5 Things Every Business Author Should Know

Thinking of writing a book to grow your business or establish your expertise? Have you already written one but feeling kind of frustrated?

Your book can be transformed into the single greatest marketing tool you’ve ever imagined when you know what to do and when.

Below are five things every business book author should know if you want to use your book to build your business.

1. Many authors you’ve never even heard of – who never even got close to the New York Times best seller list – made an enormous profit because of their books, not directly from it. I'm a literary agent who specializes in business books. When I asked one of my clients to write a second book, he instantly declined, saying, “I don’t have time! My business has grown three hundred percent since the first one was published.”
2. Start with the end in mind. If your book is intended to attract more clients, customers, patients, constituents, fame or fans, focus on that goal. It will make it much easier to make choices about how you spend your book promotion resources (time and sometimes money). Check out this free live webinar if you are ready to learn some deep insider strategies for effective book promotion.
3. The publishing industry helps those who help themselves. If you’re planning on getting an agent and a legitimate publisher (one who pays you for the right to publish your book) then you’ll need what’s called a “platform”. A platform is a large, growing fan base of people who like you, your company and/or your work. Publishers require it before they will buy from you. And if you are planning to self-publish (or already did) you'll need twice the platform to help it get attention. Lucky for you, it's not rocket science to build a platform.
4. Unless the content of your book is obsolete or it is terribly written, you can still leverage it to create a solid customer attraction strategy. (To find out specifics on how to do that, click here). There are many books that are "quiet classics" - they just chug along. I have a few clients who are still making money from books they wrote in the 90s! And in each of their cases, the books brought in lucrative consulting opportunities, paid speaking and/or big contracts with big companies - far bigger than they would have gotten without a book.
5. Successfully leveraging your book is more about strategy than effort. Finding out what to do when and how, based on your specific goals, will improve how fast you achieve success from your book. Paying attention and adapting to results will help you deftly steer your business and your book in the right direction.

Whether your goal is the fleeting fame of the New York Times list, or quietly shoveling money into your bank account for decades just because you were clever enough to write a book, it all comes down to taking the right actions at the right time, seeing how your public responds, and then replicating your best strategies.

The worst thing any businessperson-author can do is just sit there and whine about the fact nothing is happening with their marketing, especially when it is so easy to discover what the right actions are, implement them and watch things start to go your way, your income increase, and your prestige in your industry to soar.