The Benefits of Writing a Book About Your Area of Expertise
We live in a highly competitive and knowledge-driven era, and simply knowing your field and/or your industry better than others won’t be enough to truly set you apart. Writing a book about your zone of genius, though, can be a game changer. Writing a book about your area of expertise is not just for academics or celebrities; as a professional or an entrepreneur or a thought leader — and this applies across industries — you absolutely should get your knowledge out of your head and into the hands of readers. Here’s why: Your Book Establishes You as a Thought Leader In your field, you might be well-known for your expertise, but how many others outside your immediate circle know you and could benefit from working with you? A book cements your knowledge and experience among your peers and puts you in front of new audiences. Your book also showcases how you think, identify and approach problems, and provide solutions. Building your book on a defined trajectory where you present insights, personal experiences, and clearly connected dots supports your position as a thought leader. Enhancing your credibility in this way opens the door for additional speaking engagements at higher price points, participating in panel discussions at prestigious industry events, and securing media features for increased social proof. In short, you’re amplifying your reach. Your Book Enhances Your Personal Brand and Reputation In addition to really knowing your field, your market niche, and your industry, you must also consider yourself as a brand and define the promise you (as a brand) deliver. Writing a book gives you a distinctive edge that helps define your professional identity and control the narrative of your expertise. Your book demonstrates your active participation in your field and your industry. You also highlight your contribution and willingness to articulate your expertise, your experiences, and the wisdom you’ve gained along the way. Your Book Creates New Opportunities to Grow Your Business Writing a book instantly stamps you as an expert, so think of your book as the most effective business card you could ever create. Conversations about your book can lead to a new connection such as attracting new clients or sparking a new partnership, strengthen a current connection, or impress potential investors. Your book is also an additional stream of revenue. Readers are more likely to seek your services, buy your products, or engage with you or your business on a deeper level through courses, webinars, workshops, and merchandise. Your Book Fosters Your Personal and Professional Development While your book may focus on the more professional side of your life, the writing process will almost certainly include a good measure of personal growth. As you reflect on your journey and write about it in a way that connects with your ideal reader, you’ll clarify your experiences, theories, and belief systems. You gain deeper understanding of your knowledge and identify opportunities to explore new ideas. Final thoughts As you move toward placing the final period at the end of your last sentence, you’ll feel the headiness of excitement and anticipation mixed with a touch of anxiety. You started AND finished the book that’s lived in your head for 10 years. Be sure you celebrate. Take time to revel in your accomplishment. You earned it. Of course, now you need to market and sell your book, but that’s a blog for another day.
5 Reasons Why Hiring a Professional Editor Is the Write Way to Go
Congratulations! You completed writing your book. Putting the final period on your manuscript is absolutely something to celebrate. Have you hired an editor? Before you rush into publishing to start using your book to market your products and/or services or as your lead magnet for speaking engagements, be sure you engage a professional editor. There are five reasons why editing is the most important step of your publishing journey. 1. Objective Your editor doesn’t have an emotional tie to your material. What you’ve written is YOUR story, so, of course, you feel attached, perhaps even sentimental. Your editor doesn’t share those feelings. Their only concern is making sure your book tells a complete story that is as error-free as possible, and they will make the appropriate comments and suggestions to get you there. 2. Critical eye Editors take a critical eye to your work, correcting errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. At the same time, your editor will ensure what you’ve written is aligned with your ideal reader and your intended message. Your editor should also be sure your tone and style are consistent throughout your manuscript. If you begin in a casual tone but transition to a more academic voice, your editor will flag the change and make appropriate suggestions. 3. Fresh perspective Because you’re so close to your material, it’s really hard for you to recognize areas for improvement. Your editor, on the other hand, will help improve the clarity, flow, readability, and overall structure of your book. For example, if your manuscript lacks congruency—you leave loose ends or introduce people/characters and then never mention them again—your editor will make note so you can address these issues. Ensuring the end of your book is thematically consistent with the beginning is another benefit of hiring an editor. 4. Saves time Your editor will also save time you could use to devote to other areas of your business. Instead of writing and re-writing the same chapter over and over and over and over again, you can … just … write. Your editor will catch errors and inconsistencies you would undoubtedly miss because, again, you’re too close to your own material. 5. Quality product When you spend money on anything, you expect the best quality for your dollar. You need to think about your book as a product that will land in the hands of a reader, or, your end consumer. They spent their money on your book and expect the best in return. Think of your editor as your quality assurance. Together, you’re creating a book that has the potential to change someone’s life in all the best ways, so shouldn’t it also be as error-free as possible? Final thoughts Editing also protects your brand reputation. Consider this: Would you trust doing business with someone who produced a book riddled with typos, mistakes in subject-verb agreement, and punctuation that doesn’t make sense? I’m going to guess the answer is, “No.” Hiring an editor will result in a manuscript you can confidently take to publishing and use as a tool to help grow your business.
How Editing Protects Your Brand Reputation
What if I told you that copy errors hurt your bottom line? If you want to be taken seriously, if you want people to trust that you are a subject matter expert in your industry, if you want people to pay you for your products and services, you can’t show up online with content that looks and sounds like you didn’t give it the attention it deserves. Every business owner with a website cannot afford to not work with an editor. When you wear most or all of the hats for your business, you move at the speed of light. You need to have a content marketing strategy (social media, emails, blog, etc.) at the same time you’re perfecting your sales pitch and sales funnel while you’re also tracking invoices, managing projects, and monitoring inventory if you have products. It’s a lot. If you started writing your own website copy, lead magnets, ebooks, blog posts, etc., and now you use an overseas VA for whom English is not their native language, you are almost certainly spending time proofreading their work and making necessary changes before using their work. If you’ve turned to PLR (private label rights) content, you still need to manipulate the text here and there to separate it from all the other folks who bought the same stuff. And if you’re still writing all your own copy, you definitely need a second set of eyes to check and correct punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, etc., and to make sure your tone & style are consistent with your brand voice. Instead of putting these tasks on your loooooooong list of things to do, hire an editor to prevent you from releasing content riddled with errors that hurt your brand reputation and could repel prospective clients and their money. An editor who has experience in content marketing (that’s me!) will go through your website, review your email series for that specific campaign, make corrections in your blog posts, proofread your ebook, and more. If you’re ready to make your content as error-free as humanly possible, I’d love to schedule a conversation.