A few people asked me recently how to write a book in an efficient manner. I've been told by people who know that I can write quickly – I am sure there are many other ways, but this is my way, in 10 steps:

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1. Read. A lot.
2. Pick a topic you want to write the book on.
3. Read. A lot. On the topic.
4. Build up your own “idea supply chain”: write tweets on what you read; write blogs from the tweets. (Gets you in the habit of writing. Also, some blogs became chapters of my book.) 2/x

5.Formulate hypotheses (WHY is it important? WHY original? WHY would people read it? WHY are you the right author? Will form the basis of your book proposal)
6 Build up your own topical mind-map (Helps me meta-structure the topic. It also became the book's table of contents) 3/x

7. Speak to lots of relevant people – experts, practitioners, sparring partners, to challenge your hypotheses, and get more content.
8. Get help. (You can’t do it all by yourself. Get people to take some weight off your shoulders, e.g. transcribing, or additional research) 4/x

9. Make a longer period of time when it comes to writing the core. (I took off 8 weeks, in which I wrote 80% of the book. In this period, you write. All the time. Not everything you formulate will be genius, some of it you will later delete, no matter – keep on writing.) 5/x

10. Get a great editor (Especially if it’s your first book, you know very little about formal requirements. A great editor is also essential for motivation on the last miles, which can be EXCRUCIATINGLY LONG.)

Best of luck!

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