Become an Author and Become the Authority – Part 2

Customers want to feel they made the best decision when making a purchase.

Typically they’ll ask; “Why should I do business with you instead of your competition”.

Factors such as price or offering additional value certainly help. However, nothing helps more than a reputation of authority.

It convinces potential signups that you know what you’re talking about. This is a more effective deal closer than the price or package deals alone.

Thanks to Jim Howard from the Last Big Seminar, I will show you how to become and present yourself as an “Authority” through the power of your very own book as we expand upon what was discussed in Part 1 of this series.

It’s probably safe to say that a book likely won’t make you millions or even thousands of dollars by itself.

As mentioned in the previous article, a book acts as a super business card, with a few hundred pages to brand you as someone knowledgeable.

It’s a way to convince people to do business with you and not end the journey.

So how do you write a book?

Let’s take a look at some key steps towards the goal on this path.



Outline
Most successful authors start with an outline.

This is a collection of ideas (placed in an order) that you want to address in your book. Usually there’s about 8–15 chapters with each chapter being a separate topic.

Within each topic you’ll have 5–10 subtopics. Each subtopic gets a few bullet points. Then you continue until your outline is done. Next you expand on each topic and sub-topic as your write the book.

While it’s true some authors don’t use outlines, you’re probably not such an author.

Even then, such outline free writing styles do best in other fields such as fiction as opposed to teaching content. Most people are used to learning in steps, thus having an outline keeps you in that mode.

Create it
Once you have your thoughts all ready, how do you create the book?

The most obvious way is to just type it out. However, this can be time consuming and easy to never complete. The world’s full of people waiting to finish their novel/book.

Ghost writers are people who write books for others. While easy to complete, such people are very expensive.

You’ll still have to verify all the information written to make sure it’s accurate (they may not know your field). In addition it’s hard to write in the “voice” of another person. We all have our favorite sayings and nuances that are hard for another person to copy. Thus, it may not “sound” like something you wrote.

Recording yourself is great for people who want to do it themselves.

It’s a fast way to get your ideas out of your head. Your personality will certainly shine though and it’s easy to find a transcriber who’ll format it for publishers. However some people don’t speak and type in the same “voice”.

Many writers I know don’t dictate their articles or books since the end result sounds different or unnatural.

Interviews help people who are too “close” to their product.

The interviewer is an outside person and can ask questions you may not think to ask. It’ll keep you on track and you’re more likely to complete your thoughts when you’re speaking to another person. Transcribe the interview and even sell the recordings.

Host a Webinar!

This is great because if you charge for access to the webinar, you actually get paid to write your book. Second, you have pressure from your members to finish. If you do a twelve part course, you can’t stop on Step 4 without some angry members.

If you’re worried you may not complete your book, consider this option.

This covers how to WRITE the book. Remember, even if being an authority isn’t for you, writing a book will only help.

Every step you take toward promoting yourself only helps your brand and helps convince people to do business with you. At the least, you have increased your credibility and business opportunities… and who wouldn’t want that?

Join me for my next article as we go over how to PUBLISH your book thanks to the powerful tips from Jim Howard at the last Big seminar.