The fourth secret the gurus don’t tell you when you’re writing your book
So let’s start by acknowledging that there are some good books that are simply collections of random blog posts. I’m sure there must be though I haven’t really been lucky enough to find them yet.
If only I had a pound/dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say, “You write a blog, then you should write a book, it’s not that much trickier.” They might as well say, “You can write great emails you should write a play,” or, “You write great post-it-notes why not write a dissertation on quantum physics?”
Now I am being more than slightly tongue-in-cheek here. Yet the assumption that a book is simply a collection of 250-500 word bits is one that has forced a lot of business writers into mediocrity and invisibility.
The difference between blogging and writing a book
The purpose of writing a blog is very different from the purpose of a book.
With a blog you’ve got a minute or two (a few hundred words) to capture the imagination of your reader and implant a single thought/feeling/course of action.
With a book you have the potential to spend six or seven hours speaking to the reader directly inside their head in a continual conversation that can inspire, motivate, call to action, define strategies and reflect on their results.
How much would you spend to get your prospective clients to listen to you and trust your voice as much as their own?
Yet, with the brilliant book only you can write, you have that opportunity for free. The secret to doing this comes from discovering your author voice—the particular tone, character, philosophy, vision and story that will help you write in the most captivating, authentic and powerful way.
Discover your voice and you will be communicating in a way that blog writers will envy. Your voice, inside the readers head—for seven hours! But not your voice, their own voice speaking your words as if they were their own…
Taking your reader on a journey of discovery, insight and transformation in those seven hours requires you to step up your writing game. This can be done without too many challenges, but only if you can see how important it is to develop your writing skills so you can transform your readers more effectively.
Readers are smart,
that’s why you want to communicate with them!
They’re smart enough to notice when something hasn’t been cared for, hasn’t been crafted, hasn’t been tailored just for them.
When that happens the other voices in their head start to interrupt, start to heckle,
What’s the writer doing? Did they bother to check or update this? Why should I waste my time on this when the writer didn’t spend any time making it the best it could be?”
Make sure your voice is undisturbed within their mind—captivate them, lead them on a journey where they are the hero and your insight guides them to success. Your author voice, the one you lovingly and carefully craft, is hard to resist…
Oh, yes—secret four—Writing books is a craft, poor writing tells your reader you’re not worth listening to.