Building your brand through writing a book

Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: July 19th, 2006 | 0 Comments | Posted in: Uncategorized

A colleague of mine just dropped me a note after hearing about the tele-conference I hosted with Susan Harrow about how to achieve a 6 figure book advance for your book.

They wanted to check out a question about whether they will make more money publishing a book through a publishing house or through self publishing.

Here’s what I advised them.

Firstly work out your goal for writing your book.

This particular client does not have a very strong platform – in otherwords he is serving clients day in day out, does no public speaking, teleconferences nor does he have a mailing list and news letter.

For him witing a book will be about building credibility – but for what long term goal?

It is highly unlikely that he will be able to secure a publisher and it he goes down the traditional route then it could take him up to a year to find a publisher – having an agent will definately assist him.

In terms of maming money – particularly if he does not have a platform – he will make more money for each book he sells if it is self published.

However it’s important to note that whether you are self published or published with a publishing house, you need to develop and implement your own marketing plan – you books won’t sell on their own!

In summary, if writing a book is for you about making money don’t do it.  There are faster and easier ways to make money than dedicating hours to writing, editing, proofing and designing your book.

However what writing a book can do for you is build your brand as you express your expertise, demonstrate your business model in writing, enhances your credibility and can increase the rates you are charging for your consulting and speaking fees.

I’m on a mission to get every leader of a professional services business to author or create their own book, so watch this space for future programmes we’ll be running.