whitefox: helping brands, thought leaders and writers create beautiful bespoke books

Ginny Carter is a business book ghostwriter, book writing coach, and author. Her talent is enticing your ideas, your signature programme, or your talk, out of your head and into a business book that’s engaging, insightful, and persuasive.

Her guide to writing a standout business book, Your Business Your Book takes you through the process of planning, writing, and promoting your own book. It shares what she’s learned by ghostwriting for countless business owners, enabling them to become authors in their own right. Click here to visit Ginny’s website.

It’s an exciting moment when you open a fresh document and prepare to type the first word of your new business book. Especially when you have ambitious plans for how it’s going to raise your authority, increase your visibility, and bring more clients to your door.

But just for now, press pause.

Your book can do all that for you, but only if you do these three things before you start writing.

1. Decide what you want to achieve with your business book

When I talk to budding authors about their books, I always ask them what they want it to do for them and their business. Here are some of the answers I’m often given:

• position myself as an expert
• help my readers to overcome their problems
• claim my space
• upgrade my client base
• gain more speaking opportunities

All these reasons are valid, and yours may be a combination of these, or different still.

You just need to know what it is, because all the decisions you make about your book will hang off it. You’ll know who to write it for, what to write about, how to put across your ideas, and what publishing and marketing options are best for you. So it’s pretty central to your plans.

2. Pick your ideal readers

When you decide whether or not to read a business book, what you’re really asking yourself is, ‘Will this book help me?’

If you can see it’s for established entrepreneurs when you’ve only just launched your company, for instance, you’ll know this isn’t the right one for you. That’s not a problem – there are plenty of others that will be.

It’s the same principle when you write your own book. You want it to help your specific readers, because the more they get out of it, the more this does for you.

Here’s where knowing your ‘why’ comes into its own. For example, if you want to gain more clients with your book, your readership should be in the niche they typically come from.

Whatever you do, make sure you align your ideal readers with your existing business market, because when your book is published, you’ll have a ready-made audience to promote it to.

Your book isn’t for everyone – that’s what makes it special.

3. Decide your business book’s big message

If you want your book to hold value for its readers, it should answer their single most important question. It’s easy to assume you have to write more widely, but the truth is that you can write a heck of a lot of words addressing one key area. That way your book has focus and impact.

Your big message should relate to your core expertise and be from a viewpoint that’s unique to you. Here’s a template you can use to plan yours:

I  want to help ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_________________ (your target readers) to _______________________ (your big message) so I can ______________________ (what you want to achieve with your book).

When you’re thinking about this, make sure your business book’s central theme is one which your readers want to read about, and not just one you think they need to know about.  We only read business books we find rewarding, after all.

Now you’ve taken the time to plan your business book effectively, you’re all set to write the book that puts you in the spotlight.