If you’re an entrepreneur, the monetary rewards of publishing a book often come indirectly, in the form of winning new business, enhancing your personal brand, and vaulting you to the forefront of your industry as a thought leader. In fact, you don’t even need to sell a single copy for the book to pay for itself.
Success Is Not Measured in Sales
Most of my ghostwriting clients approach me with the notion that the ultimate aim for any book is to land on the bestseller list. Everyone wants to be the dark horse author with the sleeper hit, one of the rare non-fiction or business titles that make a splash in the mainstream and get translated into a dozen languages. While that would certainly be a favorable outcome, it’s the rare title that generates those kinds of sales numbers, rarer still that bestselling authors don’t already have a huge reach.
In truth, it doesn’t matter. You don’t need that.
The unlikelihood of reaching bestseller or even “household name” status need not discourage you, but instead liberate you from the constraints of those expectations. When it comes to ghostwriting a business book, success is measured in much more than book sales.
Lead Generation
Creating a book is not an inexpensive undertaking. We offer some of the most competitive rates in the industry (since our lean operation requires a lot less overhead than bigger companies), but even here, ghostwriting and publishing a book is a five-figure expense. It’s an investment. And as many of our clients are shrewd, self-made CEOs and entrepreneurs, they expect their investment will generate a return.
That return will almost surely be generated not by book sales, but by using the book to win new clients. Depending on the nature of your business, even one or two new clients can make up the cost of the book. I had one client, Doug Reed, CEO of Meridian Associates (a civil engineering firm), who credits the book (for which we coached him and edited the manuscript) for his current position. That book currently has three Amazon ratings, an indication of its low circulation, but Doug’s success after the launch validates the fact that sales numbers don’t matter. Another author and former client who earns his living as an executive coach picked up extra business on the strength of his memoir, which was heartfelt, engaging, but also authoritative and effectively conveyed that he was the right guy to work with. The sales numbers are low, but ultimately, that’s not the number that quantifies the book’s success.
Authority-Making, Brand Building, and Thought Leadership
Our landing page copy entices authors to “put your name on the map” (a subtle play on Oceanside’s nautical theme), but that’s not just empty marketing talk. Authoring your own book conveys prestige and authority. This is true even amidst the self-publishing boom of the last twenty years, which have, to put it bluntly, flooded the publishing market with poorly written, frequently unedited, hastily thrown together books (all the more reason why it’s imperative to stand out from the pack by hiring professionals to handle the writing, editing, and design.)
Some of our authors have used their book to win speaking engagements, leveraged it to be invited to interviews and media appearances, or as a personal/professional manifesto that defines their beliefs, their business, their brand. One of the great things about a book, as opposed to the boardroom, is that it is yours: you can speak freely and shape the tone and content in your image. When else are you given 45,000 words to convey your message to a captive audience?
Even for highly successful individuals, there really is no industry where competition isn’t cutthroat and you face persistent pressure to distinguish yourself from others in your position and stay one step ahead of everyone else. This is why business executives and entrepreneurs find it advantageous to step into a position of prominence as thought leaders. A well written book is ideal for that because if you’re the type that prefers to avoid the spotlight, you can kind of let the book do all the talking for you. If you’re eager to get yourself in front of cameras or the microphone, or behind the podium at the next big convention, a book can help pave the way for that too. It’s a versatile tool for developing a platform and getting yourself out there as a thought leader.
Today, prestige, influence, reach, clout: they’re all a form of “information capital” that can be leveraged to produce actual capital. And a good book is a surefire means of acquiring it.
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