i’ll never do well
I just I started doubting a little bit
like hey this is a guy who knows what
he’s talking about but at the end of the
day I loved it so much and motivated me
every time I watched it that somebody
else must be motivated by this too and
so I put it out and share it and so I
think it’s important for you to be the
barometer as well so it has to pass your
asset test you have to be inspired by it
if you’re writing if you write a
self-help book you must you like there
should be something that also inspires
you or have inspired you and you’ve gone
through that process to become better
yourself and so even videos now we do
three to four videos a day on the
channel I see all of them before they go
up and I have to like them or they don’t
go up and so I’m grateful that everybody
kind of enjoys them and finds value in
them but I think if you’re creating any
kind of motivational story they should
first motivate you what if it does then
there’s a good chance to motivate others
as well you have to be satisfied with
what you are what should really have to
be proud of it and one of the most
important people to uh to like what you
do is yourself actually I’m rotting my
self-help book primarily for myself I
was a one to learn the success
principles and when Hawk have plotted to
my loft and in doing my research I
thought that I would you know put out
there public and you know give them the
information that I’ve done in my own
research and observation I love it so
elizabeth is writing in i have a story
to write but I have writer’s block every
time i tried to start I’ve never written
any book what advice gets the guy who
read five books what advice do you have
for someone who’s facing writer’s block
doesn’t know where to start my best
advice for routers blog that I have a
technique that I have coined plant the
seed water later and most people who
tell you how to deal with writer’s block
kate is sitting from screen just I mean
it’s it if it’s a
it’s not good it’s not getting keep at
it um the technique that I do is if I
have writer’s block try to keep in my
mind what it is I want to accomplish
where it is i want to write about and
then i do activities they become
inspired and help me to get ideas on
most people’s best ideas come to them in
a shower when they’re exercising some
people’s best I just come to them in bed
right when they go to bed at night so I
was important to keep a journal or a
notebook by your bed creativity tends to
come when everything around us is
quieted that tends to be a time when
we’re most creative most of my ideas
come to me when I Drive so if I’m ever
if ever have writer’s block I’ll just go
on a long drive and some my best ideas
come to me during that time interesting
you gotta go for long drives yeah it’s
good you found your process I think for
me and this may be different from a
nonfiction versus fiction I only have
written a nonfiction book I liked having
I kind of what really helped was having
a structure for how is going to break
down the whole book so we know there’s
three main sections to the book and then
I would list out okay what are the main
chapters I have to go into each section
and then what are the key concepts of
each chapter and being able to break
that down on the page by page basis then
I could sit down okay I just need to
write this page i found that super
helpful I don’t know that it applies as
much to fiction I don’t know if if you
already know what you’re going to write
like you have the whole story kind of
find out or part of writing is also the
journey of figuring out what you’re
going to write but at least for me that
really helped so I’m not just for me I
think is also just feeling overwhelmed
that man there’s so much that has to go
into this when I think about all the
pages and all the concepts that are in
my book just it’s a lot of writing like
you can’t just bang it out in a week
it’s at least for my
was a ton of writing and being able to
know like okay I just need to write
those five pages because it fits into
that chapter fits into that section if
it’s into that book made it a lot easier
for me to sit down and do the work our
all are your books nonfiction or fiction
John um through them are polemical
critiques one is a book of satire and
when’s the book of comedy I have found
that um I’m thoroughly enjoying the
process of writing my self-help book
because I can actually sit down and not
really have to wait to be inspired to
rot I can do research and create content
an extra sit down and brainstorm ideas
based on my own observations as far as
what has worked for me and what has not
worked for me most of my books are
extremely creative and funny so most of
them I had to wait to be inspired to
start a chapter or a story cool next up
is kitsune who’s writing my problem is I
start reading a story then I get an idea
for another story and i start work on
that one and this keeps repeating i
guess you can say i can’t commit to one
story so what should she do use that to
your advantage then that is exactly the
way our rats currently I have ideas for
ten books that I’m working on that works
is is keep those ten ideas going and
whichever one it’s done first gets done
first it a lot of content for one try to
focus on getting that one done before
you move on to the others but if you
ever get ideas for any of the books
you’re working on be sure to add that to
the content and you’ll gradually build
up for time whichever one gets done
first gets done first that is um that is
how my mind works and that is process
that I’ve used and abused just flooded
there too if you might be able to if you
know you work best in these short stints
and you know it’s going to kind of come
to a close soon if you could try to
write the whole story like make it super
short make it a three page story or five
page story just try to get the whole
thing out on paper and if that’s all it
is then you just really sad a five-page
short story and if you come back to it
in a week like ah that story you know I
feel like there’s more to it then you
can evolve it to be something bigger but
otherwise you instead of just having a
start of something that I guess it’s
like if you are coming back to it the
maybe but but I’d love to see you get
something out I love to see you get some
momentum to be able to have something
that people can read and so building up
an audience and honing your craft better
so as an experiment I love to see try to
in that short stint finish a story and
then if it’s still kind of hot to a week
or a month or a year later you can
always come back to and turn it into
something much bigger yeah and most most
of the chapters in my book are short and
I think you said that the chapters in
your book you’re a look I your one word
or short is that correct yeah they did
was I hate reading books or then I I
flipped like I still another 20 pages
until the end of this chapter and then I
start to zone out and I hate started
like a comeback in the middle of the
chapter so I designed it on purpose
though it’s basically a page / heading
