Have you ever looked at a promotion for an author’s new book, and thought ‘I wish I could do that’? When you see a business person who has a published book, does it give you more confidence in dealing with them? More confidence that they really know what they are talking about?
It’s highly likely that you answered yes to all of those questions. And you’re not alone in that! But…… it’s also highly likely that your next thought was ‘I could never do that’ or ‘No-one would read a book by me’.
Let me assure you, right here – you can do that! And, what’s more, you should do that.
Why?
- If you have a business now, and you have clients, then those are people who care about your expertise – they already pay you for it, because they are your clients. And if there are some people who are willing to pay for what you know, then there are more out there that you have not connected with yet. And all of those people will read a book by you – because it will contain things that they value.
- Being a published author will boost your business authority – who better to deal with, than the person who ‘wrote the book’ on the topic? A book is an ongoing source of lead generation – you create it once, and it keeps connecting you to new people, forever.
- A book is the only advertising that pays you. It may cost you some money upfront (but doesn’t any advertising?), but then, as you sell the book, you start to get income back from it – a steady trickle, or even a flood…. of passive income. Traditional advertising in newspapers or magazines, happens once, and it’s gone – a book is forever.
- Having a book can be the leverage that presents you as an expert, and lets you get speaking engagements, or joint venture deals, that you might not otherwise get.
- A book based on your area of subject matter expertise (ie, what your business does or sells….) is easy to create, because, hiding in your business, you already have most of the material needed – you just have to ‘dig it out’ and repurpose it.
- Books capture skills and knowledge that would otherwise be lost. In this age of social media and digital everything, we leave no permanent imprints on the world. All our pictures are on Facebook and Flickr, our discussions are on blog posts, we communicate mostly with various message services, our invoices and purchase orders happen via email etc etc. Only 20 years ago, none of that was true. Consider that for a moment. What we know of history is often derived from social archaeologists digging through old filing cabinets, bundles of letters, business or household records etc. We are no longer creating anything of that sort. We can’t guarantee that various digital formats will still be readable in a few years’ time. The only way to preserve, and pass on, what we know, our stories, is to collect them in a form that people respect, that people actively try to preserve – the best form for that is a book.
When you look at it, there is every reason to write a book.
One of the joys of this digital era, is that it is easier to do than ever – no slaving away with pen and paper, no slog at an old fashioned typewriter – just braindump things into a Word document, copy and paste bits of blog posts etc too, then you can edit it into shape (or get someone else to do so!) at your leisure. Publishing is easier than ever too – there are plenty of businesses out there who are there to help you publish, and, with just in time delivery, print on demand systems, you no longer need to lay out huge sums of money, or have 1,000 books in the garage – order how many you need, when you need them.
I encourage you to preserve your skills and knowledge, leave a legacy by telling your story, and grow your business while you do so!
