Suggestions for my next book?

[Savage]

Hay House recently expressed interest in a second book from me. I loved working with them on the first book, so I'm definitely up for this. If I start on it soon, the release date will likely be around a year from now.

I'm considering a variety of ideas for topics. Hay House is the #1 self-help publisher in the world, but they also publish business books. However, they recommended I write another book in the self-help genre to build upon the audience for Personal Development for Smart People. Otherwise it's like starting over as a first-time author because they'll be working with different buyers.

Some of the topics I'm considering are:

• Time Management & Productivity - This book would cover personal productivity from the level of life purpose (doing the right thing) all the way down to systems, habits, and daily actions (doing things right). This is a crowded field with well-established experts like David Allen, so I wouldn't want to put a new spin on other people's ideas or merely create an alternate expression of Getting Things Done or Covey's First Things First. PDSP is very unique in its field, so if I write a time management book, I'd want it to be equally unique and insightful. That won't be easy, but it seems like a fun challenge. I obviously have some credibility here due to my productivity articles and my high-speed college experience, so this book could do fairly well commercially. This topic appeals to me, and I've been getting a lot of synchronicities about it, so I feel like I'm being nudged in this direction.
• Polarity - This is a tough topic to cover in my blog because I just can't get into it with sufficient depth in an article or series of articles. I'd need to write a whole book on it to do it justice. The problem is that since most people aren't polarized, I'm not sure this book would have very wide appeal. I'm sure it would be a very original work with lots of interesting insights, but it could be a commercial flop. I'd love to write a whole book on this subject someday though, but the timing may not be right just yet. Although polarity has been an enormously important concept for me personally, many people seem to have a hard time grasping it.
• Subjective Reality - Like polarity this is another topic that needs a whole book to do it justice. I'm sure it would be a fascinating read, but it could also be a commercial flop. It's not the sort of topic people would automatically search for.
• Conscious Business - I like the idea of writing a book on conscious business, explaining how to run a profitable small business where the primary aim is creating value, not maximizing revenue. But since I've only run this business for 4 years, it might be premature to tackle this now. Also, this book would go in the business section, not the self-help section, which means Hay House would have to start over with different buyers. That would put the book at a commercial disadvantage.
• Blogging - People often ask me to write about blogging, but since blogging is my medium, not my message, this topic has little appeal to me. Also, it wouldn't make sense for Hay House to publish a book of this nature, and it wouldn't be able to leverage the readership that PDSP establishes. So I'd rather stick with the self-help field.

What are your thoughts? Do any of these ideas appeal to you? If you could dictate the subject of my next book, what would it be?

[Angela]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

If you could dictate the subject of my next book, what would it be?

It would be all about me, and how much you like me.

What subject is lighting you up right now, Steve? What is your greatest passion at the moment? Maybe you should talk about each of these subjects you've listed face-to-face with Erin, maybe even let her videotape you talking about them, and she can tell you what she sees, physiologically and intuitively, as you express yourself about each one.

[supertom]

I think you all ready made your mind up

for meConscious Business hands down, like think and grow rich was out during the depression, when this book is going to be released theres going to be interest in it,

One book i like to see is how to be psychic, since you started off as a total rookie, i think people would love your take on it.

[Bruce Achterberg]

I don't think Steve should cover any of those topics at the moment. I get the intuitive sense that the book wouldn't have the elegance or power that PDSP has. It feels like he'd just be writing a book because he can write a book, rather than sharing something extremely profound and impactful. As Steve has already predicted, the response to the topics he mentioned wouldn't be that great since people aren't ready or that interested in them.

(For me, oneness covers subjective reality pretty nicely and polarity seems kind of redundant when you're already lightworking. Truth, love, and power seem more appropriate in moving forward. You could say that I'm already polarised, but nah, I'd say that I've made my decision--and it arose very naturally--but I'm yet to have the conscious resolve that really drives me forward. Again, that seems to be more of a lightworker syndrome thing, which is what truth, love, and power are suited to. )

I have this very undefined, yet very clear sense of something that PDSP didn't really cover, and I think it'd make for an interesting, albeit challenging sequel.

