THE BIG PICTURE

1. Why You Should Write Shorter Books

Shorter books take you less time to create.

And they take your customers less time to read.

It’s a win-win.

You can list them for $0.99 on Amazon.

And if you feel guilty about charging money for a book that's too short, donate your proceeds to charity.

I've done this multiple times.

Here are 3 book examples:

Book 1: Rule #1 for Nonfiction Authors

Inspiration: A build-in-public project to show others that you can repurpose your older content into a short book

Strategy: Used a chapter from one of my other books called "Write Your Book on the Side." Sifted through the "popular highlights" feature in Kindle to know which sections stuck with readers and used that to write the book

Time to write & publish: ~4 hours

Length: ~1,600 words

Book 2: Inverse Leadership

Inspiration: A suggestion by the CEO of OpenAI that someone should write a book called 'the areas where you have to do the opposite of conventional management wisdom'

Strategy: Used ChatGPT to help me come up with a title, outline, and structure for the book. Also wrote it with the help of ChatGPT and refined the output based on my experience in management & leadership

Time to write & publish: ~48 hours

Length: ~3,400 words

Book 3: This Book is One Page Long

Inspiration: A response to a common question that I usually get: "How short can a short book be?"

Strategy: Wrote a 1-page book as a joke. Focused on explaining why and how others can write short nonfiction books. Made it inspirational.

Time to write & publish: ~4 hours

Length: ~440 words

Results

Every one of those books hit the Amazon #1 best-seller list in different categories when they launched.

And each sells around 1 to 2 copies a day in steady-state (i.e., no marketing or shout-outs; just organic marketing via Amazon's marketplace).

Write shorter books.

VALUABLE INPUT

2. Ask Your Followers For Feedback (Here’s Why)

Speaking of short books, I’m launching a new one called “AI Change Management Made Simple” next week.

I asked some of my followers on social media to help me pick a book cover design: A or B?

The truth is, B was my personal favorite (I designed it myself on Canva).

Cover A came from a professional designer, but I wasn’t a fan. My assumption was that B would win.

But the majority chose A.

So that’s the option I went with (because the collective voice offered a clearer perspective).

The people who will actually engage with the book showed what resonated with them, and that mattered more than my own preference.

The takeaway

Feedback isn’t just validation. It reveals blind spots and surfaces insights that can’t always be seen from your perspective. Trust the wisdom of the crowd.

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WORDS I LIKE

4. On Distribution vs. Product

I saw a tweet the other day from Sam Shank (he works at a16z) that started with the following phrase:

“Don’t start with the product. Start with distribution.”

I think this is underrated advice.

For me: “mediocre products + excellent distribution” is way more valuable than “excellent products + mediocre distribution”

This applies to books and courses as well.

And it’s why publishing on platforms like Amazon and Udemy gives you superior distribution advantages.

ONE-MINUTE HACKS

5. A Quick Side Gig Hack You Can Apply Today

Repurpose your stuff.

If you’re not repurposing your paid content, you’re leaving money on the table.

Every book, course, or info product can be repurposed into another format, package, or derivative that would unlock new revenue streams for you.

Case-in-point: The book I’m launching next week (“AI Change Management Made Simple”) is repurposed from this course on Udemy.