I Started Writing my Next Book

Originally published

My last book, HTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide came out about 5 years ago, in August 2020.

It was a book I signed pre-pandemic after pitching a different, WordPress book. I’m very grateful my publisher pitched this one instead, as it’s yielded my first book royalty checks.

That was before I fully switched niches. Actually, I was mid-switch when the book came out, which is not a great position to be in when you’re supposed to be promoting a book.

The funny thing about writing a book is that your last one is always your last one…until it’s not.

There’s some recovery period (for me at least) after writing a highly technical book, where one swears off writing another book.

Then the next idea strikes, and you catch the writing bug again.

My Next Three Ideas

In my case, I had 2-3 ideas between the VQS and today. They were mostly about podcasting since I decided that would be my next niche. I actually fleshed out an outline for the next book in November 2021 about how to launch and monetize a podcast.

It was set to be a compendium for the independent podcaster. But it never went anywhere because I didn’t feel like it was unique enough.

I didn’t think that idea stood out.

Then I decided to pivot to a more niched down topic — podcast workflows. I’d have mindset, and the “how-to” of creating workflows, along with deeply researched workflows of popular podcasts. You can actually find these Deep Dives on Streamlined Podcaster.

That still didn’t feel right though; I was worried I was just turning blog posts into a book instead of offering a transformation. So I considered going broader, to automations and workflows in general…or maybe just automations and workflows for solopreneurs.

That didn’t grab me either. So I decided to table the book for a while, until inspiration struck.

Inspiration Finally Struck

Two posts on LinkedIn actually lead me to restart the writing process. One was a reminder, and one exacerbated something that had been festering under the surface for a while.

The first was a post my friend Terri surfaced by Jason Fried of 37signals, that said this:

Whenever it feels like it’s time to write another book, I start by writing the intro.

Now, I think the 37signals guys are way too high on their own supply, but it’s hard to deny that they’ve built something different, and that their approach is different.

The other was from Alex Hormozi, who once again posted that to be successful, you need to basically stop talking to other people because they are a distraction from the ultimate goal of making money.

This is toxic drivel, and I think it’s truly dangerous to be espousing. It’s the perfect recipe for burnout, and isolation.

I felt compelled to write the intro to my next book, and I knew it would be the antithesis of hustle culture. About how you can be a present parent and run a successful business.

But it wasn’t actually until earlier this week that I fully fleshed out a concept, and it was thanks to Claude.

Writing Useful Books

Because every book I’ve written has some sort of code/technical aspect, my concern is that I don’t actually know how to write a book that appeals to a broader audience. So I decided to seek some help.

Last year I read Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick, and it was — and I can’t state this clearly enough — incredibly true to its word. Here’s my review on Goodreads:

It’s a perfect example of Rob telling AND showing by writing a useful book. I can’t wait to get started on my next one.

So I read, highlighted a lot, took a lot of notes, and promptly set them aside…until Sunday night.

I decided to finally start on my next idea: a book to show solopreneur parents that they don’t need hustle culture to be successful.

I dug up the notes (easy to do thanks to Readwise) and fed them into Claude to help me coach through the idea.

How I Turned Claude into my Book Coach

Along with the highlights and notes, I started a new project. Here’s the instructions:

I'm working on my next book, and the goal is to help busy solopreneur parents build systems so they're not chained to their desks. 

I've written 5 books, all technical. This will be different. 

I want this to be more classically a business book — though I do want it to be useful. 

 I'd like you to approach this from a "coach" or "editor" POV where you're not just agreeing with me. Question me, present different POVs, and try to poke holes and/or add to what I've put. You don't have to do this endlessly (I fear we'd be stuck in a feedback loop for eternity); maybe 3-4 volleys before moving on.

Here's what I put as the goal of the book: 

I think I finally have the idea for my next book. I want to call it something like ***How to Have a Business Without Being Chained to Your Desk*** or ***How to Have a Business Without Being Married to Your Screen***. 
And it'll still really focus on systems and automation and delegation, but the appeal to everyone angle will be you can disconnect without feeling like your business is going to crumble. 
And here's how to do it and here's how I do it. That will be the thesis. I'll have to find supporting stories, but I think that's what I'm aiming for.
It will be the anti hustle culture anthem. The manual for parents who want to run a business without the business running them.

I've also attached my first draft introduction so you can get an idea of how I write and how I'm setting up the book. It's in Introduction.pdf

I think the crucial part here is this instruction:

I’d like you to approach this from a “coach” or “editor” POV where you’re not just agreeing with me. Question me, present different POVs, and try to poke holes and/or add to what I’ve put. You don’t have to do this endlessly (I fear we’d be stuck in a feedback loop for eternity); maybe 3-4 volleys before moving on.

Since most AI can be overly friendly and agreeable, I wanted to make sure it pushed back on me — almost to the point of frustration. But it worked out super well.

Then I started a chat with this prompt:

I’ve provided highlights from the book “Write Useful Books.” I’d like to use this to help flesh out my goals and target audience. Please generate pointed questions for me to answer about the book, then we can refine them.

From there, Claude came up with 11 questions based on the book, and we went back and forth for a while figuring out the right positioning, the proper goal, and much more.

My Next Book is About Confidence and Permission

If you sign up below, you can see the full conversation (plus get the intro to my book), but here’s the gist of the book:

  • Audience: Solopreneur parents who feel trapped by their business
  • Promise: Confidence to step away without everything falling apart
  • Success metric: Readers who can confidently take extended time away from their business to spend it with their family.

The biggest shift that Claude helped with with was moving from “How to build systems” to “How to build confidence through systems”

So that’s what I’m writing about. I’ll be sharing more about the journey here and on my mailing list. Be sure to sign up to get the Claude conversation and first intro!