How to Write a Book to Generate Leads

It seems that every business owner wants to know how to write a book to generate leads. They want to stand out from the crowd and attract more clients. Writing a book will position themselves as an expert in their industry.

It has been some years since self-publishing became possible for everyone. In the early days, it was easy to stand out from the crowd just by having a book with your name on it. But lots of people have jumped on the bandwagon and today people expect more. Everyone knows that it’s possible to publish just about anything you want on a platform like Amazon, get a swanky cover for it, and call yourself an author. People aren’t impressed any more.

To position yourself as an expert, you have to offer something better than the average self-published book. People have become immune to ‘average’.

How Do You Generate Leads With A Book?

Most of the business messages and new books people are being bombarded with are ignored. This is the way to write a book that gets through to people…

Write a book your audience finds useful.

That is what it boils down to. If you want people to change their habits, you must show them how. If you want them to work with you, you must show them that you can make a difference to their lives. If you want them to think of you as the expert in your field, you must share your expertise.

Your audience is savvy. They’re too savvy to want to work with you because you told them all about your life. They’re too wise to do what you tell them to do just because it worked for you… they’ll come up with a thousand reasons why they’re different from you. They’re too used to seeing new books published to believe that you must be the expert because you’ve got a book with your name on the cover.

The only way to make the time and effort of writing a book to build a brand, generate leads, etc. worthwhile, is to write the book your audience want to read. You can’t fool them into thinking you’re worth their time. You have to prove that you are worth their time.

If you want to write a book that makes a real difference to your audience’s perception of you… and you don’t want to stick any old thing up on Amazon… find out more.

How to create a huge following

Are you asking Google how you can self-publish a book to build your brand and make your audience fall in love with your message? Looking for the magic answer you’ve been searching for to create a huge following of loyal customers and super-fans? You’re asking the wrong first question.

It’s not a wrong question entirely. It’s just not the first question to ask.

Of course you want to attract more customers and position yourself as an expert. And a book is a great way to do that. It’s low cost to the reader and is incredibly shareable in its format. But going straight to asking ‘how do I publish a book?’ is not the place to start.

It’s a great question for a later part of the process. I can recommend a company that will publish your book for you, help you publicise it, design your cover – all the whistles and bells. Or you can do it yourself through a platform like Amazon. Different options suit different writers. But don’t START with the ‘how do I publish’ question.

Position yourself as the expert

Your customers expect the book you write to engage their attention, to be relevant to their needs and to give them the means to start solving their problem. When you show them you can give them that, then they will believe in you.

This means putting your ego to one side. It means not making yourself the hero of the book you write. Instead it means making your reader the hero instead. It means placing the focus on the kind of person you really want to help… your ideal client… and then going ahead and helping them.

When you actually help your ideal client in this way, that’s how you can end up achieving your own goals. Whether that’s positioning yourself as the expert, attracting more customers, growing your following. Or getting your message to resonate with people so they need to share it, you only get what YOU want by pleasing the people reading your book. You won’t achieve those goals by shouting about yourself and dazzling people into working with you. Although you can achieve them by being genuinely useful.

Thinking of writing and self-publishing a book to help, lead or coach others? I’m a writer. My coaching will help you write a book that’s good enough to make people believe in you, work with you, and spread your message on your behalf. 

How do you build your brand with a book?

Many branding experts recommend writing a book. Often, their top tip for building your brand is to write a book. Yes, it is a good idea to do this, for all the reasons they say it is. More specifically, it is a good idea to write a GOOD book. Let’s be honest, though… You know those gurus who tell you that the world is waiting to hear from you? The ones who say you just need to put your story out there and the world will love you, listen to you and be converted to your message? It’s as easy as that? They’re telling you what you want to hear.

What kind of book should you write to start your climb to the top?

If you haven’t reached the top of your industry yet, you’ll need to write a different kind of book. Sure, you’ve got something that can help other people. Of course you can lead others. But ask yourself this… would YOU go for help from someone who does nothing but talk about themselves? Most self-published books that claim to help, lead or inspire people are crap. Full of good intentions, of course. The writers have lived experience and wisdom to share. They set out to show their community the way to fix their problem, and they want to build their brand in an authentic, unique way. Total respect. But these new writers make a fundamental mistake. They write a book that doesn’t solve anyone’s problem. It might be a readable account of their own journey, put up a framework of principles to follow and give some sound advice, but few people who read it will be able to unpick all of that and make use of it. Even fewer readers will recommend it to others.

You need your writing to give people that feeling of having to share it with others. If it doesn’t, all your efforts to publicise and spread your message will go to waste. Your story can make a difference to others BUT you need to weave it into a greater story tapestry. A story in which you do NOT play the hero. Let your reader be the hero.

Let me say that again. You should NOT be the hero in your book. The hero should be the person you want to benefit from the book.