Monday, October 21, 2019

Write a Book About Your Business to Boost Your Sales and Awareness

Write a Book About Your Business to Boost Your Sales and Awareness Write a Book About Your Business to Boost Your Sales and Awareness So you have a business that you are rather proud of. That’s fantastic! And what would make things even better would be writing a book about your business.Why not? After all, you have already created a vital business, and helping others would validate your trade and diversify it as well. A published book is passive income.In addition to becoming an author, you would be marketing your business through a different venue. We’re talking win-win here!Heres what well teach you about how to write a book about your business:Brainstorm Your Book ContentConsiderations for Writing a Book About Your BusinessChoosing a Title for Your BookWrite Your book Get Feedback From FriendsFinish Fast and ImperfectlyCreate folders for imagesChoose a publishing platformNOTE: If youre ready to grow your business by writing a book (like Chandler Bolt did with this very company), we have everything you need in our VIP Self-Publishing Program. Learn more about it hereWhy Write a Book About Your Busin ess?This is an obvious question. You already run your business every day, what good could come from writing a book about it?Here are some benefits of writing a book about your business:You gain authorityYou reach new potential customersYou gain opportunities for speaking engagementsYou can capture more leads by using your bookYou gain credibility to both potential customers and others in your fieldThis very blog is built on the back of a website that was started with a book. Chandler Bolt published his first bestselling book at the age of 19 and since, has built an 8-figure business from the process- while using his latest book Published. to make it more successful.Brainstorm Your Business Books ContentYou have already experienced the step-by-step process of establishing your own livelihood whether it is full time or a sideline. Now all you have to do is explain what you did to grow your business.One strategy is to pretend you are advising a close friend what steps to take.Here are some ways to come up with your book idea:Brainstorm a random list of everything you remember doing when you started your business.Don’t stop now; keep brainstorming! List everything you want to include in the bookand even things that won’t go in the book. If it crosses your mind, write it down. Well put all of that into a book outline later.Take a break. Walk away from the computer! Eat, drink, walk, or talk.Break’s over. You’ve got a book to write!List the process of how you created and grew your business in chronological order. This list is your reference point for an informal outline and table of contents.Prioritize. What are the top topics that you want to emphasize in your book? What do you wish you would have known when first starting your business? Most importantly, what will your readers gain from learning about your business? Let them learn from your mistakes and share in your successes.Make each topic a separate chapter even if it is really shor t.People like concise information, so keep your paragraphs short. Incorporate bullet points that shoot straight to the core matter for easier skimming.Look through old computer files and photographs to remind you of things that you may have forgotten connected directly or indirectly with your business.Check your lists more than twice. Did you remember to include everything that matters?Once youve got the gist of what content your book will be, youll be ready for the next step in your business-to-book writing process.What to Consider When Writing a Book About Your BusinessThere are a few things youll want to think about when writing your book about your business.Here are some thins to consider before writing your book.#1 Do I want photographs in my book?Depending on your business, you may find it worthwhile to add pictures in your book for explanation purposes or something just as relevant.For example, in my book Rockin Crystals: How Healing Crystals Can Rock Your Life, I used image s in a number of areas as you can see below.Advantages of using images in your book:Color pictures add, um, color, and people like color.Photos attract interest and authority.Pictures explain in ways that words lack (unless you use 1,000 words per picture, according to the cliche).Cell phones and their apps make it easy to take and edit pictures.Disadvantages of using pictures in your book:They add to your book’s production costs.The electronic version may take a bit longer to download (but I have never had a problem with that).If you have an audio version of your book, the pictures would not be included in the content.Ultimately, its up to you to decide whether or not to include pictures. If it adds to the overall experience, we recommend it.However, if pictures will only be a distraction and not useful, skip them.#2 How long do I want this book to be, anyway?Does it matter, or do I just write until I am done?This is a question many authors have regularly. How many words ar e in a novel?For writing a book about your business, we recommend you write between 20,000 50,000 words.This is because any shorter, and it wont give your readers all the information they want and more than 50,000 words and you run the risk of boring your readers or giving them too much information.This is also known as overwriting, which can be trimmed during editing but you want to make sure your book is a clean, concise, and helpful as possible.#3 Do I want multiple formats of a book?Publishing your book in different formats can help you reach a wider audience. But that also means you have to decide if you want to pursue multiple formats.Here are the different book formats you can publish:Publish an ebookPaperback bookHardcoverAudiobooksEach of these book variations comes with its own pros and cons. For example, if you choose to distribute an audiobook, youll have to learn how to make an audiobook in the first place.Publishing ebooks also comes with its own set of rules to foll ow.Ultimately, its recommended to publish a version of each in order to maximize your audience, but do what works best for you.Choosing a Title for Your BookPeople like knowing other people’s business. Call them curious, call them snoopy, just call to them to buy your book to learn about your business. Teach them your secrets.Here are some overall tips for titling a book from the Self-Publishing School Youtube Channel. If you want some additional tips for choosing a book title, heres what worked for me:A book about a business is a niche market, so make sure that your title makes the topic clear. For example, The Craft Fair Vendor Guidebook lets the reader know that the book is a guide about being a craft fair vendor. The subtitle, Ideas to Inspire, adds another element to the reader’s expectations. The cover’s photograph shows a booth with handcrafted jewelry, another clue.In your book’s description, clearly explain what type(s) of business you will be co vering. People like to know what to expect and may feel tricked if the book’s description isn’t comprehensive enough. A suggestion is to write your book’s description before writing the book. It’s like a â€Å"thesis paragraph† to keep yourself focused. You can keep revising the overview to fit the book as it develops. Also, that gives you more time to decide if the description is its absolute best before uploading it onto your publishing site.Spell out examples of how your business practices can be applied to other ventures. The more crossover applications, the more types of people will be interested in your book.Although you want all of the book to be appealing, you want the first pages to be extra engaging because those are the pages that potential readers will see if they use the â€Å"Look inside† feature on Amazon.If you searched for a book about someone else’s business, what details did you want to learn? Cover these topics in your book and then some- bonus points if you use a unique take on them.Writing a Book About Your BusinessNow that youve got to the meat of what youre writing about, you have a clear outline for your book, and you even have a title on hand, its time to write your book.These are my best tips for writing a book about your business in order to get it right.