in the book and then you can easily stop
and start wherever you want I have found
that as an extremely effective way to
write a book because people seem to feel
a sense of accomplishment each time the
chapter and that is one of the reasons
that I write short chapters is a reader
can mark their place but having to use a
bookmark and you know it’s not it’s not
so tedious as in like it like if it’s a
30 page chapter or more you know they
kind of have to slug through it and you
know the one under wonder when it’s
going to end even if it’s
even if it’s interesting so so we’ve
talked a lot about the kind of creation
side of the story in the book for the
people who have it or who are about to
finish it and now they want to move to
the marketing side what advice do you
have to help get that book out there
I’ve discovered the one most effective
techniques to sell a book is through a
whenever someone buys a book asked him
to send you a picture of themselves
holding the book and that that tends to
create a general perception that people
own the book people want the book and
you can get them to smile while holding
the book it it is associative feelings
with that um David G McAfee does this
technique very effectively he uses that
technique to promote his books and he’s
doing a very well for himself so are you
asking people than to like get their
email address or how are you how do you
get the message like if somebody goes to
Amazon and just picked up the book how
do they know to write in and send the
picture to you actually um I’m mostly
talking about that people the people on
Facebook in my own personal life who
have bought the books each time somebody
buys a book for me I always asked if I
can you to picture them with the book
and i’ll post at the Facebook and one
time there’s a guy who wanted to buy my
complete body of work based on just sing
one photos somebody with their book so
so my books in pruner right now so I
can’t actually get you know the pictures
yet but somebody wrote in the chat Zeno
I’ll be sure to send you a picture me
holding your book while smiling Evan
when it comes out so you’re to give me
some tips to to use once the book comes
out um you mentioned in one of your
tendrils amazon tricks tips suggestions
on how to get your book ranked and get
orders for there what do you have to
share for would-be authors or existing
authors about Amazon when the best thing
needs to make sure people can find your
book on Amazon just use buzz words in
your genre for self-help some of the
most popular buzz word
words are law of attraction rich wealth
millionaire is a very good time to use
pretty much any self-help book that has
the word millionaire and it does very
well rules blueprint success principles
um grow think that those are some of the
buzzwords they’re often used in
self-help books the people search for
and if you have those words and your
cattle then when they’re trying to look
up those topics your book will come up
first and they’ll be more likely to buy
your book do you think everybody has a
book on them do you think this is
something everybody should be doing
everybody she read a book or or or know
what I mean this that expression
everybody has a book and them what do
you think about that Christopher
Hitchens has something to say about that
he said everybody might have a book in
them but in most cases that that is
where it should stay however I’m much
more optimistic about that I think that
everybody should write a book it’s one
of the most fulfilling things you can
experience seen your name print knowing
that you have a collection of your ideas
that you have researched and is
something you can be proud of and if
you’re wanting a am ego boost people
tend to think more highly of you if they
if they know you’re an author oh I teach
13 is right and then what are your
favorite books um far is a self help
those I’ve actually written down a 10 so
I can remember them right now my most
favorite book is a thinking bro rich
another book is The Millionaire
messenger which is basically a teacher
to sell your ideas sell your knowledge
and that’s something that I’ve been
working on as a being a life coach
basically does research on
self-improvement I’ve uh then some life
coaching and that is a worked out um
awaken the giant within by Anthony
Robbins is very good some lesser-known
books are the portal pep talk and those
are uh that’s probably about five of my
way laughs little instruction book that
is a collection of this pithy advice
mostly boss is very good some of the
Abbas in the book is kind of personal
kind of a you know tailored to his own
preferences but most mostly Boston that
book is very good at those are five or
six of some of the tough hop moves out
there that have helped me the most I
made a video about my favorite books for
entrepreneurs and the number one for me
is the book called radicals and
visionaries which is out of print but
you might be able take up a copy on eBay
or something uh basically what it was
was stories of famous entrepreneurs in
three to four pages so who they were
what they did and what they had to
overcome and I found that for me as a
especially when I first bought it as an
up-and-coming entrepreneur struggling
entrepreneur I found that really one
motivational to realize that oh you know
Oprah had a hard time when she was
getting started and to the specific
things that they did to become
successful i found interesting to me but
also in like three or four pages so
super easy to digest at that time you
know YouTube wasn’t really a thing and I
think my channel is kind of become that
now I think of sharing the lessons of
famous entrepreneurs and be able to
learn from them but I would basically
read one entrepreneur every day in the
morning just to get some motivation and
excitement because I didn’t have
rest of my family and so I found that
super helpful but I don’t know how
relevant it is to today’s generation
with all the amounts of books out there
and YouTube videos in other ways to get
that inspiration but suit really helped
me the the 4-hour workweek also really
helped me in my kind of planning and
time management I used to pride myself
as being the guy who would answer email
immediately and I got a whole bunch of
little stuff done but didn’t get any of
the big things done and so that just
kind of opened up my eyes in terms of
time management and how to how to plan
my day and that had a lot of big impact
across my business in my life so that
one’s easy to pick up you can go in any
store you can find the 4-hour workweek
um do you have a favorite fiction book
fair fiction book probably not 294 that
was a book I read in high school I’m
just kind of a you know you can idea
we’ll just go from the palm if we you
know don’t before not if we’re not
careful what this world can become and
more or less our society has become more
lock 1984 then a a world was written so
it’s kind of the Amish warning about
with the white things can become if we
allow them to do that George Orwell my
