The book that makes me jealous, and why it motivates me
I was perusing the books at Helsinki airport yesterday.
The smell of paperbacks soothed my soul. Bookshops have always been my little happy place.
And then I saw it.
My heart rate jumped.
I began to sweat.
The book sat there smugly, taking up an entire top row.
‘Atomic Habits.’
Bazillions of weeks in the top ten.
Kajillions of copies sold.
If there’s one book that continually makes me jealous, it’s this one.
This book contains one simple idea that anyone could have come up with.
But he did it.
And he delivered it simply.
I did not.
And that’s the way it is.
My passion is writing books. But I held back for years because I was worried there was no point.
AI is spitting out crap.
Everyone’s glued to YouTube. Attention spans are rotting.
Although Atomic Habits makes me want to punch a cushion, it also comforts me:
People are still reading books.
Last year alone, over 750 million printed books were sold in the US and UK combined. That’s not counting eBooks, audiobooks, or the millions of titles passed around in libraries, schools, and second-hand shops.
As long as the idea is solid and it solves a real problem.
Most books do not.
Flying into Warsaw, thousands of houses spread below, each one with potential readers inside.
The world is enormous. People have problems.
Your book could solve one.
The other cool, hugely overlooked point is that AI can take your book and turn it into videos, an audio, a newsletter or a set of articles.
It’s not the medium that’s the issue.
It’s that most people don’t know how to package a good idea clearly.
If you know how to solve someone’s problems clearly, as Atomic Habits does so well, you can create whatever you want to create.
This is the Golden Age of creative output. Never before have ideas had so many ways to spread.
So get writing.
By the way, promoting a book without an audience is an uphill battle.
If you want to skip years of trial and error, my Online Writing Alchemy course distils everything I’ve learned into 16 proven writing secrets to help you attract a loyal audience fast...
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If you’ve been sitting on a book idea, now’s the time. This course will give you the readership to make it worthwhile.
Alex
P.S. Want to write a book? Say “ME” in the comments.
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