We have the principles. We have exercises to apply them. I feel there's still a lack of simplicity to applying them. It's like we have a map, but no real way to get there.

I think if you compare the principles within PDSP with the exercises, the exercises are kind of lacking. The principles are awesome because you can learn them and then use your natural patterning abilities to see evidence of them in your experience, begin to generalise, and then start to apply them more accurately. That will take time, but it's do-able--mostly a solved problem.

But when you compare the exercises to the elegance of the principles, as least to me, it feels like you're kind pushing things upstream. Is it possible to develop application processes that are as specific, accurate, and effective as something such as StrengthsFinder? I kind of feel that when it comes to application, we're all still not really acknowledging some of the most fundamental concepts of our time, or at least, we're saying, "well, this is how I did it, and this has worked for many people, but in terms of some sort of system that works for everyone, I'm not really sure how to do that." Steve even said that in his book a few times--admitted that there were some things he didn't know--but that's kind of inherently unsatisfying to me, heh.

Maybe this is something for me to solve; maybe it's something for Steve to solve. Maybe that's either/or thinking. Either way, that seems to be at least one missing component when it comes to the realm of personal development for smart people. "Find your own way, because you're a smart person" seems to not really acknowledge the huge potential that could come from something that was just a little bit more effective than the current "figure out a way that works for you" approach. Imagine if you could find a specific means of application for almost every situation that worked every time, no exception.

Perhaps the law of attraction is the answer to this, but even that isn't an exact science. There's this big, "oh, so the LoA is effective; how do we get to the point where it becomes effective?" Growth certainly comes from finding the "how," but I also think that we'd grow just as much, or more, if our efforts where invested in using our potential instead of figuring out ways to use it. Again, the principles can be of great help here, but they only give a direction. Now we need a map, or at least, a way to plot a specific route that will work every time, regardless of who applies it. It doesn't have to be only one map (since one map that works for everyone would be super-hard), just enough "maps" so that every different type of person has something they can successfully apply.

I guess you could say I'm saying, "ok, we've got these awesome principles; why do we still need concepts like polarity? Why isn't there more of an exact science when it comes to bridging the principles with specific methods of implementation?"

I’m not sure Steve solve this in a year.

[Bruce Achterberg]

I guess what I'm really talking about in the above post is a general set of universal application principles. We have the universal principles of consciousness, but there's a lot of grey area when it comes to application.

E.g. Why are there so many different ways to apply things? Surely there must be something that isn't quite as universal as truth, love, and power, yet still universal enough so that it applies to most people, or at least, the different types of people (like the talent themes do).

Sort of a middle ground between truth, love, and power, and specific application.

That's probably something Steve could write about in a year, since it'd probably draw on quite a lot of his notes and research into the principles--perhaps some things he discarded because they weren't fundamental enough (which is ideal, since here we're not looking for core fundamentals; we have those)--as well as his experience with personal development.

So I guess my suggestion is "a more granular truth, love, and power model." Or something.

Gallup, the people who designed StrengthsFinder, say that there could be more granular talent themes for people if they wanted there to be, but they thought that the more general versions did the job. In their case, I think they could go deeper so they hit on the fundamentals. There's be more talent themes then, but they'd be more fundamental and easier to spot.

In Steve's case, I think he could go less fundamental and, as I say, more granular. Sort of like the primary and secondary principles of the aspects, and maybe even an explanation of the aspects of them (i.e. Truth is a primary principle. Prediction is an aspect. What are the aspects of prediction? You could stop there, or you could ask "what are the aspects of the aspects of prediction?" Etc.) (Although you don't have to be limited by just breaking the aspects of the principles down to a more granular level; I think that's just one way to express this more general idea.)

To be honest, all the other topics kind of seem unworthy of Steve. Other people can write about them. What's the one thing that only Steve is uniquely qualified to write about given his experience and the opportunities to available to him?

That's the kind of book I'd like to see from Steve, not just an extended version of things he's already covered in his blog (there's room for that, but perhaps not now, and perhaps in a different format. I get the feeling a book on polarity or subjective reality--the harder topics on Steve's list--would still confuse a heck of a lot of people. Audio or video content may be a better medium).