favorites probably three kingdoms it’s a
it’s about the the fall of the Han
Dynasty in China one of the most popular
books in Chinese history that has been
translated to all sorts of different
languages so yeah a lot of less is in
there that I’m kind of um cool so
another question again asked a lot is
about publisher versus self-publishing
what’s the best way to get out there you
know I’ve shared my advice but but what
do you think on that topic woody what
have you done with your books are you
self publish them are you going with a
publisher oh there are bandas and this
man just H if you self-publish you can
have complete control over your
book and exactly what it is you want to
do and the zero amount of what you don’t
want to do if you go through a publisher
sometimes they try to encourage you to
write about things you may not want to
put in your book I have self-published
because I enjoy having more control over
what I say you get more money per book
but the downside the self-publishing is
you have to do all the marketing
yourself I’m actually in the process of
a kind of find a a publishing house for
a my self-help book because I’m going to
get out there and get it and get in as
many hands as possible that process of
being a self-published author in the
marketing side of how you’re getting the
word out about your books like I said
before the picture thing just the word
of mouth friends family posting about it
on Facebook one of the ways i found the
market your book is to create means of
quotes of your book and a link to buy
and to target facebook groups that are
are on the subject of the material of
your book so if you can find like a
niche a niche market that is a Facebook
group pretty much everybody in there you
know is going to respond favorably to
deserve the same mind set a target drone
you know find your target audience for
your book and you can generally generate
a lot of sales that way it’s really
helped me is making sure that I have
consistent content and find a way to
incorporate the book into it so before
starting the book like it took I took
over a year to write the book and I
documented that journey as part of a
youtube series so it’s called Evan’s
book and every week I had a new video
talking about the ups and downs and you
know highs and lows of writing the book
and what I’m going through and how to
work with a major publisher and what
they expect and you know from the point
of view of an author because I hadn’t
seen anybody kind of document that
process so one it was it was educational
for the audience but to it also allows
me to keep building momentum for the
book and so if you’re planning on
writing something you could start now
and creating content around the process
so people start following along and then
when the book is that people will want
to buy it the other thing I’ve been
doing go ahead ask you this um I had
noticed that you didn’t reveal the
tabular book until it was um finished is
that something that you recommend the
most authors is to not put the towel or
your book out there until it’s a
finished I think it depends I don’t know
that there’s one I mean I we’ll see
we’ll see we’ll see how the results play
out curiosity is part of my brain I like
surprising my audience with different
things I like dropping a new video
series and not telling them about it I
like doing you know interviews with
high-profile people I’m not putting the
word out about it I like having a bit of
curiosity as a part of what I’m doing
and so it’s part of who I am part of my
brain it doesn’t necessarily work for
everybody I think if you if if you have
no element of surprise in general and
this is the only thing that you do it
may not I may not play well so yeah I
don’t know I just I wanted to I didn’t
even talk about the not just a title the
content I didn’t talk about the content
of the book either like what it’s about
it and I went 60 weeks of video hoes
over a year of videos every week where I
didn’t talk about what the book was
about and it’s something like a man
should make it work I didn’t run out of
content there’s always something
something from the publisher something I
was doing the whole series itself was an
experiment I didn’t know if it would
last a month or you know if I would give
up on it people were burning shouldn’t
following along with it and then now I
thought okay well not as out the people
still want me to do it like you wanted
convert now that’s start talking about
the marketing side instead of just
production and everybody want to learn
but the marketing side and they want to
bring on my agent and bring on my
publisher and ask them questions too so
it’s been great to carry my audience
along with me and I think if people are
starting to write a book the marketing
for a lot of people were doing the
self-published rude at least what I’ve
heard is they think the book is insanely
hard to write and then I get to the
marketing it’s even harder it’s not
because you if your writer at least you
have the skills to write and you can
control that you wake up every day you
have your schedule and your control it
maybe it still may be hard and that
you’ve got writer’s block and all these
issues that come up but when your
marketing it’s all on you and you may
not have a marketing background they may
have zero interest in marketing you just
want to go off and start now making the
next book so starting the process it’s
not even it is marketing but it’s not
it’s not really selling you just given
people sneak peek behind the scenes of
how you do it what you’re talking about
your process answering questions and
then you’re building up some interest in
the book allows you to talk about the
book every week without it feeling like
it’s a sales message every time so I
found that to be helpful a lot of people
who’ve been watching a series of have
found it interesting for them who you
know their consider about going through
some people follow it just because they
like me and they want to see what I’m up
to and the process in the journey and
maybe my frustrations or whatever it’s a
little more real than like behind the
scenes stuff than the other stuff that I
put out and some of them following
because they generally want to write a
book and want to deal with the publisher
and they’re curious about the process
and what people have to go through on
things that most authors don’t typically
share when they’re going through like my
publisher is not happy with a lot of
content that I talked about but I’m
going to talk about I’m that’s what I do
on my audience right it’s real truth
about what I’m going through and I said
that’s part of the deal like if you want
me to be out there pitching the book and
selling it then I have to talk about
what I’m going through behind the scenes
so I think it works really well for me
and I think it could work well for a lot
of people whether you mention the name
or the content or not at least having
some kind of ongoing series so you’re
starting the marketing before you even
get the book out I found that super
