FIRM GROWTH · By Steve Gordon, Founder, Million Dollar Author · 8 min read · Updated 2026
I wrote my book an hour a day. You shouldn't.
My first book took two failed drafts and a Saturday. The owners I work with now don't write at all. They talk for about eight hours in week one. About 90 days later, they hold the book.
"I don't have time to write a book."
I hear that line more than any other. From consultants. From financial advisors. From coaches and fractional executives.
And most of the time, it's true.
One of our clients, a consultant, had the same worry. Then her firm had the busiest year it's ever had, and she finished her book anyway. I'll tell you how in a minute.
You run a firm. Your team needs you. Your clients expect you. Your calendar was full before you opened it this morning.
So I won't argue with you. I'll tell you how I wrote my first book, and why I'd never ask you to do it my way.
How I did it (the hard way)
My first two tries at a book both went in the trash. Two years of work, and nothing I could use.
On the third try, I shut myself in my office one Saturday and stayed until I had a plan for the whole book. Then I wrote for one hour a day, 35 days in a row.
That hour was 4:00 to 5:00 in the morning.
I had four kids to get off to school and a firm to run. Once the house woke up, my day belonged to everybody else. So the only hour left was one I'd normally spend asleep. For five weeks, my alarm went off at 4:00, and I stole that hour from my sleep.
It worked. My business doubled three years in a row after that book came out.
But most people won't get up at 4 a.m. to write a book. I don't blame them. I wouldn't ask you to.
And you probably don't have a spare hour later in the day either. Every hour you spend at a keyboard comes out of time with a client, time with your family, or your sleep.
So when you tell me you don't have time to write a book, I believe you.
I'd just add one thing. You don't have to write it.
You've been picturing the wrong job
When most owners picture writing a book, they see what I saw: a keyboard at 4 a.m., a blank page, and a house that's still asleep.
That's the part you'd hate. It's also the part you can skip.
Your book already exists. You say it out loud every week.
You say it when a client sits across the table and asks how to fix the problem that's keeping them up at night. You walk them through it, one step at a time. You tell them about the last client who tried it the other way, and what that cost.
That's a chapter. You just never wrote it down.
Writing it down is its own trade. You probably don't do your own taxes, either. You pay someone who does that all day, and you spend your hours on the work you're best at.
A book can work the same way.
Most book programs and writing courses still hand you the keyboard. Many of them ask for about 100 hours of your time.
With us, you talk. An interviewer asks the questions and draws the method out of your head. A writer turns your words into chapters that sound like you.
You never write a word.
What it takes from you
I'll give you the real time ask, so you're not guessing.
Week one: about eight hours of interviews. You talk. We record. No homework and no blank page.
The next few months: 12 to 15 hours, spread out, going through drafts and marking what should change. "This part's right." "I'd never say it that way." "Put in the story about the client who almost walked."
Start to finish: about 90 days.
| What you do | What our team does |
|---|---|
| Talk with an interviewer, about 8 hours in week one | Plans the book around the clients you want to win |
| Run your firm | Writes every chapter from your interviews |
| Read drafts and mark what to change, 12 to 15 hours over a few months | Edits and rewrites until it reads the way you talk |
| Approve the cover | Designs the cover and the pages inside |
| Say yes to the final book | Publishes it |
| Hand out your book and show up where the plan sends you | Builds the plan to put the book in front of your future clients |
Brett Trembly is the CEO of Get Staffed Up. He went through this same process, and he never wrote a word either. In his words:
"Steve and the team pulled a full book out of me, fast. It hit bestseller."
"Pulled a full book out of me" is exactly right. The book was already in there. Somebody just had to get it out.
"This is the worst year to add something"
That's the next thing owners tell me. "Maybe next year, Steve. Things are crazy right now."
I understand. I've also watched a lot of owners wait for the quiet year. It never shows up.
Deborah Reuben is a consultant. She had the same worry going in. This is what she told us:
"One of the doubts I had to overcome was how much would be required of me... as soon as I committed to this, a lot of deals came in the door and it became our busiest year ever."
Her busiest year ever. The same year she did her book.
And Deborah took the harder road. Some owners like to write, so we coach them through it, and she wrote her book herself.
Then came the part she was dreading most. Recording the audiobook.
"I was dreading doing the audiobook... it actually was surprisingly easy. A week of 90-minute virtual sessions and I did not have to travel for it."
If you're waiting until you're less busy, think about Deborah. She never got less busy. She got the book done anyway.
Why a full calendar doesn't break the process
The process bends to fit your week.
Tabetha Hart is a consultant and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor® (CEPA®). She fit her book into a busy schedule. She put it like this:
"There was a team of people immediately. Everything was step-by-step... it works on the writer's schedule. You don't do step 10 until you do step 2."
That last line matters when your week is full. You're never juggling ten things at once. You handle the one step in front of you, and the team takes care of what comes after.
Tabetha never wrote a word of her book. She talked, and our team did the writing. Each step waited until she was ready for it, and her practice kept running the whole time.
Robert Slagel has grown and exited seven businesses. He knows what an hour of his time is worth. He wrote this in his review:
"The MDA team has been very efficient, respectful of my time and provided great advice."
And when there's a real deadline
Most books take us about 90 days. Once in a while, someone needs one sooner.
One of our clients, Mike Koenigs, had a big event 23 days out and needed a new book for it. Our team had the finished book at the printer in 13 days.
That's not our normal pace, and I wouldn't plan your book around it. But it shows the process holds up under pressure.
That hour-a-day book is what started this company. You can read the full story here.
What those hours buy back
Look at the time from the other side.
Think about the first calls you took last month. How many minutes of each one went to explaining who you are, what you do, and why you're different?
Now picture a prospect who read your book before the call. He already knows how you think. He's seen your method, step by step. So the call starts where you talk about working together.
The eight hours you spend talking keep paying you back. Every time your book does the explaining, you get that time back on a call.
That only happens when the book gets in front of the right people. Most publishers and ghostwriters hand you the finished book and stop there. We keep going. We build the marketing around your book, and we build it for the way firms like yours actually win clients.
For most of the firm owners we talk to, one to three new clients pay for the whole thing.
Our guarantee covers the rest. Sell a service at $10,000 or more, finish 80% of the launch steps, and you'll earn back your investment within 90 days of publishing. If you're not there by day 90, I keep working with you until you are.
We've never had to.
Is this a fit for you?
This works best if:
- Your firm is established, and you have a team
- Your work sells for $10,000 or more per client
- You know your work cold, and you'd rather talk about it than type it
It's not a fit if you're just getting started, or if you want a book for the shelf with no plan to use it.
If that sounds like you, start with a 20-minute call with my team. They'll learn about your firm, your best clients, and the work you want more of. Then one of our book strategists will sit down with you.
By the end of those two conversations, you'll know:
- Whether now is the right time for a book
- The topic that fits your firm best
- Why it would make you the obvious pick in your market
- How many new clients it could bring in, and what that adds up to
- The fastest way to get it bringing in clients
If now isn't the right time for a book, they'll tell you.
My first book cost me five weeks of 4 a.m. alarms and two years of drafts I threw away.
You can skip all of that. Give us about eight hours of talking in week one, and let us do the typing.
Steve "you talk, we type" Gordon
P.S. Deborah Reuben's firm got busier the moment she said yes to her book, and she still finished it. The slower year you're waiting for may never come. The first step takes 20 minutes. Book your 20-minute call