Something unique, original, and insightful. A worthy predecessor to PDSP. Perhaps that may take some time. Steve will have to be the one to decide when the right time is.

[Bruce Achterberg]

On a completely unrelated note to my above posts, the topic of "beliefs" would be an interesting book.

Beliefs play a pretty fundamental role in reality, yet they seem inherantly nebulous to work with. Tie that in with the LoA, and you'd have a fairly interesting book, especially if it had good applicability (since that's what people need in this area). It'd be also be cool to see how you could blend in the principles with the topic of beliefs.

A sort of "what beliefs are, how to choose them, how to find them, how to apply new ones, and how to change existing ones in a way that works with the fundamental mechanics of reality (which I'd probably say is the LoA; there has to be "some" fundamental mechanism)."

[Hyperchiller]

Maybe do the one on Time Management and Productivity first and finish that within a year and then work on the sequel to PSDP.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by Bruce Achterberg

So I guess my suggestion is "a more granular truth, love, and power model." Or something.

That's actually what I had in mind for the time management book -- applying the PDSP principles at a very low level, i.e. how you spend your time each day and how you align your daily routine with truth, love, and power.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

That's actually what I had in mind for the time management book -- applying the PDSP principles at a very low level, i.e. how you spend your time each day and how you align your daily routine with truth, love, and power.

Hmmm. Time management is about getting the most out of your life - which is really about Power right? So while you'd be talking about aligning your daily routine with Truth, Love and Power, it's all related to increasing your Power to do what you want in life through your daily routine? If so, then in a way, it'll be like Steven Covey's First Things First that talked about the 3rd principle of Steven Covey's 7 Habits Book - just like your book will expand on the 3rd Principle of your 7 Principle to Grow Book

If so, that sounds great

I have to admit when I read the list a few hours ago, my initial reaction was like "No, not Time Management, do it on Subjective Reality or Polarities!". However, now I can see that doing it on time management could be an extension of PDSP.

I do agree on waiting a while before writing a book about starting up a business - the need for that isn't as great as the need for the other books. As for the book on blogging - bleh. There's plenty of blogs about that. Let other people spend their time and energy on that, while you contribute something much more unique that others aren't.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

That's actually what I had in mind for the time management book -- applying the PDSP principles at a very low level, i.e. how you spend your time each day and how you align your daily routine with truth, love, and power.

Interesting.

Well, whether you use the existing aspects, or whether you write about the aspects of the aspects (only you could tell if that's needed; I'm still not far along enough in PDSP, nor my understanding of the model, to say yet; maybe I won't be ever without seeing how it was all created, but we'll see. Maybe on your death we can get Erin to release your PDSP principles creation notes, kind of like what Linda Lee did with Bruce's Lee's fighting notes. Just don' go the Lee route and get assassinated yet. Time for that later. )

I think if you can keep the very awesome style of writing you used for PDSP--the way you address people as an equal in attitude, but an authority in knowledge; an authentic style that I feel was heavily influenced from doing writing for your blog--you could write quite the useful book on the very low level application of things. The principles would remain holistic, but we'd get a better understanding of the model. Maybe even some more specific application examples--or maybe lots of them--like Angela suggested. Marcus Buckingham had lots of that in his books, and he just used pseudonyms to retell stories about people. I found that powerful and a good way to explain things. Probably made strengths-theory a bit easier to understand than the principles.

I think there's great power in any book that addresses things in a holistic fashion (i.e. holistic time management). You could think of the next book as an in-depth continuation of PDSP section 2.

I think doing this type of book after PDSP might pave the way for an interesting book on polarity, since you'd have general application, specific application, then follow it up with a "ok, you're intelligent; now, what should you use it for?" book.

The only potential snag I see is the question of: "how much of the (new) book are you going to use to explain the principles? Is it going to leverage the first book to fit in the maximum amount of content, or is it going to have some redundant material for those who've read PDSP?"

That seems like a silly either/or question, though. A better way might be to just reiterate on the principles, but with different stories. I'm sure you could somehow state them in a way that was "different" such that you further the ground for readers to explore, not having them explore ground they've already been on.

