it impacts your decision-making about what book to write, and it usually gets you a worse book. For example, if you decide you want to write your book to sell millions of copies, you will try to make it as wide and accessible a topic as possible. But that trades off with reaching a niche audience, which is the key to getting authority and credibility. Or if you want to write a book to be famous, you’ll worry about how the book makes you look, instead of focusing on your audience, which is what makes a good book and gets you visibility. Getting the most out of a book is very much like the Zen koan about the target and the prize: Focus on the target, and you’ll hit it. This gets you the trophy. Focus on the trophy, you’ll miss the target. This gets you nothing. Books work the same way. If you focus on your audience and what they need, you will write a great book, and that will get you all kinds of great results. But if you have unrealistic expectations, then you’ll focus on those and get nothing. rEAliSTiC AND UNrEAliSTiC ExPECTATiONS fOr A BOOk · 373