Writing a business book is a great opportunity to share your knowledge, ideas, and experiences to more people. It can position you as an authority in your field, give solutions to real life issues, and most importantly, have a compelling effect on the readers. However, defining your goals in writing a business book may be easy but writing a book that will stand out entails unifying your visions and putting them together in an articulate, organized and coherent manner.
In this guide, get ready to traverse the core steps of, not only the discipline of writing a business book, but one that captures the readers’ attention and makes them want to learn your ideas and all their associated nuances.
1. Clarify Your Purpose and Audience
As completely different genres of writing exist, it is pivotal to follow a process that fits your target audience and style of writing. As a result, before writing the first word of the document, it would be wise to set the purpose of your business book. What do you intend for your audience to learn or understand? Who would you say your ideal reader is? In answering these questions, you will formulate your content and expect the needs of your audience.
Define the Purpose
In the first place, let me ask you this question: why are you writing this book? Is it because:
- You want to share your entrepreneurial experience with someone?
- Do you have business and management skills to impart?
- Do you have some issues to address in an industry?
- Do you have something to say about changes in an industry and how they may affect the future?
A well-defined purpose is critical both to the writing of the book and its focus. Readers will appreciate a book that exists for a reason and that reason is accomplished.
Identify Your Target Audience
Knowing your target audience is also very crucial especially when it comes to determining what to include in the book. Identify your target readers:
- Is it new entrepreneurs, established business people or managers wanting to learn more about leadership?
- What are their pain points, issues or dreams?
- What do they intend to gain from reading your book?
Getting to know your audience helps you tailor the content so that it meets the needs of your readers which makes them find your book helpful.
2. Choose a Unique Angle for Your Business Book
The marketplace for business books, of leadership, entrepreneurship, and other topics is huge with thousands of titles already published. In order for your book to stand out from the rest, it has to have a unique point of view that is not common.
Find Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
What defines your business book is your unique selling proposition. It is worth asking yourself the following questions:
- What life experiences can I describe that others cannot ever hope to write about?
- Do I have a unique way of doing things?
- Can I provide an insight from a niche market or an unrepresented standpoint?
If you are writing about leadership, it may be better to choose one type of leadership, empathetic leadership, leadership in tough times rather than writing principles of leadership over everything. In the case of marketing, your book can focus on how to approach marketing in a digital-first integrative setting or how to cater to Z-gen audience.
Case Studies and Real-Life Examples
Your book could also benefit greatly by including relevant case studies or examples. You or someone from the industry, as illustrated by the reader, has been in practice and knows how to do these things in real life and where to use what. These examples help the audience in understanding your content and show them how your work can be used in their own business scenarios.
3. Outline the Structure and Flow
In order to keep your readers interested, a sourcebook that is different from the others and well focused or organized should suffice. Once you are clear on your purpose and focus, the next step now is to prepare the content of the book.
The Three-Act Structure
The three-act structure has been used in various narrative forms and many business books which achieve success follow a very mild version of this way:
- Intro – Clearly state the issue, Problem, struggle or concern that you are trying to solve.
- Middle – Present and explain your ideas, systems or steps in an orderly manner, logical chapters.
- End – Provide a recap of the crucial aspects and give the audience something they can act on.
Break It Down by Chapters
Structure your book in chapters working from one topic to the next in a logical manner. It is recommended that each chapter or section deal with one major issue or theme. It is also relevant and appropriate to include subheadings in order to separate and compartmentalize the information into manageable portions. This makes it easy for the readers to follow without bombarding them with a lot of information over the target audience at once.
Suppose you are writing a book about scaling a business, then the chapters may look like:
- Chapter 1: The Pioneering Grit for Growth Initiatives
- Chapter 2: Principles for Formulating a Scalable Business Model
- Chapter 3: Overarching Rapid Growth Challenges
- Chapter 4: Managing Growth — Leadership Change
The above approach gives the style of your book a higher order and improves on the overall clarity of the book.
4. Write with Authority, But Keep It Engaging
If you are to be regarded as an authority, there is the risk of being overly formal and stiff. One characteristic of a type of business book which succeeds is a combination of professionalism and ordinary speech. It’s what’s said that matters and how it’s said.
Strike a Conversational Tone
Engaging your readers truly makes a difference because you are no longer writing, but rather providing assistance and recommendations. Do not use jargon or overly complicated terms that may put off readers. Maintain clarity, sending the message without clutter.
