Navigating The Writing Path: Start to Finish – IC Publishing Summer Blog Tour
Written by Igor Klibanov, Author

In this blog, I’ll talk about writing my third and most recent book, STOP EXERCISING! The Way You Are Doing it Now.

Compared to writing my first two books, the third was a world of difference.

The first book, Interviews with Top Personal Trainers was a fluke, and kind of just fell into my lap. The editors approached me, saying they’ve read my work extensively and would like me to contribute to the book. So I was the only Canadian author that contributed to the book.

The second book, Unlimited Progress was a passion book. I wrote about what I loved: training athletes. Unfortunately, I didn’t train many athletes at that time. I was training the busy executives and professionals who wanted to look better, feel better and perform better, but didn’t have much time.

Now, thanks to Dr. Andrea Maxim, I’ll be writing about my third book.

How Do You Start the Writing Path 

As my super-genius publishers, Gerry Robert and Jean-Guy Francoeur hammered into my head, “a great book isn’t written. It’s engineered.” So first of all, determine your primary objective. What do you want your book to do for you? Because here’s a secret: most of the potential of the book isn’t in book sales. It’s in opening doors. Do you want more clients? Do you want more speaking engagements? Do you want media attention? Figure out what it is you want your book to do for you, and think from that perspective.

So for instance, if you want more media attention, think from a reporter’s or journalist’s perspective. What would entice them to give you media attention?

How Do You Continue on the Writing Path 

Word-by-word, chapter-by-chapter, it gets done, and it doesn’t take as long as you think. If you write just 2 pages per day, after 60 days, you’ll have 120 pages. Factor in illustrations, proper formatting (books aren’t printed on 8.5×11 sheets of paper, but smaller than that) and it can add up to 180-200 pages. There you go. 2 months go by, and you have a full-sized book. And how long does it really take to write 2 pages per day? In my case, it was only 30-60 minutes.

Completing the Writing Path 

The closer the book came to completion, the more excited I got, thinking about how this third book will help my business. I’ve invested a lot of time (and a lot of money), but it’s really only now that the profitable work begins. It’s like in martial arts. You don’t finish when you get a black belt. That’s really when it just begins.

Closing Thoughts 

As one of my favourite speakers, Charles Poliquin says “there is no such thing as discipline, only love. Do you love jelly donuts more than you like finely-etched abs? Or do you like finely-etched abs more than you like jelly donuts?”

Here’s my version of that: “Do you like being an author more than you like American Idol? Or do you like American Idol more than you like being an author?

Passing the Pen 

I am passing the pen on to my good friend, Jane Kabarguina. Her own story is amazing. She graduated from Siberia with a degree in mathematics. She came here (to Toronto), and was working with computer systems. At age 34, she was nearly legally blind, and had to go for surgery to correct her vision.

She didn’t like the chances of a failure of surgery, so she started studying all on her own how to naturally improve her eyesight. And now, she doesn’t even wear glasses.

Website: http://www.snezha.com