So you have a business that you are rather proud of. That’s fantastic!
And what would make things even better would be writing a book and publishing a book about your business.
Which, to be frank, is a monumental avenue to grow your business, find new leads, and increase income (I mean, Self-Publishing School even uses this method to grow to 8 figures).
After all, you have already created a vital business, and helping others would validate your trade and diversify it as well.
Not to mention the fact that being an author increases your own authority by a significant amount…
Which is what Brianna Ruelas did when she decided to write a book.
Initially, she had no idea what to do. She knew she wanted to write a book and she knew she would use it as a launching pad for a business but beyond that, she wasn’t sure which steps to take.
Until she joined Self-Publishing School and was guided in the right direction.
Now, she has a flourishing $4,000/month business—all from working with Self-Publishing School to launch her book, and that’s not including book royalties!
But how do you do this effectively? We’ve got some tips to make it happen.
In addition to becoming an author, you would be marketing your business through a different venue. We’re talking win-win here!
Grow authority. Grow influence.
Add SIX-FIGURES to Your Business THIS YEAR with a Book!
Business owners, healthcare providers, coaches, realtors, CXOs, and other professionals
are using this same strategy to grow their businesses – and now you can have it, too!
Learn the strategy, including the exact step-by-step methods we used, to grow Self-Publishing School
from $0 – $20 Million…in only 6 years…using a BOOK!
Here’s what we’ll teach you about how to write a book about your business:
- Brainstorm Your Book Content
- Considerations for Writing a Book About Your Business
- Choosing a Title for Your Book
- Write Your book
- Get Feedback From Friends
- Finish Fast and Imperfectly
- Create folders for images
- Choose a publishing platform
Why Write a Book About Your Business?
This is an obvious question. You already run your business every day, what good could come from writing a book about it?
Here are some benefits of writing a book about your business:
- You gain authority
- You reach new potential customers
- You gain opportunities for speaking engagements
- You can capture more leads by using your book
- You gain credibility to both potential customers and others in your field
This very blog is built on the back of a website that was started with a book.
Chandler Bolt published his first bestselling book at the age of 19 and since, has built an 8-figure business from the process—while using his latest book Published. to make it more successful.
[Pssst! Want to see some of our students’ books? Check out the SPS Library here!]
Brainstorm Your Business Book’s Content
You have already experienced the step-by-step process of establishing your own livelihood whether it is full time or a sideline. Now all you have to do is explain what you did to grow your business.
One strategy is to pretend you are advising a close friend what steps to take.
Here are some ways to come up with your book idea:
- Brainstorm a random list of everything you remember doing when you started your business.
- Don’t stop now; keep brainstorming! List everything you want to include in the book–and even things that won’t go in the book. If it crosses your mind, write it down. We’ll put all of that into a book outline later.
- Take a break. Walk away from the computer! Eat, drink, walk, or talk.
- Break’s over. You’ve got a book to write!
- List the process of how you created and grew your business in chronological order. This list is your reference point for an informal outline and table of contents.
- Prioritize. What are the top topics that you want to emphasize in your book? What do you wish you would have known when first starting your business? Most importantly, what will your readers gain from learning about your business? Let them learn from your mistakes and share in your successes.
- Make each topic a separate chapter even if it is really short.
- People like concise information, so keep your paragraphs short. Incorporate bullet points that shoot straight to the core matter for easier skimming.
- Look through old computer files and photographs to remind you of things that you may have forgotten connected directly or indirectly with your business.
- Check your lists more than twice. Did you remember to include everything that matters?
Once you’ve got the gist of what content your book will be, you’ll be ready for the next step in your business-to-book writing process.
What to Consider When Writing a Book About Your Business
There are a few things you’ll want to think about when writing your book about your business.
Here are some thins to consider before writing your book.
#1 – Do I want photographs in my book?
Depending on your business, you may find it worthwhile to add pictures in your book for explanation purposes or something just as relevant.
For example, in my book Rockin’ Crystals: How Healing Crystals Can Rock Your Life, I used images in a number of areas as you can see below.
Advantages of using images in your book:
- Color pictures add, um, color, and people like color.
- Photos attract interest and authority.
- Pictures explain in ways that words lack (unless you use 1,000 words per picture, according to the cliche).
- Cell phones and their apps make it easy to take and edit pictures.
Disadvantages of using pictures in your book:
- They add to your book’s production costs.
- The electronic version may take a bit longer to download (but I have never had a problem with that).
- If you have an audio version of your book, the pictures would not be included in the content.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether or not to include pictures. If it adds to the overall experience, we recommend it.
However, if pictures will only be a distraction and not useful, skip them.
#2 – How long do I want this book to be, anyway?
Does it matter, or do I just write until I am done?
This is a question many authors have regularly. How many words are in a novel?
For writing a book about your business, we recommend you write between 20,000 – 50,000 words.
This is because any shorter, and it won’t give your readers all the information they want and more than 50,000 words and you run the risk of boring your readers or giving them too much information.
This is also known as overwriting, which can be trimmed during editing but you want to make sure your book is a clean, concise, and helpful as possible.
