AEE 2345: 3 Tips to Write a Book in English with Jurriaan Kamer

Summary

All Ears English Podcast - Episode AEE 2345: 3 Tips to Write a Book in English with Jurriaan Kamer

Release Date: January 23, 2025

In Episode AEE 2345 of the All Ears English Podcast, hosts Lindsay McMahon and Michelle Kaplan engage in an insightful conversation with Jurriaan Kamer, an organizational change expert and co-founder of the management consultancy Unblock. The episode delves into Kamer’s experience of writing a book in English as a non-native speaker, offering listeners valuable tips and strategies to achieve similar success.

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Guest Introduction and Background

Lindsay warmly welcomes Jurriaan Kamer to the show, highlighting his extensive experience as a speaker, author, and consultant over the past decade. Kamer, based in Utrecht, Netherlands, has a global footprint, working with leaders worldwide through his consultancy, Unblock. His latest publication, Unblock: Clear the Way for Results and Develop a Thriving Organization, serves as a practical guide for leaders aiming to accelerate results and enhance organizational effectiveness.

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Writing in English as a Second Language

A significant portion of the discussion centers around Kamer’s decision to write his book in English. Despite Dutch being his native language, Kamer opted for English to reach a broader international audience. He explains:

"English is the international language of business at this point in time. So it did make sense." [04:39]

Kamer shares that only about a third of his followers are Dutch, with the remaining two-thirds distributed globally. This international reach influenced his choice to write in English, ensuring that his insights and methodologies are accessible to a wider readership.

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Three Key Tips for Writing a Book in English

Kamer offers three actionable tips for aspiring authors aiming to write in English:

1. Utilize the Right Tools

Kamer emphasizes the importance of leveraging modern writing tools to enhance the quality of writing in a second language:

"The first one is to get the right tools in place. So what really helped was to use Grammarly as a writing assistant just to make sure that what I was writing was cohesive and didn't contain lots of spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes." [07:09]

He further recommends using ChatGPT in conjunction with Grammarly to explore different phrasings and expand vocabulary:

"ChatGPT can go a little bit beyond and just, you know, you can just put in a few phrases and like, I don't know, like I want to have five different ways of saying this. Can you help me out?" [07:45]

2. Engage with Beta Readers and Gather Feedback

Kamer stresses the value of receiving feedback to ensure the book resonates with the intended audience:

"A book is only helpful if it actually resonates with the target audience that you have in mind." [09:20]

He utilized platforms like Helpthisbook.com to share early manuscript versions, allowing peers to provide constructive feedback on clarity, engagement, and relevance. This iterative process helps refine the content to better align with diverse reader demographics.

3. Hire a Professional Editor

The final tip revolves around the critical role of professional editing in polishing the manuscript:

"She created a style guide for herself... Which then helped us, you know, get the whole book through." [14:39]

Kamer found a native English-speaking editor on Reedsy, ensuring that cultural nuances and language subtleties are appropriately handled. This collaboration was pivotal in maintaining consistency in spelling conventions and overall writing style.

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Challenges and Solutions in Writing

Throughout the conversation, Kamer reflects on the challenges he faced while writing in English. One notable hurdle was maintaining consistency in spelling conventions, choosing between British and American English:

"We went for US based spelling. And that's because that's my... I wouldn't say. Yeah, that's how I write funny enough." [16:23]

He also discusses the complexities of selecting an appropriate title, navigating through numerous options generated by tools like ChatGPT, and ultimately relying on personal judgment and community feedback to make the final decision.

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Final Advice and Conclusion

Concluding the episode, Kamer offers encouraging words to listeners aspiring to write in English:

"With the tools that are available these days, don't let it hold you back. It's really not that hard anymore." [17:47]

He advises leveraging available technologies, seeking professional assistance, and embracing the writing journey as a pathway to improving English proficiency. Kamer underscores the advantages of writing in English, from expanding reach to enhancing personal language skills.

