How a Book Can Lead to Increased Earnings and Brand Awareness

In the second of a three-part blog series, founder of Books from Start to Finish Graham Schofield discusses how business leaders considering writing a book can make that happen, no matter their writing skills or how busy they are.

In Part Three, DigiWriting’s book marketing experts will explore how to promote the book along with your business.

A Short Recap On Part 1 – Why Write A Business Book?

As an expert in your business, having a book is powerful for building additional credibility. Whatever your expertise, you might speak on it, blog about it, or teach it regularly, but a book is a highly-proven tool for elevating your expert status even further. Business books can help broaden your audience, increase awareness about who you are, bring in new work, and raise the stakes for every deal you seal.

But that’s if your book is well-written and well-marketed.

OK, I’m Sold, But Where Do I To Start?

When we want something done—build a house, fix a car, stop a water leak—we rely on someone else, and, for some people, the same applies to your book. Yes, you’re the expert in your field, so you’re probably ultra-busy doing what you do best!

So, while you have your own area of expertise, you’re probably not an expert in writing a book and you could do with some help. That’s where you find yourself an editor or a ghostwriter.

Yes, you could write a draft yourself and get help to finish it, but have you got the time? Being successful usually means being very busy, so getting help with your book allows you to focus on your business while someone else dedicates the time, expertise, and energy necessary to writing your book and getting it published.

But is that the only option?

There Are Choices For The Way Ahead

An editor or ghostwriter will consider things for your book that you never thought of, like pace, writing style, level of details, and so on, but you can still be involved. Quite simply, working with someone on your business book can be done in one of three ways, but there are some common aspects and, like any development project, it all needs to start with planning.

Just as you wouldn’t think of starting a business or launching a new product without a business plan, it doesn’t make sense to undertake a book project without one.

• What type of book is it going to be?
• How will it be structured?
• Will there be case studies?

The list could go on, but once the framework for the book has been established, the biggest question is how will it be written? That brings us round to the three options:

Option 1:

You give your notes and draft writing to an editor or ghostwriter and they turn those into the book.

Option 2:

They interview you to capture the details and then prepare drafts for your review.

Option 3:

You write the book and the editor or ghostwriter acts as your writing coach along the way.

My personal experience with writing business books over the years suggests that option 2 would be the most common approach, but there is always the hybrid: You supplement your interviews with notes and background files or you ‘edit in’ more details once your editor or ghostwriter has captured the core content from the interviews.

If you feel you have the time for option 3, that’s great, but I would always suggest that you consider this very carefully before embarking down that path. Many very successful people find it hard to find the time to write, even if they have the expertise, and that means their best intentions often fall by the wayside. A common opening I get when someone first contacts me is, “I started this book several years ago…”

Is Now The Time To Start?

Can you afford to wait to get your book done? How many doors might it have opened for you if you had written it sooner? A lot of people wait until they retire to write their book or they try to do it in their spare time—when the latter happens the book often becomes a marathon and it’s very hard to get it finished.

If you’ve chosen to write a business book, then that suggests that the time is right for it. Unless your expertise is truly unique, if you drag out the writing of your book, then a competitor could easily beat you to it by the time you have written the final page.

So, what are you going to call your book?

Share with Us:

Have you ever considered writing a book to support your business?

About Graham Schofield

Founder of Books from Start to Finish, Graham Schofield works with authors of fiction and non-fiction to write, edit, and publish their books, including many different business owners across numerous industries. He can be contacted at graham.schofield@write-edit-publish.com.