Personal Development for Smart People
May 10th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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Since I’ve mentioned that I’m working on a book, I might as well post something about it here so I don’t have to keep answering emails about it. 
My tentative working title is Personal Development for Smart PeopleTM. It’s a book about personal development which covers personal productivity, courage, drive, motivation, purpose, skill-building, focus, time management, realtionships, and related topics. There’s certainly some overlap with what’s I’ve previously written in this blog or my articles, but it’s fairly low. I’d guess about 20-30% for the topical overlap, but even where there is some overlap, the book goes into greater detail. I don’t plan to reuse any previous articles or blog text verbatim.
I’m writing this book from a perspective that runs contrary to the way most books in this field are written. I’m not doing the hyped up rah-rah thing, where after reading you feel motivated enough to go out and do nothing with a smile on your face. The whole first chapter is about facing the reality of our inherent limits as a human beings and then figuring out what we can reasonably do within the scope of those limits, including the limit of mortality. I’m doing my best to keep a healthy balance between pushing the reader to grow on the one hand while also being extremely realistic on the other hand. So the book is written from a pragmatic common sense perspective, not a new agey or emotional style. I think it’s the kind of book where reading it cover to cover will be enough to induce a mind-shift that will get you thinking about life differently, wanting to make some changes instead of merely feeling good about your current situation. I made a conscious decision to write a book like this, partly because it suits my style and partly because there’s a glaring market gap for this kind of book. Many people are jaded about self-help books with good reason — too many of those books are fluffy nonsense with very little substance, or they’re very dry and clinical and impractical. My favorite marketing strategy is to look at what everyone else is doing and then do the opposite, but this of course can only be done with integrity if you actually believe the opposite is better. That’s why I like the idea of using the phrase “for Smart People” in the title — it positions the other books in this field as being “for Dummies” or “for Complete Idiots.” Personally I’d rather have a lot of smart people as customers than a lot of dummies — this worked very well for my logic puzzle games business. Smart customers are more demanding, but they’re usually a pleasure to support because they’re more capable.
I expect some people will really hate this book, meaning that they’ll vehemently disagree with it. It’s not likely to be popular among the Zen go-with-the-flow-lazy-way-to-success devotees. But hopefully enough people like that will find out about it and sneeze their disgust across the internet.
Don’t you just love marketing?
It’s hard to tell when the book will be ready because I don’t know how long the editing will take. I’m not a perfectionist, but I am picky about quality, and since this book could still be selling in 2015, it’s worthwhile to do a good job. (I’m still selling PC games I wrote back in 1995-96). As far as the writing is concerned… the research and detailed outlining are done (which took me about a month), and I’m roughly 10% into writing the first draft (I’m almost done with two chapters now). I think as I hit my stride, I’ll be able to crank out about a chapter a week, so my expectation is to have the first draft done near the end of June. Between speed and quality, quality is the more important to me, so I’m willing to take longer if it’s warranted.
My current plan is to self-publish the book, first as an ebook, then with a printed version to follow soon afterwards. The ebook can sell directly through this site as a downloadable PDF, so once that’s released I’ll be working on the print version. The text will be the same, but the print version requires extra work like cover art and of course the actual printing.
My wife is a self-published author, and her book is listed on Amazon.com and sold through several distributors including Baker & Taylor. Sometimes she receives orders for 50 books at a time. She also sells direct through her web site, which is where most of her profit comes from. She’s working on her second book now. So thanks to her, I have access to all the know-how needed to self-publish the book and get it distributed. Plus I’ve been self-publishing computer games for many years, so I’m already experienced with a similar business model.
If the book does well via self-publishing, I might later approach agents and publishers to see if they can do better than me. But there’s a good chance they won’t be able to match what I can sell directly because they’d have to sell 10-20x as many copies for me to make the same profit. Most likely the book will retail for $15-20. Some publishers could certainly sell many copies, but will they put much marketing effort behind a first-time author? If book publishing is anything like game publishing, that’s highly unlikely. My wife found a publisher interested in her book after she’d already been self-publishing for a few years, but they couldn’t even match what she was already selling direct. They figured they could sell more copies, but the royalties they could offer made the bottom line too much weaker than self-publishing.