Where to Find Jurriaan Kamer:

• Book: Unblock – Available on www.unblockbook.net and Amazon.
• Professional Profile: LinkedIn

Key Takeaways:

1. Leverage Technology: Utilize tools like Grammarly and ChatGPT to enhance writing quality and explore diverse expressions.
2. Seek Feedback: Engage with beta readers to ensure your content resonates with a global audience.
3. Professional Editing: Invest in a proficient editor to refine your manuscript and maintain consistency in language usage.

This episode is a treasure trove for intermediate to advanced English learners and aspiring authors, providing practical insights into the process of writing a book in English. Kamer’s experiences highlight that with the right tools and strategies, language barriers can be effectively overcome to achieve global reach and impact.

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Transcript

[Lindsay McMahon]

This is an All Ears English podcast. Episode 22453 Tips to Write a book in English with Urien Kommmer. Welcome to the All Ears English podcast. Downloaded more than 200 million times. We believe in connection, not perfection. With your American host, Lindsay McMahon and today's featured guest coming to you from Denver, Colorado, USA. To get real time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the Allears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward/app. Have you ever wanted to write a book in English? Today, business consultant Jurrien Kommer shows us how he did it with three key tools. Get the information and the inspiration so that your book too can reach the entire world. In today's episode, when you speak English, do people ask what a lot? Or maybe they tell you you have great English but you don't feel like you do. Break free from awkward conversations and shake off that feel feeling of almost fluent by taking our free two minute quiz. Get your personalized results immediately. Check it out. Allearsenglish.comfluencyscore that's allearsenglish.comfluencyncore hello Urian, how are you today? Welcome to the show.

[Urian Kommer]

I'm really doing really well, Lindsay. Thank you for having me.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Very glad to have you here. I'm going to take a minute and introduce you to our audience and then we will get into our chat. So everyone, today I have Urian Calmer on the show who is an organizational change expert based in Ultrecht, Netherlands. Not sure if I got that right. Probably not.

[Urian Kommer]

Well, that was, that was perfect. Not too bad, right? Which is like this weird, weird thing. So. Yeah, yeah, so that's fine.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Excellent. And over the last decade, Urian has worked as a speaker, an author and a consultant. He co founded Unblock, a modern management consultancy that works with leaders worldwide. And he recently published his latest book called Unblock. Clear the way for results and develop a thriving organization. Welcome again. Yurian, I love the fact that you are really involved directly in the business world, especially as a consultant. You probably see a lot in the business world on a daily basis.

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, it's, it's different countries, different cultures, different company cultures. So language is always a thing I wrestle with and, and, and, and tinker with.

[Lindsay McMahon]

I know just off the top of my head, just one question about consulting I want to ask you before we get into writing. What would you say is the biggest theme that comes up as a consultant when you help companies? What's One of the major themes that tends to come up across industries that professionals tend to struggle with or want to improve. Is there one theme that comes up broadly?

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah. So depending on who you ask in the organization, if you start at the top, people will say strategy execution is very difficult. If you go a step down, people that are in the front lines, they're suffering from meeting overload.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Okay.

[Urian Kommer]

You know, just being drowning in meetings. And if you're somewhere in the middle, people will say that, you know, decision making is very slow. So.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Okay.

[Urian Kommer]

And those three things are interconnected, as you can imagine.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Interesting. I think a lot of those themes are going to resonate very well with our listeners here, whether they are working in English or their native language. But today we're here, Yurian, to talk about writing, specifically writing in English. Now you're on English is your second language. However, you speak very fluently near native in my, in my mind. And I know that you wrote a book in English. Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book, Unblock?

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah. So Unblock is all about unblocking organizations and helping leaders overcome some of those challenges. I already mentioned three of them, and there's three more in the book. And yeah, it's a practical guide for leaders that want to accelerate results and get better.

[Lindsay McMahon]

I see. And why did you decide to write it in English? That's my first question for you.

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, of course. Yeah. So I've been working internationally across the globe for a long time. Only about a third of the people that follow my work are Dutch.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Okay.

