The Chasm Between a Good Idea 

and a Great Book is HUGE! 

True confession: I love watching documentaries on Netflix—especially documentaries about how people made it big in the music industry. I want to know what musicians did to become successful. 

As a musician, I love to dream about what I could have become. But I also have a daughter who’s a singer-songwriter living in Nashville, and I want to help her make it.

I’ve also noticed that the publishing industry shares much in common with the music industry. 

After watching probably 30 or 40 music documentaries, I’ve identified the number one element that separates good musicians from great musicians—and the good idea from a great book.

Which has little to do with talent.

And this directly applies to every author.

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Here's the Difference

My latest binge-watch docuseries on Netflix is This is Pop. The docuseries explores different elements of music that disrupted the music industry.

Episode one tells the story of how Boyz II Men changed the music industry. The boy band met while attending a fine arts high school in Philadelphia. They began singing in the hallways, exploring different harmonies, and writing songs. When they felt that they landed on a unique sound, they sang at a school assembly and rocked the house.

After that, they began singing around Philadelphia and experienced moderate success. 

Not long afterward, a local radio station hosted a concert featuring Will Smith (he was a famous rapper before he was an actor) and New Edition. The four compatriots snuck into the concert and found their way backstage, where they were hoping to find Will Smith. 

Instead, they ran into Michael Bivins with New Edition. Immediately, the boys broke into song for the singer. Bivins was impressed, handed his card to them, and eventually went on to manage the group and produce their albums.

Here's what all of us authors can learn from their experience.

This is what separates a good idea from a great book, well, at least part of it.

Are you ready for this?

Your book idea needs to be different from any other idea on the market. 

Read that once or twice.

If you’re going to say what everyone else has already said, you’re wasting your breath. This applies to fiction and nonfiction books.

Because good writers and good musicians are a dime a dozen.

Boyz II Men wasn’t the first boy band. The Jackson 5 and the Osmonds were probably the first. Boyz II Men, however, created a unique sound that differentiated them from previous boy bands.

In the same way, you don’t want to create a new genre. But you do want to create a unique style, story, or approach to your good writing skills. 

Let me give you an example…

Here's Why My Wife Can't Stand Dan Brown

About twenty years ago, Dan Brown ruined my Labor Day weekend. I was a pastor at that time, and churches were warning people NOT to read his book, The Da Vinci Code. 

So I decided to read it.

Our family was spending the holiday weekend in Breckinridge, Colorado, so I thought I’d bring the book with me to look it over. While it was filled with half-truths and “secrets” that weren’t secrets at all, I just couldn’t put the book down.

My wife and I decided to go for a swim, and I brought the book with me. Actually, I just jumped in the water, climbed out of the pool, and then sat in a chair to keep reading. 

"When are you going to put that book down?" Kelley asked me. "You've spent the whole weekend reading."

Dan Brown totally changed the way I write. In the old way of writing, the author carefully builds a story, generously adding lots of details to paint a picture. Every chapter, sometimes as long as 5,000 words, crescendos in the middle and resolves at the end. Neat and tidy.

Not Dan Brown.

Right at the beginning, his book (figuratively) grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go. Rather than carefully build his story, he gets right down to business. He resolved his chapters in the middle and then built to a crescendo at the end. Just the opposite of the old style. I couldn’t put the book down because I needed the story to resolve. 

Then he’d do it again in the next chapter.

He kept his chapters short, his paragraphs short, and employed a ton of dialogue.

You see, he didn’t invent a new genre—it’s historical thriller—but his approach to writing disrupted the industry.

I’m sure there were other authors who were doing the same thing at the same time, but he’s probably the poster child.

As you write your book, don’t give your audience what they expect. Give them the unexpected.

As you write your book, don’t tell your audience what they know. Tell them what they don’t know.

Be creative. Be clever. Be unique. Take risks. 

Disrupt your genre.

Here's Why My Wife Loves Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey’s memoir, Greenlights, is my favorite book of the last five years. Instead of telling stories about his celebrity friends (what the audience expects), he writes about his childhood, living out of a camper (the audience didn’t know about this), and trying to break away from rom-coms (we didn't know this, either). He’s honest and humble. 

But what made his book great was this: he incorporated journal entries that he began writing when he was a teenager.

The variation from story to journal entry back to story and so on keeps the book from becoming boring and routine.

Creative. Clever. Unique. And risky. 

After a year of cajoling, my wife is reading Greenlights and she can't put it down.

Let's Disrupt The Industry Together!

That's what I'm trying to do with our Illumify authors. 

A businessperson I respect recently told me, "Illumify is disrupting the industry. What you're doing with your book coaching, your professional copyediting, and the quality of your books, sets you apart from your competition."

Then we give them 100% of the royalties, 100% of their rights from day one, and they pay cost for their books.

Not trying to brag, but I don't know of one publishing company that gives does so much to their authors.

Here's what we're looking for: authors with good ideas who insist on releasing a GREAT book.

A transcendent book, as I like to say.

If you fit that description and would like to learn more, click here to schedule a strategy session with me.

Let’s bring your book to life—and disrupt the publishing world together!