Don’t Wait to Write Your Book

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Recently, I had to turn down three lovely authors-to-be for the same mistake.

These authors had all waited until retirement to write their book.

And while that might seem advantageous — you have time, likely an empty nest, and possibly spare cash — it’s actually one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

When I worked for a big publishing house, we all hated it when an author quit their day job to work on their book. Because a job comes with a network. Connections. Avenues for publicity and marketing. People. Readers. Customers.

And a definition of who you are, what your expertise is and why we should listen.

You’re a lawyer. A therapist. A business person. A VP of HR.

Whatever.

But without a job — who are you?

(Obviously, everyone has merit regardless of employment. I’m not talking about your inherent value as a human being here. Also, that’s automatic, IMO.)

When we leave a job or even when we pivot, most of us lose some of our network.

Family and friends tend to stick around, but everybody else?

They lose touch pretty quickly.

Which is why I had to turn those lovely folks down. When I asked, “How do you plan to…