Fast Results E-Zine
When you sign up, you'll get instant access to my article archives, exclusive content and other freebies. Plus, we will never sell, rent or share your information so sign up today.
Search
Bookmark this Page
Blog Carnivals
Blogroll
Resources
Categories
- 10 Things (3)
- Blog Carnival (8)
- Bullying (4)
- Career (56)
- Communicators in the news (20)
- events (1)
- General (15)
- Goal Setting (21)
- Health (1)
- Inspiration (26)
- Interpersonal Communication (36)
- Job Interview (28)
- Leadership (5)
- Learning (2)
- Motivation (56)
- Networking (18)
- Online Success (11)
- Personal (7)
- Politics (20)
- Public Speaking (133)
- Quick Tip (7)
- Review (2)
- success (4)
- Time Management (5)
- Toastmasters (30)
- Video of the Week (14)
- Writing (5)
Archives
- August 2010 (6)
- July 2010 (6)
- June 2010 (13)
- May 2010 (3)
- April 2010 (2)
- March 2010 (11)
- February 2010 (12)
- January 2010 (6)
- December 2009 (7)
- November 2009 (12)
- October 2009 (12)
- September 2009 (3)
- August 2009 (6)
- July 2009 (11)
- June 2009 (16)
- May 2009 (8)
- April 2009 (7)
- March 2009 (10)
- February 2009 (7)
- January 2009 (8)
- December 2008 (5)
- November 2008 (3)
- October 2008 (7)
- September 2008 (11)
- August 2008 (9)
- July 2008 (18)
- June 2008 (9)
- May 2008 (14)
- April 2008 (14)
- March 2008 (11)
- February 2008 (10)
- January 2008 (13)
- December 2007 (13)
- November 2007 (2)
- October 2007 (4)
- September 2007 (3)
- August 2007 (4)
- July 2007 (3)
- June 2007 (4)
- April 2007 (1)
- February 2007 (2)
- January 2007 (3)
- December 2006 (2)
- November 2006 (7)
- October 2006 (6)
- September 2006 (12)
There’s a piece of advice that I’ve seen floating around the internet that claims that you can create a marketable book in three hours or less. While the claim doesn’t explicitly say that the quality of such a book would get it on the New York Times’ bestseller list, it implies that the book might actually sell. While yes, it is technically possible to create a book in three hours or less, I question the value of such a product and in the three hours spent creating it.
So how does one write a book in three hours? Well all you need to do is speak into a microphone for three hours. That microphone can be attached to a recording device (including a computer with a recording program) so that you can ship off a tape, CD or MP3 file to a transcription service that will provide you with the text of what you have spoken. Or you could use a speech recognition product such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking
(I did an internship at Dragon years ago) that will do the transcription for you.
So your three hours are up and what do you have? The next bestseller? Again, what you’ve got is a text file that may be broken into paragraphs – a mere transcript of your speech. While I see a value in sharing speech transcriptions and recordings , I don’t see how it can be successfully turned into a book without a significant amount of work. In addition to recording your speech, you still need to do the following:
- Write and organize your speech.
- Fact check your speech if applicable.
- Practice your speech to limit errors while speaking (or reading out loud).
- Listening to the recording to make sure you didn’t misspeak, misquote or make any other errors.
- Ensuring that your recording is of good enough quality so that it can be transcribed.
This is of course, just the tip of the iceberg. After all of this is done and you have a transcript in hand, you’ll still just have text and text doesn’t make a book (even an ebook). You’ll still need to do some (or all) of the following:
- Add bullets, graphics, figures etc….
- Create chapters, headings, a table of contents, etc….
- Get an ISBN number and barcode if you plan to sell it online or in stores.
- Select a cover design.
- Add footnotes and other references.
- Add bold, italics and other text formatting.
Now you can certainly outsource many of these steps, or incorporate them into your recording by saying things like “Begin Bold Chapter one a great start end Bold” but it’s not fool proof. You’ll also have to do a significant amount of editing because speeches project emotion differently than the written word. It’s easier to take a book and turn it into a speech than it is to do the reverse.
So while I like the idea of using speech transcriptions to help you create a book, I think the three hour promise grossly underestimates the actual time involved. Transcribing a speech will help you save time – especially if the speech has already been written – but you’re probably looking realistically at about 60 to 100 hours of work to complete a book. Some types of books such as made up stories and recounts of events in our lives work especially well with this type of format. A self help book or technical manual will take a bit longer. But whatever you plan on writing, give it a try – it’ll take more than three hours but it will get you moving faster.
ShareCheck out these Related posts:
- Public Speaking: How to Write a Speech – Part 1: Your Speech Outline Writing a speech can sometimes be as nerve-racking as...
- Public Speaking: How to Write a Powerful Conclusion for Your Speech The conclusion is another often overlooked part of a...
- Book Review: How to Be a Gentleman “How to Be a Gentleman: A Contemporary Guide to...
- If You Only Listen to One PowerPoint Tip… These days, many meeting rooms have built-in projectors and/or...
- Public Speaking Success: How to Give a Great Speech Nothing strikes fear into the heart of someone more...
- Quick tip #4 – Prepare for a speech using audio & video Whenever you’re giving an important speech (such as a...
- Public Speaking Success: How to Speak with Clarity A common obstacle that many people who speak face...




(No Ratings Yet)Popular Articles
- Interview Question: What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Public Speaking Success: How to Get Ideas for Speech Topics
- How to Answer the Strengths and Weaknesses Job Interview Question
- Hannah Montana Takes “Racy” Photos
- Job Interview Questions: Where Do You Expect to Be in Five Years?
- A Fast Way to Improve Your Articulation
- 10 Questions to Ask During a Job Interview
- Public Speaking Success: Three Ways to Make a Speech More Interesting
- Public Speaking Benefits: How Public Speaking Skills can Help Your Career
- Public Speaking: How to Write a Powerful Conclusion for Your Speech
- How to Improve Your Articulation
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Marketing 101 – Logic, Emotion, Needs and Wants | rt Strategy | Kelowna Marketing Agency | Marketing Firm - Creative Strategy - Branding - Web Design - Advertising - Social Media - Public Relations
on Why We Feel Inadequate - Watch How You Use Social Media | Overnight Sensation - Public Speaking, Communication and Personal Development
on Overcoming Hopelessness: Part 2 – Getting Out of the Rut: - Watch How You Use Social Media | Overnight Sensation - Public Speaking, Communication and Personal Development
on The Social Media Trap - James
on How to Exit a Conversation - Ann Shea
on How to Exit a Conversation - Public Speaking and The Matrix | Overnight Sensation - Public Speaking, Communication and Personal Development
on Why Most Self-Help Books are Garbage - Carnival of Social and Tech: August 20th Edition | Looking Glass Blog
on The Social Media Trap - Rick Curry
on Why People Fail
Wordpress theme by Wordpress Themes & made free by Internet Marketing Center
© 2006-2008 James Feudo All Rights Reserved.



No user commented on " Can You Really Write a Book in Three Hours? "