How To Write An Outstanding Book For Your Brand, Without Fear Of Rejection

By: Abigail Horne

Only a very small percentage of books will ever be accepted by traditional publishers. Hundreds of thousands are rejected every year.

However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t share your important message and use it to increase your brand’s influence. Your knowledge or powerful story could position you as an expert, help your readers, and grow your profitability. Waiting for someone else to validate you does a disservice to you, your potential clients, and your brand.

Here is how you can take your business book idea from a work in progress to a work of art in six simple steps.

[Related: How to Finally Get Out of Your Own Way]

1) Become the obvious choice.

Your business book should not be an initial hypothesis; it is your final conclusion of what you know to be true. It is what you have tried, tested, and experienced that makes you the obvious choice to learn from.

Your book contains your unique wisdom written with complete integrity. It is the vehicle by which you share this in service of others.

Questions to consider:

• What are you passionate about? Not just what makes you happy: What makes you angry enough to want to have your say and make a difference?
• What do you have a wealth of personal or professional experience in that qualifies you to have an expert opinion?
• What area of your expertise is also profitable? A book is a great way to raise your platform from which to sell your services. Don’t miss the opportunity.

2) Get clear on your ideal reader.

This is the vital first step in your planning. To structure the blueprint of a business book, you must know who the end reader is and what their journey – that you will take them on – looks like.

The reader could be a version of your old self, before you committed to the teachings you are now delivering. Your position gives you the power to serve the person you once were, because you have already walked their walk.

Imagine this: Your ideal reader sends out signals of frustration, pain, confusion, and all the things you have the answers to. You send out signals of hope, help, and knowledge that can support them exactly where they are right now. Your book is where you both meet.

3) Plot your blueprint.

If you know who your readers are, you also know where they are and where they want to be. What does this journey/transformation look like?

Key questions:

• What do they need to know?
• In what order do they need to receive it?

The way in which your readers receive the information determines whether or not they will be able to implement your advice. For example, my own book addresses publishing fears first. This comes before I ask my readers to adopt any new thought patterns.

Again, this is before asking them to take action. This has been the key to not just having a book within my brand for its own sake, but having a book that creates real impact for my readers.

4) Write your first draft.

Write regularly enough to form a habit. Read regularly enough to improve your writing skills. Do not, under any circumstances, try and edit as you write.

Writing should feel free and creative. It uses different parts of your brain than when you critique your work. You cannot be creative and demonstrate critical thinking at the same time. Your brain says “no.” Free flow with your first draft. That’s what it’s there for.

No one will be reading it, so please ignore your confusion over commas at this stage.

5) Now, you can edit.

This is not a read once, fix all process. You will at first look at your work through a wide-angle lens and then zoom in several times to improve different elements of your writing.

You can’t see the whites of someone’s eyes and the big picture of the scenery at the same time. -Deanne Adams

Begin by letting your manuscript breathe to put distance between yourself and your work. You need to approach editing with a fresh view. Print off your work, grab a red pen, and prepare yourself for several rounds of edits. This is not a stage to rush, to skip, or to try and condense if you want to achieve the best possible standard for your book.

[Related: Does Grammar Matter Anymore?]

6) Pick your path.

The very purpose of this article is to encourage you not to wait for the validation of a traditional publishing house. Instead, take back the power into your own hands. This leaves you with two options.

Self-publishing.

Proof your work, design the cover, format your document, plan your launch and marketing campaign, and unleash your book to the world.

Partnership publishing.

Retain the rights and royalties of self-publishing, but get help with the areas in which you lack expertise, time, or the inclination to do it yourself.

This is your ideal reader’s (and potential future client’s) first impression of you. Make it a great one.

[Related: Self-Promotion is Not Self-Serving; It’s a Service To Others]

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Abigail Horne has mentored over 10,000 women in business globally and more than 350 entrepreneurs and professionals specifically through their book publishing projects. She now runs her own publishing company, Authors & Co, specializing in strategic publishing for women who want to raise their profile and their impact. Find her discussing women in publishing on Twitter and via Ellevate Network.