How Writing a Book Saves You a Massive Amount of Time (Part 1)

A book isn’t just a book. It’s a time-saving machine.

How so?

Well, it has at least eight essential functions for you, whether you’re a business owner, a leader in a professional service firm, or a thought leader in your sector.

But when you first think of a book you don’t think of this bigger picture. So let’s take stock now.

Why write a book?

Put it another way: what do you get for writing a book?

Satisfaction?

To start building a legacy?

They’re important, yes. But is there anything else?

Well, one of the big things entrepreneurs and executives need to do (the biggest?) is win new clients.

And you need to win new clients, right?

So if you’re struggling to generate new business, you should be itching to write a book about now, especially if you want to streamline your process for winning new clients.

But hold on.

There’s a silver lining to this silver lining.

Because if you write a book (the right way), it can do far more than ‘just’ win new clients.

This is a massive time saver, by the way, so let’s discuss it right now.

Here are eight of the (many) things your book can do.

1. Attract New Clients

Use your book to help new clients and contacts to find you.

Like Patty McCord and Fran Hauser.

McCord is a former Netflix executive, now a business consultant and public speaker.

She’s using her book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, to spell out what she stands for. It also invites people to get in touch if they share those values.

Hauser, on the other hand, was a media executive. Now she’s a start-up investor and public speaker. Her book is The Myth of the Nice Girl: Achieving a Career You Love Without Becoming a Person You Hate.

It’s definitely worth studying how these writers use their books to attract clients.

Go to Amazon and order these books –?at the very least take in as much as you can of the ‘search inside’ editions.

2. Showcase Your Expertise

With a book you can demonstrate your expertise to new and existing clients.

If you’ve been tidying up recently, you know Marie Kondo.

Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, shares her process, and is now a hit Netflix phenomenon.

And if you were ever unsure about the topic you want to write a book on, be inspired by Marie Kondo.

Tidying up, for Heaven’s sake!

3. Inspire Your Community

You can use your book to spread your message and your vision with your community.

Like Jacqueline’s former colleague Robert Peston, formerly at the Financial Times, with WTF.

His message? Those who have ruled us for many years have got it badly wrong.

His call to action? Here’s how we can put at least some of it right.

You can take a look at how he positions it here.

Then there’s Marshall Goldsmith, who worked with Mark Reiter (great name) to coin the best business book title ever, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. And sell a million copies, incidentally.

Not every book sells a million copies. Many can inspire their readers. Marshall Goldsmith’s What Got You Here Won’t Get You There did both.

That should inspire you to try your hand, too.

4. Build a Platform

A book can be a compelling alternative to brochures (throwable) and business cards (losable).

Michael Hyatt, former CEO of the publisher Thomas Nelson, has a book that talks about how speakers, coaches and entrepreneurs need to set up a platform. It applies to anyone in business, to be honest, not just speakers and coaches.

The book is called Platform. (No coincidence.)

And the subtitle?

How to get noticed in a noisy world.

Read that line again.

Put it on a Post-It and stick it on the wall. Somewhere at eye level.

Look at it every time you settle down to work.

Add a question mark if you like.

How to get noticed in a noisy world?

The answer, says Hyatt, is to write a book.

5. Build Thought Leadership and Authority

Your book can boost your credibility and authority (that word again) in your profession or calling.

Lynda Gratton, a colleague at London Business School, says this in a recent podcast interview I did with her:

‘I’m a professor at the London Business School. So part of my role is to be a thought leader. And for me thought leadership is writing books.’

Read that line again if you’re in the knowledge industries – consulting, financial advice, academia, others.

‘For me thought leadership is writing books.’

Awesome reason to write a book, right there.

Pia Silva, the young US author of Badass Your Brand: The Impatient Entrepreneur’s Guide to Turning Expertise into Profit, says you shouldn’t just write ‘a book for a book’s sake’. You need to know why you’re writing it and then to write the best book you can.

