Over the past eight months, I’ve helped six different authors bring their books to life. These are folks for whom writing is not a primary skill, but who have an important point of view and a strong desire to help their readers learn and improve. Theirs are business books designed to share expertise and solve problems.
Because these authors aren’t professional writers, they’re often stumped about how to begin. And beginning a writing project is the hardest part. For authors who are setting out to create so-called “thought leadership” books, it’s essential to answer two key questions:
- Who is my reader?
- What change of state will this book induce in that reader?
Let’s unpack those two questions further.
Who Is Your Reader?
If you’re embarking on a thought leadership book, it’s likely because you a) have deep expertise in a subject, b) want to demonstrate that expertise and c) hope to attract people who need that expertise. The most effective way to achieve those three objectives is to focus on the reader.
This book is not about you. Not about your years of experience, about what you know, about how visionary you are. It’s about the reader. And because you work with your reader and people like her all the time, you should know her, very well. Who is she? Not just her job title and her responsibilities, but who is she as a person? What are her fears and motivations? What keeps her up at night? What does her success look like?
Create a persona for your reader. Keep it in view as you’re writing. Write to her directly.
Authors of thought leadership books often think they need to prove their expertise by writing extensively of their own career and consulting experience. So there’s a lot of first person (“I,” “me,” “in my experience”) in the content. But with books that are written with an aim of serving the reader or meeting her need, it’s better to avoid the word “I” and instead make liberal use the of the word “you.” Show readers that you deeply understand their world by talking directly to them. Here’s an example:
“In an earlier stage of my career, I encountered X, and so I did Y.”
vs.
“You’re likely dealing with X; if so, you should do Y.”
Can you get the word “you” or “your” into every paragraph?
What Change of State Will This Book Prompt?
Because you deeply understand your reader and his world, you understand his struggles. The point of your book, then, is to help him overcome the struggle.
Before you begin writing, before you outline your table of contents — before you even determine if a book is the right format for your expertise — articulate how your book will change your reader’s world.
How will your book shift his thinking or his behavior? What will he learn? How can he apply that in his day to day? Most important, what will your book mean for his business and career success?
Once you’ve developed a reader persona and articulated the change of state he’ll experience by the end of your book, then you can begin building an outline.
Each chapter, each subsection, each paragraph should inch the reader along a trajectory of learning that leads to that change of mind or behavior.
Churning out 35,000+ words is no small task even for the most seasoned of writers. If you’re going to endure the writing process — whether you’re writing a blog post or a book manuscript — you’d better be doing it for the right reason. And the best, the only, reason to write is to serve your reader. So you’d better know who he is and what he needs from you.
If you’re embarking on a business book for thought leadership and could use some guidance, drop me a line.