This probably wouldn't be a massive best-seller, but I think those who do buy it would get a lot of use out of it. Of course, it would probably still sell pretty well (selling being the representation of impact, not the $$$ you rake in).

Postscript

Oh, and a book on time management--the one you mentioned--would save me from having to do crazy things to figure out and back-engineer the various models you use.

It'd *love* to see your latest take on all those things, as well as a treatment of them with the principles.

To be honest, that'd be a pretty exciting book--maybe moreso than PDSP (specific application gets me going ).

[Calculusaurus]

Just throwing in my preference, since I can't claim to understand "the market".

A book on blogging would be disastrous. I'd hate to see "the blog delusion" perpetuated further than it already is You know -- that idea that blogs are some magical money making machine, and all you have to do is post valuable content at formulaic intervals and the blog genie will visit you every month and give you a check out of thin air.

ahem.

I could potentially see a time management book being interesting. Honestly, GTD left a sour taste in my mouth and I didn't find it useful at all. You'd probably appreciate this Steve -- a simple change in my diet did more to my "time management" than any manilla folder ever could. There's a lot of room for improvement in the time management "field" -- perhaps a holistic method that gets into the science, health and psychology of mental energy levels, focus, etc.

[Athena]

How about a new Bible!??

[MasterD]

Steve,
There is much out there about time management & productivity, but I have read no book or seen no program that covers it all (from the basics, life's purpose, routines/habits, properly organizing your information, clearing your head, journaling, what effects the environment has on you, renewal, health, what effects the internal drives of the human biological machine has on productivity, inner friction, outer friction, etc...) There are a lot of gaps to be sealed and I think you could do that extremely well.

But I would even more interested in a book about polarity. Definitely. I don't understand it perfectly yet, and I would love to read an in depth book about it.
Good luck with making up your mind!

[WilliWibald]

1. Time management sounds interesting to me.

2. Believes (yeah, me too).

3. What about a book that categorizes all PD material you have read and found good and why. An A to Z of PD Authors, Systems and who is best where.

[RRR]

Which path has heart?

Similar to Bruce, my first notion about PDSP was the elegance of the TLP formula, but the lack of elegance in its application. An elegant formula for application of TLP regardless of situation (the pattern of application behind career, health, relationship, money, habits, spirituality)or similarly applying TLP towards time-management would satisfy me.

I'd prefer to see you write a call for all self-helpers to collectively gather and declare sovereignty...but I'll give it time

I'd love to find a way to start working on Social Engineering with like minded individuals from a mindset of TLP.

[Rose of Cairo]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

What are your thoughts?

To me it looks like you already made your choice, Steve.

Writing about productivity and time management is a good strategic choice I guess if your goal is to sell many books or to establish your reputation and gain readers. The target audience is probably the same as for PDSP, self-help enthusiasts and the corporate world. And you know the stuff so well that it'll probably will be easy for you to write about it.

On the other hand, I have a feeling that you already have outgrown this topic and that this is not really who you are being now or what you are interested in now. So I don't know if it's a good strategy in the long run to rehash it, in terms of your own personal growth.

But then again, I haven't read PDSP yet (it still hasn't arrived yet! grrr! ) so I don't know how much of this is already covered in PDSP. I assume productivity and time management issues get addressed in the Power, Career and Habits chapters. I also trust that we are old enough to figure out how to apply Power, Truth and Love to this area on our own. But maybe I'm wrong.

To answer your question, what I'd be very interested in is definitely polarity. You wrote a couple times that you'd need much more space to reply to some of our questions and I think that'd be really awesome!

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Rose of Cairo

To me it looks like you already made your choice, Steve.

He's probably just checking on the external reflections of the internal choice he's made.

A useful exercise when done consciously, although pretty useful regardless (so long as there is some awareness in there; otherwise the usefulness is lost on you).

[Niamh]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

[*]Time Management & Productivity

Yes!!! This one. Pick this one! Yours would be the best.
Pick it. Pick it! Please?

