This is the Books By Josh review of Write. Publish. Repeat. by David Wright, Johnny B. Truant, and Sean Platt. As you can probably guess from the title, this is a book about writing and publishing books. This book was written in 2013 but the book still holds up today. If you aren’t a writer then this review isn’t for you, but if you are a writer then this review is for you. Let’s begin this review.

The only reason I picked up this book was because of the self-publishing sub-Reddit, someone brought it up and I decided to pick it up. Some of the users commented that there was only basic information and there wasn’t any new real advice. I didn’t let these comments affect the way I read the book, because I went in with an empty cup. This book is not written like a conventional book because there are two different author voices throughout the book. There is one main voice and the other voice jumps in from time to time to give their take on that particular topic. This book is a bit long (over 100k word) but you won’t want to put it down. If the length of the book seems a bit much, you are in luck because the book is separated into parts. This means you can just jump to the part that applies to the current state of your writing. Like I said, I went in with an empty cup so I read it from start to finish. So let me tell you what I took away from this book.

One of the first things I wrote down was their advice on how to sell more books when writing a series. The reason I paid special attention to this advice was that I am currently working on the second book in my detective series. Their advice was to bundle my books and sell them at a cheaper price. In other words, if each book is listed for three dollars, then I can bundle both books and sell them for five dollars. Bundling allows new readers to enjoy many of your books for a discounted price. This book also taught me that the characters in my books need to have their own personality and you need for them to react to situations. Basically, your character takes on a life of their own and it makes the book flow better. Another lesson I learned from reading this book is the three draft system. In the first draft, you focus on writing everything down without worrying about our internal critic. The second draft is where you rephrase it and make sure the story flows. The third and final draft is where you polish it and you fix the grammar. The final lesson that I want to discuss is their teaching that there is no such thing as writer’s block. I don’t want to start an argument but the book says writer's block is just something we made up in our minds. You have to write every day and make it a habit, this you will condition your body and mind. They also state that when you set time aside and write every day, you will be creative no matter what. They are pumping out a book a month, so I think they know a thing or two about writer’s block.

There are many more lessons in the book, I can write another three or four more paragraphs about them but they all pertain to me and my current situation. If you are a writer you need to pick up this book because there is a vast wealth of knowledge and not just from the authors. They’ve chosen to include a series of interviews with other authors. This book gives you different approaches to many things such as editing and marketing your book. I can honestly say that if you want to make it as an author either traditional or self-published, then you need to read this book at least once.