Who else wants a short-cut to becoming a business author?

If you’re an established coach or a speaker, it seems like everyone’s a business author these days. You may be asking yourself what’s holding you back from becoming one yourself. Let me guess the answer: time, motivation, or that old gremlin, doubt. Hell, shall we go for the hat trick: all three?

And it’s not because you don’t know why you want one (boosted credibility, more clients, more sales and huuuuge satisfaction). It’s just … aargh … you can’t face the thought of all those hours at your keyboard. Or maybe, deep down, the thought of putting your expertise out there with a book makes you want to run and hide behind your desk. What if no-one thinks it’s any good? What if it doesn’t sell? What if? What if?

If only there was an easier way. A kind of half-way house where you could try out being an author, without going for the full shebang. A way of giving yourself some of the kudos and satisfaction that goes along with having a book, but without penning a weighty tome which puts everything on the line. A short-cut to ‘making author’, in other words.

And I’m not talking about asking me to ghostwrite your book for you (although that’s always an option – apply here if you’re interested!).

I’m suggesting writing a 10,000 word e-book which you can publish and sell on Amazon.

Why write a short e-book instead of a full length business book?

You know you have expertise that will help people, and it’s frustrating that so many people don’t know about what you do. This is a way of getting yourself out there, becoming an author, and at the same time – crucially – building your email list and driving new clients to your business. And it’s quick.

I’ll not lie. A short e-book isn’t going to give you the credibility and authority that a ‘proper’ book would do. But that’s not the point here: the purpose of writing your e-book is to get over the ‘oh gawd’ feeling about becoming an author. Your full length book can follow later (and certainly should).

It’s what I did!

Last month I published a short e-book: The Business Book Outline Builder: Start the Book that Supercharges Your Business in 5 Easy Steps. From outline to publication it took me 2-3 weeks. You can do this too, and here’s  how.

1.Brainstorm your topic. You can either go narrow and deep (that’s what I did), or give an overview. The crucial thing is to choose a subject which will drive the right kind of people to your business, by writing for your ideal client base and on a topic you know they’ll be desperate to learn more about. Make it clear within your book that this is just a snippet of what you know.

2.Create an outline and a writing schedule. Having a detailed structure from the beginning will help your writing flow, and your schedule will keep you motivated. Decide how you’re going to find time for this endeavour; I got up an hour early every day for two weeks. At first it felt like ‘ugh’, but as I progressed my manuscript I started to see how this routine was helping me. If I’d relied in ‘fitting it in’ with my existing work it would never have got done. And having an external deadline was a boost too, as I was about to appear on two online writing summits in which I had planned to promote my e-book. What could be your motivator?

If strategies for writing your book fast sounds good, download my free checklist for speedy writing here.

3.What have you got that you could re-purpose? For my book, I had already created a giveaway that formed part of my material, and had plenty of blog posts on my chosen topic. This made it much easier for me to pull together the content. What have you got that you could use for your e-book?

4. Include links to your website squeeze page. One of the reasons you’re doing this is is as a lead generator, so you’ll want to give people a reason to visit your site and sign up to your email list. To do this, include references and links to your sign up page within the first few pages of your e-book, in the middle, and at the end in your About the Author section. If your lead magnet expands on the topic of your book, your readers will have a good incentive to enter their details in return for juicy information.

5.Edit and proofread. Leave time in your schedule for moving content around, re-writing so your words flow smoothly and fact checking. Ask yourself: if I were my target reader, what would I think? Is there anything I wouldn’t understand, or find boring, or over-explained? And then get a professional proof reader to check over your final draft (please don’t try to do this yourself, we are all blind to our own mistakes).

6.Get your cover designed and your manuscript formatted. For an e-book, you’ll want to make sure your potential buyers can both read the title and get a grasp of the content from the Amazon thumbnail, so it’s best to go to the professionals. Here’s the guy I used on Fiverr.com for mine; he delivered a great design at a fantastic price. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Fiverr for a full length book (you get what you pay for), and you need to be picky about the cover design for any book, but in this case it worked for me. For formatting, I would recommend you outsource this and save yourself any hassle; it’s not expensive at all.

Now you’re ready to upload to Amazon! Here’s a an extremely helpful post about getting your book onto Amazon in a low cost way, including instructions on how to set up your account (please note you don’t need a Create Space account for an e-book).

A bonus tip for you: go to Booklinker.net  to create an Amazon url that’s universal across all Amazon country sites. When you come to promote the Amazon link to your book, you can just promote the Booklinker one, which makes it easy for your audience to connect with your book.

Ta nah! You’re an author

Yes you truly are, you fabulous expert, you. Woohoo!

So what’s next? You need to exploit your work to the max. This is the seventh step.

• Send a pdf of your e-book plus a link to your Amazon listing to a few trusted contacts who would review it for you. Make it clear there’s no obligation, and it goes without saying that you’ll want them to be within your target audience so their review makes sense to prospective purchasers.
• Email your list, telling them about your new book.
• Put ‘author’ on your social media profiles.
• Add it to your website. You could put a 3D image of the book plus a link to your Amazon listing in your side bar.
• Add it to your author bio for when you’re guest blogging.
• If you have an interview for someone else’s podcast or blog, mention your e-book.
• Tweet the hell out of it, and mention it on Facebook. When I posted my book in my personal profile on Facebook, I had loads of lovely compliments from my friends, which was a massive morale boost in its own right.

Here’s the link to my book again, so you can see the sort of e-book I’m talking about (just taking a squiz at the Look Inside will give you the idea):

What’s next for you as an author?

Inspired? You should be. No excuses left now? That’s right!

Remember, if even writing 10,000 words feels like an effort for you, I write all lengths of books. Ask me about how I can write your e-book for you.

Tell me what your next steps will be.