[Urian Kommer]

And two thirds are, are in the rest of the world. A third is roughly US and UK and there's a third outside of that as well.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Okay. So it made sense. English is the language, international language of business at this point in time. So it did make sense. Was that in, was this the first book that you wrote in English or was your previous book also in English?

[Urian Kommer]

So the previous book I, I wrote in, in Dutch first.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Okay.

[Urian Kommer]

Then I, and then I translated it and made it available in English.

[Lindsay McMahon]

I see.

[Urian Kommer]

And this time I, I, I just wrote it in English. I only wrote it in English, and I'm still considering if I will ever translate it to Dutch or not. And one factor is that most people that, that work in the Netherlands and work in business, they, they also read English. So they're fine with that.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Absolutely. Did you feel like anything was lost having to write it in English? Were there any nuances that were harder to convey when you made that decision to write in English?

[Urian Kommer]

Not so much, actually. Because a lot of the material and a lot of the clients I work with, that's already in English. Although it was sometimes harder to express myself. Right. If you really want to convey an idea, it's always easier to do that in your mother tongue. So sometimes I had to kind of figure out, like, how do I say this? What's the word? Like, I don't have the real word for it. Yes, but, yeah, but I think like a lot of the business words are already, you know, there's a lot of jargon in, in the work we do. Like these, these special words and like these, these, these business type words. So it's, it might even be harder to translate them to Dutch because the Dutch people also use the, the English version sometimes.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah, I love that. So the why here is, you know, if we're thinking about writing a book or writing anything, going to the method of writing it in English could open up doors and send the book global. Right. Rather than just within our own country. That sounds like a really good motivating factor to push ourselves out of our comfort zone, don't you think, Yan?

[Urian Kommer]

Absolutely. And these days with, with the tools that are available with Amazon self publishing, you can, you can upload a PDF and everybody in the world can buy your book. Like, that's, that's a good thing about these days.

[Lindsay McMahon]

I love it. I have a feeling some of our listeners might be curious what we're saying today. There may be a dream that they've been just putting, you know, pushing under the rug and ignoring. If they've always wanted to write something in English, whether it's a report or a book or a novel or something. I have a feeling some of our listeners have that dream. So Yurion can tell us, you mentioned that you have three tips on how you accomplish this. Right. You didn't just sit down and just write the book one day. You had to use tactics and strategies to get this done. Can you tell us what was one tactic that you used to do this?

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, the first one is to get the right tools in place. So what really helped was to use Grammarly as a writing assistant just to make sure that what I was writing was cohesive and didn't contain lots of spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes. It's just like a writing, writing assistant. And I kind of, I sometimes complemented that by using Chat GPT to, to, to unpack different ways of saying things. Like, you know, I like. Grammarly is great, but ChatGPT can go a little bit beyond and just, you know, you can just Put, put in a few phrases and like, I don't know, like I want to have five different ways of saying this. Can you help me out? And then, then they will give you ideas.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Amazing. Okay, so using some kind of assistant, maybe combining what a dream team. Grammarly and chat GPT. Yeah, right. Yeah, I love that idea. Yeah, I've played around with Grammarly a little bit. The email plugin where it will correct, you know, if you're making, you need a comma or something or a period or something is misspelled in, in an email. Even though I teach English, sometimes I make mistakes. We are all about connection, not perfection here. We all make mistakes. It's normal. And so having that assist. Do you also use Grammarly in your emails too or in.

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, yeah, in my emails, in my, in my social media posts. Like it's, it's everywhere in my, my plugin and o. Okay, that's helpful, that's helpful because I sometimes just, you know, I write something down and it doesn't come out right, but I think it's okay. And then Grammarly just gives me a better version. I'm like, oh yeah, that's, that's better.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Let's use that. Yeah, that's so smart. I love it. So look, this tool is so available. It is so easy to get started with Grammarly. We've talked about it before in the show, so that is a great first tip. Yan to go ahead and install Grammarly and use that as a tool. Get used to using it before you start writing whatever you're going to write in English. What would be your second tip? Tip Jorian.

