The Brilliant Benefits of Writing a Book for Your Business

(And how you can get it done faster!)

Writing and publishing a book for your business is an incredibly powerful strategy.

It’s powerful because not everyone is willing to go to the effort to do it.

Which means if you do choose to put in the effort, you’ll inevitably have that elusive ‘edge’ and stand out well above your competitors.

It’s also powerful because books command attention and credibility. Books are still held in incredibly high regard.

So, earning the badge of ‘Published Author’ can really skyrocket your profile and your brand.

The issue remains though, that yes, it does take time to write a book, so the payoff isn’t immediate.

However, there are ways to get it written far more quickly than you might imagine.

Plus, it can be easy to get caught up in the ‘I’m not a writer – I couldn’t possibly manage a book’ type thoughts.

Again though – anyone can write a book. Even you.

All it takes is a proven process, a few nifty tricks, a little bit of determination and focus and perhaps, enlisting a little help from others.

So, let’s take a look at the benefits of writing books and then how you can write a book for your business more quickly and easily.

The Professional/Business Benefits of Becoming a Published Author

• Establish Expertise – share your best knowledge on something you want to be known for.
• Build Credibility – people look up to those who have been published in a book.
• Get Exposure – your book will act as a lead magnet on Amazon, in bookstores, and in media outlets (the media loves good books!), expanding your reach and bringing potential clients and customers right to your door.
• Build Your Profile – you’re much more likely to get booked for podcasts, speaking events and more.
• Earn More – All of the above tends to lead to more clients wanting to work with you, and the opportunity to charge higher prices without anyone batting an eyelid.

Personal Benefits of Becoming a Published Author

• Fun – writing books is awesome fun when you get into the swing of it!
• Challenge – by tackling what might be a new skill, you challenge yourself to do something different and to put yourself ‘out there’ in a new way.
• Healing – writing down and sharing your story with others is a really great way of working through past trauma and reflecting on your journey.
• Clarifying – by reflecting on your journey and progress in a book, you’ll often uncover insights on your future direction.
• Satisfaction – knowing you’re helping others with your book is a magical feeling.

Benefits of Books for the Reader & the World

Books can help people with the:

• Inspiration – to start something new, continue or grow.
• Confidence – to go after their goals.
• Strategic Knowledge – to put the right plans in place.
• Tactical/Practical Knowledge – to know what steps they should take.
• Easy Access – to great information at a low cost.

How to Write a Book Quickly to Skyrocket Your Business

Start With a Shorter Book

There are many different options when writing a business book in terms of topics, length and style.

One of the most important things to note is that while many business books may be 60,000, 80,000 or more words – they don’t necessarily have to be that long.

Shorter reads are incredibly popular on Amazon and only need around 30,000 words.

This shorter length is perfectly adequate for your first published business book.

The idea of a shorter read business book is to give your audience an insight into your knowledge and possibly your signature process that could help them solve a big problem they might have.

Then, by reading your book, they’ll get to know you and your expertise better, and hopefully be enticed into wanting to work with you further.

So, the aim of your business book is to:

1. Help your audience to understand or achieve something that you can do.
2. Position you as the perfect person to work with should they need more personalised and expert assistance.

You don’t necessarily need a crazy number of words to achieve that.

Collaborate With Others

If writing an entire book by yourself feels too daunting, why not join forces with another business owner (or 10!)?

You might choose to write a book with another business owner who services a similar audience with a similar problem, from a different angle. Or you might choose to join forces with three or four or five business owners, who can all contribute their unique perspective to the same topic.

By doing this, you:

• Reduce the amount of writing you need to do.
• Split the costs of editing and publishing, making it cheaper.
• Share the marketing efforts and each leverage each other’s audiences.
• Can inspire and motivate each other to get the writing done.
• Enhance the resulting books power, as you’re offering the expertise of several different specialists at once.

You can also consider contributing to a collaborative book or anthology, which commonly involves a larger group of authors, each writing a single chapter. Many authors start out by contributing to this type of project to get comfortable with the book writing and publishing process, and then move on to writing their own.

There are Different Ways to Actually ‘Write’

The next thing you need to know is that there are lots of different ways to actually ‘write’ a book.

If writing comes relatively easily to you, that’s great. But if not, you don’t necessarily have to write it – you can speak it.