Show, Don’t Just Tell
Offering strategies and practical advice and solutions can mellow trouble, but it is equally important to give examples and tell stories relating to those concepts. Such memories may come from real people, one’s own experiences, or simply go in the form of a particular example and all these can help explain the argument better and show how the readers might go about using the recommendation made.
Be Transparent and Authentic
The power of frankness and candidness in business especially in written communication cannot be underestimated. If you have had some disappointments and failures in this journey, do not keep quiet about them. Instead describe what you learnt and how those challenges were addressed. This has the effect of earning the readers trust and increasing the relatability of the content.
5. Edit, Revise, and Polish
Having finished the first draft is only the beginning of the process. A lot of work still remains in terms of revising and editing if a professional looking book is desired.
Self-Editing
Read your draft and note aspects such as clarity, coherence, and flow. Check how each chapter relates to the next one and cut off any redundant material. Emphasize on the economy of language—ensure that every sentence contributes meaningfully to the piece.
Hiring a Professional Editor
It is within the consciousness of everyone self-editing the text to the end that a professional editor should be consulted. New eyes tend to be the best for spotting errors or discrepancies that the authors tend to overlook. A competent editor will also assume a longer developmental role in the sense that he/she will assist in the coherence, flow, and engagement of the book from beginning to the end.
Proofreading
Always check and double-check for grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. This may be regarded as a minor matter, but a publication that is full of typos and other errors will definitely affect one’s authority as an author. The image of yourself that you want to project in this business book is the same professionalism you have when working.
6. Getting Published: Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing
After such a time that your manuscript is complete, the next step will be to consider how you would wish to publish your business book. The two options are: e-publishing and publishing in conventional ways.
Self-Publishing
By self-publishing, you get to have complete control of your book—cover and pricing, amongst others. It also takes less time than negotiating with a conventional publisher. Amazon KDP is an example of self-publishing options that many writers use as it helps them distribute their work around the world.
Nonetheless, self-publishing entails a lot of hard work because a person has to do everything from marketing to publicity of the book. Therefore, a significant amount of time as well as resources will need to be directed towards promotion of the book.
Traditional Publishing
Submitting your manuscript to a publisher or a literary agent is how traditional publishing works. If there is a positive response, they will be responsible for cutting, the cover, and promoting the book. This is also a valid approach because most traditional publishers have established themselves in the industry as credible sources.
On the other hand, traditional publishing may take a long time and can be quite a hassle for most writers as it also means giving up some creative aspects of the work. It is also much harder and quite time-consuming to get a book deal.
Be sure to explore our other blogs for additional tips and insights on writing and storytelling. Happy writing!
FAQs
1. How long should a business book be?
Most such books hover between the 40,000 to 80,000 words count. But again, the total count varies as per the topic and the targeted audience. For example, a particular book which is hypothetically hypothesized to revolve around the innermost secrets of one’s mind and range anywhere between two to three thousand words would be short. Likewise, a book of suffocating seven hundred pages can driving the reader mad without providing much intel. So, not only be a crisp and articulate writer but ensure that every word is packed with pertinent information in as few words as possible.
2. How can I make my business book stand out?
In order to grab attention try to cover areas that are not commonly addressed in most tomes. Explain things with the help of personal experiences, case studies, or real-practice examples including some dramatic nuances and originality. You may also, however, aim at how you express your thoughts: weave a story and convey the idea over as persuasively as possible without losing your head over your authority.
3. Should I hire a ghostwriter for my business book?
In my opinion, engaging a ghostwriter should rather apply if you have something interesting to say but not the time, the desire or the competency to string the words together in order to create a book. But once again, do supervise the process so that the end product does not turn out to be completely alien from your voice.
4. What is the best way to promote my business book?
Make use of your personal network, social media platforms, and your industry contacts in marketing your book. Also, it is possible to increase your visibility by organizing book launch events, guest blogging in business blogs, or speaking at industry events.
5. Can I write a business book if I’m not a CEO or well-known figure?
Definitely. You don’t have to be a celebrity CEO to be able to author a lucrative business book. There is a market for your material as long as you have useful insights, experiences or strategies to offer. Emphasize about providing useful recommendations along with a new and different point of view which readers in that market segment will find appealing.
Writing a business book is not for the faint-hearted. It requires commitment, creativity, and above all, reason. If you address the right problems, have a reasonable flow of your content, and write with a commanding voice, it is possible to write a business book that educates, motivates, and changes the way the reader thinks forever.
