One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when writing their book is not committing to one type of book.
What do I mean by this? Great nonfiction books come in all shapes and sizes, and entrepreneurs usually write one of the following:
- The ‘how to’ book
- The thought leadership book
- The interview book
- The memoir
While all of these can work well, many entrepreneurs just start writing without thinking about the type of book they want to write. They start with a bit of their story, write five chapters that cover five steps, add some interviews, and hope for the best.
When it comes to editing, this will either result in:
- A very confused editor who doesn’t know what you want to achieve so only does a more sophisticated spell check rather than reviewing your content and structure; or
- An editor who edits your book to fit one of the four book types, resulting in any content that isn’t relevant to that book type being cut (we had one case where a client’s word count dropped by 45%).
So which should you choose?
All four book types can work, but some may be more suited to you than others.
1. The ‘how to’ book
Often structured as X steps to achieve a certain result, in a ‘how to’ book you teach your readers how to do something using your unique process. If you own a service-based business and work with one-on-one clients or groups, this will probably be a good choice for you as you will already have a process you take your clients through to achieve a certain result. (Warning – you may not realise you have a process at first. But look deeper and you’ll find the common threads that exist for every client – this is the beginning of your step-by-step process.)
Some examples from my clients include Property Prosperity by Miriam Sandkuhler, which goes through seven steps to investing like an expert or Secret Mums’ Business by Angela Counsel, which takes mums in business through six steps to create balance in their lives.
Some ‘how to’ books with a slightly different structure include Elizabeth Gillam’s Would You Like Profits with That? and Adam Hobill’s Nail It!, which take their readers through broader processes that progress in phases and each phase is broken up into areas or steps (e.g. Nail It! gives you the ins and outs of building a home, takes readers through the Idea Stage as well as through to the Design, Quote, and Build Stages).
Not sure if a how-to book is the way to go? Then head over to http://www.keypersonofinfluence.com/what-sort-of-book-should-you-write-4-book-types-and-which-is-right-for-you/ to learn about the other three book types that can boost your business.
Enjoy!
– Jacqui Pretty (Jacqui @ MorganJamesPublishing . com)
Acquisitions Editor, Morgan James Australia
Head Editor at Grammar Factory
