BEFORE You Write Your Book
Honorée Corder
Executive Book Producer | I help professionals publish custom books that boost their brand and increase their income | 67x Author including YOU MUST WRITE A BOOK, BUSINESS NETWORKING & YOUR BOOK MEANS BUSINESS
What are you contemplating writing a book about (or actually writing about now)? Send me an email or tell me in the blog's comment section, I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
Do you think just having a book, any book, is enough? Well, no. That would be like me delivering a couple of pizzas to you on Thanksgiving and expecting that feed your 30+ relatives from all over the country. No sale.
Make no mistake ... having a book is better than not having a book. But not by much. Allow me to explain.
Before you write your book, there are several things to consider, think through, and decide. I'm going to address three of those critical pieces here by giving you three key questions to answer.
1. What's in it for you? What do you want a book to do for you? Examples: provide an additional source of income or replace your business card/brochure or generate income or establish you as the authority in your field or all of those.
Always start with Number One: YOU! A book requires a lot of time, money, and energy, and you must know what you want out of something before you begin (a book or anything else)!
2. What do you want the readers of your book to do, not do, or both? Example: For You Must Write a Book, I want every reader to write a (quality) book, and not write a bad one! There's a lot of misinformation out there, and I wanted to help as many people as I could with a truly informative guide (how did I do? Tell me!).
Another example, from a computer services provider: prospective clients hire me because they recognize I am the expert in my field and sign a 5-year contract and not continue to try to piece-meal those services through multiple providers or on their own.
One more example, from a single mom blogger: to connect me with single moms and drive them to buy my book, take my course, and even hire me as a keynote speaker. (Nope, for those of you who know about my book series for single moms, this actually isn't me!)
Writing your book with a clear purpose helps to inform and influence all of the content of the book.
3. How will you know your book is successful? Examples: I sell more than 25,000 copies, or I engage X more clients per month, or I am recognized as the authority in my field, or I raise awareness about my company/organization/position and XYZ happens.
Having clear objectives and goals for your book will ensure you're always moving in the right direction. It's best to define them in writing, just as you would any other business goal.
I know lots of people who have written books, only to discover they didn't do for them what they originally intended ... because they didn't know to take the time to strategize the different aspects of their book before putting pen to paper. I definitely don't want you to add yourself to that list! I do the occasional strategy session for future authors, in case that's of interest.
I hope this was helpful. If it was, I'd love to know! Have a question? Ask me!
I hope your journey to being an author is going amazingly well! Happy writing!
P.S. If you haven't downloaded the free bonuses from You Must Write a Book yet, get them right here.
***RESOURCES***
~How to Write a Book Description that Sells (& here's my article about why book descriptions matter).
~After you do the pre-book strategy, you can outsource almost the entire process if you'd like. Check out Book in a Box.
~I Must Write My Book: The Companion Workbook to You Must Write a Book is the perfect place to put your book idea down on paper.
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Website: HonoreeCorder.com
Twitter: @Honoree