Episode Summary
Writing a book seems like a daunting task, and it definitely requires a lot of hard work and patience. But the sooner you start writing, the better you’ll eventually become.
In this episode of the Content Logistics podcast, our host Camille Trent welcomes Diego Pineda, an author and a content marketing manager at Dooly. Diego is also a published author with a rich portfolio of fiction and nonfiction books. Camille and Diego chat about why you need to write about frameworks, not ideas; testing your ideas online; and the importance of gaining insight into your audience.
Guest Profile
- Name: Diego Pineda
- What he does: He's an author and a content marketing manager at Dooly.
- Company: Dooly
- Noteworthy: Diego is a successful author. He’s published two novels, nine nonfiction books, and hundreds of articles and blogs as a science writer, a business writer, and a sales and marketing writer.
Key Insights
- Write books about frameworks, not ideas. According to Diego, you shouldn't write about ideas. Instead, write about frameworks. He explains, "You mentioned that some books could have been a blog, and the problem with that is that somebody had an idea and said, ‘Oh, maybe I can write a book about this idea,’ but you shouldn't write books about ideas. You should write books about frameworks, especially nonfiction. If you have an idea for a story, yeah, you can tell a story. It can be a novel or a short-form novel, or stories. But if you're going to write a nonfiction book and a business book, I would recommend starting with a framework. And a framework is a series of steps where someone has to go from A to B — so, a problem and a solution."
- Find, research, analyze, map, and explain. Diego shares a useful framework for writing books. It's called FRAME. He says, "You have to find, you have to research, you have to analyze, you have to map it out, and then you have to explain it. And the questions that you ask are, 'What's an old way that people are doing things that they need to have a mindset shift to a new way of solving their problems? Or, 'What are the mistakes that people are making that are perpetuating their problems and not allowing them to find a solution?' Or, 'What are the steps that people need to follow to actually get to the place they want to?'"
- Write as much as possible. Practice is the only way to become a skilled writer. Diego says, "If you're just starting out, maybe don't start by writing a book, write blog posts, write LinkedIn posts, and see what resonates. So you just test your ideas with your audience, and you'll find out if people say, 'Yes, we agree,' or they'll give you feedback, and you'll refine your ideas. And when you get all the feedback from your audience on social media, then you can expand those into articles. And then that's going to make you think about that topic a little bit deeper. You expand on it; you also get feedback from it. And once you think you're ready, turn that blog post into a book chapter."
Episode Highlights
Set a goal for your book
“You have to establish the goal that you have with your book. And I think, for business owners, of course, you want to promote your company and tell your story. But if you sell the solution for the market, I think it’s more credible than just saying, ‘Hey, buy this.'”
Question everything
“Sometimes what thought leaders do is they have to question everything. And I’ll give you an example. You take a best practice or a dogma in your industry, and you ask in what cases or what scenarios this would not be true. And let’s say one of the dogmas we have in sales and marketing is you have to be customer-centric, and I asked myself once, ‘Is there a moment, or is there a case when I shouldn’t be customer-centric?’ […] Those are ways to come up with new ideas and frameworks. It’s just trying to question everything and looking at what works and what doesn’t work and new solutions for the problems that your customers have.”
Test your ideas
“By the end of the day, you know if your book is going to resonate with people or not because you’ve already been testing your ideas, and the people who have given you feedback know what you’re working on, they know what you are talking about — your framework. And when your book comes out, they’re going to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to buy it,’ or, ‘I’m going to promote it because I know that your ideas are good.’ So it’s part of just building in public, doing marketing before you actually launch the product, and also creating new followership.”
There’s no right time for writing a book
“That’s the question of the chicken and the egg. So what comes first? And I think you can do it both ways. You can have a business, and then you write a book, and people help you promote the business, or you can write a book and build a business from the ideas in your book. And I would say that you can do it both ways.”
Just go for it
“There’s nothing to lose if you just start writing a book. I think we are just stuck in our minds, and I would tell people I wrote my first book when I was 15, and I was clueless. So if a clueless 15-year-old could do it, you probably can.”
