If you're an entrepreneur and business owner, you know you should write a book. In fact, you probably need write a book. You're losing money, clients and business every day that your book is not written and out there.
But you still haven't done it. Why not?
Probably because the process for writing a book takes too much time and is needlessly complicated. You can't justify spending the hundreds of hours over a year or more, away from your business to do it right.
Doesn't this seem wrong to you? The process for writing a book is almost the same as it was 50 years ago, except you type on a computer instead of a typewriter now. How could this be? Other creative fields that used to be incredibly time consuming have been simplified and democratized, but not book writing.
Take photography as an example. Expensive, complicated cameras have been replaced by simple iPhones. As for music, pro-tools and cheap mics have replaced expensive studio equipment. More tunes have been unleashed because of amazing new tools that makes production easy and simple. Why not book writing? Why can't that be made 10 times easier, like photography and music?
The answer from writers has always been, "The only way to write a book is sit down and type for as long as it takes." I'm a writer, and I used to say that. Entrepreneurs with great book ideas would ask me sincere questions about how they could make the book writing process quicker and effective, and I would pretentiously lecture them about hard work.
Well, I stand corrected. There's finally a better way. An entrepreneur called me out and inspired me to develop a better way for a smart, busy person to turn their ideas into a book -- in their words and their voice. That conversation turned into a completely new way to write a book. We detail this process in our book, The Book In A Box Method, and we created a company that offers this as a service.
Entrepreneur magazine asked me to detail our exact method in this post, so that you can do it yourself, at home, and finally finish the book you know you need to write. This process is perfect for entrepreneurs, because it only works for the types of books that entrepreneurs write -- non-fiction, informational, how-to books that involve some personal storytelling to display their knowledge.
This post will walk you through each step of this method, in detail, so you can finally finish your book not just much faster, but also better. Sourced from: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/280955
7 Steps to Write a Better Selling Book
If you want to write a bestselling book, or even a better than average selling book, these seven strategies that I learned along the way can make a significant difference in your results, success and overall reach when it comes time to sell the book.
I once heard New York Times Bestselling Author (and a mentor of mine) say that 95% of authors never sell more than 200 copies of their book. That’s a shame, in my opinion, because writing a book requires a tremendous amount of time, energy and effort.
As a first time author, I have not made any bestseller lists yet, but I wanted to share my plan with you as it helped me to get through the creative process quickly and with fewer headaches.
Step #1 - Have a SOLID Outline
While writing your book, especially a non-fiction book, it’s important to hold a clear picture in your head of the results you want your book to produce for your readers. Without a clear objective, you will find yourself stuck in the writing process for much longer than necessary.
After I came up with the idea for my own book, I stayed stuck for many, many years before I was able to dive into the writing portion of the project. There was a time when I thought that I may never get this project finished.
The thing that made all the difference for me was having an outline of my book that broke down each part. Once I saw all of the pieces laid out in a start-to-finish format, I was able to take my outline and map out exactly what I wanted to have happen inside of my book.
Naturally, the outline changed as the book progressed, which allowed me to gain even more clarity around the book’s message, but the act of starting with the outline inspired me to take creative action on a regular basis and not stay stuck.
Step #2 - Know Your Objective
In my work with authors, one of the key areas we focus on are the objectives for the completed book. Unfortunately, some authors write their book, complete their project but then have no one to market the book to — no list, no social media presence and no end-game in sight. This is a recipe for disaster and a surefire way to ensure that not many books will be sold.
When I work with clients on their objectives, we choose them carefully and ensure that they are measurable. When we can measure the results of our efforts, we can easily identify which of the strategies were helpful and which weren’t.
Writing a book is an extremely creative process and it’s incredibly easy to get caught up in the creativity without thinking about how the book ties into your business strategy. When you set objectives before you begin, you will write your book from a much more strategic place and be set up to hit your goals.