Just six months ago, CurtisCompany founder Eric Curtis decided he wanted to write a book to support his growing business consulting practice. You can now buy Collecting Dust (8 Reasons Nonprofit Strategic Plans Fail) on Amazon.

It would have been easier to put it off. Eric already has a pretty full schedule running his business and keeping up with a young family. So, why now?

“It was important enough for me to do it,” Eric said. “I want to focus on consulting, coaching and training.”

The book helps define what he does as well as serving as a resource both to clients and potential clients. It may also be a spring board for more speaking gigs.

Getting it done in such a short time frame meant sometimes getting up a little earlier and forcing himself to make it a priority, Eric said. He also set goals to keep himself moving along – a rough draft of a chapter every two weeks. He didn’t always make the goal, but it was a good measure to see how he was doing.

Some weeks, he didn’t write at all. Other times he’d put in 8 to 15 hours.

Once it was done, he talked with people in the traditional publishing industry, but ultimately opted to self-publish so he could maintain control.

“It was painful going through the process,” he admits. But, he adds, that looking back it was “pretty easy.”

The bottom line is, if you want to write a book, the only way to get it done is to get started. If you want to know more about how to get started, or if you want some help figuring out whether an idea is worth pursuing, give us a call.