Many business authors speak their book content into a recording device and then transcribe the content onto the page. This nifty little trick can help you ‘write’ your book much, much quicker if speaking comes more naturally to you.

If writing a book or speaking a book both still seems too time consuming, you can also get someone else to ghost write your book for you. This will save you a stack of time and brain power potentially – however it can be a very expensive option.

An Easy, Flexible Writing Process Makes Things Easier

Many people tend to assume that writers start at the beginning of their books and keep writing their way through, until the end. They also assume that the most genius and carefully crafted perfect words just flow out of them onto the page, like magic.

This just isn’t true.

Most clever writers start off with a stack of planning – particularly if the book is to achieve a specific purpose.

They then write the roughest first draft on the planet by blurting out whatever they can think of onto the page.

Those magical words aren’t fully formed until they edit and revise their first draft. And THEN, they hire a magical editor who can polish it up even further.

In fact, many books aren’t entirely the author’s own words. Many books are only great because of a fantastic editor. Which hopefully, takes the pressure off you to write perfectly!

Clever writers may not write in a top to bottom sequence either.

When I’m writing I tend to jump around between the chapters and topics that tickle my fancy at the time.

Sometimes, I write the introduction first. Other times, I leave it to last.

There aren’t any real rules as to how you go about your writing.

What matters is that you take any pressure off yourself to be perfect straight away, and follow this basic process:

• Brainstorm your topic.
• Plan your chapters & content.
• Write a rough first draft.
• Edit & refine.
• Proofread.

By doing things like this, you’ll ensure your book gets written quickly and that the final product is as good as it can be.

Repurpose What You Already Have

Something that a lot of business owners underestimate is the fact that it’s likely that they have a stack of quality content in existence already. Things like blog posts, lead magnets (mini guides, checklists etc.), podcast episodes, video content and even your own signature systems and process manuals can all be bought together and repurposed into a book.

You don’t necessarily need to start from scratch. Many a great book comes about just by bringing together existing content, putting it into a logical structure and adding a little more detail until you have a finished manuscript.

Publishing Your Book

Once you have your book content written, you’ll need to get it published.

In order to get it published, you’ll need a cover design, internal design (typesetting), an editor (preferably) and/or a proofreader, an ISBN and a barcode (if you’ll be printing it). You’ll also need to upload it to Amazon as a minimum and a print on demand/distribution service such as IngramSpark.

There are three different ways to publish:

• Traditional publishing house
• DIY self-publishing
• Assisted or hybrid publishing company.

Generally, getting a contract with a traditional publishing house is really darn tricky. You will most likely need a literary agent (expensive and not easy), and you’d need a really impressive profile and a large established audience. If you don’t have a large audience, it could be years before you’re able to secure a traditional contract.

A traditional contract also means that they likely own your work, they make all the decisions on editing and cover design etc., and you only get a very small percentage of your book sales.

Self-publishing your own business book, entirely on your own, is certainly doable. But you will still need to hire an editor and/or proofreader, a cover designer, and an internal designer. Then, you’ll have to figure out how to upload all your files and get it where it needs to be, and then arrange printing.

Trust me when I say, this isn’t an easy process to navigate for the first time. When I published my first book about six years ago, it took hours of research and trial and error to get it semi right.

Hybrid publishing companies are therefore a popular choice these days. They charge an upfront fee, but then they handle the entire process for you with their team of experts. Depending on the contract, you also quite often keep the rights to your work, all of your book sale profits, and you remain in control of how your book turns out.

Books Boost Brands

Writing and publishing a book may not be the easiest way of marketing your business – but doing so can really accelerate your growth.

Of course, there are plenty of pitfalls. You’ll want to carefully consider your topic choice, plan out your book content well and ensure your editing, cover design and internals are executed to a high standard. You’ll also need to make sure you think about your launch and marketing strategy, and how you’ll leverage your book in your business, as books can be tricky to sell at times.

However, the very second you can announce that you’re a published author – or even that you’re in the process of publishing a book – your credibility skyrockets in the eyes of your audience. 

It’s certainly well worth the effort.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sarah Walkerden of The Rural Publishing Company provides Publishing services, book coaching and writing courses for rural, regional and remote authors and business owners.

Phone: 0401 764 169

Website: https://theruralpublishingcompany.com.au 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/theruralpublishingcompany 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheRuralPublishingCompany

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-walkerden/