How to write a business book

This guide is about writing the book. It does not cover publishing routes, costs or launching.

Step 1: choose the business goal

Be honest about where the value is. The Scribe Method's chapter on making money with your book opens with the bad news that you probably will not make substantial money just by selling copies, and the good news that books earn far more indirectly: consulting work, speaking, professional services, coaching, workshops and investment. So decide which of those you need the book to drive.

The Scribe Method's chapter on book objectives lists six kinds of goal: visibility, authority, clients and opportunities, speaking, legacy and impact. For a business book, pick one main goal and write down what success looks like, as specifically as "the first client who calls because of the book". The goal then decides the next three steps.

Step 2: write for the reader who can buy from you

The most common business book mistake is writing for peers: people in your field who will admire the nuance and never hire you. If the goal is clients, the reader is the client. Our guide on defining your one reader covers how to profile them, and nonfiction book ideas by profession lists reader and promise pairs for twelve fields.

Jake Falcon spent 20 years in retirement planning and, according to his story on scribemedia.com, could never find a retirement book he was confident handing his clients, so he wrote one for them. He now gives a copy to everyone at a first meeting and calls it "a more robust business card". Dr. Joseph Field made the same choice in dentistry: his story describes a book written for patients rather than practitioners, listed as the 1st "Comprehensive Smile Makeover Guide For Patients".

A useful check: read your promise and ask whether the reader in it could ever sign a contract with you. If not, either the reader or the goal has to change. The reader profile worksheet has a line for exactly this.

Step 3: build the chapters around your method

Most strong business books are organized around something the author already does: a process with steps, a set of principles, or a framework with named parts. If you have been doing your work for years, you have one, even if it has never been written down. Nicholas Capman's story describes it starting as a Word document of "book notes", the things he caught himself saying in meeting after meeting. His book is built on 15 "Pillars of employee engagement".

Published Scribe books show the range of shapes a method can take:

• Steps: Deneen Allen's book sets out what her story calls the 5x5, "A Method Of 5 Steps And 25 Workshops". Her story describes distilling a 120,000-word digital program into one book.
• A named framework: Steve Susi's Brand Currency is built on four currencies, money, information, loyalty and time; his story lists "Four currencies" as "The framework it put on the map".
• Practices plus principles: Carrie Cox's story describes 25 "Daily dares, now a book" organized around 5 "Factors of wellness". The dares became part two; part one, written last, explains why the five factors work together.

Whatever the shape, a three-part structure suits most method books:

1. Why: the problem, what it costs the reader, and why the usual fixes fail. One to three chapters. This is where the reader decides you understand them.
2. The method: one chapter per step, pillar or principle, in the order the reader needs them.
3. Making it work: putting the method into practice, the common obstacles, and what the reader's life or business looks like after.

Give every chapter a one-sentence thesis and a title that makes a claim rather than naming a topic. The outlining guide shows how, outline examples shows the framework and step-by-step shapes as sample contents pages, and the outline worksheet gives you a box for each chapter.

An example outline

An illustrative example, not a real book. Note that each part two chapter is one step of the method, and each title says what the step does.

Step 4: stories and proof

Every method chapter needs three things: a story that opens it, a clear point, and proof that the point holds. The Scribe Method's outline chapter describes this as a hook, a thesis statement and supporting content. Scribe's guide I Want to Write a Business Book adds that case studies are particularly effective for showing your ideas applied, and suggests ending each chapter with key takeaways or action steps.

• Client stories: the most persuasive proof, because the reader sees someone like them. Ask permission, or change identifying details and say you have.
• Your own stories: include them when they help the reader. The Scribe Method's test for each one is does this story add value for the reader?
• Numbers: use your own data where you have it, and cite outside data properly. One unsourced statistic can cost the reader's trust in the rest.
• Failures: the case where the method did not work, and why, often convinces more than three successes.

Step 5: how much of your method to give away

The fear is that if the method is in the book, nobody will pay you for it. The Scribe Method's chapter on how much to give away answers directly: put as much of your knowledge as possible into the book. Its reasoning:

• Readers can tell the difference between editorial content, which teaches, and advertorial content, which sells. A book that holds back reads like a pitch, and readers who feel sold to do not hire the author.
• Generosity proves expertise. A book that gives the full method shows you know it cold.
• Many readers who could do it themselves will still prefer to hire you to do it with them. The book pre-qualifies them.

Holding back also protects less than people think. The US Copyright Office's FAQ says copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, systems or methods of doing something, only the way they are expressed. What a reader cannot get from any book is you: your judgment applied to their situation, the accountability, and the doing. That is what clients pay for, and it stays yours however much you write down.

One practical line: teach every step completely, then be honest that applying it to a complicated real situation is where many readers want help. Mention your service once, near the end, and let the book do the rest.

Step 6: draft it

Business authors are busy, so the routine matters more than talent. Short scheduled sessions, a small word target and a rough draft you do not edit until it is finished will carry you further than a free week that never comes. Our guide on how to start writing a book covers the routine and the first chapter.

Write for one reader in plain English. The Scribe Method's chapter on writing effective nonfiction boils it down to short, simple, direct and relevant, with chapters typically under 4,000 words. Length should follow the promise. Gui Costin's story describes his two books at 65 Pages each, "Each, Thin, Full Punch".

What most people get wrong

• Writing a brochure. If the book keeps mentioning your firm, it is advertorial. Teach instead.
• Writing for peers. Your competitors will not hire you. Write for the buyer.
• A method with no "why" section. Readers need to feel the problem before they will follow the fix.
• Naming the book after the method. A framework name means nothing to someone who has not read the book. Put the benefit on the cover; see book subtitle examples.
• Stitching together old posts. Blog posts and talks are raw material, not a book. The outline comes first.
• Treating results as typical. If you quote a client result, say it is one result. The same applies to the author stories in this guide: Mark Organ's story, for example, lists $400K in "new client revenue the book drove", which is one author's result, not a prediction.

Scribe Media, which makes this site, sells book coaching and ghostwriting for business books, including Scribe Compass ($5,000 on scribemedia.com/pricing), in which a book coach works with you on the audience, purpose, table of contents and a chapter-by-chapter roadmap. The six steps above are the same ones you can work through on your own.