Book Review: How to Write a Book

I’ve never written a book. I don’t plan to write a book, and I’ve never seriously fantasized about writing a book. But I read David Kadavy’s How to Write a Book anyway, because I’ve enjoyed other books of his, the subject was somewhat interesting to me, and it was a “short read”. And a short read it was, quite dense, with the last 20% or so of the Kindle book actually taken up by a sample chapter from his book The Heart to Start (which I enjoyed and recommend).

How to Write a Book is very brief, small enough to easily read in a sitting. Individual “chapters” are little more than 1–2 page short essays, so it’s also an easy read if you want something to flip through on your phone while waiting in line at the grocery store, without resorting to social media. (As someone consciously using phone Kindle as sort of a nicotine patch for social media, this was useful for me!)

As a result of the tight writing, the content is very to-the-point. Do the work rather than fantasizing, print drafts for paper editing, publish chapters to a mailing list as you go in order to get feedback and build an initial audience, etc. It’s all very practical, very modern. It’s not deep, but it fits solidly into the Pareto Principle, covering the 80% of impediments facing writers (especially first time writers) with 20% of the words. I’m sure it could be much longer and more in-depth… but reading books about how to write books is just one of the many ways would-be authors avoid writing books.

This book was actually immediately useful for me. One of his recommendations was to start publishing every day, and he recommended Medium as a platform. Before quitting social media, I wrote on Facebook every day, often in-depth essays, and had a pretty good audience by FB standards — I could easily get 50 or even 100 likes for a well-made point. The main thing I’ve missed from quitting social media was writing in public. How to Write a Book won’t get me to write a book, but it got me back to Medium, with the intention of writing in public every day, whether it’s interesting to anyone else or not.

It’s worth the quick read if you find the subject interesting or inspiring.