[seeker5]

If you do the Time Management and Productivity, you could call the book

"Time Management for Smart People
Consciously Aligning your Time with Truth, Love, and Power"

Or something like that

Can you write more then one book in a year? If so, maybe you can do 3 books this year - one on Time Management & Productivity, one on Polarity and the last one on Subjective Reality.

[Thomas H]

I'd like to see you explore a topic that there's not a lot of information on already. With a time management book you'd have a lot less to add because that topic is so saturated. With subjective reality or polarity you'd be covering new ground so you'd have a lot more to add because there's not a wealth of knowledge already out there on those subjects.

You're right about both topics being possible commercial flops, but since when do you care about that??

Maybe you could publish books on subjective reality and polarity in an e-book format so you don't have to charge commercial publisher prices..?

[Savage]

If I'm going to pitch a book that I suspect may be a commercial flop, I have to be honest with the publisher about that. And most likely they'll just reject the proposal. Every new book is a risk, so I need a good way of showing it's a worthwhile risk.

It wouldn't be a good use of my time to write a book that relatively few people would read. I'd be better off skipping the book and devoting more attention to blogging, speaking, and other media.

Writing a book is a lot of work, so if I'm going to make the effort, I want the end result to be impactful.

Subjective reality and polarity would be interesting topics, but it may be better to cover them with ebooks or audio programs that I release direct. Then if there seems to be some decent interest over time, I may further develop the ideas into a book for a publisher.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

If I'm going to pitch a book that I suspect may be a commercial flop, I have to be honest with the publisher about that. And most likely they'll just reject the proposal. Every new book is a risk, so I need a good way of showing it's a worthwhile risk.

It wouldn't be a good use of my time to write a book that relatively few people would read. I'd be better off skipping the book and devoting more attention to blogging, speaking, and other media.

Writing a book is a lot of work, so if I'm going to make the effort, I want the end result to be impactful.

Subjective reality and polarity would be interesting topics, but it may be better to cover them with ebooks or audio programs that I release direct. Then if there seems to be some decent interest over time, I may further develop the ideas into a book for a publisher.

That's a great way of looking at it.

Publisher = useful for working with to improve distribution. Win/win.

You = good for creating and publishing crazy fringe things that will really benefit 1% of the population and probably have a massive net influence, but not really directly benefit anybody else.

Edit: updated parts are in bold.

[Jack Christopher]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

IMO creating a book for a niche audience defeats the purpose of working with a mass market publisher. Better off self-publishing in that situation.

Since this thread started with the idea of doing another book for Hay House, that was the context. However, I have no problem doing an ebook on a topic that may not appeal to a smaller number of people buy which could still be very impactful for its readers.

Right now, however, I'm thinking about what sort of book might be good for mass market distribution.

Do you want to write a book next?

Hay Houses' suggestion may be clouding your desires. And since you're antsy to connect with a mass audience, and it's worked before, you might be forcing it as a way of expression again.

Your desire--is to connect with more people and make a great impact. How do you want to do that? Forget about what Hay House wants, and stop trying to model (or asking us to model) what messages "the masses" want. That's much harder than you think.

How do you want to connect with people next? Design for that.

But the problem *could be* at a higher level than that; Or lower. The juice-feast detox may be killing your clarity.

Maybe you should wait on the problem.

[RRR]

If you simply apply the principle of Love by itself and surround yourself with positive, highly effective people for a few weeks, you won't even need techniques (Power). You'll become much more effective through osmosis. Effective people are more likely to respect your time as well. Simple idea... but one which most time management books largely ignore. I might devote as much as 1/3 of such a book to social strategies that help you build a network of effective people.

A problem people often have is that they know what to do to be more productive, but they're surrounded with unproductive, unmotivated people. So no matter how hard they try or how many techniques they learn, they always get sucked back down again.

TLP advice on social drag would be very helpful for me personally. I feel the expectations placed on me and the opportunities offered are so menial and disheartening. Surrounded by depressed, stressed, lower-middle class, psuedo-theists, is a problem not just for me, but for everyone my generation and below to have reasonable role models. It is hard to see the potential in yourself when you are surrounded by people you consider failures.

