After committing to write a book to build your brand, and after you’ve chosen the topic, the next step is to choose the best type of nonfiction book – or approach – to your topic.
There are numerous ways you can organize and communicate the information you want to share to help your readers and build your personal brand.
Here are some basic alternatives: 
- Textbook. Avoid the trap of writing a “textbook,” like the ones you had to read in high school and college. Textbooks typically tell everything about a topic, but they’re often dull and didactic. They’re hard to read because they there’s often so much information, and too little to engage the reader’s interest. Textbooks are like dictionaries or encyclopedias; lot of information, but little engagement or personality.
- Procedural. A better alternative, in many cases, is to write a focused step-by-step procedural. Start by identifying a problem your intended market wants to solve, or a goal they want to achieve, and describe the sequence of tasks readers can use to solve their problem or achieve their goal. Titles like Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days or 21 Pounds in 21 Days communicate what to do and in what order.
- Perspective. Instead of communicating “everything” you know about a topic, consider writing for a specific market niche or from a specific approach. This allows you to “filter” the information and focus on just the information, needed by specific readers, i.e., The Complete Single Father. You can also write for specific experience levels; Prezi for Dummies, for example, was written for users of a new software program, whereas On Bypass: Advanced Perfusion Techniques targets practicing cardiac surgeons.
- Tips. Books that distill the various solutions to a problem or ideas for achieving a goal can be very popular. Tip books can be easy to write and easy to read, since you don’t have to go too deep about each tip. Tip books can broaden exposure to your brand, because they can be less-expensive to print and distribute, and can be brought to market faster. #Book Title Tweet is an example of a “cut right to the chase” book containing 140 tips for choosing article, book, and event titles.
- Journey. One of the books I’ve been reading this week is Karrie Jacobs’ The Perfect $100,000 House: A Trip Across America and Back in Pursuit of a Place to Call Home. The journey approach permits you to add an engaging personal story to your search for a way to help readers solve their problems or achieve their goals. You can approach a big issue from a day-to-day, diary-like, perspective.
- Lessons and experiences. Yet another way to approach a reader-service topic is from a series of case studies, interviews, or profiles, telling how others have solved their problems or achieved their goals. This approach allows you to use specific stories to support general lessons and principles. Jim Collins’ Good to Great is a bestselling example.
- Fables and parables. One of the best ways to share important information is to use fictional stories, like Bob Burg & John David Mann’s The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea. The story format can often engage and communicate when details and facts obscure the big ideas.
Which approach is best for you?
Obviously, there’s no single “right” or “wrong” way to write a book that builds your brand. Brand-building books can be long or short, focused on details or on lessons or “big ideas.” The Elements of Style is a short, concisely-written, tip-filled book that has been a best-seller for over 50 years, yet Tom Peter’s In Search of Excellence is a longer, detailed lesson book, (over 400 pages), that has been a consistent seller since 1982.
After you commit to write a book to build your personal brand, take the time to explore all of the different types of books, and formats, you can use to bring your book (and your brand) to life. As you evaluate alternatives, consider your resources (time and writing skills) and your timetable, i.e., how quickly you want you book to appear. And, pay attention to the types of existing books in your field. Try to bring a fresh approach to your field. Can you suggest any additional types of books I should add to my list? Please comment, below.
Author:
Roger C. Parker is a book coach who helps clients make right choices. Each weekday, he blogs about writing. His latest book is #BOOK TITLE Tweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Compelling Article, Book, & Event Titles.