helpful have you have you done any of
that kind of stuff John for your books
um it’s the most part for some of my
books I have included the summit
chapters originally started as articles
how well articles did I decided to
arrange them in order of some of the
best performing articles in the very
front of the book and some of the
articles that still did well but didn’t
do as well as some of the others toward
the end the very first chapter in one of
my books is by far the best and that
that’s a like a like I had said in the
six key parts to sell your book the
first two pages need to hook the hook
the reader and get them to buy so your
first few pages they just need to be
outstanding some Sun your best work to
get them get too nervous in the book
think to making sure that it’s a book
that you really feel passionate about
when I first started the book process my
agent introduced me to literary a trade
and my age was convinced i need a book
like ever need a book is going to open
up doors for you or get you speaking gay
like people take you more seriously and
I honestly felt like I don’t need a book
I got a popular YouTube channel I can
open up doors by myself right now like
the importance I feel of having a book
the client compared to where it may have
been 10 15 20 30 years ago uh and I
didn’t have a topic that I was like I
had a burning passion right about what
you wanted me to go through the process
so the first version of the book was
going to be around mall and success like
my youtube channel sharing the lessons
the top 10 rules or whatever and at the
time I didn’t feel inclined to really
write a book about that and so I was
like really slowly going through the
says and at the time I was discovering
you know my one word and using that and
I was super interested in how it could
apply believe to the rest of my company
and build a movement around it and
that’s when I switch and said guys
here’s the book on the right this is
this is what I want to write this is
this is it i’m so excited and they
didn’t think it was a book they thought
that’s like a worksheet that’s not a
book i said if i’m writing a book it’s
going to be on this so you can you
decide what you want to do and so they
came on board and that became the book
that that then I spent a year plus
writing and so I think it’s important to
match those things of the what’s doing
well and what the market wants with
something that you are super passionate
about and you want to write because
think a lot of people just chase like if
all you did was take if you took John’s
advice earlier and create your own book
about you use of all the buzz words he
suggested you know the millionaire I
figure out the other buzzwords that you
use a millionaire’s today that said
support it like if all you did was right
based on buzzwords and then you’re going
to fail because you don’t you don’t have
an expert opinion on it and you can’t
contribute value to it those are twinks
those are like extra things that you can
add on to make it more appealing
afterwards so it’s making sure that you
you are passionate about the subject
that you’re writing about not just
because it’s trending right now and I
think that was an important lesson for
me and write my book that I could didn’t
do the easy one it did the harder one
that I’ve talked about before I’ve
talked to they’ll believe in my one word
on my channel but if you look at my
channels an outsider you think it’s much
more just about the top ten rules yep I
love it well it’s it’s crazy how quickly
half an hour comes up on us John for
people who want to learn more about you
check out your books follow you see what
the latest thing is you got going on
what’s the best way to reach him the
book of mine that is some the best is
the audiobook version of my comedy book
which is one big joke and 300 shorter
ones on audible that has by far
the best seller on so far it has now
five star rating and congratulations
thank you I appreciate that I’ve I think
that with each book I’ve gotten better
and learned what has worked and what you
know what learned what not to do but
yeah Evan thanks for having me on your
show on your podcast on your channel and
I’ll be sure to send you a free sun copy
of myself up look when it comes out
alright looking forward to it thanks
John for the advice thank you guys for
watching continue to believe I’ll see
you soon thanks
YouTube hang out super excited to be
here I am joined by John Dee Webster and
he is a comedian and author of five
books and today we’re going to talk
about how he’s written five books before
the age 30 how you can do it too and
offer his ten tips ten ways on how to
write an exceptional book John Holcomb a
bargain but merde so for my audience who
may not be familiar with you can you
give a little context a little bit of
background and then let’s hear some tips
sounds good sounds good the genres that
I’ve written in our polemics poetry
satire and comedy and I’ve recently been
working on a self-help book that I’m
getting ready to finish up and actually
actually mention you in the self-help
book one of the chapters is the tops and
personal development channels on YouTube
with the most substance and I’ve gone
over the UK channels and I actually
actually named your channel as number
one channel with the most substance on
YouTube hi I appreciate that and now
you’re adding more substance to it too
here we are yeah there you go cool so so
for someone who wants to write a book
let’s get into some of the tips what do
you what do you recommend for someone
who’s I mean I’ve been doctoring in my
process so I’m writing my first book
it’s just finished is in pre order right
now with penguin Random House what are
some of the ways that people need to
know maybe maybe I should have listened
to this before I wrote my book but but
here we go let’s hear some tips i’ll be
going over 10 different tips they are
how to ensure quality routing how to
make everything you write see more
intelligently written how to never waste
a good idea how to develop a habit to
write how to be at your best when you
write the six key parts to selling your
book how to get your book noticed when
people search on amazon how to market
your book
how do you get good reviews and most
importantly how to get it done that’s a
lot of stuff so I know where where we
don’t have an insane amount of time
we’ve got just over half an hour and we
also got some reader questions coming in
or viewer questions which women which
one he feels like let’s start from the
most important what’s the what’s the
most important most valuable one most
may be controversial or most you know
looked over one that the people really
need to know that will help them write
their book okay the one that has helped
me the most my first book was a book of
quotes in a genre then went to rot in
and that basically researched a lot of
books that are the subject that I wanted
to write about and I selected the best
ones and one of the best practices you
can do before writing a book is to do
research and find some of the best
