Writing a business book will change your life. When I moved from Holland to Ireland in 1994, I wrote a book as part of my marketing strategy. It enhanced my reputation, opened doors, immediately allowed me to charge more and got me better and more exciting assignments. Writing that first book set me up for life. I can’t stress enough how useful a book is in building your reputation.
Your calling card
It helps you to clarify your thinking and might help you to develop a methodology, product or service that is transferrable and scaleable. It is a stream of content for your social media channels and is your product for leads development. It is your new business and calling card. It is also an incredibly rewarding experience.
Writing is not as hard as you think
Here are some tips:
- All “normal” business rules apply
- Write a business plan for your book
- And an elevator pitch
- Imagine that you are doing a TED talk about the topic of your book. Do it, record it, put it on your social media channels.
- Writing is not as hard as you think
- Structure is everything
- Powerpoint your book (it helps with the structure)
- Start writing, getting moving is everything
- It is all about rhythm
- There is no easy fix. You do have to write.
- Slot writing in your diary as a core activity. The activities include research, marketing, selling, interviewing, thinking, staring at the screen, etc.
- Speak, don’t write (use a dictaphone)
- Think niche market (you are not writing for the whole world)
- There is a market for everything
- Keep it simple
- Start small (my favourite example at the moment is Ricardo Nielsen’s mini-book about the hypnosis flywheel)
- No editing until the first full draft is done. Just write. Don’t look back. Don’t chop and change. Write.
- Think in concepts
- Stake your claim as soon as possible, announce it ASAP
- Focus on pre-selling your book
- There are more business models around books and content than you think.
- Study other authors
- Amazon is the number 3 search engine in the world
- Half of Amazon’s sales are books that are not in the top five thousand
- It is not about book sales. It is about thought leadership and staking your claim
Content marketing
A book is a pure content marketing play and should be the basis for your future marketing strategy. If you need help, you can download my checklist here https://www.ronimmink.com/book-in-8-days/.