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, I relied heavily on better reading, meaning that I over. I collected people that are interested in my work and asked them if they were willing to read early versions of a manuscript. Yes, you can do that using Google Docs and opening up your documents. But I actually use the platform which is called Help this book dot com.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Okay.

[Urian Kommer]

Which is, which is a tool that allows you to. Even with lower thresholds than Google Doc, like Google Doc for some people can be difficult to use. But.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Right.

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, there's, there's, there's ways to do that. And the main thing that did, like here's a new chapter. Tell me what you think and tell me what part is confusing. Tell me what part you love. Tell me what part you have a question about or you have a different experience about.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah.

[Urian Kommer]

And that's important because a book is only helpful if it actually resonates with the target audience that you have in mind.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah.

[Urian Kommer]

And that, that in terms of language, it's important to use the right words. So if I use an example that is just. That's easy for, I don't know, people in the US or in Germany or in the Netherlands to. But people in Italy are like, I don't get this thing. Yeah, that's really important to know as early as possible.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah, right. That's a really good point. Especially for non fiction books. Right. Business books where you're probably bringing in case studies, I would imagine, into your books.

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, case studies examples. Yeah, exactly.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah. I wonder if people use that for fiction books as well. I'm curious because it's a very different process. Do you know if people use beta readers for fiction books?

[Urian Kommer]

Probably, but it might be different. Might be a different, different process for doing it. I really use it to figure out, is my book working for readers, does it give them value and how much value are. Is every section giving them? And in terms of language, like, there's so many different examples you can use. What are the examples that resonate with my audience in Europe versus in other places?

[Lindsay McMahon]

Oh, that makes so much sense. So it's not just about the concepts in the book, it's about the way you're conveying it. Because you're writing in English as a second language, it becomes even more important to make sure this is truly resonating. Or did something get lost in translation?

[Urian Kommer]

Right, exactly. Yeah. And if you go even further, like the title and the subtitle of the book. Oh, yeah, is some of the hardest writing I've ever done. Like, not, you know, I've had over a thousand variations.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Really.

[Urian Kommer]

I think there's like the curse of these tools, especially like ChatGPT. It can generate so many options that you get overwhelmed. And I've used some versions which, you know, for example, move the needle is an expression that, yes, resonates with some people in terms of getting better business outcomes, but other people are like, I don't know what move the needle means. Like, don't put that on the title because I'm gonna get confused what the book is about.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Right. So you couldn't use an idiom like that. You couldn't use a business idiom like that. But that really resonates with an American business audience, but maybe not a British audience or maybe not an Indian audience or other audiences around the world. That makes total sense. Interesting. So you said you generated a thousand different title options.

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, I got completely lost in that. I did use. I did use some polls on LinkedIn to show different Options and to get some feedback. And I mean, the problem. The problem with feedback. I mean, feedback is awesome, but you can also drown in it. In the end, you have to make your own choice.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Oh. You have to have a center of gravity or a gut feeling, a bit of that within yourself. Right. Or. And also to understand what is your vision for this book.

[Urian Kommer]

Right.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Because everyone has their own vision for your product.

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Interesting. Interesting. Okay, I love this. Well, I like your approach because it seems like in my mind, my bias towards writing books is that people are in their office with a. With a pot of coffee and just communicating with their editor for a year at a time. And maybe that's how some people do it, but now we have these incredible tools. We can crowdsource the creation of the book in a sense. Yeah.

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah.

[Lindsay McMahon]

So smart. What would be the third thing, Yurian, that you did?

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, closer. Toward the end, actually. Toward the end, when. When the first version was complete of the manuscript. And then I get got on to Reedsy, which is a platform that allows you to hire freelancers that are really. That are helpful for. For book product, for book production. Oh, interesting. And I found a professional editor, however, when you find, you know, there's thousands of professional editors out there, and I was really looking for one, one that was, I think in the end, she was US native. She was born in the US she lived in the uk, but did a lot of editing for international audiences.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Very global.