quotes and passages that you think a
peel to you the most and figure out why
you lock them and then take those
lessons and apply that to your routing I
love it so Xena was writing in he’s
right he’s asking was it a goal for you
to write five books before you were 30
no no yeah I just kind of a kind of
creep up on me uh the way it happened
was is after I graduated college my step
dad wrote a book and then my mom murder
book and I kind of solved that it could
be done you know when a it’s kind of
like a that guy breaking the four-minute
mile I think you know when somebody else
does it you realize that you know it’s
possible so i had to people very close
to me write a book and I was like well
they can do this this is something I’ve
always wanted to do then I can do it and
my heart my first book took me three
years to rot and as they always say with
everything the first time you do
something is the hardest and after that
pretty much cranked out a book a year
and that seems to be the
rate them that I go with my process
awesome um Cape of Good Hope is asking
what makes a good motivational story a
compelling backstory on it is important
um people tend to identify with
struggles um Anthony Robbins with
janitor um Brian Tracy um I think lived
on a assistance for a while and if
somebody knows the in from the bottom
the top they’re more likely to respect
you and realize that you know you’re
you’re a lot like them I think people
have a lot more people think identify
with more if they know that you’ve you
know struggled in the gone through hard
times but it’s also important to include
accomplishments in your in your story
with my a self-help book I have each
section divided into who what and how
for each out him and with the who
brought about successful people such as
Steve Jobs Bill Gates and so forth and
like I say I was sure to include that
their biggest struggles as we’re as well
as the biggest triumphs in that so a
compelling backstory is very important
to a story I think to at least in my
case I am obviously writer now but most
of my content creation comes with the
videos you want to create something that
motivates you if you want to if you’re
asking how to create a motivational
story it should be something when you
read it over you get motivated by or
when you watch that video you get
motivated by the first motivational kind
of video that I did was it actually
cheered the story of the four-minute
mile I was called believe has over
million views now and someone close to
me was in the video business hated that
video and said no YouTube video should
be longer than six minutes and this is
just way too long i’ll never do well
I just I started doubting a little bit
like hey this is a guy who knows what
he’s talking about but at the end of the
day I loved it so much and motivated me
every time I watched it that somebody
else must be motivated by this too and
so I put it out and share it and so I
think it’s important for you to be the
barometer as well so it has to pass your
asset test you have to be inspired by it
if you’re writing if you write a
self-help book you must you like there
should be something that also inspires
you or have inspired you and you’ve gone
through that process to become better
yourself and so even videos now we do
three to four videos a day on the
channel I see all of them before they go
up and I have to like them or they don’t
go up and so I’m grateful that everybody
kind of enjoys them and finds value in
them but I think if you’re creating any
kind of motivational story they should
first motivate you what if it does then
there’s a good chance to motivate others
as well you have to be satisfied with
what you are what should really have to
be proud of it and one of the most
important people to uh to like what you
do is yourself actually I’m rotting my
self-help book primarily for myself I
was a one to learn the success
principles and when Hawk have plotted to
my loft and in doing my research I
thought that I would you know put out
there public and you know give them the
information that I’ve done in my own
research and observation I love it so
elizabeth is writing in i have a story
to write but I have writer’s block every
time i tried to start I’ve never written
any book what advice gets the guy who
read five books what advice do you have
for someone who’s facing writer’s block
doesn’t know where to start my best
advice for routers blog that I have a
technique that I have coined plant the
seed water later and most people who
tell you how to deal with writer’s block
kate is sitting from screen just I mean
it’s it if it’s a
it’s not good it’s not getting keep at
it um the technique that I do is if I
have writer’s block try to keep in my
mind what it is I want to accomplish
where it is i want to write about and
then i do activities they become
inspired and help me to get ideas on
most people’s best ideas come to them in
a shower when they’re exercising some
people’s best I just come to them in bed
right when they go to bed at night so I
was important to keep a journal or a
notebook by your bed creativity tends to
come when everything around us is
quieted that tends to be a time when
we’re most creative most of my ideas
come to me when I Drive so if I’m ever
if ever have writer’s block I’ll just go
on a long drive and some my best ideas
come to me during that time interesting
you gotta go for long drives yeah it’s
good you found your process I think for
me and this may be different from a
nonfiction versus fiction I only have
written a nonfiction book I liked having
I kind of what really helped was having
a structure for how is going to break
down the whole book so we know there’s
three main sections to the book and then
I would list out okay what are the main
chapters I have to go into each section
and then what are the key concepts of
each chapter and being able to break
that down on the page by page basis then
I could sit down okay I just need to
write this page i found that super
helpful I don’t know that it applies as
much to fiction I don’t know if if you
already know what you’re going to write
like you have the whole story kind of
find out or part of writing is also the
journey of figuring out what you’re
going to write but at least for me that
really helped so I’m not just for me I
think is also just feeling overwhelmed
that man there’s so much that has to go
into this when I think about all the
pages and all the concepts that are in
my book just it’s a lot of writing like
you can’t just bang it out in a week
it’s at least for my
was a ton of writing and being able to
know like okay I just need to write
those five pages because it fits into
that chapter fits into that section if
it’s into that book made it a lot easier
for me to sit down and do the work our
all are your books nonfiction or fiction
John um through them are polemical
critiques one is a book of satire and
when’s the book of comedy I have found
that um I’m thoroughly enjoying the
process of writing my self-help book
because I can actually sit down and not
