- Are you writing a book about your business
or using your experience in your business
to write your book?
If you are,
you're likely sharing stories of clients or employees
and you might be wondering how much detail to include.
If you're writing a business book
and you're wondering what mistakes you should avoid,
well, this video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey there, I'm Julie the Book Broad.
I'm the author of three books, soon to be four,
and I'm also the founder
of a fabulous company called Book Launchers.
At Book Launchers, we focus on working with thought leaders
or people with powerful stories
to help them write, publish, and promote non-fiction books
to grow their business or their brand.
With that as our focus,
we've worked on a lot of books
and seen a lot of things go right
and some common things go, well, not so right.
So let's make sure you avoid the things
that didn't go so right,
and we'll kick it off with a mistake I made
when I wrote "Self-Publish & Succeed".
Mistake number one, naming employees by name in your book.
We've had to scrub more than one book
that mentions someone in a company
that no longer works there.
It's funny how many times it happens
where someone is proud and excited
to mention someone by name
because of their contribution to the company
and how much they valued it
only to have that either be proven false later
or have an action totally undo
any good that person has done.
This has happened with business partners, employees,
and even service provider relationships
that someone mentions in their book.
In my case, it was someone who left the company
and did significant damage upon their departure.
Having this person mentioned by name in the book
didn't feel good for me,
but it was actually a team member
that suggested we make the cleanup.
And upon reflection,
I decided it was best to remove any names
and change it to position titles
or position descriptions instead.
It means some people don't get named
or don't get credit for certain actions,
but it removes the issues that have unfolded
when something goes wrong
and it can also reduce any feelings of being left out
that others may feel when they aren't mentioned by name.
Now, of course, there are always exceptions to these things,
so use your judgment,
but what I have seen is people who are writing a book
about an active business,
things are fluid and things change.
So you may not want to include people by name.
But if you're looking back
on a company you used to own or you used to work at,
then you could potentially include the names
because that isn't fluid, it's not changing.
Mistake number two, being afraid to share
the secret sauce that makes your company great.
Some books will fall really flat
when a business owner holds back
from sharing what they actually do to help people.
This can be out of fear
of competitors taking your secret sauce and using it
or maybe people won't need to hire you
if they know all the steps.
The issue is that if you don't share
massive value in your book, nobody will want your book.
Now, I personally have never been afraid
to share everything we do,
because I know there are people who will do it on their own
and I'm helping them avoid
some costly mistakes with my book.
And then there are the people who will read the book
and go, "Whew, here, you know what you're doing,
do it for me."
I want to work with the people who will trust us,
and to all the competitors trying to do what we're doing,
well, I wish you all the best.
Of course, you pretty much can't share everything
in one book anyways.
You have to share enough
to get your reader to a specific outcome.
But if you write a book from a place of fear
that you're gonna share too much,
you probably won't write a book
that people will want to read or tell others about.
Write a book that sets the reader up
to achieve an outcome of an outcome,
and you'll find yourself writing a book
that people wanna read, share, and buy,
and it will inevitably sell your product, service,
or speaking gigs so much more,
than a book that tries to sell by not revealing secrets.
Mistake three, not promoting a call to action
or promoting a call to action way too much.
This is kinda like a part A of a mistake
and a part B of a mistake,
but you do need to have calls to action
to get people to subscribe to your newsletter
and connect with you.
And you don't wanna overwhelm the reader,
or listener if they're listening to an audiobook,
with constant calls to action because it gets annoying.
If you constantly reference resources or a website
or ask people to subscribe or buy something,
you'll get a lot of reviews
that criticize your book for that
and you could turn people off.
So there's a balance.
I like to do it a handful of times in a book
when it really makes sense
and have a great call to action page
that you're sending people to.
You want to do this,
you need to encourage people to connect with you
because Amazon and other stores
aren't gonna tell you who bought your book
and you should never assume
that somebody's gonna seek you out without a reason
even if they love your book.
Now, some books do it well at the end of each chapter,
but even at the end of each chapter that can be a bit much
depending on how you do it.
So when you do it, make a compelling invitation
with resources applicable to what they just read
that are so valuable they would otherwise pay for it
and do it strategically
so that people are connecting with you,
but don't do it every chance you get.
Mistake four, naming the book the same as the business.
I know, you're writing the book
to build the brand of the business,
and so that seems logical
that the title of the book should match
the title or the name of the business,
so the brands are aligned.
The problem is that very few business names
make good book titles.
Remember, that book title is supposed to sell your book
and it has to be reader-focused.
Even a name like Book Launchers
doesn't make a good book title
because it's not telling you much about the book
or who the reader is or why they need to read it.
It would need to be Book Launching Mastery
or Beast Mode Book Launch or something.
I made those up.
I'm not titling my next book either of those things,
so go ahead and use them if you want
or make new suggestions in the comments below.
My point is simply that a book
named the same as a business,
rarely, if ever, sets the book up for success,
unless the business name also is a great book title.
Speaking of book titles and business names,
can you think of any business names
that would make great book titles?
Let's chat about it in the comments below.
And of course, on your way to comment,
please hit that thumbs up button
because it really does feel good.
All right, mistake number five.
This is waiting too long to publish.
If your business is anything like mine,
your book would've helped your business years ago.
The sooner you can get a book done and into the world,
the sooner your business and your brand can benefit.
That is a big one.
Spending years tooling away on a business book
is missing out on years of potential benefit.
And there's also a practical element here.
Every year you're in business,
you'll have new lessons and new things to add.
The longer you sit on the book,
the more updates you'll find yourself wanting to do
and your book can end up in a cycle
of never-ending editing and adding,
and that doesn't help anyone.
Your business is going to change and evolve
and you'll find yourself constantly
needing to update any book that's in progress
if it's taking too long.
Your book is never going to truly feel done,
so you just have to put it into the world.
Give yourself a due date and say,
it might not feel done, but it is due.
And if things change enough in the future,
you can publish a revised edition and update the content.
Books written for a business can be a huge boost
to the brand, sales, opportunities, and so much more.
I'm a huge believer that almost every business can benefit
from a top-quality book,
but avoiding some of these mistakes
can really save you some pain in your author journey.
Now, if you're trying to avoid mistakes,
then you'll love this video
on the 10 common author mistakes to avoid.
And if you're like me and you're super busy,
well, you might want this video
on how to hire a ghost writer.
I got three quarters of the way
through my fourth book and said, help me.
So a writer is giving me an assist with the final pages.
Both videos are gonna be fun,
and I look forward to seeing you there.
So click on over and let's hang out some more.