Man, I'm not sure what it takes to write a NYT best seller these days, but that guy's writing was like nails on a chalkboard to me. I wonder if there's a "humility transmogrifier" Chrome extension out there so I don't have to experience that again...
Isn't this just outsourcing the "hard work" that is writing?
I mean plenty of authors do voice transcription to build the core of their books - the hard work part is all the stuff that is #3-9 on the list of what they did.
Seems like the advice he gave in the beginning was right, and that he just added more overhead to writing a book. Or said another way, made a process for people who don't want to put the time/effort into the book creation process a way to get a book published with a lot more moving pieces.
I'm not really seeing the innovation here outside of just making a service.
Can't believe this "don't have time to write a book. Hey, I had a brilliant idea you can dictate and outsource the rest, we are entrepreneurs!" is in the front page (or anywhere) in HN.
I think this is stupid, and brilliant at the same time. Who cares about a book? Who cares about the readers? And even more, who cares about the writer? I found a way to pull money from someone who thinks is a book writer!!!!
His point isn't that he has some great technology or shortcut for writing books. His point is this business concept was staring him in the face for a decade, and he never realized it.
Instead of trying to push his own ideas on the market, he was put in a position to look at an old problem in a new way. And that's the struggle: recognizing when 'the way it is now' is no longer the best way.
He didn't invent ghostwriting or any of the rest of the process, he just streamlined it into an easier, less expensive service, and now he's making bank.
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 26.4 ms ] threadI mean plenty of authors do voice transcription to build the core of their books - the hard work part is all the stuff that is #3-9 on the list of what they did.
Seems like the advice he gave in the beginning was right, and that he just added more overhead to writing a book. Or said another way, made a process for people who don't want to put the time/effort into the book creation process a way to get a book published with a lot more moving pieces.
I'm not really seeing the innovation here outside of just making a service.
For example write me a book on Russia's annexation of Crimea & war in Eastern Ukraine.
There's at least 4000 hours of research there, interviewing people in an active war zone and collecting 10,000's of sources, it would take years.
If anything this is where this approach would work, there's far more analysts and editors out there than writers with a heroic sense of duty.
Instead of trying to push his own ideas on the market, he was put in a position to look at an old problem in a new way. And that's the struggle: recognizing when 'the way it is now' is no longer the best way.
He didn't invent ghostwriting or any of the rest of the process, he just streamlined it into an easier, less expensive service, and now he's making bank.