Hello, writer!

Another month has come and gone. I hope October has been the right amount of scary for you! (For me, that's "almost none"—Hocus Pocus is my jam; truly scary movies, not so much!).

Since it's the end of the month, it's time to meet a new author! I enjoyed interviewing Arjan Singh, author of Competitive Success: Building Winning Strategies with Corporate War Games.

Arjan Singh is the Founder and President of Corporate War Games and has led war games for businesses worldwide. He also teaches strategy and competitive intelligence.

Tell me about your book. What is it about? Who would benefit from reading it?

The book is called Competitive Success (affiliate link*). It's a book on business strategy, and it lays out a step-by-step process for companies and individuals to really think about the type of strategies that they can create and to be really deliberate. The whole notion there is around practicing your strategies before you go into the marketplace rather than finding out the hard way that things are not going to work.

It's really about rehearsals, similar to how athletes prepare for events. You know, they don't just turn up to Wimbledon or the Olympics and hope they're going to win. There's a lot of practice. What I've found over the years is this: most businesses do not practice.

There are so many examples in the book of businesses that failed after guessing what they should do. It's primarily aimed at business people, from startups to small and large businesses. The strategies are very important, especially for startups when you don't have resources. It's all about being resourceful. Conducting war games can be very effective in understanding what would work and what would not.

In one of the chapters, I talked about applying it to personal situations as well. If you're a student and you're making career decisions, war game them out. Every time you make a career decision, it's the next five to ten years of your life. I've come across people who have been in jobs for a long time. You talk to them, and what comes out are comments like, “I hope to do this for a couple of years before I move on to my passion.” When you ask them, “How long have you been here?” they’ll say, “I've been doing this for 20 years.” It's really easy to get stuck.

The book is about being deliberate in the decisions you're making, making sure you factor in all the data points you have access to, and then working through scenarios to think through your best options. If you're thinking about chess, it's about thinking about the next five or ten moves but also factoring in how your opponent’s going to react to those moves.

I was struck by something you said toward the end of the book: you used war gaming as part of your writing process! What was that like?

That's a great catch. We used a very similar process to what's described in the book, starting with objectives. It helped me plan communication, narrative, and tonality. Right from the beginning, I wanted this to be an approachable, non-clinical book. Some of the feedback I've gotten is that because it’s a business book, people expected it to be boring, but it’s not.

That was the first step in terms of working through objectives. I also went through the rest of the process outlined in the book. I looked at the battlefield, which is the second step: what are some of the other books out there? What's the unique value proposition we can use? Who’s the competition? I spent time reflecting on the messages they've been sending. Then, ultimately, creating the narrative, the toolkit, and working through the actual creation of the book, all the way down to the transcrips. I closely followed the whole process in coming up with the book.

How long did it take you to write the book?

Wargaming was very important for the writing process because that gave me the blueprint in terms of core story themes, tonality, and messaging. Having a blueprint like that can really accelerate the writing process. It took six months. I started in March 2023, finished the transcript in October, and then it was just post-production that came into play afterward.

Having clear objectives, a clear outline, and clear parameters is helpful. Many, many years ago, I did not have the cadence or the discipline to do so, and you end up going in circles. At least I did. I ended up writing around in circles. I had a lot of notes and a lot of random thoughts. The structure helped accelerate the production of this book

What writing strategies did you find helpful?

Taking it in bite-size chunks. Once the blueprint was completed, the next step was starting to write and that is a challenge for a lot of people, right? Taking that first step is always a challenge. I don't remember who said it, but a journey of a thousand miles always begins with the first step, then the second, then the third. And you kind of work toward that.

The book has 15 chapters: an introduction and 14 chapters that follow. One of the things I was advised to do was, when you start writing the introduction, don't stop there. Do the introduction and the first chapter, and do it very quickly. That was the acceleration required to get into the right mind frame to start putting pen to paper. That helped because it took a little bit of time. It took about three or four weeks to do that first step. But then it started getting quicker and quicker and quicker. I started getting into the groove of the whole creative process.

You teach, and you run war games with businesses. How do you fit writing into your schedule?

Timing was always a challenge. I had two different writing aspects. One was in between other meetings and teaching. If I got even five-minute chunks of time, I would start writing.

