Why Write a Book?
Why write a book?
Books deliver instant credibility both to the author and to their message. Having an MBA or PhD is great; however, putting the word author in front of your name is similar to using the letters PhD. You are no longer Jay Conrad Levinson; you are Author Jay Conrad Levinson.
Books give you a platform to stand on. They help you to establish credibility, demonstrate thought leadership and generate leads.
On-demand book publishing can quickly and easily help companies drive sales through thought leadership. Books can share both your vision and how your products and services help customers reach that vision. You will quickly have a platform to stand-on. Your book will open doors to speaking events as well as generate new leads. Every person who buys or receives your book is a potential customer.
Many companies have had significant success with books. Folks from IBM, BEA, Dell, and Siebel, to name a few, will tell you that books were an efficient and powerful tool they used to open doors and establish thought leadership. Mark Bauhaus, X-SVP SOA Software from Sun Microsystems has the following thoughts from a book his team put together:
In the heat of the dot-com boom, my Sun Consulting Team wrote a book describing our collected methodology & experience in â ˜dot-commingâ ™ companys IT infrastructure.
The book was before its time in laying out how to bullet-proof XSP and ECommerce infrastructure for super-scale, strong security, and new world agility. â ˜Dot-Com and Beyondâ ™ was distributed worldwide and became required reading for many IT Architects and CIOs.
Having the book in hand accelerated our sales cycle by weeks & provided instant credibility when we competed against less experienced consulting firms.â
Most of all, we had a kind of textbook to use during engagements to train our clients on best practices. I estimate that using the book for education and sales doubled our prospect stream & resulted in tens of millions of dollars in incremental business. A well-crafted book of expertise dramatically enhances credibility!â
Books lead directly to increased revenue:
â ¢ A typical consultant will make 3x in indirect revenue for every dollar they make on book sales
According to a survey1 of 200 business-book authors who have been published between 1974 and 2006, â œ96% said they did realize a significant positive impact on their businesses from writing a book and would recommend the practice.â
When was the last time you dumped a new book in the trash can?â
Books are better than business cards. They are:
â ¢ More powerful than white papers
â ¢ The best tchotchke you can give at a conference
â ¢ An item that makes it to the book shelf vs. the circular file
Its a gift. Its a guide. Its a chance to tell the whole story in a way that white papers only hope to achieve. It can take the time to tell the story instead of the bullet points and its a tchotchke that people will not throw out --- a book has intrinsic value. says Jim Sterne, President, Web
Analytics Association
It is the best marketing tool you can add to your marketing mix! Imagine having a trusted third-party (e.g. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders.com and other physical/online bookstores) supply a powerful marketing message that will get your prospects to think or to act. Books are the tool that delivers that message and the infrastructure is already setup for the trusted third-party to deliver it.
Why wait? Start writing or having your book ghost written today.
About the Author: Mitchell Levy is CEO and publisher at Quick2Publish (http://Quick2Publish.com). Hes helps thousands of individuals succeed in business and thoroughly enjoys spending the time and effort to make sure that you succeed as well.
1. Survey conducted by the Wellesley Hills Group and sent to 1,000 U.S. authors of business
books published between 1974 and 2006 and reported by Business Week: http://www.businessweek.
com/smallbiz/content/apr2006/sb20060412_511385.htm