[Brutha]

After the feedback on this forum about polarity , I don't think that a lot of people "get it". It probably isn't a good choice for a book for the masses.

A while ago you didn't release your videos about your blogging workshop to not get publically seem as somebody who teaches blogging. If you didn't change that intention, I don't think that you have a reason to start going down that path. If you don't have a problem with being seen that way anymore, there no reason to hold back those videos.

Conscious Business - I don't think that your four year experience is enough, for that topic. If you wanted to write that book, I think you should interview a lot of other people with Conscious Businesses.
That would be a different style of working than most of your blog and your book.

I would also vote like Bruce, for developing your ideas of TLP into more practical day to day applications. Time Management & Productivity from a TLP perspective.

I think that their a lot to gain from developing your ideas of TLP.
Another interesting book might be:
Truth, which would go into even more depth.
The same could also go for Love or Power.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Brutha

After the feedback on this forum about polarity , I don't think that a lot of people "get it". It probably isn't a good choice for a book for the masses.

The polarity book may not be for the millions out there, however, the polarity book may make a huge difference in a smaller group of people. That smaller group of people may polarize much more, and thus create much more impact in the world. In other words, if we put this to numbers with hypothetical situation:

Time Management: 1,000,000 books sold x average effect of 10 units of good per book = 10,000,000 units of good produced in the world.

Polarity: 100,000 books sold x average effect of 1,000 units of good per book = 100,000,000 units of good produced in the world.

In this case, the polarity book may create 10x more good overall in the world even if it sold 10x less copies.

Of course, there's no way for me to know whether the situation above exists, it's possible that the Time Management book will affect the average person as much as the polarity book, thus negating my nice little equation.

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by RRR

TLP advice on social drag would be very helpful for me personally. I feel the expectations placed on me and the opportunities offered are so menial and disheartening. Surrounded by depressed, stressed, lower-middle class, psuedo-theists, is a problem not just for me, but for everyone my generation and below to have reasonable role models. It is hard to see the potential in yourself when you are surrounded by people you consider failures.

I used to live in Dayton -- know just how you feel RRR. Let me tell you though, the whole country isn't like that. You should check out the Bay area sometime. It's very progressive here.

Social drag is sort of an interesting idea for a book. Thematically, it makes sense to me that the next book would be about how to interact with one's environment from a TLP perspective. Social drag is one aspect of that. Relationships and career might be a couple more areas that people would appreciate more specific analysis on.

[Dan.Linehan]

How about personal development case studies? That would be interesting.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by seeker5

If you do the Time Management and Productivity, you could call the book

"Time Management for Smart People
Consciously Aligning your Time with Truth, Love, and Power"

Or something like that

"Time Management for Smart People" sounds good to me. "[...]: how to live consciously and effectively" or "[...]: how to live consciously and effectively in everyday life" seem appropriate, but there are lots of ways to do it.

I'd avoid using truth, love, and power in the title since it's jargony. You (and I) understand it, but will anybody else who isn't really aware of Steve's book? Probably not. They won't really understand the essence of what Steve is trying to express when he says "truth, love, and power." Realise that terms we use are real conceptual representations.

Originally Posted by seeker5

Can you write more then one book in a year? If so, maybe you can do 3 books this year - one on Time Management & Productivity, one on Polarity and the last one on Subjective Reality.

Steve is pretty good, but I'm not quite sure he's reached "uber machine" yet in terms of his ability to churn out quality material.

At least let him become a solar gazer first.

[Dev]

I would suggest a sequel to your first baby. The second one would actually suggest,recommend,guide and advice on how to LIVE each Fundamental Principle & its subsets in all Areas of life.

For eg. Steve could actually tell his readers this time how to apply Truth & its key components i.e. predictions, accuracy, self-awareness etc. in each area of life like Finance, Relationships, Careers etc. Other Principles and its sub-sets can be taken up in subsequest chapters.
Steve can use the feedback & review of readers of his first book & genuine queries from the forum as basis for this sequel.
He could use wisdom of the East, proverbs of communities & nations, quotes etc.
Suggestive title could be "Practising/Living PDSF".