In addition to that, every week, I had a couple of hours that were always, always blocked. Friday afternoons are quiet; it's a wind down to the weekend. Clients don't disturb you because they're interested in getting out the door. There aren't any classes. So, I had a quiet period, which I found very productive. Finding a productive time is a critical piece because you get a larger chunk of time to write. The five, ten, 20-minute segments were kind of like teasers. They would tease out some thoughts, and the longer periods were when I had the opportunity to flesh them out. I wish I had known earlier because it took me a little bit of time to figure out that this would be the most productive process.

Was there anything you tried early in the writing process that didn't work?

There are so many. I mentioned not having a blueprint, which is very hard, but even with the blueprint, there's always this tendency to jump ahead. Jumping around was not very productive because I ended up having half-thoughts on particular chapters, then coming back and having another half-thought. Going sequentially helped me stay disciplined, and that worked for me. I can see it being different for others.

The other aspect that didn't work was jotting down random thoughts and then turning them into sentences. Sometimes, it was challenging because I’d write something and then go back and say, “Okay, I don't remember what these two random words meant.” Not fully quantifying or cataloging a thought was a challenge. I quickly discovered that if I have a thought, I should just complete it. It doesn't have to be on paper. I can do a voice memo. There are so many different ways to capture it in a form that you'll actually remember. If you're taking notes, make sure they're legible, even though they're yours.

What writing tools did you find especially helpful?

The most useful one was paper. I mean, it was old school. I experimented with the Notes app, Word, and Google Docs. I played around with a lot of them. I had a notebook, which had all my thoughts cataloged in there. I used that as a blueprint and then the outline of the book and then wrote in a Word document. It was really simple.

I played around with a lot of others, like Miro. Paper, just simple, simple stuff was what worked. I used Post-its as well, but I stopped after a while because I started losing them. It was easier to have chronological thoughts in a notebook.

What was your publishing experience like?

It was great! Forbes had a lot of resources throughout the whole journey. They led me through it. At the beginning of the process, it seemed daunting to go through these different milestones. There's not only the creative part but the production and distribution pieces. They provided a lot of resources, white papers, and background information on what to expect. They were very collaborative and an invaluable partner in making this book a reality.

Book marketing is a huge task. How have you shared the book with readers?

Like you said, marketing is a large part of having a book. I think most authors think, “Hey, the battle is over once the book is published,” but that's just the beginning. That's when your voice goes out to the world. Promotion is very, very important.

This book's been promoted in various forums since it came out. There have been articles, interviews, and podcasts. It was featured in Harvard Business Review’s flagship podcast, which is called Ideacast. Having a plan for promotion is really important, and then you build in increments. Make a two-month, six-month, 12-month plan and work from there.

What have you learned about marketing? What would you suggest to another author?

Once the book’s out and people start reading it, that's when you start having fun interviews. One of the things that worked really well was sending out copies to core influencers, to publishers, to business people and accelerating awareness. For the first month or so, we held off on that because I wasn't sure how many copies we were going to have, and we ran out. We had to reprint, which was a good problem to have.

One of the realities I learned is that it's an Amazon game. When you look at book distribution, the bulk of book distribution in the United States is through Amazon. Reviews are really important. Getting reviews up and running quickly is critical. Goodreads is the other one that influences people to buy the book. If you've got a book coming out, reach out to your network to get as many reviews as possible because that will cascade into publicity and help with creating awareness.

What's next for you? Do you have other projects in mind?

That's a great question. I'm thinking about a follow-up to this book, creating a Competitive Success series. This would be the first flagship book, and then I’ll get more focused and on different dimensions. That's still a work in progress.

What is the number one piece of advice that you would offer to another writer?

If you're interested in writing, start now. Don't wait. If you wait, you'll end up waiting ten or 20, 30 or 40 years. Starting the process sooner rather than later is number one.

Number two is that a lot of people say, “Oh, I'd love to write a book, but I don't have anything to say.” I don't think that's true. I think everyone has a story. Everyone has a unique experience that you can share with the world. It's just a case of figuring out how you're going to tell that story. You may know something you think is obvious, but when you start talking to others, it becomes apparent that it might not be. You have to figure out what story you’re going to tell.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

That is a really good question. I’d say Education is Freedom, by James Keyes (affiliate link*). He was the CEO of 7-Eleven and CEO of Blockbuster, and he created a foundation called Education is Freedom. He talks about how, with the right prioritization, education can change the world. Each individual has a responsibility to educate themselves and the people around them for the betterment of the planet. He came and talked to my students, and I really got into the book. It's a profound one in terms of making an impact on the world.

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I enjoyed learning about Arjan's experience writing and publishing his book, and I'm excited to follow along with the Competitive Success series!