I Broke My Own Book So You Don't Have To: Then I Fixed It (Part 1)

Five Mistakes I Made So You Don't Have To

I wrote a book about pioneers who fix broken systems. Then I started reading other people's books that are still a "work in progress," and watched author after author break their own books in similar ways.

Here is what surprised me. Writing Ahead of Their Time: Pioneers Who Seized Tomorrow, Today taught me more about those mistakes than years of editing other people's manuscripts ever had. This time, the book falling apart on the desk was mine.

Here is an example.

In the introduction, "Seeing What's Already True" (p. v), the book does not say "this book is for leaders and entrepreneurs," because it is not about what they did. It is about how they felt in a specific moment. It goes straight to the reader's internal state:

Right now, something is driving you crazy. A process that wastes time. Something is missing that everyone else ignores. A problem everyone complains about but accepts.

When you recognize that problem, there is nothing left to figure out but whether you relate to the feeling—readers who know instantly that the book is for them.

So if you are deep in a draft right now and something feels off, read this as part one of the map. Four more mistakes are coming. And here is the connection I did not expect. The friction you feel in your draft is the same signal the pioneers in my book learned to trust. It is not proof that your book is bad. It is pointing straight at the fix.

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The first mistake: your book does not know what it is about

Can you say in one sentence what your book is about? If you cannot, then when you hand someone a draft, they will not be able to say what it is about either.

Whether you have ten, fifteen, or twenty-five good chapters, they do not add up to one good book. They add up to ten, fifteen, or twenty-five good chapters.

I learned that the hard way. I wrote stories about thirteen remarkable pioneers, and no spine held them together. The book only became a book when I stopped asking "who are these people" and started asking "what do they all refuse to accept."

What you get when your book tells the reader what it is about: Every chapter pulls in the same direction. A reader can explain your book to a friend after they finish it. That is the moment a book becomes recommendable.

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Underneath all five mistakes is a single promise. The work that fixes them turns a manuscript people compliment into a book people finish, trust, and recommend.

I know, because I needed every one of these fixes on my own pages first.

Curious which of the five is holding your book back? That is exactly what we uncover in a Pioneer Conversation.

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Who am I?

I'm Lynn Miller, a developmental editor, keynote speaker, and author of Ahead of Their Time: Pioneers Who Seized Tomorrow, Today. I enjoy interviewing experts, authors, and leaders on spotting the signal hiding in their frustration and acting before the world is ready. 

After years of translating dense, technical ideas for business audiences who needed them, I now help people whose ideas arrive too early become right on time. I'm invited to keynote leadership conferences, author events, and association meetings, and am fueled by better questions, four-part harmony, and a wicked pickleball serve.