What do you want your book to do?

Who this is for: For anyone thinking about a book, before they talk to a writer.

On the first call with a prospective client, I have two related questions. First, what is the purpose of the book? What do you hope to accomplish? And second, if we were talking six months after the book came out, what would have to happen for you to decide that the project was a success?

I ask these things because, many times, people simply don’t know what to expect when they do a book, or they have expectations that are simply out of line with reality.

Who is your book for?

We start off by avoiding the initial mistake that most writers make, which is to focus on what the book needs to be about. This is a fatal error that practically every writer makes, but it seems so obvious. If we are going to write a book, don’t we start with what we are going to put in the book?

No. I will say it again, no. Definitely not.

Instead, we first decide on the core audience for the book. That is the real starting point.

Think of a target at a shooting range. There’s a bull’s eye surrounded by increasingly large concentric circles. The bull’s eye in our case is the specific core audience for whom the book is meant. A book is a tool of influence. That sentence is so important I will repeat it: A book is a tool of influence. So the starting point for a successful book is not “What do we put in the book?” it is “Whom are we trying to influence?”

Maybe it is friends and family, in the case of a memoir. Maybe it is potential clients, investors, new hires, legislators, or other stakeholders. Maybe it is others in your field, and you want them to grasp and apply your way of thinking about problems. There may be multiple audiences—those are the concentric circles around the bull’s eye. Those people are welcome to read the book and benefit from it, but the starting point for any book is the simple question: Who is in the bull’s eye? Who exactly are we trying to influence?

You cannot write a successful book if you don’t start with that question in mind.

Then you ask, where are those people now, and where do you want to take them? A book makes a case for a certain way of thinking, a certain way of acting. The lives of the readers—their business lives, their personal lives, their spiritual lives—whatever the topic—will be better if they follow your guidance. So where are they now … and where do you want to take them?

I never suggest to people that they make their own story or biography the first chapter of their books. Chapter 1 is all about the reader: “I feel your pain, and I understand your problem.” If people don’t believe that you feel their pain, that you understand the problem they have, then guess what? You are just another commodity that they don’t care about.

Is writing a book worth it?

What can happen when you do a book? I always say that magic happens, but you can just never predict the direction from which the magic will come. You never know who will see the book. You never know who will reach out to you to be your client, your partner, your investor, or your friend. You have no idea when the news media will come across your book and want to interview you. Books are force multipliers. They get your ideas, your name, and your brand out into the world in ways that white papers, LinkedIn profiles, or social media never can. There is a certain cachet to being an author, a certain sense of dignity, uniqueness, respectability, and thoughtfulness. It is your opportunity to demonstrate preeminence, to remove yourself from the pit of commoditization, to capture your life story and experience for all time. Try getting that with an Instagram post.

A vanity book is all about how wonderful the author is. Such books accomplish nothing for the world. They simply stoke the ego of the author.

A physician, a financial advisor, an attorney, a business owner — any professional only has so many hours in a day, so many individuals he or she can influence. A service-driven book extends the reach of that single expert to a considerably broader audience.

The reality is that while there are plenty of books on every field imaginable, there are certain people who will only be helped by you and your unique perspective. If your book doesn’t come out, they won’t benefit from your knowledge and experience.

A book isn’t just a collection of words on a page; it’s also a huge part of your legacy. It’s a means of conveying meaning from one person to a million people, from one person today to an audience that can include countless individuals not yet born. Or perhaps it is something less grandiose. It might simply be a way of capturing an individual’s story so their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will know who they come from, what they stand for …and perhaps … where the money came from!

Will my book make money?

One of the hardest things in the world today is to sell books to strangers. Give them away? Easy button. Sell them back of the room when you are doing a keynote? Love that! Print them for $3 and sell them for $30. That is a nice day at the office.

But when I hear, “I don’t expect this book to be a New York Times bestseller,” what I really hear them saying is, “I expect my book to be a New York Times bestseller, and if it isn’t, it is because you screwed the whole thing up.”

That’s a bright red flag.

I tell prospective clients I’m an attorney by training, and that in the field of ghostwriting or private biography, malpractice consists of creating false hope. Then, I explain to them what is possible and what is unlikely with a book they have in mind. Usually, they are very grateful for the reality check and are happy that someone is telling them the truth instead of blowing smoke and creating hype.

What does “Amazon bestseller” really mean?

You might think that it takes tens of thousands of books sales to become a best seller, but you could probably manage the top 100 of an Amazon sublist with anywhere between 50 and 100 sales. Does this mean your book is a best seller? Technically, yes. Does this mean that your book sold tons of copies? No.

