Although the personal branding benefits of writing a book are well known, there are also other reasons to write a book.
In the long run, these often-overlooked benefits of writing a may turn out to be even more important that your original goal of writing a book to build your personal brand.
The personal branding benefits of writing and publishing book are well known. (Mitchell Levy’s 42 Rules for Driving Success with Books is a great starting point, with concise, realistic case studies.) Writing a brand-building book:
- Enhances your visibility, positioning you as an expert in your field.
- Attracts pre-qualified prospects, permitting you to raise your rates and/or be more selective in choosing the clients you want to work with.
- Opens doors of profit and opportunity. During the past 12 years, I’ve interviewed over over 500 authors who have written books that established brands that provided the linchpin for their business and subsequent success. In each case, their books provided the brand they needed to drive their forward.
Benefits, beyond the brand
But, there’s more to writing a book than just building your personal brand! Here are some of the other benefits that entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals gain from writing a book:
- Skills. The skills you master writing a book are transferable to all types of written projects, i.e., articles, blog posts, email, new business proposals, podcasts, reports, speeches, and videos. You’ll be better able to choose titles and headlines, organize your ideas, and express them as concisely as possible. You’ll also be able to evaluate your own work and know what to look for when self-editing.
- Tools. Writing a book provides an opportunity to master important new tools for mind mapping, project management, and time management. These tools are at the core of entrepreneurial success, but, until now, you may have been too busy to discover them. After writing your book, you may find that your previous dislike of writing was actually based on a lack of familiarity with capabilities built into your word processing software and not knowing what types of resources are available for leveraging your time.
- Discipline. Writing a book is likely to change the way you view other large projects. Your writing and publishing experience will help you develop healthy work habits, such as chunking large projects into smaller, bite-sized tasks, and taking consistent daily action during short, scheduled working sessions. The next time a large project appears on the horizon, you’ll be more likely to analyze what needs to be done and establish a workflow that starts early and avoids stressful and wasteful “deadline madness.”
- Content. Writing a book helps you create better marketing content and a stronger author platform. As you write your book, you’re also creating content you can share as articles, blog posts, podcasts, speeches, teleseminars, and webinars. Sharing your content early also generates feedback that builds interest in your book and helps you write a better book.
- Perspective. Writing a book is likely to change your perspective towards your abilities and the way you interact with others. Because each step of the writing and publishing process contains multiple alternatives, options, and opportunities to work with others, you may find yourself discovering options and alternatives elsewhere in your business and professional life. More important, since editing and revising are essential to writing a book, you may find yourself less impatient when your first attempts in other areas don’t come out perfect.
- Confidence. Your life changes when you hold a book in your hand with your name on the title. When you hold your book in your hand, you’ve beaten the odds! Studies show that 85% of people in business want to write a book, but only 5% succeed. Your book is tangible proof that you not only are an expert in your field, but you also know how to harness your energies and finish all types of projects.
- Curiosity. Perhaps the most important benefit is the heightened curiosity you’re likely to experience in your everyday business life. You may finding yourself reading more, and listening more critically, as you become more open to new ideas and more analytical. You may surprise yourself by considering possibilities for new articles and follow-up books. You may look forward to new writing challenges, like bog posts, follow-up titles, and speeches, curious about how they’re going to turn out when you start to write.
Ultimately, the best reason to write a book is that it helps you recognize that writing is not merely a way to share your ideas with others, but writing is also the best way to discover ideas and connections lurking in your brain.
Writing is also the best way to discover what you don’t know– but need to know–in order to reinforce your personal brand as an expert in your field.
Writing a book to build your personal brand is a formula that works. However, there are also often-overlooked reasons to write a book; these are the skills, tools, habits, and changes in confidence and thinking patterns that often accompany writing a book. If you’ve written a book, share your experiences, as comments, below. If you haven’t written a book, what’s preventing you?
Author:
Roger C. Parker is an author, book coach, designer, consultant who works with authors, marketers, & business professionals to achieve success with brand-building books & practical marketing strategy. He helps create successful marketing materials that look great & get results, and can turn any complex marketing or writing task into baby steps. Visit his blog to learn more or ask a question.
