When You Should NOT Write A Book

I know what you’re thinking: “She’s lost it.” After all, I’m a book coach. Shouldn’t I be encouraging everyone to write a book? Well, I’d be a pretty bad book coach if I were doing that.

The reality is that not everyone needs to write a book. In fact, under some circumstances, writing a book can be a terrible idea.

I’m a strategic book coach. So, I only encourage people to write books towards a strategic purpose.

Let’s face it, writing a book is a big commitment. It takes time, money, and a mental investment that is no joke. You only want to take on that responsibility if it’s going to pay off.

And when I say, “pay off,” I don’t necessarily mean “sell a lot of books and make piles of cash in royalties,” because honestly, royalties rarely make millionaires.

Authorship can “pay off” in many other ways. For example, it can increase your visibility; help bring in clients; it can initiate new clients into your program; it can increase your professional credibility.

But, still, you’ve got to ask yourself: is writing a full-length book the best path for me right now?

With that question in mind, let’s look at three situations where you definitely should NOT take on a full-length book project:

Situation #1: You are new to coaching or consulting.

            You might have just started a new career path, or maybe you left your corporate job for the entrepreneurial path of consulting. Maybe you have little to no experience in the field, and you’re just beginning to build your credibility, or maybe you are an expert in the field but haven’t yet developed any kind of base or following.

            If you’re in this situation, you’ve probably heard the advice that you need to “write a book to launch your business.”

Wrong!

You need clients. You need customers. You need to make sales. Lots of sales.

            Never write a book to LAUNCH a business.

Only write a book to GROW a business that’s already thriving.

Situation #2: You’ve been a coach for a while but have yet to cross the 6-figure mark.

            In this situation, you don’t have the discretionary income to invest in much of anything, let alone a book. Getting a book written, published and launched takes investment, even if you don’t invest in working with a coach, you will be spending thousands on the editing and production process.

            Instead of writing a book at this point, you need to be working on building your business, bringing in clients, and making sales.

Situation #3: You’re an already-thriving professional, and you need a new authority piece FAST.

            Maybe you’re about to promote a new offering, or need to grow your opt-in list, or indoctrinate new clients into your high-level program. You need something high quality, and you need it like…yesterday.  

Well, you can’t have BOTH a high-quality full-length book AND a quick turnaround. The fastest pace to write and self-publish a full-length, high quality book is around 4 months.

So what do you do if you’re just getting started? If you need to build your business before your money runs out? If you need an excellent authority piece for a big launch?

If you identify with any of these three situations, not only is there no need to write a full-length book, it probably would be counterproductive.

Consider: what would be possible if you had a bite-sized authority piece?

Imagine if you could write, produce, and launch in as little as 6-weeks. In six weeks, a piece that would provide real value and share your most unique and innovative ideas, demonstrate your commitment to excellence while it solidifies your authority.

How could you use it to grow your business?

I bet you can think of lots of ways.

So, here’s how you do it.

Author a booklet.

A short, targeted, gorgeous, and high impact booklet.

Authoring a booklet can do a lot of the same things a full-length book can, only in a fraction of the time and at minimal expense.

Just like a full-length book, a booklet can help you get the visibility you need. It can open doors to new opportunities and possibilities for you and your business. And, it can be a vehicle to scale your business and create additional revenue streams to boost your bottom line.

Unlike full-length books, anyone who needs an authority piece to grow their brand and their business can benefit from authoring a booklet—newbie coaches, 7-figure business owners, nonfiction and fiction writers alike, artists, poets, doctors, lawyers, everyone.

Think you might have an idea for a booklet?

Check out my High Profit Book Blueprint

(P.S. It’s free! Just pay shipping.)