Should you write a business book?

Is writing a business book a good idea or a vanity project?  So many people talk about writing a book and most don’t get started.  Can it help your business or is it a waste of time?

There are pros and cons to writing a business book:

The cons include:

• It’s a big-time investment if you are busy running a business full-time
• Even traditional publishers want to know how you plan to help promote your book and what your networks are
• Getting published by a traditional publisher can be difficult
• Self-publishing, while more accessible, can require a range of skills and a lot of promotion after you’ve published
• You need to focus, or a non-fiction book can be a chaotic reflection of everything vaguely related to their subject
• Business books are very rarely great income earners, there are exceptions, but most business authors would tell you that if your objective is to make money, this isn’t the best strategy.

However, there are a lot of reasons in favour of writing a business book:

• It raises a business person’s credibility
• It helps with a business person’s legitimacy
• It demonstrates expertise
• It builds reach with potential new customers providing an initial connection point
• It can increase brand loyalty and retain existing customers
• It can help clarify brand identity

Often the benefits are indirect rather than direct to your business.  

In 2006 Mike Schultz (Wellesley Hills Group) conducted research with 200 authors of business books.  96% of those surveyed would recommend doing it and felt that it had a significant impact on their businesses.

The indirect benefits stated according to Schultz were ‘generating more leads, closing more deals, charging higher fees and getting better speaking engagements.’  

He did also note that often the more positive responses were directly linked to how many books each author sold.  However, most were clear that publishing a business book had not been a significant income generator.

Given that that appears to be consistent across the board, prospective business book authors should seriously consider their ‘why’ when determining whether to put the effort into writing their book.

If income generation is key to their motivation then it seems unlikely without an extraordinary story to tell or method of telling it and a concerted promotional effort, that this objective will be achieved.

However, there are a number of other objectives for those considering writing a business book:

• Wanting to establish themselves as an expert in their field
• To demonstrate your skills and personality to prospective clients
• You want to distribute your book as a resource/giveaway at speaking events
• Wanting to help prospective customers with a problem
• Lead generation
• You are passionate about the topic
• You’ve always wanted to be a published author
• Wanting to position yourself as a thought leader or influencer in your field
• For credibility
• A raised profile

Regardless of the why there are several necessary considerations before embarking on the process of writing your business book:

1. Focus on this book, this topic – don’t try and squeeze everything you know into one book
2. Most people worry about not having enough to fill an entire book, usually editing and cutting word length is the problem facing new authors
3. Regardless of whether you’re a plotter or a pantser style writer – non-fiction writers must produce an initial plan to follow – with brief chapter descriptions
4. If you are not prepared to invest the time to write every day – even for a short time, then you are not ready to write a book.  Even ten minutes a day will get that book finished.

Many people want to write a book, most never get started, even less actually finish and the percentage of people who do anything with the finished draft is extremely small.  Just getting started and finishing that book puts you ahead of millions of prospective authors.  So, make it happen!

Happy writing!

Nicole J

#novelnicole