really have to wait to be inspired to
rot I can do research and create content
an extra sit down and brainstorm ideas
based on my own observations as far as
what has worked for me and what has not
worked for me most of my books are
extremely creative and funny so most of
them I had to wait to be inspired to
start a chapter or a story cool next up
is kitsune who’s writing my problem is I
start reading a story then I get an idea
for another story and i start work on
that one and this keeps repeating i
guess you can say i can’t commit to one
story so what should she do use that to
your advantage then that is exactly the
way our rats currently I have ideas for
ten books that I’m working on that works
is is keep those ten ideas going and
whichever one it’s done first gets done
first it a lot of content for one try to
focus on getting that one done before
you move on to the others but if you
ever get ideas for any of the books
you’re working on be sure to add that to
the content and you’ll gradually build
up for time whichever one gets done
first gets done first that is um that is
how my mind works and that is process
that I’ve used and abused just flooded
there too if you might be able to if you
know you work best in these short stints
and you know it’s going to kind of come
to a close soon if you could try to
write the whole story like make it super
short make it a three page story or five
page story just try to get the whole
thing out on paper and if that’s all it
is then you just really sad a five-page
short story and if you come back to it
in a week like ah that story you know I
feel like there’s more to it then you
can evolve it to be something bigger but
otherwise you instead of just having a
start of something that I guess it’s
like if you are coming back to it the
maybe but but I’d love to see you get
something out I love to see you get some
momentum to be able to have something
that people can read and so building up
an audience and honing your craft better
so as an experiment I love to see try to
in that short stint finish a story and
then if it’s still kind of hot to a week
or a month or a year later you can
always come back to and turn it into
something much bigger yeah and most most
of the chapters in my book are short and
I think you said that the chapters in
your book you’re a look I your one word
or short is that correct yeah they did
was I hate reading books or then I I
flipped like I still another 20 pages
until the end of this chapter and then I
start to zone out and I hate started
like a comeback in the middle of the
chapter so I designed it on purpose
though it’s basically a page / heading
in the book and then you can easily stop
and start wherever you want I have found
that as an extremely effective way to
write a book because people seem to feel
a sense of accomplishment each time the
chapter and that is one of the reasons
that I write short chapters is a reader
can mark their place but having to use a
bookmark and you know it’s not it’s not
so tedious as in like it like if it’s a
30 page chapter or more you know they
kind of have to slug through it and you
know the one under wonder when it’s
going to end even if it’s
even if it’s interesting so so we’ve
talked a lot about the kind of creation
side of the story in the book for the
people who have it or who are about to
finish it and now they want to move to
the marketing side what advice do you
have to help get that book out there
I’ve discovered the one most effective
techniques to sell a book is through a
whenever someone buys a book asked him
to send you a picture of themselves
holding the book and that that tends to
create a general perception that people
own the book people want the book and
you can get them to smile while holding
the book it it is associative feelings
with that um David G McAfee does this
technique very effectively he uses that
technique to promote his books and he’s
doing a very well for himself so are you
asking people than to like get their
email address or how are you how do you
get the message like if somebody goes to
Amazon and just picked up the book how
do they know to write in and send the
picture to you actually um I’m mostly
talking about that people the people on
Facebook in my own personal life who
have bought the books each time somebody
buys a book for me I always asked if I
can you to picture them with the book
and i’ll post at the Facebook and one
time there’s a guy who wanted to buy my
complete body of work based on just sing
one photos somebody with their book so
so my books in pruner right now so I
can’t actually get you know the pictures
yet but somebody wrote in the chat Zeno
I’ll be sure to send you a picture me
holding your book while smiling Evan
when it comes out so you’re to give me
some tips to to use once the book comes
out um you mentioned in one of your
tendrils amazon tricks tips suggestions
on how to get your book ranked and get
orders for there what do you have to
share for would-be authors or existing
authors about Amazon when the best thing
needs to make sure people can find your
book on Amazon just use buzz words in
your genre for self-help some of the
most popular buzz word
words are law of attraction rich wealth
millionaire is a very good time to use
pretty much any self-help book that has
the word millionaire and it does very
well rules blueprint success principles
um grow think that those are some of the
buzzwords they’re often used in
self-help books the people search for
and if you have those words and your
cattle then when they’re trying to look
up those topics your book will come up
first and they’ll be more likely to buy
your book do you think everybody has a
book on them do you think this is
something everybody should be doing
everybody she read a book or or or know
what I mean this that expression
everybody has a book and them what do
you think about that Christopher
Hitchens has something to say about that
he said everybody might have a book in
them but in most cases that that is
where it should stay however I’m much
more optimistic about that I think that
everybody should write a book it’s one
of the most fulfilling things you can
experience seen your name print knowing
that you have a collection of your ideas
that you have researched and is
something you can be proud of and if
you’re wanting a am ego boost people
tend to think more highly of you if they
if they know you’re an author oh I teach
13 is right and then what are your
favorite books um far is a self help
those I’ve actually written down a 10 so
I can remember them right now my most
favorite book is a thinking bro rich
another book is The Millionaire
messenger which is basically a teacher
to sell your ideas sell your knowledge
and that’s something that I’ve been
working on as a being a life coach
basically does research on
self-improvement I’ve uh then some life
coaching and that is a worked out um
awaken the giant within by Anthony
Robbins is very good some lesser-known
books are the portal pep talk and those
are uh that’s probably about five of my
