Have you been told that you should write a business book? Perhaps a friend or a colleague has encouraged you to try.. Or maybe you have been targeted by online courses to engage yourself in starting to write one. But have you ever asked yourself why write a book in the first place?
Is writing a book a critical move for your career?
What you might be thinking right now is that there are plenty of successful people who do not have a bestselling book under their belt.
To begin with, you are not a writer. So what are the odds of attaining best-seller status for a book you have written yourself?
To help you understand that question, let’s check the cost of writing a book and how it can help you further your career.
Costs of Writing a Book
As a business leader, you know it is imperative that you look into the financial aspects of writing a book.
1. Time
How long would it take to write a book? How much of your time should you invest?
It depends on two factors–word count and your commitment to writing. Most full-length business books are around 40,000 to 60,000 words.
Let’s say you can write an average of 500 words per session. That means you need eighty to 120 sessions of writing. And this does not include the editing process.
That is roughly twenty-seven to forty weeks if you can commit to three writing sessions per week.
At Leaders Press, we recommend that you write around 250 to 500 words a day.
Remember, that 27 to 40 weeks only includes the writing portion, and we don’t recommend you get started until you’ve done some preliminary work to find out what it is exactly you want to say.t.
Before working on your very first page, you should identify your book’s central theme, and outline each chapter to ensure a smooth writing process.
Research, brainstorming, and outlining can take a month or two.
Furthermore, once your draft is finished, you’ll need to edit it. Of course, you can hire a professional editing service, which we will discuss in a bit.
Even after you’ve edited your draft, you’re still not finished. Once you have a publication-ready manuscript, you need to work on the cover, title, description, author bio, and marketing plans.
Seems like a lot of work? It is, but it’s possible. Many business leaders have done it. You can, too.
2. Finances
Self-publishing can cost you anywhere between $1,000 to $100,000, sometimes more. This of course depends on how much of the book creation process you plan to do yourself.
It’s fairly simple actually. If you cannot afford to invest a lot of time, then you need to invest money.
As mentioned above, you can hire a professional editing service to turn your draft into a manuscript. For your book cover, you can work with a graphic designer. The biggest chunk of your budget will go to a marketing agency if you want a best-seller guarantee.
Professional editors, graphic designers, marketers–these people are experts in their field. They can make your book look professional.
You may be thinking, “I’m good at grammar, why should I hire an editor?” Of course, you can self-edit, but you will still need a professional to provide the final touches. Why? Think of it this way: even professional editors hire editors for their own writing.
You are too familiar with your own writing. One of an editor’s essential functions is to serve as a fresh set of eyes on your work..
How about your book cover? Perhaps, if you have an artistic side, you can come up with your own design. But there are more aspects to consider than mere aesthetics. Functionality is also involved. Professional graphic designers are experts in creating content that relates to people.
People say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but most of the time it’s the cover that piques a person’s interest while browsing online or in a bookstore.
And then there is marketing. Yes, you can publish your book yourself on Amazon Kindle Direct. It’s certainly cheaper that way. But we have seen many authors try this and fail. There is more to publishing than simply putting your book up on Amazon. You can’t just wait for traffic.
These are just a few of the things you need to consider when publishing a book. We haven’t even tackled book printing, layout, advanced reader copies, reviews, etc.
All of which entail costs. And again, you will decide how much you want to do yourself.
3. Intellectual Investment
Writing a book is not just about pouring your heart out into a piece of paper. As mentioned above, the writing process does not just involve writing. You need to decide on a central theme, brainstorm, and outline your chapters.
More than that, you need to do a lot of learning and research. Yes, you are writing a book about your own experiences, and you are the best person to ask about the topics included in it. However, even if you are the subject matter expert, you need to learn how to present your ideas, your knowledge, and your experiences in such a way that your readers can relate to.
You need to learn how your readers think, what your readers appreciate, and what your readers want.
Furthermore, you need to be equipped with different methods of presenting your ideas through a story.
All of these require intellectual investment.
Why Write a Book?
Right now you may be thinking about how tedious it is to write a book. We are not discouraging you. We just want you to appreciate the book creation process and how much work was done on the best-sellers that you may have read.
But you know what? All the hard work needed will help you reap considerable rewards. Why write a book? Let us take a look at the rewards.
1. Money
Is there a more obvious reward than the return of investment from your book?
Right now you may be crunching numbers in your head thinking of how many books you need to sell to turn a profit from your investment.
Can you make millions out of it? Yes, you can. And not just from book sales.
Your revenue is highly dependent on what action you want your readers to take after reading your book, which is aligned with your goals.
For example, exposure can help you generate leads. Let’s say your company is in trade and finance.
A best-selling book can help you get new clients which can add millions of dollars to your top-line revenue.
And this is just one of your potential revenue streams. Speaking gigs rake in a lot of money. With proper marketing and exposure, you can get tons of speaking opportunities within six months of launching your book.
If you want to learn more, we can chat about it.
2. Authority and Credibility
Not everyone can write a book and get published. Accomplished writers account for a small portion of our population.
So the moment you publish your book and people learn about it, your name will carry a certain prestige.
With a published book, you become an authority in your field. Your credibility goes up, you get attention from the media and your readers, and people in your circle will talk about you.
What do you get for this boost in your authority and credibility? New opportunities. You can even pursue a career in academia.
Speaking gigs like TED talks, appearances in podcasts and talk shows, invitations to conferences and social events–all of these become opportunities for an accomplished author.
More than ROI, you get intangible rewards from writing a book. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for people to know you even before meeting you?
3. Legacy
Who are your favorite authors? Are they still around? Some probably are, and long after they are gone, their names are carved in history, with the rest of the authors who made an impact on society.
You could be one of them. Your book can inspire people, change lives, help open opportunities for this generation and the generations to come.
Are you still asking yourself why you should write a book?
Your Decision
Now that you know the cost of writing a book and the potential rewards of having a best-seller as a business card, we hope we helped you answer the question, “Why write a book?”
For most business leaders like you, the biggest challenge is taking the time required to finish writing a book. We understand that, and we can help.
One of our specialties is helping business leaders get their books written, published, and launched into best-sellers.
At Leaders Press, we will be with you from ideation to post-publishing promotions.
We know you are interested, so let’s schedule a chat.