What it means: Amazon ranks books by recent sales, both overall and in thousands of narrow categories, and its bestseller lists update every hour. A book that briefly makes the top 100 in one small category can be called an “Amazon bestseller,” even on a few dozen sales. The New York Times list is different. It’s compiled once a week from sales across many stores, and it’s far harder to reach.

Is book marketing worth the money?

I want you to be really careful if you are going to put serious money into a book marketing campaign. The most important thing I can say about spending money on book marketing is proceed with caution.

There is more disappointment around book marketing than practically any other aspect of getting a book done. Some of it is just plain silly. If you spend $10 on book marketing, you will not be sitting next to Oprah next Tuesday on a special. Let’s get real. But it is more than that. Authors can spend tens of thousands of dollars on book marketing, but if they don’t do it carefully and intentionally, they may have very little to show for their investment of time, money, and hope.

If you are going to spend money on a campaign, understand there is often a fundamental mismatch between what you want (book sales, the cash register ringing, speaking engagements, what have you) and what the book marketer views as success.

Many book marketers use what are called “impressions” as their measuring stick. Let’s say they get an opinion piece you wrote, or that they wrote for you, in USA Today. And let’s say, for the sake of argument, that USA Today has a circulation of one million. This means the book marketer will proudly tell you that you received one million impressions. What does that mean, exactly? Did a million people read your article?

Doubtful. Of the people who did read your article, how many people noticed at the bottom that you are the author of a particular book and then went to Amazon to buy it? Maybe none. So, don’t be seduced by how many impressions you get. Instead, have a conversation with the book marketer before you write a check and ask, “How do you measure success? Is it impressions? Because I can’t put impressions on a deposit slip.”

If the book marketer cannot or will not share names and contact information of happy past clients in your genre, move on. I frequently advise my clients to skip the book marketing expense initially and do things in a cheap and dirty, yet highly effective, manner. I owe the concept to the late Chet Holmes, a leading sales trainer and author who counseled his followers to create a “Dream 100.” Your Dream 100 consists of the 100 people you would most like to work with. Identify them. Get their physical addresses. Mail them a book with a personal, handwritten note explaining why you are sending them the book and how you would like to serve them, partner with them, or whatever you have in mind. You can put 100 books in 100 envelopes with handwritten notes for under $1,000. You won’t get all your Dream 100 … but you will get some.

Start with the Dream 100. Put your book on your website front and center so the first thing people see is your smiling face on the cover of your book. Let people download it for free as a PDF in exchange for an email address. Put it in the signature line of your emails so people can download the PDF just by clicking. The important thing is to get your ideas out there. Selling copies is secondary.

The only exception to this rule is that when you speak, you can sell tons of copies at the back of the room. You will just have somebody there with a credit card thingamabob attached to an iPhone, or people can Venmo or Zelle the money. Modern times! Very exciting! In this case, you are printing the book for $3 and selling it for $30. That is good math. No book publicist necessary.

Do you need a traditional publisher?

Often, people ask me if readers will take their book seriously if it is independently published, as opposed to getting a deal with one of the major New York publishers.

Invariably, my answer is that it doesn’t matter.

The bottom line is that publishers have essentially trained readers to ignore who the publisher of a book is.

Nothing but a book allows you to tell your story in full — who you are, what problems you solve, how you serve, whom you serve.

That’s the magic and power of books, no matter who published them.

Which book should you write first?

Any successful person could probably write a dozen different books right now. I like to say, which book will give you CPR? CPR, of course stands for Cash in your Pocket … Right now. That is my kind of CPR! Or if you are not writing the book to make money, what outcome do you want? Out of all the possible books you could write, that is the book to write right now.

It doesn’t make sense to think of a book as a “final statement”—you write it, you publish it, and then they shovel the dirt on you and your career. Instead, a book is an interim statement. It’s what you know as of now. When you know more, you can easily put out a second edition. Or a new book.

Why are you writing this book?

I will then ask what I call the Oprah question, which is this:

“Hi! I’m Oprah. Welcome to the show! Tell the audience why you wrote the book.”

I’ve got to tell you, everybody loves this Oprah question.

They begin to ask themselves, why am I doing this? And their answers become the foundation of the table of contents for the book.

The fact that it is in the past tense takes some of the tension out of the process because the client is coming from a place of the work already being complete. What a relief! It is already done; I didn’t have to do anything! What fun!