I know that self-publishing works, and I know how to do it, so self-publishing is much lower risk for me than going with a publisher. The only way I’d consider going with a publisher out of the gate would be with a sizeable advance. And I can’t see that being too likely. But if you happen to be a publisher or agent who’s just dying for a pragmatic, intelligent book on personal development written by someone who’s read about 600 other books in this field, let me know.
When the book is released, I’ll certainly announce it here, and I’ll probably offer a discount or some kind of bonus for newsletter subscribers.
I must say that writing this book is very challenging. As I’ve gotten further into the project, I now have a clearer understanding why there aren’t many books like this. In order to write such a book, I have to come up with an integrated philosophy of personal development, answering questions like, “What’s the connection between self-discipline and motivation?” or “What does it mean for a personal relationship to be productive? Does it even make sense to ask that question?” When I put all the little details down on paper, I have to back up and synthesize them into a global picture. So writing this book is becoming a massive growth experience for me because I’m taking all the stuff that I think I’ve figured out and looking at it in new ways. I’m forming a lot of new neural connections and scrambling a lot of old ones as I write. So this isn’t as simple as doing a core dump or regurgitating research; if that’s all it took I could crank out the first draft in 30 days. The nice thing though is that I’m coming up with new ideas that I’ve never tried before, so even as I write, I’m applying some of these ideas to the process of writing the book itself. How’s that for going full circle? In other words, the output of ideas is being fed back into the process of generating those ideas. It’s like being a tree that waters itself, where the more it grows, the more it rains on its own roots.
Now I’m anxious to finish the book, so I can read it too.
May 10th, 2005 at 3:34 pm
Is this going to be different than a Tony Robbins book?
May 10th, 2005 at 3:39 pm
Very.
May 10th, 2005 at 6:31 pm
I’m really glad to hear about this. I started reading your articles from over at Dexterity, when you were still in the shareware business. I think it was very obvious then that you both had a talent for writing and communicating with the general public. I’ve read all of your articles here and follow your blog religiously. Which has to be saying something because I don’t read anybody else’s.
While some self-help books are preachy, unrealistic views that don’t work except in a perfect world, I’ve found that most of your blog entries have commonsensical advice that everyone can apply to their lives. I can’t begin to say how much I have learned from reading your articles and blog entries, and I can’t wait until I can read an entire book of it!
I wish you a world of success and you can be sure I will buy your book as soon as you’ve finished it! Good Luck!
May 10th, 2005 at 6:33 pm
Reserve a copy of your “book in progress” for me. It sounds like you are onto something big. I strongly agree that you have found a product to fill a market gap. Sounds like a “no nonsense guide to self evolution” with powerful lessons and introspectives. I would like a signed copy. If the book’s content is half as valuable as your blog content, your pricing should be between $9.99 and $14.95. ….and if you’re not already considering going in this direction…. you should “stretch” the material into a video/cd series and package it like a Tony Robins series. Good luck bud!
May 10th, 2005 at 7:05 pm
I can’t wait to read it. Sounds like just what I need. I hope you mention waking in the mornings, or how to do so…..I’m not very good at it.
Thanks Steve!
May 10th, 2005 at 7:13 pm
If the book does well, I plan to make an audio program from the same content as well as turning parts of it into some speeches. In fact, I’ll be giving a speech in a couple weeks based on some of the (evolving) content. The greatest amount of work is creating the initial content. After that it can be packaged in different forms like audio or video or live speeches. I personally like audio content because then I can listen to it on my iPOD Shuffle when I go running.
May 10th, 2005 at 9:39 pm
Wow,really glad to hear about that.Though its price is a little higher for your Chinese fans,I will save money for your book:-p
May 10th, 2005 at 10:16 pm
I cannot wait for this book to come out! Now you have me all excited!
Your stuff is truly wonderfull, and I cannot wait to get a books worth of it. Can I pre-order now?
May 11th, 2005 at 3:01 am
Is it possible that different technics work for different people. I think Tony Robbins has some good stuff and it seems to work for him. But not everyone that comes in contact with it seems to be affected in the same way. Perhaps each of us needs a different technic.
May 11th, 2005 at 4:28 am
I’m not planning to do pre-orders. I think that’s more trouble than it’s worth.
May 11th, 2005 at 6:37 am
Well at least if its an e-book there won’t be any worries about the book going out of stock.
