Help Me Name My Next Book

Hey Gang...

I'm writing a book in 3 weeks. That's right...3 weeks! I'm actually trying to polish it off in 2 weeks.

In reality, I'm simply gathering together a lot of things I speak about and blog about and putting them in a book. This is a strategy I teach at the Speak It Forward Boot Camp.

Anyway, I need help naming the book. The book is a "success" book for teenagers and will basically have 3 sections.

Live Smart (this will bring about an average life)
It's Your Life, Own It (this will raise you to an above average life and put you in the top 20%)
Forward is the direction of success (this will put you in the top 5% and bring about a WAY BEYOND average life)

Two quick thoughts on this basic outline:

You'll notice that the sections fit my business "Live It Forward." That's obviously on purpose.
Each section will have 10 short chapters (1-4 pages) with some follow up questions.

So, what I need help with, and quickly, is what to title the book. Here's what I'm thinking so far. The title is before the hash mark, subtitle is after the hash mark.

Don't Ever, EVER Settle for Average--The Teen's Guide to Real Success and Awesomeness
Stop Being Normal--A Teen's Guide to Real Success and Awesomeness
Live It Forward for Teens--The Guide to Real Success

I have more...but these are my top 3 so far.

Thoughts, insights, and ideas welcome!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom Wissert on August 24, 2011 at 10:25am

Kent,

I am envious!!! Write a book in two or three weeks. You go man!!! One of the talks I give when talking to teens is "Who's driving your bus?". Basically the same ideasas yours urging teens to take charge of their lives. so my book title suggestion would be ...............Who's driving your Bus? Guiding teens to take the wheel of their lives.

Hope that helps!!! Good luck and save me a copy!!

Tom

Permalink Reply by Kent Julian on August 29, 2011 at 11:08am

Okay everyone...after a lot of input and great discussion, here's what I'm thinking:

Title: Who Wants To Be Normal Anyway!

Subtitle: A Teen's Guide to Ultimate Coolness and Real Success

Cover: The cover will have a bunch of dead-pan people that look exactly the same...probably in some sort of gray color...with one teenagers standing out from the crowd in full color.

There are three sections -- each will have 10 quick chapters (1-5 pages) with a page to that allows readers to personalize their response via "STOP Being Normal Action Steps."

LIVE Smart
It's Your Life--Own IT
FORWARD is the Direction of Success

Remember that 90-95% of the books will be sold during speaking engagements. Most students will have no idea that I'm the president of Live It Forward LCC, so I decided I didn't need that in the title. What more, I will probably do 1 or 2 more books in the next few years.

Let me know your thoughts...the good, the bad, and the ugly. And remember, I'm trying to get this book done in 3 weeks (2 weeks left), so I need input immediately :)

Permalink Reply by Deborah Eaton on August 29, 2011 at 11:22am

Sounds like you have hit on a winner! Love it.

Permalink Reply by Anna Scates on August 30, 2011 at 6:56am

Sounds good, Kent. I am really glad you dumped the idea of zombies. My teens aren't geared toward that. (They are weird, Ha!) Anyway, if you are looking for someone to proofread your book and do it quickly, I would be happy to help out if you want. Just let me know. Thanks, and may God bless your efforts.

Permalink Reply by Kent Julian on August 30, 2011 at 7:51am

Thanks Anna.

I've hired an editor, but if you want to take a look as well, I'll send it your way. Let me know.

Also, really came up with some cool book cover ideas. I'm going to post a voting contest soon.

Kent

Permalink Reply by Deborah Eaton on September 7, 2011 at 9:17am

Congratulations! Awesome accomplishment and a testament that when we set our mind to get something done, we can and that God will bless our efforts.

BTW, I'm sure you mean 30,000 WORDs and not pages ; - D

Permalink Reply by Kent Julian on September 7, 2011 at 10:08am

I keep doing that Deborah. Ugggh :)

Permalink Reply by Kent Julian on September 7, 2011 at 10:07am

Update:

Finished writing the book in 3 weeks on the nose (sent it to Andrea Reynolds -- a 48 Days member -- last night for editing).

It's right at 30,000 words. I actually wrote and proofed it once in 19 days (and most of that work was done in 12 days), then took two days to proof it a second time before sending it to Andrea.

Now onto the book cover, book layout, and printing. Target date to have it in my hands: Oct. 7.

What's super cool is that I decided to do this project on August 22 because of landing a speaking engagement to an audience of 4,000. That means from the moment I decided to do this project until the moment I should have the finished product in hand is only 54 days! Pretty awesome!!

One more side note...I have picked up 4 more speaking engagements to similar audiences in the past three weeks. It's as if once I decided to do this book, speaking engagements to audiences for this book just started pouring in. That's one of the magic combos of speaking and writing.