3 ways to write a business book you’re passionate about

In a Facebook group I’m in, I recently got into a debate with someone who felt that her new business book should be about what she loves to write about, rather than gearing it towards benefiting her business. My view was that it didn’t make business sense to spend the huge amount of time and energy required to write a book, on a topic that’s not congruent with your business; hers was that she didn’t feel it was right to focus on an area that she’s not passionate about.

It got me thinking. As so often with these things, we were both right in our own way. But is there a way to combine writing about what you love, with what makes business sense for you? As I thought about it more I became convinced that there was, and this post explains how.

First of all, it depends what you want out of your book

If what you want is a fantastic writing experience and the joy of seeing your book in published form – and you’re not too worried about sales or benefits to your business – then of course go right ahead and write whatever you like. You should have your book, your way.

But if you want to be more ‘hard headed’ about it, then there’s no getting away from the fact that you need to consider how your book is going to support your business and help it to grow.

Secondly, why should your book passion not be aligned with your business?

If your expert field is something you’re truly in love with and know it has massive value for your clients, then it stands to reason you’d want to write about it. That in itself will help your business enormously. In my experience from talking to prospective authors, though, there are various reasons why this might not be the case. Which remedy to choose depends on your reason, as we’ll see below.

Reason 1: You’ve already written a book about your business and you want something different for your next one.

If this is the case, it might be a new business angle you need, rather than to switch topics entirely. If you’re a pet behavioural expert, for instance, and you’ve already written a book about how to raise a calm and happy pet, it doesn’t make much business sense to write a book about travelling in Africa (no matter how much you might love the idea).

But how about finding another ‘way in’ to your topic? If travel is your passion, then how about writing a book advising people who are emigrating how to settle their pet into a new country? Or even just taking a sub topic from your previous book that you know is especially popular (such as dog training for instance) and going into more depth on that? That way you could also use the book as a way of building interest in a new aspect of your services that you want to promote.

Reason 2: You’re just starting a new business and want to build up expertise before you write a book about it. 

This is a good thing to do. Generally speaking it’s much better to write a book in which you can demonstrate  your actual experience and success, than to talk about something in theory rather than practice. So if you want to take your time, go right ahead.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t start planning and drafting it as you start up your business; in fact, having your book in the back of your mind as you build up clients and customers is a great way of remembering to ask for testimonials, to record your case studies and so on.

Reason 3: Loads of other people have already written a book about your business topic. 

You’re wondering why anyone would buy your book on life coaching when the market is already flooded with them. This is a really common fear and many budding authors struggle with this, then deciding to write about something else instead. Big mistake!

Competition is not nearly so much of an issue as you think.  Let’s get back to your passion – what is it? And how many books do you own on the subject? I bet it’s more than one. Just think about the number of cookery books on your kitchen shelf for a start; people don’t stop at one book when it’s something they really care about. The same is true for business problems as well; we love to read about different authors’ takes on the same topic.

You might need to work out how your book is going to offer something special in the market place, but that doesn’t mean you have to back off from the subject entirely. Your angle on the subject is unique, as are your experience and the special combination of qualities which you bring to your work.

And the beauty of combining your passion with your business topic?

It’s that by demonstrating your in-depth knowledge, your book is giving you a massive boost to your ‘expert authority’.  There’s no need for it to be either business or pleasure. Your book can give you both.

And if you’d like some more help with choosing your business book topic, I’ve a special freebie for you. You can download my flowchart Picking the Killer Idea For Your Business Book right here. It guides you through the process of choosing which book idea to write about in a clear, concise step-by-step way.

I’d love to know if you’ve had the dilemma of whether to write about your passion or your business. Have I been able to help you here? Please let me know in the comments below.