#3 – Do I want multiple formats of a book?
Publishing your book in different formats can help you reach a wider audience. But that also means you have to decide if you want to pursue multiple formats.
Here are the different book formats you can publish:
- Publish an ebook
- Paperback book
- Hardcover
- Audiobooks
Each of these book variations comes with its own pros and cons. For example, if you choose to distribute an audiobook, you’ll have to learn how to make an audiobook in the first place.
Publishing ebooks also comes with its own set of “rules” to follow.
Ultimately, it’s recommended to publish a version of each in order to maximize your audience, but do what works best for you.
Choosing a Title for Your Book
People like knowing other people’s business. Call them curious, call them snoopy, just call to them to buy your book to learn about your business. Teach them your secrets.
Here are some overall tips for titling a book from the Self-Publishing School Youtube Channel.
If you want some additional tips for choosing a book title, here’s what worked for me:
- A book about a business is a niche market, so make sure that your title makes the topic clear. For example, The Craft Fair Vendor Guidebook lets the reader know that the book is a guide about being a craft fair vendor. The subtitle, Ideas to Inspire, adds another element to the reader’s expectations. The cover’s photograph shows a booth with handcrafted jewelry, another clue.
- In your book’s description, clearly explain what type(s) of business you will be covering. People like to know what to expect and may feel tricked if the book’s description isn’t comprehensive enough. A suggestion is to write your book’s description before writing the book. It’s like a “thesis paragraph” to keep yourself focused. You can keep revising the overview to fit the book as it develops. Also, that gives you more time to decide if the description is its absolute best before uploading it onto your publishing site.
- Spell out examples of how your business practices can be applied to other ventures. The more crossover applications, the more types of people will be interested in your book.
- Although you want all of the book to be appealing, you want the first pages to be extra engaging because those are the pages that potential readers will see if they use the “Look inside” feature on Amazon.
- If you searched for a book about someone else’s business, what details did you want to learn? Cover these topics in your book and then some—bonus points if you use a unique take on them.
Writing a Book About Your Business
Now that you’ve got to the meat of what you’re writing about, you have a clear outline for your book, and you even have a title on hand, it’s time to write your book.
These are my best tips for writing a book about your business in order to get it right.
Grow authority. Grow influence.
Add SIX-FIGURES to Your Business THIS YEAR with a Book!
Business owners, healthcare providers, coaches, realtors, CXOs, and other professionals
are using this same strategy to grow their businesses – and now you can have it, too!
Learn the strategy, including the exact step-by-step methods we used, to grow Self-Publishing School
from $0 – $20 Million…in only 6 years…using a BOOK!
#1 – Look over your brainstorming notes
It always pays to have your notes handy in case there are items you forgot about that are beneficial to include.
Here’s a few things to keep in mind when going back over your notes:
- Are there any important pieces of information that didn’t make it into the outline?
- What bits and pieces of your notes can make your book more unique than others on the market?
- Is there anything you feel you need in your book that you didn’t include in the outline before?
- You might also want to try using this software to help outline your book project.
Once you’ve got those notes, move on to the next step.
#2 – Get feedback from friends
Tell a friend who doesn’t know much about business about your book.
Notice the questions your friend asks because readers will most likely have the same questions. These are very important to take note of because they’re what you’ll directly answer and address in your book.
Take those questions and create sections in your chapters to answer them specifically.
#3 – Develop a writing time and habit
The best way you’ll get your book done is to form a writing routine that will enable you to finish your book faster.
You can set a scheduled time each day to write and notify those around you that it is your time to work on your book.
These are our top tips for developing a writing habit:
- Create a writing schedule like the one featured above
- Eliminate distractions that will keep you from writing
- Find a writing space that’s 100% dedicated to writing your book
- Stick with it for the first few weeks before it forms into a habit
- Find others who can keep you accountable
Forming this habit can be the hardest part of writing a book about your business—especially because your business takes up a lot of time.
Using these tips will help.
#4 – Finish fast and with fault
Worry about grammar later…but please do worry about it later—editing your book is important!
I recommend just plowing through in order to finish your first draft faster. After all, “done is better than perfect.”
Plus, you can’t edit a blank page and one of the biggest indicators of success for aspiring authors is finishing your first draft.
#5 – Create folders for images
This is a very important part of keeping all of your book’s contents organized so you don’t make the mistakes of losing something that’s vital.
If you are going to have pictures, create folders to keep them organized.
You can use Google Drive to store all of your photos so it’s easier to collaborate with your book formatter or editor.
Another option is to use Dropbox for storing photos for your book.
You can read about more pieces of writing software you can use for writing your book as well.
The big takeaway with storing your images in folders, however, is that you know exactly where everything is and can keep track of it through the proofing, editing, and publishing process.
#6 – Choose a publishing platform
If you are going to publish your book through more than one platform, definitely have folders to keep everything straight, like in the image below.
Here are a few publishing platforms you can use:
There are other self-publishing companies out there but these are the top recommended.
Another thing to keep in mind when choosing your publishing platform is that KDP and Barnes and Noble offer free ISBNs (only for distribution on their channels), while Ingramspark does not.