#1 Look over your brainstorming notesIt always pays to have your notes handy in case there are items you forgot about that are beneficial to include.Heres a few things to keep in mind when going back over your notes:Are there any important pieces of information that didnt make it into the outline?What bits and pieces of your notes can make your book more unique than others on the market?Is there anything you feel you need in your book that you didnt include in the outline before?Once youve got those notes, move on to the next step.#2 Get feedback from friendsTell a friend who doesn’t know much about business about your book.N otice the questions your friend asks because readers will most likely have the same questions. These are very important to take note of because theyre what youll directly answer and address in your book.Take those questions and create sections in your chapters to answer them specifically.#3 Develop a writing time and habitThe best way youll get your book done is to form a writing routine that will enable you to finish your book faster.You can set a scheduled time each day to write and notify those around you that it is your time to work on your book.These are our top tips for developing a writing habit:Create a writing schedule like the one featured aboveEliminate distractions that will keep you from writingFind a writing space thats 100% dedicated to writing your bookStick with it for the first few weeks before it forms into a habitFind others who can keep you accountableForming this habit can be the hardest part of writing a book about your business- especially because your busin ess takes up a lot of time.Using these tips will help.#4 Finish fast and with faultWorry about grammar laterbut please do worry about it later- editing your book is important!I recommend just plowing through in order to finish your first draft faster. After all, done is better than perfect.Plus, you cant edit a blank page and one of the biggest indicators of success for aspiring authors is finishing your first draft.#5 Create folders for imagesThis is a very important part of keeping all of your books contents organized so you dont make the mistakes of losing something thats vital.If you are going to have pictures, create folders to keep them organized.You can use Google Drive to store all of your photos so its easier to collaborate with your book formatter or editor.Another option is to use Dropbox for storing photos for your book.You can read about more pieces of writing software you can use for writing your book as well.The big takeaway with storing your images in folders, howe ver, is that you know exactly where everything is and can keep track of it through the proofing, editing, and publishing process.#6 Choose a publishing platformIf you are going to publish your book through more than one platform, definitely have folders to keep everything straight, like in the image below.Here are a few publishing platforms you can use:Amazon Kindle Direct PublishingBarnes and Noble PressIngramsparkLuluThere are other self-publishing companies out there but these are the top recommended.Another thing to keep in mind when choosing your publishing platform is that KDP and Barnes and Noble offer free ISBNs (only for distribution on their channels), while Ingramspark does not.However, Self-Publishing School students are recommended to buy unique ISBNs anyways, so you can distribute on multiple platforms in the future.#7 Read each chapter aloudYou can do this to yourself or even to others to see how it flows and to see what questions or suggestions your listeners may h ave.The reason for this is because you can often catch a lot of issues like your style, flow, or even sentence structure when reading aloud that you wont catch if you read it in your head.This is a great way to proof and self-edit your book.#8 Just keep writing Until you have covered everything important, just keep writing. Its the best way to write faster and finish your first draft.Dont think about anything else and just write.When you start worrying about your book or how itll be received, cast the thoughts aside and get back to it. Youll never publish a book if you cant finish it.#9 Proofread and reviseThe next step for writing a book about your business is to proofread it and reviseuntil you cant stand to look at your book any longer.Make notes in areas you want to change or you want your editor to pay special attention to.A great way to do this is to type TK into the text of your document so you can later do a search and find all TKs in your manuscript. This will only bring up those areas for you to rewrite or proof because TK doesnt appear next to each other in the English language.#10 Get feedback on the whole bookAsk people to give you feedback on the full book. They need to have excellent grammar skills and be detail-oriented.This is also known as the beta reading process or less commonly, the alpha reading process.The idea here is to have others give you direct and raw feedback about your book and what you can do to make it better.Here are some questions to ask people giving you feedback on your book:Was everything clear and easy to understand?What was your biggest takeaway from it?Did you find any parts boring or slow?What other feedback do you have that I didnt ask you about?Doing this will help ensure your published product is the best it can be for new readers.#11 Let it sitWhen you feel like you are done, don’t look at your manuscript for days, maybe even a week or two. Then go back with fresh eyes.You will find more errors to fix!Th e reason for this is to separate yourself from your work a bit. The longer youre away from your own work, the easier it is to determine its flaws, which will help you write a better book overall.#12 Publish Your Book About Your BusinessWhen you believe that your book is at its best, it is time to publish it.Search for the advantages and disadvantages of the publishing options and make your decision. Obviously, Im a big proponent of self-publishing a book, but you can check out this blog post about the differences between self-publishing vs traditional publishing.From there, you can prepare a launch party and gather your launch team. Upload your book and congratulate yourself! Exciting days are ahead!Are you ready to write your own book about your business?You can start TODAY! Check out this free training by Chandler Bolt to get started.

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