‘There’s no doubt a great book that supports you as an authority is an amazing way to communicate value quickly,’ she says.

Click the image here to go get chapter 1 of her book. It’s instructive.

6. Generate Profit

Your book can also generate profit, directly and indirectly.

Direct income, from sales, won’t be much, to be fair.

How much is ‘not much’?

Well, an author with a mainstream publisher who spends the majority of their working life writing typically earns only ￡10,500 (about $13,500) a year from book sales.

That’s according to the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society in the UK. (Who still pay me thousands in royalties for the photocopying of one of my first books by a college. Thank you, ALCS.)

There’s worse news.

The amount authors earn is shrinking, says the society. Professional writers have seen earnings drop dramatically since 2005.

You can make a higher percentage from self publishing, but the key to generating revenue from your book is what happens after the sale.

If you see your book as a lead generator and include links to helpful high-value services and products in the appendices of the book – yours ideally, or those of other providers – then it’s different, says Verne Harnish, founder of the Entrepreneurs Organization.

How much you can generate from your book is then only limited by two things…

1) how much the products and services you offer truly serve your readers;

and...

2) how effective the systems you have in place are to guide your readers to purchase your products or services.

We talk a lot about this on the Authors Channel website, but this isn’t the place. (I’ll say more soon.)

For example, Harnish, founder of the Entrepreneur’s Organization puts an entire business degree in his book, Scaling Up. And has coaches on every continent to teach the book to entrepreneurs. (More on this later.)

7. Share Your Legacy

Your book can capture (or start to capture) your legacy. Your legacy to your family, to the business, to the profession or to your region.

We started down this track ourselves in 2011. We wrote the biography of Rami Makhzoumi, the late President and CEO of Future Pipe Industries.

The CEO’s Journey is a book we wish we never wrote, because Rami died – suddenly and far too soon – at the age of just 33.

In part the process was therapeutic for Rami’s family and friends. But writing the book also captures his story and vision for future generations.

Click here to take a look at the legacy website. See how the book fits in to the overall legacy for Rami Makhzoumi, a legacy which also includes a professor’s chair at a major university in Lebanon.

8. Raise Your Profile

The last of these eight key reasons is potentially the most useful and will save you the most time. (Though it probably isn’t the key reason you choose to write a book.)

Your book can raise your personal profile dramatically in your industry or region.

Dianna Booher, a commercially published author, a professional communications consultant for more than three decades and an award-winning member of the National Speakers Association, says that books really do matter on the speaking circuit.

In fact, she says, entrepreneurs can charge 40 to 50 percent more in speaking fees if they have a book. Speakers who used to give their talks away for free can soon command $10,000 per talk. Most receive far more.

Read the full article here, in Entrepreneur magazine. It’s worth it. (You’ll need to take out the trial subscription, but you can cancel afterwards if you wish.)

This last point is pretty attractive, on its own.

When you think about it, we’d all like more recognition.

Not just getting noticed. But actually recognised… for the value that you bring. For the work that you do for your people. For the firm you lead.

In fact, having a book is better than being on the cover of Time magazine.

Because the visibility a book generates is targeted to the people who most need you to help them.

And that’s way better than appearing on the front cover of Time magazine.

But when it comes to actually building your visibility we’ve only just scratched the surface.

So next time we’ll look at how your book replaces a lot of the activities you’re already doing.

And that will save you even more time.

THE STORY SO FAR

• Of course, writing a book brings you a tremendous personal satisfaction and a real sense of achievement.
• But writing a book has a real practical benefit: it saves you a massive amount of time.
• Because a book has at least eight distinct and essential functions for you as a business owner: from attracting new clients and serving your cornerstone clients, to building a brand and leaving a legacy, amongst many other things.

NEXT TIME: how writing a book saves even more time when it comes to generating wide visibility for your firm and your services, and how it does this authentically, without being salesy.

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For transparency, this article will also be published on the blog at the Authors Channel.