Mind Your Business: 5 Top Tips for Writing Business Books
For months, maybe even years, you have been thinking about the best way to share your business knowledge with other people. You have so many unique insights that you plan on putting together in a book, but you cannot help but wonder: what really goes into writing business books?
Here are our top five tips to publish books in the business niche:
Tip 1: Find the Why for Your Business Book
Why do you want to write a business book?
This is the first question you should ask yourself because it reveals much about your intentions for your book. You might write a book because you want to:
- Inspire others to be the best version of themselves
- Generate a new income stream
- Find new business leads
- Show you are an authority on a topic
- Leave a legacy for your family
Think carefully about the motivation behind your book because it determines the direction it will take, as well as your audience.
Create Your Reader Persona
Someone has to read your book, so you need to get to know your audience before you start writing; otherwise, you might miss the mark entirely. You need to understand their problems and give them solutions while showing you are an expert on a specific topic.
The best way to do this is to create a reader persona, which is an avatar of your ideal reader. Use the video below to help you figure out the best reader persona for your book.
Find Your Focus
Once you understand your reasoning for writing this book, you can focus on what your book is all about. You don’t have to do all the planning at this stage—all you want to do is to understand your topic better.
Consider how your book idea appeals to your ideal reader. Start thinking about what they might want to see in the book and how you could make it so interesting that the reader won’t want to put it down.
Tip 2: Build a Team
When you think about how to write a business book, you might consider the basics—writing, editing, and publishing—but much more goes into the process than just these few things.
To write a bestseller, you need a knowledgeable team, even if you do intend on writing the manuscript yourself. Think about the following aspects of the process and who you will use to help you finish the book properly.
Laying Down Words
Determine whether you will be writing the book yourself or whether you will make use of a ghostwriter to construct your manuscript. Using a ghostwriter can be the best option if you don’t have the time to write the entire book yourself.
An editor is always part of the writing process. They look for more than spelling mistakes and poor punctuation, so this is definitely something you want to prioritize.
Making It Look Good
Consider hiring a designer to create a unique front and back cover for your book. Even if you plan on releasing only an ebook, you still want to grab your readers’ attention with an attractive cover.
A formatter ensures your book meets Amazon’s requirements for release on Kindle, while a typesetter can get your book ready for print. Use these professionals for an easy-to-read book.
Getting the Book to Readers
Find a publisher to release your book, or think about self-publishing. Either way, you still need to come up with a marketing plan to make people aware of your book, and a marketing or public relations (PR) firm can help you do this.
Establishing Authority and Credibility
You know about your specific topic, but other people know about it too, especially when it comes to business. Call on colleagues and experts to provide insight for your book. Not only does this ensure high-quality advice, but it also gives your book credibility.
Tip 3: Expect the Unexpected When Writing Business Books
Writing a book isn’t a linear process; there will constantly be changes that have you going back to the drawing board. This is normal, albeit frustrating, but it helps you to create an amazing book.
Plan Your Book
Planning your book is vitally important if you want it to do well. You cannot just start writing, so take a step back and think about the content in your book clearly.
Start by determining the number of words you want in the book: 30,000 to 50,000-word business books are the norm. You can use more or fewer words since it all depends on the topic you are discussing.
Decide on the number of chapters to include and brainstorm what will be included in each one. Don’t be too specific at this stage—you just want a basic idea that you can flesh out as you think about it more.
How to Write a Business Book
Now is the time to start writing the manuscript, and all you want to focus on now is to get words down on paper. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it should make sense. Add some examples or case studies into your book to demonstrate points clearly, then go back and rewrite the content again.
Remember, you can write the manuscript yourself, or you can make use of a ghostwriting service. Ghostwriters will help you with the planning too, which makes it an ideal person to have on your team.
Avoid Perfectionism
Everyone wants their book to be perfect, but perfectionism is the last thing that should be on your mind if you want to publish in the business niche.
Be ready to go back to each chapter several times, as you will need to rewrite the content. You might even add or remove sections or entire chapters, but this is necessary to get the book to the level you want it.
You might never be entirely satisfied with your book, and that’s okay, but continuously making changes will only delay your book’s release. Decide when enough is enough and stick with your decision.
Tip 4: Don’t Neglect Editing and Testing
Your business book isn’t done once it’s written—the writing needs to be made beautiful and reader-friendly. This is where editing and testing come into play, and it makes a huge difference to the quality of the final product.
Professional Editors Are Essential
A professional editor will read through the manuscript and check for various things. They ensure your book reads well, uses suitable vocabulary, and looks out for gaps or tonal changes within the text. Editors will suggest changes to improve your writing, so don’t skip this step.
Test Your Manuscript With Beta Readers
After editing, you may use beta readers to read the manuscript and share their thoughts with you. Beta readers should be similar to the previously created reader persona so that they are representative of your real market.
Feedback provided by beta readers is invaluable—they will tell you what they don’t understand, what concepts require further clarification, and how to improve your manuscript.
Welcome Revisions
Editors and beta readers inevitably create changes in your book, so expect to rewrite parts of the manuscript. The book still might not be perfect, but these individuals get you closer to that mark. Ultimately, revisions will only strengthen the content of your manuscript.
Tip 5: Consider Several Publishing and Marketing Options
Writing business books is exciting, but now you want to get the book to your audience.
How do you want your readers to obtain your book and where will they hear about it?
Publish in the Business Niche
Think back to your reader persona, especially whether they use paperbacks or prefer digital copies of books. Once you know this, you can decide to publish your book in either format or opt for both.
Publishers can help you with this process regardless of which option you choose; alternatively, consider self-publishing your business books. Both methods have their pros and cons, so it remains a personal decision.
Market Your Book
Your audience will only know about your book if you tell them about it. You can market it on your social media pages, inform people through email, or have a big launch at a corporate event.
If marketing isn’t your strong suit, then hire a marketing or PR firm to help you. They will create a unique strategy to promote your book to the right people and set you up at events where you get more exposure.
Consider Keywords
Using keywords will help readers find your book more easily and should form part of any marketing strategy. You will need to list keywords or tags whenever your book is listed online, so think about them carefully.
The keywords should describe your book in brief phrases similar to what people would search for on Amazon.
Get Writing
Now that you understand how to write a business book, it is time to get going with your manuscript. The Urban Writers offer several writing packages to help you with this, and they include planning, editing, and revisions for your manuscript.
What are you waiting for? Let’s get you published in the business niche!
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