Want to Write a Book? Here's Surprising Advice.

If nobody would disagree with it, it's not a good idea.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Forwarded this email? [Subscribe here]() for more [Want to Write a Book? Here's Surprising Advice.]( If nobody would disagree with it, it's not a good idea. [Ash Ambirge]( Jan 30   [READ IN APP](   One of the best pieces of advice my editor at Penguin ever told me about writing a book were these 7 words: Make 50% of the population hate it. What! Are you screaming into a paper bag?! Are you like, what in the absolute knob fossil, here I am spending all this time painstakingly on Instagram trying to make EVERYBODY LIKE ME, and now the strategy is…make ‘em…not???????? Yes, captain. Yes. And here’s why: Every book needs an idea. Most people, when writing a book, haven’t yet figured out their idea. They know their topic—for example, a book about your travel adventures around Europe—but a topic isn’t an idea. Here’s the difference: Topic: A book about your travel adventures around Europe Idea: A man goes undercover and takes minimum wage jobs in seven countries across Europe to report on what it’s really like for the everyday immigrant. It’s a specific lens. And in the end, we should be able to make an argument: what’s the discovery? The big takeaway? The thing this book is really about??? If, in the end, your argument is that life in Europe isn’t actually sustainable for the people whose labor supports it, you better believe that’s going to make 50% of the population mad. And therein, we find a book worth reading. We want books that make us think. And this, dear lovely, is the real key to getting an agent’s attention—and subsequently a book deal at a publishing house, too. Here’s another example: Topic: A book about everyone’s favorite food, bread Idea: A woman visits the countries that consume the most bread—Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, The Netherlands, France, and Germany—and examines the different ways this household staple has shaped everyday life for us all. Now, in both of these made-up examples I have you gallivanting across the globe, AND YOU OBVIOUSLY DO NOT NEED TO DO THAT FOR A BOOK DEAL. 😂 However, I thought these examples might be most relatable, because who, um, wouldn’t love to go abroad on a professional mission to eat bread????? Maybe this is a more realistic example. (Harumph.) Topic: A coming-of-age book about growing up in New York City Idea: A New York City writer examines her deepest failures in life, and how each one ultimately led to big success See how I’m viewing a topic through a specific lens in each one of these examples? That last example, by the way, happens to describe the actual book of my actual biz bestie, Laura. Her book is called, hilariously, [Tough Titties](. And even though her book is a collection of essays????? It still makes an argument: that it’s okay to be a late bloomer. In the book, she takes aim at hustle culture and the dipshittery that is giving 110% at all times, for everyone—and the subtitle is, brilliantly: “On Living Your Best Life When You’re the F-ing Worst.” That’s the lens, being the worst. All the failures. And how it can all add up to something BIG—even if it’s on a different timeline than you’d imagined. Her book did SUPER well, getting shout-outs from Kelly Ripa on national TV and getting tons of press and being a Goodreads finalist, and what made this great was…it wasn’t a traditional non-fiction book. She insisted on not writing a traditional self-help book. She wanted to write a book of essays, and still have it sell MEAT TONS. And, she pulled it off! Which brings me to a *very* fun announcement: Laura’s giving a [LIVE book how-to workshop tomorrow, January 31st, and Thursday, February 1st]( (affiliate link), pulling back the curtain to reveal exactly how she got her big, fat, Hachette book deal as a first-time author, and showing you her entire super secret book launch + sales strategy she used to become a bestseller from scratch. Workshop participants will also get all of the materials in one giant, downloadable, easy-to-reference kit, including actual copies of actual emails and sales pages and strategies and behind-the-scenes book magic. (You can even get a copy of her winning book proposal + her agent query letter—worth the price of admission alone.) If you’re even marginally thinking about writing a book and wish and hope and pray that an agent would want to represent you and get it published… Or if you’re someone who wants to add “book marketing” to your repertoire and help clients with this in the future… Or you’re a copywriter who’s dying to see the real behind-the-scenes emails of every single successful promo she sent during her book launch (and exactly how she did it)… Or if you’re just a creepy voyeur in the BEST way… Then do [buy her workshop]( if only so you can download her kit full of all of this top-secret info and then run off into the sunset. (Also, there will be recordings of the live portions if you can’t make it.) [Give Me Super Secret Book Magic!]( ANDDDDD—drum roll—I have a bonus surprise. 🥳 I told Laura that I would also gift any of my Middle Finger Project readers MY $200,000 book deal debrief from when I wrote The Middle Finger Project book with Penguin Random House, to anyone of my readers that signs up for the workshop through me…100% free. Yup, I made a whole course on it! There are audio debriefs, transcripts, and downloadable playbooks detailing my own book deal + launch. Inside, we talk allllll about the money, advances, how it all works, the things no one realizes (!!!), real advice my agent + editor gave me, how to think like a publisher, and my best advice on how to position your book for a sale. (Like the “topic vs idea” stuff we talked about above.) If you sign up for [Laura’s bangin’ book workshop + downloadable book kit]( you’ll get my course absolutely free. (I’ll be sending it out to participants once her live workshops are over on February 2nd.) Fun? FUN. You’ll get the behind-the-scenes REAL scoop from two (terribly funny and totally irresistible, at least in our dreams) authors who wrote two irreverent books with two of the big-five publishing houses, Penguin & Hachette. Her workshop. And mine. All for the price of one. Let’s go team! To writing books from wherever you are in the world and turning it into an awesome income that makes you happy. ⚡️ [Give Me Super Secret Book Magic!]( (Note: As an affiliate partner for Laura, I’ll receive a commission if you choose to sign up, which enables me to gift you my course for free.) See you there!!!! Ash You’re currently a free subscriber to The Middle Finger Project with Ash Ambirge. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. [Upgrade to paid](   [Like]( [Comment]( [Restack](   © 2024 Ash Ambirge 177 Huntington Ave Ste 1703, PMB 64502 Boston, Massachusetts 02115 [Unsubscribe]() [Get the app]( writing]()