[Urian Kommer]

That. That was so important because. Because she wouldn't add any, you know, pop references or film references that in other places people don't know about.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Right.

[Urian Kommer]

And she was really good at spotting some of those things. So that was helpful.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah, that is so important. Who you hire to be on your team, it really matters. And their perspective, how open are they? What? Blind spots? That's one thing I've become more and more aware of. Blind spots. And do people recognize their blind spots the second time or the third time they come up? So important. I love this. I love this. So just to summarize, did you want to say something else?

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, I wanted to add, like, what was surprising to me, that was the first time I. I learned that that is actually the process is that she would. She made a style guide, so. So of course I have. I had to tell her, do we use British spelling or American spelling?

[Lindsay McMahon]

Right.

[Urian Kommer]

But even further, it's like when she was working on the first few chapters, she figured out how I like to phrase things, and sometimes she wanted to change something, and I pushed back and said, Actually, no, I'd love to say it in this way. And she created a style guide for herself.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Cool.

[Urian Kommer]

Which then helped us, you know, get the whole book through.

[Lindsay McMahon]

So that is so smart. So she was process oriented, right?

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah. And I think. I think what I learned from that is that there's no. There's no one right. Correct way to write. To write English. Like, there's. There's styles and. Yeah, I didn't know that. So it was interesting.

[Lindsay McMahon]

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[Urian Kommer]

No, for me, a blend wouldn't work. I think. I mean, even the word. Even like the word organization, you cannot spell it with an S or a Z across the book. Right. But yeah, so we went for US based spelling. And that's because that's my. I wouldn't say. Yeah, that's. That's how I write funny enough. But then she, she had some things in there about. About things being sometimes informal.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah.

[Urian Kommer]

It's also about quotation marks, like where to put them.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah.

[Urian Kommer]

Because there's choices there. I didn't know that it existed. Like when you use Grammarly, it will tell you there's one right way, you know, corre corrected. Yeah, but, but you can have, you have variations like do you put the dot inside or outside of the quotation marks like some of those things.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah. Do you know if, when you install Grammarly, I'm curious, I don't know, can you choose UK English or US English? Do you know if that's an option? You can. Okay. Yeah. Okay, perfect.

[Urian Kommer]

But I'm not sure there's many other options than that. It's pretty.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah, got it. Okay, this is good. I feel like I've learned a lot and I really think that our listeners. Again, if for our listeners. I'll speak directly to our listeners now. Everyone, if you have a dream of writing a book or writing something, maybe it's a murder mystery novel, you know, think about writing it in English because the journey would make you a better speaker in the end. And it's just a journey that, where you could push yourself to grow as a person. You're on. Any final pieces of advice or words of wisdom when it comes to writing in English for our listeners?

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, I would say with the tools that are available these days, don't, don't let it hold you back. Yeah, you know, it's, it's really not that, not that hard anymore. You can always still write drafts in your own language and then throw it through ChatGPT to get it translated.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yeah.

[Urian Kommer]

But in the end, writing in English does have a lot of advantages. And as a final advice, do get professional help before you publish, which is the editor part.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Yes. A hundred percent. So resourceful. I love this. Uran, where can our listeners find you online if they want to reach out to you or would like to learn more, Maybe see your book, Take a, take a look at your book.

[Urian Kommer]

Yeah, so my book is at www.unblockbook.net. it's on Amazon. And if people want to connect with me, the best way to do that is through my LinkedIn profile.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Excellent. Wonderful. Well, thank you for coming on and letting us know about all these tips and tricks for writing in English. And I'm excited to see your next book. Do you have any plans for another one to come out or are you just taking a break for now?

[Urian Kommer]

I think it's a once every five year thing for me, so I'm definitely not ready to write my next one.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Okay. Not quite there yet, but you'll get there, I'm sure. Right?

[Urian Kommer]

Yes, thank you.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Thank you and have a nice day. Bye.

[Urian Kommer]

You too. Thanks.

[Lindsay McMahon]

Thanks for listening. To all ears English. Would you like to know your English level. Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward/fluencyscore. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.