The Power of Minimalist Books in Today’s Self-Publishing World
An intriguing, alternative approach for authors who are just getting started.
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📣 This week’s guest post comes courtesy of #1 best-selling author and side-hustling writer
. He’s all about helping you write your first book. In this piece, he explains how a minimalist approach could be just what you need.We live in a time of short, concise, but impactful creation.
We see this happening everywhere, whether on social media with TikTok and Instagram or on television, where TV series focus on shorter episodes with movie-style cinematography.
One place that I am excited about seeing short but impactful content is in books.
Over the last few years, we have seen more writers turn to shorter, to-the-point books that help them share information and get their books wholly read. In the last year, I have started moving toward this self-publishing reality.
What is it? Minimalist books.
I have been working to publish more books in this realm. This year alone, I have written and published six of them. But that begs the question: What is a minimalist book?
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The Minimalist Book
While there isn’t a sure-fire definition for minimalist books, I have simplified it down to a few quick ideas for what is a minimalist book:
It’s a short book (100 to 150 pages).
Answers a question, solves a problem or gives specific instructions.
So, they are short, helpful, and, ideally, highly actionable books. They can still tell stories and provide real-life examples but don’t go into extreme depth.
How Do You Go About Writing A Minimalist Book
You can write a minimalist book like any other book. But my favorite way of writing books is to write the “first draft” as individual blog posts. You can write them on your self-hosted blog, Medium, or Substack.
Like any other book, you need to develop your idea and focus on what the market wants. Then, break that idea down into chapters (8-12 seem to work best). Then, write each chapter as a blog post.
Once you have completed all of your chapters, introductions, and conclusions, you can combine them into one manuscript and go through the self-publishing process of editing, formatting, and designing. This process can take months or just weeks.
Once your book is up, you need to find your readers, but this becomes easier when you find the people who want to read short books.
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How To Market Your Minimalist Book
There are a lot of ways to promote books. However, I have found a system that works well for promoting my books. And the first thing to remember is to be 100% straightforward with people, letting them know that your book is short and exactly what it is about. Once you are clear on that, I encourage you to use my system (From my book, The Minimalist Author):
Week One (Early Sales): This is the time I ask friends and family to check out my book and leave a review. Not all of their reviews will go live because Amazon doesn’t always allow family reviewers.
Week Two (Audience): This is when I share with my email subscribers the news of a new book coming out. I share my excitement about it, ask them to check it out, and leave a review.
Week Three (Outliers): This week, I shared my book heavily on social media, posting on Medium and my blog about it. I got wild sharing it in these places.
Week Four (Paid Promotion): This is when I might do a free book promotion and pay for an ad with the Fussy Librarian. Typically, when it goes free, and they email their audience, I get nearly 1,000 orders and about ten reviews fast.
The last thing to remember is that the first 30 days are crucial when promoting your book. If you can get 10 to 50 reviews and regular orders during that time, you can see success with your book.
Final Thoughts on Minimalist Books
These are great for people who are just getting started writing books. The short books can be created quickly, and you can keep improving your system until you reach success.
Most of all, you can grow an audience of readers more quickly by writing short books over time. This can lead to writing larger “flagship” books later in your writing journey.
So, does this sound like something you would want to do? Do you think this might help get your self-publishing journey moving? Share below!
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 | A guest post by
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You know I'm all about short books!
This is so helpful. I am about to launch a creativity workbook; I will definitely employ these tips. And I had never heard of the Fussy Librarian before.