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. 

Could you really write a book?

It seems that every other person these days has a book in them, whether it’s a book to tell their own story, a novel, or a book to complement their business. Do you recognise yourself in this?

How many of those people actually write their book? I don’t mean start writing it and leave off a thousand words in, or get an outline put together and do a bit of research about CreateSpace… I mean actually write an entire book. I don’t mean writing a first draft and then leaving it to gather dust in a drawer, either.

Elizabeth Gilbert (she’s the one who wrote Eat Pray Love) in her fabulous book Big Magic, which is about living a creative life, tells us about her idea for a book that got away. She started working on it, then for one reason and another she abandoned it. The idea left her and found someone else to write it. Someone else wrote the book instead of her.

Chances are, seeing as you’re reading this article, you’ve got an idea for a book. It could be a book you’ve been looking for but haven’t found anywhere. It could be a book which will motivate and help a particular group of people – people who really need to hear what you’ve got to say.

Here’s the thing. If you don’t write it, they’ll never hear it, unless they hear it from someone else. 

So why don’t YOU write it?

Excuse number one you might be making… “I don’t have time…” or “I’ll do it when I’ve got more time…” Let me ask you this: WHEN do you imagine you are going to have more time? When the kids are older? When they move out? When you win the lottery? When you’re in a residential home for the elderly?

How do you think those people who HAVE written books managed to do so, or at least when they were writing their first book? Few of us have a writing hut we can escape to for hours on end. What you do – what we ALL have to do – is fit your writing into the cracks in your life. That half hour when the kids are at their swimming lesson. That lunch break. That time between dinner and bed. If scrolling on social media is more important to you, carry on. If that soap opera is so vital, don’t let me stop you. Crack on. Someone else can write your book instead of you.

If you really want to write your book, you will. If you want to find excuses, you will. 

Excuse number two you might be making… “It’s too hard.” Writing a book IS hard – at least, writing a book worth reading is hard. There are various promotions out there which promise that you can be published thirty days from now. You could be, indeed. That doesn’t mean what you’ll have written will be any good.

It was Ernest Hemingway, apparently, who wrote, “The first draft of anything is sh*t.” In thirty days, you could possibly write a first draft of something. Or anything. Would you be happy with that as your legacy, though?

Writing a book is hard work. Some people call it practice. Effort. There’s no getting around it. Does that mean it’s too hard for you? It depends…

If you want to put in the work, you will. If you want to decide it’s too hard, you will.

Found this article useful? Try this one… https://bestbookyoucan.com/writing-business-book-know-start/

Planning on writing a business book?

You want to write a business book so that people will see you as the expert in your field? You want potential clients to be desperate to work with you? You want the book to sell or circulate in its thousands? …
What you need to do is keep those goals in mind every step of the way, isn’t it?
NO.
Frankly, a focus on those goals will lead to you writing a book which portrays you as a total ego-maniac. Nobody will want to read it, never mind act on it by seeking you out. I seriously doubt that even your nearest and dearest will be able to look you in the eye and tell you they’re impressed.
Think about it. How much time would you spend reading a book which is nothing more than an extremely wordy advert for its writer’s products or services?
Those goals are the benefits you want to achieve for yourself.
There is nothing wrong with wanting those benefits. You’re not a terrible person for having those ambitions.

‘But this is my story… Isn’t that valuable?’
We all have a story of some sort and yes, everyone’s story is valuable. Why do we find stories so interesting? Why are they so ingrained in our human natures? One word: emotion. When we read a story or watch a film, what we want is to feel what it is like to be that person and live that life. I am not sneering at stories in general nor at your personal story. Stories are wonderful expressions of ourselves.
But here’s the thing… when a person reads a novel, that emotional connection with the characters is primarily what he or she is seeking. His expectations do not go beyond that. He probably isn’t expecting to learn a lesson in his own life. When that same person reads a non-fiction book, especially a business or self-development book, a lesson he can take into his own life is exactly what he expects and wants. If he doesn’t get it, you’ve lost him.
Do share your story. Stories encourage readers to engage with your message. Stories are a key element of what makes us human. But… and I mean this kindly, as advice to save you wasted energies… make sure that when you sit down to plan, organise and write your book, you keep offering your readers value they can use in their own lives.

People crave help and advice
By putting aside your own goals for your book, then – sales of goods and services, book sales, enhanced professional reputation – and focusing instead on how you can use the book to help your readers, you will do a much better job of actually achieving your own goals. Try looking your own ambitions in the eye and they will run away and hide from you.