Last Friday we had a course here at Packt Towers on the Fish Philosophy. The Fish Philosophy is all about boosting morale in business. Now it’s hard to imagine that morale at Packt could be boosted any further without exploding. Even so, the course was very interesting.
Anybody aiming to write a book that people want to buy and read can learn something from the 4 pillars of Fish: Be there, Play, Make their day, and Choose your attitude.
Read on to find out how…
Be there
A non-fiction book is about a relationship — the relationship between you, your reader, and your topic. Draw close to the reader (but not too close… let’s stay professional here), and show them and their needs as much respect as you show your topic.
Play
I never read a review that said the book wasn’t boring enough. Readers love to grin while they read even if it’s a boring topic. Playful writing chooses amusing examples and word pictures to make a point. Show how to have fun with the ideas, concepts, and tools that your book covers.
Make their day
Serve and delight your readers. Put something on every page of every chapter that readers will be immediately glad to learn. Solve a problem that’s been nagging for ages, show them how to do something that they’ll want to do straight away, or give them something interesting to say at their next staff meeting / Ignite evening.
Choose your attitude
The Fish principle here is basically “be cheerful”. As an author, you can be more sophisticated and adopt an attitude or character that is appropriate to your topic. You can convey the attitude of being serious and solution focused in dealing with serious topics. Or you can adopt an excitable attitude to all of the new possibilities you’re sharing. Or a mad scientist throwing ingredients together for no other reason than the joy of experimenting. Even a grouchy attitude can work for some things. Pick an attitude for your writing that fits the topic and surprises your readers.
The non fiction books that I like, computer or not, do this in spades. Want to sell a lot of copies? Follow their lead.