However, Self-Publishing School students are recommended to buy unique ISBNs anyways, so you can distribute on multiple platforms in the future.
#7 – Read each chapter aloud
You can do this to yourself or even to others to see how it flows and to see what questions or suggestions your listeners may have.
The reason for this is because you can often catch a lot of issues like your style, flow, or even sentence structure when reading aloud that you won’t catch if you read it in your head.
This is a great way to proof and self-edit your book.
#8 – Just keep writing
Until you have covered everything important, just keep writing. It’s the best way to write faster and finish your first draft.
Don’t think about anything else and just write.
When you start worrying about your book or how it’ll be received, cast the thoughts aside and get back to it. You’ll never publish a book if you can’t finish it.
#9 – Proofread and revise
The next step for writing a book about your business is to proofread it and revise…until you can’t stand to look at your book any longer.
Make notes in areas you want to change or you want your editor to pay special attention to.
A great way to do this is to type “TK” into the text of your document so you can later do a search and find all “TK”s in your manuscript. This will only bring up those areas for you to rewrite or proof because “TK” doesn’t appear next to each other in the English language.
#10 – Get feedback on the whole book
Ask people to give you feedback on the full book. They need to have excellent grammar skills and be detail-oriented.
This is also known as the beta reading process or less commonly, the alpha reading process.
The idea here is to have others give you direct and raw feedback about your book and what you can do to make it better.
Here are some questions to ask people giving you feedback on your book:
- Was everything clear and easy to understand?
- What was your biggest takeaway from it?
- Did you find any parts boring or slow?
- What other feedback do you have that I didn’t ask you about?
Doing this will help ensure your published product is the best it can be for new readers.
#11 – Let it sit
When you feel like you are done, don’t look at your manuscript for days, maybe even a week or two. Then go back with fresh eyes.
You will find more errors to fix!
The reason for this is to separate yourself from your work a bit. The longer you’re away from your own work, the easier it is to determine its flaws, which will help you write a better book overall.
#12 – Publish Your Book About Your Business
When you believe that your book is at its best, it is time to publish it.
Search for the advantages and disadvantages of the publishing options and make your decision. Obviously, I’m a big proponent of self-publishing a book, but you can check out this blog post about the differences between self-publishing vs traditional publishing.
From there, you can prepare a launch party and gather your launch team. Upload your book and congratulate yourself!
Exciting days are ahead!
My Experience Writing a Book About My Business
Since it is often helpful to know how someone else did something, I will share my story. I had always wanted to write a book but thought it would be a novel since I read lots of fiction. It remained just a dream.
Meanwhile, I started wire-wrapping healing crystals to make jewelry. I opened an Etsy store and started selling jewelry and related items at craft fairs and holistic health expos.
After I thought of a way to make portable folding jewelry cases from children’s art kits, I wanted to share my idea with other jewelry vendors. I posted pictures in my Rockin’ Crystals Etsy store and briefly considered making a brochure to sell.
Then I thought, “A brochure? The heck with a brochure–I need to write a book!”
I searched online for craft fair books to see what was available. I already knew how difficult it was to find pictures of displays that worked well for a temporary situation like a craft fair, so my book was going to help fill that void.
With a background in education and library, I had a lot to learn about starting and operating a home-based business. I wrote my book to help the other newbie business entrepreneurs. Far from being a business expert, I focused on my own experience because I did qualify as an “expert” regarding my personal business.
I had taken pictures at every craft fair and learned how to use photo editing apps like Photofy and WordSwag. The photos were what made my book flow. They reminded me of what was involved in the craft fair business.
After I decided to write a book, I attended events with a different perspective.
I needed examples beyond jewelry, and other vendors were happy to let me photograph their displays. I wanted the principles in the book to apply to a variety of products.
I started with publishing on Amazon and released Kindle and paperback versions. Fortunately, it is free to upload and free to revise. As a former English teacher, I revise and revise and revise. Each time I think that I am DONE, that the book is the best of my abilities. Then I think of something that would improve the book in my mind, even if nobody else would notice the difference. And there I go again!
My book has 97 color photographs, and I was beyond frustrated working with Kindle Create. The final file usually wouldn’t upload. I asked for advice in the KDP Community Forum.
Another author explained a way to upload the Kindle book that worked fairly painlessly:
- Save the Word file as Web Page, Filtered.
- Find the HTML document (wherever you’d saved it)
- Right click on it and send to a Compressed (zipped) folder.
- Find a folder with the same name that contains your photos.
- Drag in into the Compressed (zipped) folder.
- Use the Compressed folder for uploading the digital book on KDP.
I expanded the paperback versions with Barnes & Noble Press and IngramSpark. This was after numerous revisions with Amazon KDP. The digital version of The Craft Fair Vendor Guidebook has had fairly steady downloads with Kindle Unlimited. The paperback sales have been significantly better through Amazon compared to anywhere else.
My book about my business has outsold my other books. This may be because many people would like to have their own business and want to learn what to do. They would like to read about your business, so let’s get that book written. Future business owners are counting on you!