way laughs little instruction book that
is a collection of this pithy advice
mostly boss is very good some of the
Abbas in the book is kind of personal
kind of a you know tailored to his own
preferences but most mostly Boston that
book is very good at those are five or
six of some of the tough hop moves out
there that have helped me the most I
made a video about my favorite books for
entrepreneurs and the number one for me
is the book called radicals and
visionaries which is out of print but
you might be able take up a copy on eBay
or something uh basically what it was
was stories of famous entrepreneurs in
three to four pages so who they were
what they did and what they had to
overcome and I found that for me as a
especially when I first bought it as an
up-and-coming entrepreneur struggling
entrepreneur I found that really one
motivational to realize that oh you know
Oprah had a hard time when she was
getting started and to the specific
things that they did to become
successful i found interesting to me but
also in like three or four pages so
super easy to digest at that time you
know YouTube wasn’t really a thing and I
think my channel is kind of become that
now I think of sharing the lessons of
famous entrepreneurs and be able to
learn from them but I would basically
read one entrepreneur every day in the
morning just to get some motivation and
excitement because I didn’t have
rest of my family and so I found that
super helpful but I don’t know how
relevant it is to today’s generation
with all the amounts of books out there
and YouTube videos in other ways to get
that inspiration but suit really helped
me the the 4-hour workweek also really
helped me in my kind of planning and
time management I used to pride myself
as being the guy who would answer email
immediately and I got a whole bunch of
little stuff done but didn’t get any of
the big things done and so that just
kind of opened up my eyes in terms of
time management and how to how to plan
my day and that had a lot of big impact
across my business in my life so that
one’s easy to pick up you can go in any
store you can find the 4-hour workweek
um do you have a favorite fiction book
fair fiction book probably not 294 that
was a book I read in high school I’m
just kind of a you know you can idea
we’ll just go from the palm if we you
know don’t before not if we’re not
careful what this world can become and
more or less our society has become more
lock 1984 then a a world was written so
it’s kind of the Amish warning about
with the white things can become if we
allow them to do that George Orwell my
favorites probably three kingdoms it’s a
it’s about the the fall of the Han
Dynasty in China one of the most popular
books in Chinese history that has been
translated to all sorts of different
languages so yeah a lot of less is in
there that I’m kind of um cool so
another question again asked a lot is
about publisher versus self-publishing
what’s the best way to get out there you
know I’ve shared my advice but but what
do you think on that topic woody what
have you done with your books are you
self publish them are you going with a
publisher oh there are bandas and this
man just H if you self-publish you can
have complete control over your
book and exactly what it is you want to
do and the zero amount of what you don’t
want to do if you go through a publisher
sometimes they try to encourage you to
write about things you may not want to
put in your book I have self-published
because I enjoy having more control over
what I say you get more money per book
but the downside the self-publishing is
you have to do all the marketing
yourself I’m actually in the process of
a kind of find a a publishing house for
a my self-help book because I’m going to
get out there and get it and get in as
many hands as possible that process of
being a self-published author in the
marketing side of how you’re getting the
word out about your books like I said
before the picture thing just the word
of mouth friends family posting about it
on Facebook one of the ways i found the
market your book is to create means of
quotes of your book and a link to buy
and to target facebook groups that are
are on the subject of the material of
your book so if you can find like a
niche a niche market that is a Facebook
group pretty much everybody in there you
know is going to respond favorably to
deserve the same mind set a target drone
you know find your target audience for
your book and you can generally generate
a lot of sales that way it’s really
helped me is making sure that I have
consistent content and find a way to
incorporate the book into it so before
starting the book like it took I took
over a year to write the book and I
documented that journey as part of a
youtube series so it’s called Evan’s
book and every week I had a new video
talking about the ups and downs and you
know highs and lows of writing the book
and what I’m going through and how to
work with a major publisher and what
they expect and you know from the point
of view of an author because I hadn’t
seen anybody kind of document that
process so one it was it was educational
for the audience but to it also allows
me to keep building momentum for the
book and so if you’re planning on
writing something you could start now
and creating content around the process
so people start following along and then
when the book is that people will want
to buy it the other thing I’ve been
doing go ahead ask you this um I had
noticed that you didn’t reveal the
tabular book until it was um finished is
that something that you recommend the
most authors is to not put the towel or
your book out there until it’s a
finished I think it depends I don’t know
that there’s one I mean I we’ll see
we’ll see we’ll see how the results play
out curiosity is part of my brain I like
surprising my audience with different
things I like dropping a new video
series and not telling them about it I
like doing you know interviews with
high-profile people I’m not putting the
word out about it I like having a bit of
curiosity as a part of what I’m doing
and so it’s part of who I am part of my
brain it doesn’t necessarily work for
everybody I think if you if if you have
no element of surprise in general and
this is the only thing that you do it
may not I may not play well so yeah I
don’t know I just I wanted to I didn’t
even talk about the not just a title the
content I didn’t talk about the content
of the book either like what it’s about
it and I went 60 weeks of video hoes
over a year of videos every week where I
didn’t talk about what the book was
about and it’s something like a man
should make it work I didn’t run out of
content there’s always something
something from the publisher something I
was doing the whole series itself was an
experiment I didn’t know if it would
last a month or you know if I would give
up on it people were burning shouldn’t
following along with it and then now I
thought okay well not as out the people
still want me to do it like you wanted