And how do you sign an e-book anyways…
May 11th, 2005 at 8:25 am
I started reading your articles from Dexterity as well and have found them to be both very inspiring and encouraging. Inspiring because you’ve personally “tried and tested” what you suggested and come out victorious. Encouraging because you’ve acknowledged the common problems and internal, mental and often times, “spiritual” struggle that most of us go through and have overcame and “lived” to tell it all.
As with the rest, I can’t wait to get a hold on your book. Your writings have the common sense, down-to-earth approach of Dr. Robert H. Schuller that I’ve identified very well with.
Stay focused on what you believe. I’ll be waiting for the book.
May 11th, 2005 at 8:51 am
self-publishing is the only way to go.
i found the following book extremely helpful in this regard:
para publishing main website:
http://www.parapublishing.com/
more direct link for self publishing info:
http://www.parapublishing.com/getpage.cfm?file=/homepage.html&user=#user
May 11th, 2005 at 9:13 am
I already know about Dan Poynter’s site and have two of his books: Writing Nonfiction and The Self-Publishing Manual. My wife also went to a workshop from him before self-publishing her own book. She followed his plan step by step — it works.
I like his recommendations for how to write a book (i.e. the process). I’ve created a book binder with a mock cover page and spine, and when I finish some new text, I print it out and add it to the binder. This helps me see the book becoming real as something physical I’m constructing. And I also find it easy to grab the binder, re-read previous text, and make editing notes in the margins. I can even do that while watching the kids.
May 12th, 2005 at 12:06 am
Just to please an old aesthete: who’s doing the layout?
I’ve seen a number of self-published books, and even if the content was good, form was often so dreadful that I couldn’t finish reading it.
May 12th, 2005 at 4:19 am
What was it about the layout of other self-published books you disliked?
I worked out the basic layout (fonts, spacing, styles, section heading, quotes, etc.) before I started writing, so the book is being written in that layout as I go along. My initial formatting is for the ebook, so I’ll need to reformat the content for the printed version. I’m aiming to keep the layout clean and simple. Usability and clarity is more important to me than beauty. So I’m not going to pad the book with cutesy images like some books do (cough, cough, The 8th Habit).
May 12th, 2005 at 6:52 am
Most of ‘em had no concept of space: big blocks of black dominate the page. Mostly they were written in Word, which has abysmal defaults for line and character spacing, justification, line length, paragraph and page setups, and so on. WordPerfect was, and is, a lot better in that respect. Fonts… don’t talk to me about fonts. :,-
May 12th, 2005 at 10:25 am
I’ve done a lot of tweaking to the defaults already. The font I’m using right now for the ebook text is Bookman Old Style 11 pt (I expect most people would print the book out instead of reading it on the screen), but I’m not sure I’ll keep it for the final version. Do you happen to know of any books or web sites which provide intelligent layout suggestions? I’ve found only a little information on this so far, such as in Dan Poynter’s books. I’ve also seen books that needed work in this area. I modeled my choices thus far after other books that I found to be well presented.
May 13th, 2005 at 12:12 am
I’d definitely use a different typeface for the eBook than Bookman; it loses most of the detail should people decide *not* to print it out.
Right now I’m enamoured with the Gill Sans, although Sassoon or Bell Centennial work well, too. For print I often use Goudy Old style or Garamond if it’s going to be a good print. But most of this depends on what kind of message you wish to get across.
As for books: take a look at The Elements of Graphic Design: Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and Type by Alexander W. White or Basics of Design: Layout and Typography for Beginners by Lisa Graham; more books can be found at http://www.fontmenu.com/site/books.html.
Some websites:
http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
http://e-books.org/index.html
http://www.will-harris.com/index.html (check the Esperfonto feature!)
Maybe you should take a look at this page, too:
http://www.ebook-designer.com/design-faq.html
Hope this helps!
May 13th, 2005 at 4:30 am
Thanks for the resources, Bert! I shall definitely check them out.
May 13th, 2005 at 6:54 am
You’re welcome.
June 2nd, 2005 at 7:13 am
Good for you Steve
June 2nd, 2005 at 1:21 pm
Printing an in-progress book or novel out as you go in a pre-publishing mock-up is a brilliant idea. Thank you for sharing.