Writing your own book and publishing it can be a daunting task. Before you get to the publishing process, you still have to figure out a few things — what do you write about, how do you start writing, and finally, does your book consist of good content that people want to read? Today’s guest has not only written his own book, but he also started a publishing company and has now published over 150 books.

On Season 6, Episode 39 of Making Bank, Jesse Krieger shares how he went from backpacking in Europe to writing a book and then starting his own publishing company. He chats about his journey of becoming a street musician in Vienna, Austria, then how he switched over to business, and eventually how he wrote his book titled Lifestyle Entrepreneur.

Continue reading to find out more about Jesse and his process of creating a book that people will actually want to read.

Jesse’s Journey From Musician To Author And Business Owner
Jesse Krieger has had a strong passion for music ever since he was a child. He spent a large part of his teenage years practicing music and playing in bands. His love for music is what compelled Jesse to go to a music school in LA, but it was in LA that he would decide to go on a backpacking trip to Europe with his friends. Once in Europe, his couple of month vacation would get extended to a year-long stay because Jesse would decide that being a musician on the streets of Europe was far more adventurous than being back home and attending music school in LA. After a year of being a street musician in Vienna, Jesse would move back to the US, where he’d meet his bandmate, who would eventually become his business partner when they decided to start their own record label rather than sign to one. This was Jesse’s first step into the business world; after starting his own record label, he would move to Asia and start several businesses. His ability to start and scale businesses was what drew Jesse to the idea of writing a book on starting businesses. His book would later turn into a lifestyle guide based on the principles and steps Jesse used to create success in his life.

The Five Question Shortcut To Writing Your Own Book
Writing a book isn’t easy, one of the hardest parts about writing a book is knowing where to start. Grabbing a blank piece of paper and trying to start from scratch can be pretty demotivating for some people, and that’s why Jesse shared with us his shortcut to writing a book. Essentially you’re creating a bunch of questions — five is a good number to start at, and these questions are meant to explore the bones of what you are trying to offer with your book.

Jesse explained the process — find yourself a friend, family member, or anyone willing to help you, and you present them with the questions about your book that you made and get them to ask those questions to you. You can take a video or just record the audio, but the idea is that you answer these questions in as much detail as you can, and the answers then become the chapters for your book. You can use your answers as a starting point for each chapter, Jesse recommends getting an editor or someone to transcribe your answers, and that’s when you start cleaning up the book’s content. You start expanding on, formatting, and phrasing your answers better to make your book more understandable and enjoyable to read. This method shortens the time it would have taken you to start your book from scratch, rather than sitting there and trying to figure out each paragraph for your book, and instead gives you a base to start writing your book on.

What Makes A Book Good?
Writing itself, by nature, is a thought-provoking activity. When you’re thinking of writing a book, you want to be able to create something worth sharing with people. Jesse talks about what makes a good book — a good book contains insightful content that comes from a person that knows what they’re talking about. When you’re writing a book, you want to be able to offer information that is valuable to the consumer. When you do that, your book then opens up the possibility of allowing you to create other content, such as digital courses or services that you provide that are complementary to what you’re offering in your book.

Writing a book is never going to be an effortless process, but with passion, willpower, and a few shortcuts to get things done, you can write a book and earn money doing so, as long as you’re creating something that delivers value to your consumers.