In my previous post, "Why The 4-Hour Body Was Years in the Making," I shared some of Tim Ferriss' strategies for setting his book The 4-Hour Body apart from other diet books on the market. In this follow-up Tim shares why he didn't just stop at the subject of diet and created a book that was unlike any others.
When you are thinking about writing your book, you don't want a topic or focus that has never been done before because there may be a very good reason for why that is. On the other hand you want to think outside the box and offer something more and different for your reader.
So to explain why Tim Ferriss included chapters on sex and insomnia but did not focus a great deal on topics like mental performance in his book about diet and exercise, here is an excerpt from his interview with my business partner, Mike Keonigs.
Mike: Tim, the subtitle of The 4-Hour Body is "An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman." Why so many topics in one book?
Tim Ferriss: Let's start with sex. We're sexual creatures at the end of the day. Everything about our biology is driven towards procreation period. Sex can either make or break relationships, marriages and families. It's a very, very important subject. Not only for the integrity of a relationship but just for quality of life and it's very central to our essence as human beings.
Mike: You are a self-proclaimed insomniac. Is that why you did so much research on how to get a good night's sleep?
Tim Ferriss: That and because we know how stressful it can be on the mind and body to struggle with getting to sleep, sleeping throughout the night and being able to wake up rested. What's interesting is the research I found on using particular light cues to allow anyone (even me) to fall asleep within 10 minutes and stay asleep. Also, part of the reason that people don't feel rested when they wake up is not necessarily because they didn't get enough sleep, it's because they have low blood sugar. This issue can be remedied with almond butter before sleep or supplementation.
Mike: When most people think of being their best, the topic of mental performance comes up and yet you did not focus a great deal on that, why?
Tim Ferriss: That is as great question and very few people ask about that, but it does seem like a natural connection. When it comes to the best way to improve mental performance is to improve physical performance. They're not separate. There is an anecdote in the beginning of the book from Richard Branson that when asked how he stays so productive, his answer is he works out. As for motivation -- I don't think people need more motivation. I think they need more feedback and accountability. I don't think I have a tremendous amount of will power in particular but I do have very good tracking which is what many people don't do -- they don't hold themselves accountable.
Mike: Was it a challenge to make the manuscript cohesive with so many different subjects?
Tim Ferriss: In every single chapter there's a simple recipe with the facts and the science behind it, the nutrition, the workout, and the results so it really is a handbook for life. It is intended to be sort of a "joy of cooking" for the human body so you pick the chapter you want.
This is some great advice to authors on how to approach a complex subject, deliver it in a way that will be easily digestible and offer more than the reader expects.
Arielle Ford has launched the careers of many New York Times bestselling authors including Deepak Chopra, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Neale Donald Walsch & Debbie Ford. She is a former book publicist, literary agent and the author of seven books. To learn how to get started writing a book please visit: www.HowToWriteMyBook.com