Academics: The 3 keys to turning your expertise into a business book

 

Not long ago, a distinguished professor in leadership and management came to me. He’d been published numerous times in academic circles, but had come to realise that it was only through writing a book for a business audience that his theories could be made flesh.

As a book writing professional, I often have this kind of conversation. I told him that I thought it was a great idea. While his academic texts are read by students, his business book would be read by those who can put his expertise into practice.

He’d have the chance to make a difference in the ‘real’ world.

If you’re an academic who wants to turn your years of research into a business book for people at the sharp end – those who ‘do’ the business – you may be thinking along similar lines.

And yet . . .

It’s not so easy in practice. An academic text is not the same ‘species’ as a business book. To survive in its own territory, it has to be written differently, for a different audience, and with different objectives. If you approach it with the same mindset as an academic book, it won’t thrive.

It helps if you know what to look out for, so here are the three keys to working the magic in this transformation.

Understand the obligation

One of the main differences between an academic and a business book comes from the motivations of your readers to consume it.

Your students and peers have an obligation to read your academic texts, and it’s often in their interests to do so. They need your theories for their essays and articles, and to give them a context for their own concepts.

For your business book readers, however, there’s no such duty. They have a choice about whether to buy and read your book in the first place. Why opt for yours amongst all the others out there?

They’ll also be paying, in both time and money, to do so. As a result, they expect to receive value in return. In fact, you’re best to think of them as consumers who need to be satisfied by your book.

These elements of choice and expectation have profound implications for how you write your business book, because it has to be both educational and engaging. You’re a past master at the former, but maybe not so much at the latter.

You need to learn how to strategise and structure, to target the right audience, to select exactly the right topic, and to write about it in a way that makes your book an irresistible read right up until the end.

For this you need new writing skills, as I’ll explore below.

Write for your readers

You can’t write a business book in an academic way – it just doesn’t work. You need to adapt your style and tone to your book’s new terrain.

For an academic book, it’s important that your content come across as impersonal and unbiased. Business books, on the other hand, are designed to reflect the viewpoint of their author and to appeal directly to the heads and hearts of their readers.

That’s why in academic writing you use the passive voice (‘Experiments were run’), whereas in a business book you use the active voice (‘I ran some experiments’).

And while an academic text refers to its readers in the third person (‘People enjoy this aspect of research’) a business book addresses its readers in the second person (‘You probably enjoy this aspect of research’).

There’s also a difference when it comes to vocabulary.

If you’re writing for an academic audience, you use technical vocabulary and jargon that your readers appreciate. But in a business book, you need to steer away from such alienating language. Not only will your readers find it hard to understand but it will give them the impression that your book isn’t for them.

All of these changes are completely do-able, but it can take conscious effort to break the writing habits of a lifetime.

Downsize the giants

I’ll probably get short shrift from academics for being unable to remember who to attribute this wonderful saying to, but it’s central to my point. In an academic book, you stand on the shoulders of giants, but in a business book, you are the giant.

In other words, you don’t need countless footnotes in a business book.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t attribute the ideas and quotes you use to their original authors, but that your book’s purpose is to explain your own viewpoint. Your job isn’t to ‘big up’ the giants but to ‘big up’ yourself.

To do that you have to find the gold in your business book: work out what makes your expertise special and unique, and why people need to know about it. Then, once you’re rock solid on that, get comfortable with basing your book on it.

These are the three keys to transitioning from academic to business writer – to adapting to your new environment in a way that helps your book to survive and thrive.

I’ve made it look simple but in reality it’s a huge leap – one that most academics struggle to make. You might want to enlist the services of a business book ghostwriter or book coach who’s adept at writing for a business audience. They can help you to communicate your valuable ideas and experience to a new audience, in a new way.

The result will be a book crammed with your personal insights and advice, written in a way that makes a measurable difference to your business readers.