Aspiring Author Entrepreneur Series - The Idea of an E-Book

This is part 2 of my journey series.  I previously posted Part 1 of the Aspiring Author Entrepreneur Series - Introduction

 

I was interested in doing something but could do it only part time due to my current job.  But whenever I found time, I blogged.  As time passed by, my posts became more and more popular and viewership increased over time.  I got an increasing followers list as more viewers added me to their Google Plus circles.

 

Then an idea stuck me.  How do I improvise on this?  Now that I have got a decent following and plenty of knowledge still to share, I wanted to take it convert it into money or atleast do something bigger.  I thought of adsense but soon rejected it as I was not getting that much traffic to get decent earnings from adsense. 

 

Then  I pulled thoughts from my product development background and tried to productize what I was offering.  That is when I thought I would release an Ebook which is a more productized form of knowledge.

 

Key Learning: 

 

Always try to capitalize on your growing fan base or user list.  And keep the fire burning.

 

Next you will think that I wrote the E-Book but NO.

 

As an aspiring entrepreneur, I read a lot of blogs and books about startups and their success and failure stories.  One thing that particularly stuck me was the idea of The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.

 

For starters, some key aspects of The Lean Startup principles that I learned are:

 

1.  Get your idea validated with prospective customers

2.  If you are trying to build a product, try to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

3.  Based on the feedback from customers, either persevere or pivot

 

So I decided that I will go the following route

 

1.  Thought of a minimal version of the full E-book.

2.  Compiled the list of topics to be covered

3.  Try to get some feedback if anyone is interested.

 

So I compiled a list of topics and used Google Plus as a forum for getting user feedback.  The message was simple that I am going to start a E-book on the following topics and asked who are interested in getting a copy of the E-book.

 

A very few people (7-8) mentioned that they were interested.  It seems a very low number, but to me it seemed very big.  It meant that I had Early Adopters, again a term associated with startups whose users are willing to try something or experiment with a new product.

 

That inspiration was enough for me to go ahead and write the full minimal E-Book that I was planning to write.  I finished writing the E-Book in a week's time.

 

Key Learnings:

 

Always test your assumptions with prospective customers/users.  There is no point in wasting time building something that no one wants.  By validating my assumption that someone will be interested in what I am offering, I got my idea validated with least effort and also I got the extra confidence to push harder to complete my E-Book which might not be the case if I was trying to write it without getting feedback.

 

What's Next?

 

The ride of a startup / entrepreneur / author is not going to be one way.  It is going to be a roller coaster.  In my next posts, I will cover

 

• What I realized after giving my E-Book to my early adopters?  

• Why I wanted a proper channel to distribute the E-Book?  

• My First Big Mistake in this journey

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