There’s more to writing a brand-building book than just writing!
There are 4 steps involved in a successful publishing project, one that builds your personal brand and enhances your “expert” status within your target market. Many authors concentrate entirely upon “writing” and, unfortunately, suffer the consequences.
Here’s a brief overview of what’s involved at each step of a balanced approach that views writing as just one of the requirements for success:
Step 1: Planning
Just writing a book isn’t enough; you have to write the right book!
Spending a lot of time writing a book that nobody wants to buy is a colossal waste of time and money for all concerrned!
Planning helps you write the right book! The more time you spend planning, the better the chances your book will succeed as a personal branding tool and as the “driver” of your firm’s success. Some of the questions you’ll want to explore during the planning phase include:
- Who do I want to buy the book? In other words, Who do I want to view me as an expert?
- What are the problems and goals faced by my book’s intended readers? What keeps them awake at night worrying?
How urgent are these problems and goals?
- What books and resources are already exist in this area? It’s important to learn all you can about the authors and books your book will be competing with. By studying the competition, you can learn from their successes and avoid their mistakes.
- Why will my book be better than existing books? No one wants to spend money on a book that covers ground already covered. You must be able to describe how your book is going to be better and why readers will choose your book over the competition.
- What are your goals and resources? The way you want to spend your time after your book appears, and the resources you have available to invest in your book, should play a major role in determining the best way to get your book into print. Trade publishing and self-publishing both have their advantages and disadvantages; you have to choose what’s best for you.
Step 2: Writing
Once you have identified your book’s topic and approach, you can to prepare your book proposal and begin writing your book.
The most important step at this point is to create a content plan for your book that will guide you as you identify the key sections and chapters of your book, as well as the topics you’re going to cover in each chapter.
Writing a book without a content plan is like driving from Boston to Los Angeles country without a map; you may end up hundreds of miles away from your intended destination, and you may end up wasting time, money, and effort going way out of your way.
Without a content plan, you might do the writing equivalent of passing through cities like Buffalo, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Houston, & Seattle on your way from Boston to Los Angeles!
Step 3: Promote
It does no one any good to write a helpful book that no one buys, because those who could benefit from it didn’t know the book existed!
Authors often say they’re “disappointed” by their publisher’s failure to adequately market and promote their book.
Expecting your publisher to aggressively market and promote your book is like expecting your physician to exercise for you, or your dentist to floss for you.
Marketing and promoting are the author’s responsibilities. As many authors say upon the publication of their book, “No, the real work begins!”
Yet, even that statement is open to debate, since authors should have been laying the groundwork for their book’s marketing and promotion at every step of the way. While planning their book, for example, an author should be identifying and cultivating the support of experts in their field, in hopes the experts will provide pre-publication endorsements and quotes for their book’s front and back covers.
Indeed, many authors simultaneously write and promote their books with blogs.
Blogs make it easy for authors to prepare blog posts that, later, will be expanded into first drafts for the various chapters of their book. By sharing their work with their market, as blog posts, authors can gain valuable feedback as well as build their search engine visibility for their book.
Step 4: Profiting
As many authors have found, to their dismay, the return on their time and investment preparing their book is often limited to the advance they receive from their publishers. Whose fault is this?
Although many blame the publishers, it’s the author’s responsibility to know how they are going to profit from their book before they write it. The appropriate approach is to view publisher advances and royalties as “found money,” and–instead–view their book strictly as a marketing tool for themselves and their business.
View your book as a new business endeavor; know in advance how you are going to profit from the visibility and credibility your book-created personal brand will generate for you.
In other words, create a business plan for your book! With the help of a qualified book coach, review the dozens of back-end profit opportunities your book can generate, and narrow them down to those that promise the best return on your time investment.
Books, business, and you
For too long, books have been viewed from a “literary” or “creative,” or “strictly writing” perspective.
As a consequence, for too long, authors have been writing books that often have failed to generate a major change in the author’s career success.
Don’t let this happen to you! Before you begin writing a book, view writing as just one of the steps required for a successful book publishing experience; one that builds and promotes your personal brand.
As always, success comes to those who prepare.
