How a Nonfiction Book Supports Your Business (and Vice Versa)

Today I’m going to tackle a common misconception I hear all the time.

Publishing a book will grow my business by building an audience FOR me.

I don’t know who started this bullshit rumor on the Internet, but like all misinformation it’s a twisted version of something true.

Because publishing a book will and should grow your business.

But what’s not true is the audience part. You see, in order for a book to be commercially successful, you need to have people buy it. And readers need to know about a book in order to make that purchase. 

Gone are the days when most people would wander into the mall bookstore looking to solve a problem. Instead, what most of us do . . . well, I’m guessing you already know.

It starts with G and ends with -oogle. Or maybe Y and -ou Tube. 

Regardless of what way you publish (self/hybrid/traditional) — you as the author need to be able to reach buyers/readers. And that involves building an audience.

A book doesn’t market itself. Instead, a book depends on what its author has already built in terms of audience and marketing (this, my friends, is called a “platform”). 

The clients I work with on book proposals know this and see the resulting opportunity.

Which is for the book to magnify the audience you already have. 

Because when done right, the book becomes a product that sells consistently without you as the author having to do very much. The first step in that is having an engaged audience to sell to, and then being able to put together a product — ahem, your book — that they love. 

Once you have that, then the business benefits from the book and the book benefits from the business and it becomes a repetitive cycle of awesomeness. And you get more followers which means more revenue which means more marketing which means more followers . . .  and again, a repetitive cycle of awesomeness.

Which is where I and my team come in, shortcutting the process from successful business owner without a book to successful business owner with a bestselling book — through writing a book proposal that lands a literary agent and a publisher and starts . . . .

You guessed it, the repetitive cycle of awesomeness!