I’ve been struggling personally with writing a book and I felt it might be your personal challenge too.

Writing a book has lots of advantages. Key amongst this is placing you as a thought leader in your field. And if you’ve been following this blog, you’ll discover the direction we’ve been going:

Helping those who love their career create a niche for themselves in that career.

And if this is your goal, because it’s mine too, then I think you’ll need to write books as one way to share your insight and establish your presence.

So, what has Derek Doepker got to say about why authors fail?

Struggling Authors Don’t See the Big Picture From the Start. Why are you writing? What topic do you want to write on? Have you done your research?

Struggling Authors Get Themselves Habitually Distracted. One of my valley zones! I’ve discovered that if you don’t block time to write, it’ll be difficult to accomplish a blog post let alone a book.

Struggling Authors Believe Passion is all it Takes. Writing is bigger than passion. Derek prescribed these: identify the skills you need to develop, practise those skills until you become proficient, identify which skills you can delegate to others and find, hire & manage others with skills that can complete the task.

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Related:

• 7 Blogs Every Author Should Follow.
• Do Authors Really Need a Blog?
• Why You Should Start a Blog Even if You’re not a Writer.

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Struggling Authors Worry About Perfection. I’m getting off this gradually. In fact, if you’ve been following, you’d have seen some errors here too. That’s not to say I don’t try to correct them. Yet, I know that perfection comes from action not waiting.

Struggling Authors Lack Accountability. Everyone is busy. No one wants to complement. Yet, we’ve forgotten that one will chase a thousand but two ten thousand.

Struggling Authors Don’t Know Their Audience. I’m breaking away from this too. And that’s why I’d advice you get to create online platforms to begin to connect with those you want to write for. Try to have physical contact with them too. It helps. You can check this Why Publishers Want Authors With Platforms.

Struggling Authors Don’t Follow Proven Formulas. Another hitch! But be careful. Following a formula does not mean you can’t alter it. It means having a good plan to start with while you can adjust as you proceed.

Struggling Authors Worry Too Much About People Pleasing. There should be a balance between knowing your audience and trying to please everyone. You need to know that every book will be criticized.

Struggling Authors Don’t Deliver Ongoing Value. Hmmm… This is important too. If you want to be a good author, it’s not a one off thing. No. It is not… Start using your Whatsapp to offer value. What about your Facebook page? IG account? Twitter?

Struggling Authors Don’t Innovate. What are you going to do to make your book different? What element will you add to make it more exciting? That can include a quiz in each chapter or a game or a teaser or something… Imitation + Creation = Innovation.

Struggling Authors Don’t Utilize Their Greatest Resources. I was blown off when I saw this… Gush!!! Your greatest resources are fellow writers like you. See what the author said about this one:

Struggling Authors see other authors and authorities as competitors. Successful authors see them as companions.

I’ll stop here. The book contains at least 17 points. To get the real deal off it, you can get a hard copy here or send me a message to get the soft copy.

For me, the one that remains hot is this: authors fail because they refuse to start writing daily.