Leo's Book

[Sempiternity]

I saw the yesterday's Blog post, saying that Leo has written 100,000 words so far. On average books are usually 70,000 to 100,000 words (roughly 300 to 400 pages), so it's already on the high end of book word-counts.

Leo, what word-count are you roughly shooting for? What percentage would you consider it 'done'? 

My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. I'm not on this forum much at all. But saw the blog post and got curious. 

[LordFall]

The title is gonna be

The Bible 2 

[Yimpa]

https://www.actualized.org/insights/writing-my-book-part-3

[Leo Gura]

@Sempiternity I was counting it yesterday. I need about 500,000 words at least.

My book is not like other books. Each page contains 500 words and it needs at least 800 pages, but more like 1000.

I will probably split it up into two volumes.

It won't be close to done until I'm close to 500,000 words.

Edited 17 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Terell Kirby]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@Sempiternity I was counting it yesterday. I need about 500,000 words at least.

My book is not like other books. Each page contains 500 words and it needs at least 800 pages, but more like 1000.

I will probably split it up into two volumes.

It won't be close to done until I'm close to 500,000 words.

Seems very ambitious.

if I’m honest I’m a bit skeptical of you pulling this off. How much do you plan to outsource? Editing, publishing, marketing- etc? Overall I hope you are successful in this endeavor.

 

[Leo Gura]

2 hours ago, Terell Kirby said:

Seems very ambitious.

It is.

But it's not that hard. I already know all the material by heart. And I already wrote 20% of it.

The only obstacle is my own laziness or health.

Quote

if I’m honest I’m a bit skeptical of you pulling this off. How much do you plan to outsource? Editing, publishing, marketing- etc? Overall I hope you are successful in this endeavor.

I don't outsource any writing or editing. I will do that myself.

Once it is ready I will try to find a solid publisher who is also interested into doing some serious marketing for the book. But if I can't find such a deal, then I will publish it myself. If I find a publisher then they will help me a lot with secondary editing, publishing, and marketing.

If the book is finished and as good as I plan for it to be, then finding a publisher should be easy. They will see the cultural and commercial value of such a book. It is no ordinary book.

Edited 13 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Sempiternity]

6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@Sempiternity I was counting it yesterday. I need about 500,000 words at least.

My book is not like other books. Each page contains 500 words and it needs at least 800 pages, but more like 1000.

I will probably split it up into two volumes.

It won't be close to done until I'm close to 500,000 words.

Very interesting. Thanks for the reply 🙏 I look forward to getting and reading when done. 

[Sempiternity]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

I don't outsource any writing or editing. I will do that myself.

I'm sure you got it handled, but I would suggest having someone else go over the whole thing when done to maybe catch things you may have missed, before sending in to a publisher. Sometimes we're too close to something to see things clearly. Having another set of eyes is invaluable in writing. But again, I'm sure you're ontop of it. 

[Leo Gura]

16 minutes ago, Sempiternity said:

having someone else go over the whole thing when done

Certainly. That's easy. I got you guys for that. I'll send out drafts to a few folks on the forum who are trustworthy.

I can also use local AI to proof-read it and even ask for improvements. I plan on doing that only once it's done.

Edited 10 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Basman]

My first impression is that I'm a little wary of readability with those numbers from a first time writer. A commercial editor would probably want to do a lot of slashing. 

[Leo Gura]

32 minutes ago, Basman said:

My first impression is that I'm a little wary of readability with those numbers from a first time writer. A commercial editor would probably want to do a lot of slashing. 

It is very readable. Of course that time does not include all the editing I will do later. But I write in such a clear style that you can read the rough draft and it all makes perfect sense. Can it be polished up more? Of course! That will involve a lot more time.

Also, I don't write fluff. If it was written, it is important for the whole. I only make important points. If I was allowed to write fluff it would need to a million words long. 1000 pages is 1000 very dense, very condensed pages of content with zero fluff and even stuff left unsaid due to lack of space.

Even in 1000 pages I won't be able to say everything I want to say. It's just not enough space for so much insight. You cannot turn all my videos into 1000 pages. It would not fit.

Edited 9 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Magnanimous]

Leo how much writing experience did you have (hours) before you started the book? How many do you have now?

Do you plan/speculate on going master/near-master? 

[Leo Gura]

47 minutes ago, Magnanimous said:

Leo how much writing experience did you have (hours) before you started the book? How many do you have now?

Do you plan/speculate on going master/near-master? 

I don't know. It's impossible to count. I have been writing for myself and on the blog for a long time.

But as far as pure book-writing experience, well, not much since I haven't written any books before. So it depends on what you want to count things.

I don't really care about writing as a craft. I care about insights and ideas. Writing is just a way to deliver insights. I write in a direct and clear style without a bunch of fanciness.

The challenge of the book is not in the writing, it's in the logical organization of all the insights. That was the real work, not the typing of the words. The words are not what matter. What matters is the order in which they deliver the insights so that everything makes holistic sense. On this front I reached mastery long ago thanks to making my videos.

I am not trying to master the writing, I am trying to master the layout of the insights.

Edited 8 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Ero]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Also, I don't write fluff. If it was written, it is important for the whole. I only make important points. If I was allowed to write fluff it would need to a million words long. 1000 pages is 1000 very dense, very condensed pages of content with zero fluff and even stuff left unsaid due to lack of space.

 

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

I have been writing for myself and on the blog for a long time.

 

Your blogs's style of writing is very similar to your speech in your videos, so would you say that the 100,000 words you have so far read similarly or no?

[Leo Gura]

4 minutes ago, Ero said:

would you say that the 100,000 words you have so far read similarly or no?

The book writing is a bit more formal, not as casual. But not too formal or fancy.

Similar to blog but better.

It definitely feels like me. It has the Leo vibes. It is not as dry as say, Ralston's books.

It will feel like I wrote it, not some generic AI.

Edited 7 hours ago by Leo Gura

[sda]

@Leo Gura What is the difference between the content of your book and the content of your actualized.org free videos on youtube? Also, at what price do you currently plan to sell your book for?

Edited 7 hours ago by sda

[Leo Gura]

29 minutes ago, sda said:

@Leo Gura What is the difference between the content of your book and the content of your actualized.org free videos on youtube? Also, at what price do you currently plan to sell your book for?

There is of course much overlap between book and videos. The book is a formalization of my work and all the videos, aimed at a complete explanation of Reality. There will be new arguments, but also many old ones. The book is for people who have never found my channel. It also goes into very heavy epistemology and ontology.

Price of book? No idea yet. It depends on whether I strike a deal with a publisher. If I go with publisher the book will be cheaper so it can sell more. If no publisher than more expensive because few copies will be sold.

It is a serious book so I expect a more serious price of $30-40. A publisher will make it more like $20.

It will probably be two volumes sold separately.

I have also entertained making it extra pricey to weed out the unserious people. This is supposed to be a life-changing book so the price is really irrelevant. If I charge $1000 for it, it would still be worth every dollar. But it won't be anything that pricey.

Edited 6 hours ago by Leo Gura

[AION]

This book project reminds me of the Titanic for some reason

[Magnanimous]

Is it any worth getting if your in your 20s? Even just for pleasure reading?

[Leo Gura]

8 minutes ago, Magnanimous said:

Is it any worth getting if your in your 20s? Even just for pleasure reading?

Of course. It will change how you see everything.

But if you already seen all my videos, you know much of this information already.

Edited 2 hours ago by Leo Gura