convert now that’s start talking about
the marketing side instead of just
production and everybody want to learn
but the marketing side and they want to
bring on my agent and bring on my
publisher and ask them questions too so
it’s been great to carry my audience
along with me and I think if people are
starting to write a book the marketing
for a lot of people were doing the
self-published rude at least what I’ve
heard is they think the book is insanely
hard to write and then I get to the
marketing it’s even harder it’s not
because you if your writer at least you
have the skills to write and you can
control that you wake up every day you
have your schedule and your control it
maybe it still may be hard and that
you’ve got writer’s block and all these
issues that come up but when your
marketing it’s all on you and you may
not have a marketing background they may
have zero interest in marketing you just
want to go off and start now making the
next book so starting the process it’s
not even it is marketing but it’s not
it’s not really selling you just given
people sneak peek behind the scenes of
how you do it what you’re talking about
your process answering questions and
then you’re building up some interest in
the book allows you to talk about the
book every week without it feeling like
it’s a sales message every time so I
found that to be helpful a lot of people
who’ve been watching a series of have
found it interesting for them who you
know their consider about going through
some people follow it just because they
like me and they want to see what I’m up
to and the process in the journey and
maybe my frustrations or whatever it’s a
little more real than like behind the
scenes stuff than the other stuff that I
put out and some of them following
because they generally want to write a
book and want to deal with the publisher
and they’re curious about the process
and what people have to go through on
things that most authors don’t typically
share when they’re going through like my
publisher is not happy with a lot of
content that I talked about but I’m
going to talk about I’m that’s what I do
on my audience right it’s real truth
about what I’m going through and I said
that’s part of the deal like if you want
me to be out there pitching the book and
selling it then I have to talk about
what I’m going through behind the scenes
so I think it works really well for me
and I think it could work well for a lot
of people whether you mention the name
or the content or not at least having
some kind of ongoing series so you’re
starting the marketing before you even
get the book out I found that super
helpful have you have you done any of
that kind of stuff John for your books
um it’s the most part for some of my
books I have included the summit
chapters originally started as articles
how well articles did I decided to
arrange them in order of some of the
best performing articles in the very
front of the book and some of the
articles that still did well but didn’t
do as well as some of the others toward
the end the very first chapter in one of
my books is by far the best and that
that’s a like a like I had said in the
six key parts to sell your book the
first two pages need to hook the hook
the reader and get them to buy so your
first few pages they just need to be
outstanding some Sun your best work to
get them get too nervous in the book
think to making sure that it’s a book
that you really feel passionate about
when I first started the book process my
agent introduced me to literary a trade
and my age was convinced i need a book
like ever need a book is going to open
up doors for you or get you speaking gay
like people take you more seriously and
I honestly felt like I don’t need a book
I got a popular YouTube channel I can
open up doors by myself right now like
the importance I feel of having a book
the client compared to where it may have
been 10 15 20 30 years ago uh and I
didn’t have a topic that I was like I
had a burning passion right about what
you wanted me to go through the process
so the first version of the book was
going to be around mall and success like
my youtube channel sharing the lessons
the top 10 rules or whatever and at the
time I didn’t feel inclined to really
write a book about that and so I was
like really slowly going through the
says and at the time I was discovering
you know my one word and using that and
I was super interested in how it could
apply believe to the rest of my company
and build a movement around it and
that’s when I switch and said guys
here’s the book on the right this is
this is what I want to write this is
this is it i’m so excited and they
didn’t think it was a book they thought
that’s like a worksheet that’s not a
book i said if i’m writing a book it’s
going to be on this so you can you
decide what you want to do and so they
came on board and that became the book
that that then I spent a year plus
writing and so I think it’s important to
match those things of the what’s doing
well and what the market wants with
something that you are super passionate
about and you want to write because
think a lot of people just chase like if
all you did was take if you took John’s
advice earlier and create your own book
about you use of all the buzz words he
suggested you know the millionaire I
figure out the other buzzwords that you
use a millionaire’s today that said
support it like if all you did was right
based on buzzwords and then you’re going
to fail because you don’t you don’t have
an expert opinion on it and you can’t
contribute value to it those are twinks
those are like extra things that you can
add on to make it more appealing
afterwards so it’s making sure that you
you are passionate about the subject
that you’re writing about not just
because it’s trending right now and I
think that was an important lesson for
me and write my book that I could didn’t
do the easy one it did the harder one
that I’ve talked about before I’ve
talked to they’ll believe in my one word
on my channel but if you look at my
channels an outsider you think it’s much
more just about the top ten rules yep I
love it well it’s it’s crazy how quickly
half an hour comes up on us John for
people who want to learn more about you
check out your books follow you see what
the latest thing is you got going on
what’s the best way to reach him the
book of mine that is some the best is
the audiobook version of my comedy book
which is one big joke and 300 shorter
ones on audible that has by far
the best seller on so far it has now
five star rating and congratulations
thank you I appreciate that I’ve I think
that with each book I’ve gotten better
and learned what has worked and what you
know what learned what not to do but
yeah Evan thanks for having me on your
show on your podcast on your channel and
I’ll be sure to send you a free sun copy
of myself up look when it comes out
alright looking forward to it thanks
John for the advice thank you guys for
watching continue to believe I’ll see
you soon thanks
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