Book Review - Authority
Name
Authority: Become an Expert, Build a Following, and Gain Financial Independence
Author
Nathan Barry from http://nathanbarry.com/
Amazon Link
Rating
4/5
Why I Read It
I plan on writing a book at some point in my life, so I figured I should start reading about the topic.
Description
Authority is a pretty straight forward and easy-to-read book about writing and self-publishing your own book. It contains all the distilled knowledge of the author laid out in a simple step-by-step guide.This can be very helpful if you want to write your first book and have no idea how to do it (like myself).
In this book the author explains the details of his own writing process in a very thorough way. It contains all the reasoning behind every decision the author makes, which helps the reader understand the actual work behind self publishing from first hand experience. This book will help you with: marketing, the process of writing the book, pricing, packaging, formatting, launching and building a sales page.
I liked the fact that it’s full of tips that one doesn’t consider at first when thinking of writing a book. Things like: “build an audience first” or “charge a higher price but deliver value accordingly”. They’re the kind of tips that make perfect sense once explained to you, but that you usually just don’t think about.
The only thing I missed from Authority was a more complete guide on how to define the topic of one’s book. Although there is a section about it, it’s very short and doesn’t provide a step-by-step process one could easily follow, like the ones presented in the other sections of the book.
Who Is It For
It’s pretty much for anyone who wants to self-publish a book, specially if it’s the first one.
If you aren’t sure whether you should write a book and need to be convinced, it’s for you. If you don’t know how to build a following, it’s for you. If you don’t know how to get started with the writing process, it’s for you. If you don’t know the steps you should follow to promote your book, it’s for you.
Favorite Lesson Learned
My favorite section of this book is the one where the author describes how he designed the covers of the three books he has written. It’s great how he divides the process into very simple steps.
I liked this because, being a non-designer myself, I had always seen designing as a complicated process, and this book helped me realize it doesn’t have to be that way.
I guess that section exemplifies very well the way the book teaches its topics: by separating complex processes into simple steps that are easy to understand and follow.
Favorite Quote
“My only regret is that I didn’t learn this simple lesson earlier: teach everything you know”
Length
192 Pages
