Title: The Book In A Box Method: The Groundbreaking New Way To Write and Publish Your Book
Authors: Tucker Max & Zach Obront
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-61961-346-1
Pages: 270
Genre: Business Writing / Reference
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin
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My first thought when writing this review was to compare The Book In A Box Method analogously to the movie The Player – remember that flick? It was a movie about making a movie, starring Tim Robbins, produced by Robert Altman. Before you realized what the movie was about – you figured out it WAS the movie. Yet with #1 New York Times Bestselling authors Tucker Max and Zach Obront’s book, it is clearly about how to get your ideas into ink (or pixels) and produce a book. The Book In A Box Method is an authoritative book dissecting the creative process of writing and publishing a book into bite-sized, manageable steps; which if followed carefully will result in, yes, a product – the book you have inside of you.
The old way to write a book is to sit down to a blank sheet of paper at a typewriter, or an empty screen on your computer. “Okay now write,” you think to yourself. How archaic, premillennial and obsolete this method is. Really, even if there is an outline, it simply puts such stress on the author and opens so many trap doors to pitfalls including discombobulation, immense rewriting and editing, not to mention writer’s block. Tucker Max and Zach Obront figured out an ingenious approach to writing a book, after all, people with the desire to share their expert knowledge are often way too busy to sit for hours and type. So what’s their secret? Talk.
I was truly amazed and enamored in the way this book guides you through the process, which is based upon having a friend or journalist sit with you and ask you a series of questions about your expertise, experiences, acumen of subject matter and have your interview recorded. Then by using a transcription service, convert the audio files into a written rough draft. Next edit the draft, sleep on it, and after a few days edit it again. Lastly send it to a professional proofreading service. Bingo. You have a manuscript. “Aha. Wow.” How ingenious.
As we all know it’s easier to cut and edit a document than write one, so this creative method, albeit using digital technology and outside services, provides a game plan for going from “mind to manuscript” within about two weeks. Not only revealing their verbal articulation tricks, but they dive into the minutia of details necessary to explain each and every aspect of publishing your book. You will learn the secrets to writing an author bio, choosing the correct author photo to use, explaining what’s up with an ISBN number, plus all about designing a cover; everything. With each aspect of going through the publishing maze explained in terse chapters, Max and Obront bring you directly to the finish line at record-breaking speed.
Whether you’re a newbie to publishing or a seasoned author, these techniques are exactly on topic and most generously revealed. The galley text is spaciously laid out, with chapter summaries and what took me by surprise, a “STOP” sign halfway into the book. They wrote, “Don’t read further until you have completed the prior steps.” Then, page after page The Book In A Box Method provides golden nuggets of just how these award-winning authors have overcome obstacles of the publishing quadrum, achieving their success at the top of the charts.
More than a “How To” book, this is the Bible for writing professional non-fiction in this digital age. Written in an easy going conversational style, The Book In A Box Method will provide you with a personal coach, a mentor and a friend in helping guide you to fruition of becoming a published author.
