Most coaches and consultants dream of publishing a book, and for good reason. It's the perfect vehicle to share their expertise on a large scale. It's also a great way to boost their authority, credibility, as well as reach—something, of course, that is always welcome.
Writing a nonfiction book is a wonderful project because it blends three important areas of life: business, influence, and growth. Authors create or grow their existing business through their book, they become more authoritative, and they grow both personally and professionally in the process.
But writing a book can prove a real challenge. There are many steps to writing and publishing a solid piece of work, and these steps bring a lot of questions. More importantly, these steps can also bring deep-seated insecurities. That's why many coaches and consultants never take the leap and do it.
At Trivium Writing, we believe that coaches, consultants, and other service providers benefit the world when they publish their books. That's why I've created this comprehensive guide. In this guide, you'll find the book-writing questions most frequently asked by coaches and consultants, along with in-depth answers for each of them.
My goal here is to give you all the knowledge necessary to make an informed decision about whether to write a book, how to get help along the way, and how to publish it.
Happy reading!
First, let's set clear expectations about who should read this guide.
This guide is for:
This guide is not for:
(I love you guys, but there's a different process for other types of books.)
With that out of the way, let's talk about why this guide is important and how to read it.
Why Do I Need this Guide? How Should I Read It?
TLDR; No promises. Lots of info. Read what’s relevant.
I’m not going to make any promises.
As a coach or consultant, you're bombarded with ads and messages…
You know the tune. Writing and publishing a book is one of these riffs—for obvious reasons. But many of these promises are empty. They’re often ways to exploit coaches’ and consultants’ dreams of freedom, impact, and recognition. How do I know? I’ve been prey to these promises myself. It stings. But this isn’t new.
What’s new is that, in 2023, the market is skeptical and starving. First, the internet leveled the playing field for coaches and consultants. Then, the pandemic flooded the gate with scam artists. And then the recession weeded out those who weren’t cut for business. Right now, the FTC is even investigating the big names in the online coaching industry...
So, if you’re still around today, congratulations!
Surviving 2022 means you can survive any other year. And it means you're in for the long game, which makes you the perfect type of coach or consultant to write a book.
Now, let's take a closer look at the coaching/consulting landscape.
Today, as I write these lines, the coaching industry is quite interesting.
Hope and desolation are on the horizon.
The market is still keen on buying coaching and consulting services. Plus, competition has decreased because frauds were weeded out. But buyers are more skeptical than ever, and you need to show your legitimacy.
If you’re a true, passionate expert, though, that won’t be a problem. And that might be what brought you to this guide.
Writing a quality book, after all, is the best way to show authority and credibility in the market. It shows your character as a person, your dedication to your field and audience, as well as the depth of your knowledge and experience. It also demonstrates your communication skills, which are important.
As a coach or consultant, writing a book has many obvious and not-so-obvious benefits, including but not limited to:
To be clear, I’m not saying a book will make you rich or famous, or that it’ll change your business overnight.
Nor am I saying you should necessarily adopt the method I use with my clients. I run the Author Partnership Program, which helps coaches and consultants write and publish books, but that doesn't mean the program is what you need. Ultimately, this guide's goal is to answer common questions for coaches and consultants without bias.
What I can promise you is that after reading this guide, you’ll know exactly how to write and publish a book. You'll know what it involves, and if it’s for you. You’ll also know which writing and publishing options work best for your unique needs.
This guide answers any question you might have about book writing. It'll also give you the clarity you need to make a decision about writing. Still, you may want some further clarifications after reading this guide, so I've set out some time to speak with you about your book idea.
TLDR; Anyone can write a book, but it makes the most sense for entrepreneurs—like coaches and consultants.
It seems a silly question, but it’s an important one. You may not realize it, but it's the question that keeps most people from ever writing a book. It may be the question that stands in your way, too.
If you're thinking of writing a book, you've thought about it before and yet haven't done it.
It's likely because you’ve wondered, “Who am I to write a book? Who's going to read it?” But, if you’re a coach or a consultant reading this, I hope you know you should write a book.
The fact you’re a coach means you have expertise and experience to share with people. And like every person alive, you have a story and a message to share. You have all the ingredients for a great book!
Anyone can write and publish a book because self-publishing reduces the barriers to publishing a book. But the fact everyone can publish a book doesn’t mean everyone should publish a book. This isn't about worthiness (everyone has something to say). It's about resource allocation.
To write a book, you either pay with time, energy, or currency. And not everyone can make a return on investment. So, you need not only the desire but also the motivation to complete the project.
There are two types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic, and they are both necessary.
Put differently, entrepreneurs should be writing books. But when I say “entrepreneurs,” I don’t restrict the term to people who already own or run a business only. I include people who want to become entrepreneurs or have the disposition to be one. This includes people with a message, story, or expertise.
A book is a business. Once you give birth to your book, you must manage it one way or another. And while you'll collect automatic revenues from your book sales, to make the best out of it, you’ll need to promote your book and build upon it.
Some people are happy to write a book, put it out there, and move on to the next project. But for most of us, writing a book is only the beginning. You can profit from your book years after publication, but to do so, you’ll need an entrepreneur’s mindset.
The keyword here is mindset. You don't need to be an entrepreneur to write and publish a book. But thinking like an entrepreneur will help you make the best out of the book. This, in turn, will help justify the resource allocation (time and money). When you write a book, you need time or money—or both—depending on the method.
If you sell any product or service, it’s easy to justify writing a book because it can quickly attract enough clients to pay it back. But you may wonder why that matters. Many people want to write a book and have the desire to do so, but they can’t recoup their investment anytime soon. This can be a great obstacle.
How Do I Know If I Have a Nonfiction Book?
TLDR; You know you have a book when you have an idea worth developing substantially.
Books aren’t the only way to share your message, story, or expertise. Other mediums are at your disposal, including social media posts, blog posts, magazine articles, and videos.
While none of these mediums afford you the same kind of credibility and impact a book does, they still add value. In fact, they complement books nicely. Now, Given that you can share your message in other ways, how do you know if what you have is enough to write a book?
Technically, anything can be turned into a book. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be a great book. Several characteristics make an idea promising as a book.
The more of these characteristics your idea has, the better your book will be. And the more important it becomes that you write your book.
Signs that your idea deserves a book:
Here’s the important question you must ask yourself: “Do you see this idea being made into a nice physical product.” If you would buy this product yourself, chances are that someone else would too.
Today, a respectable length for a book is 100-150 pages in Microsoft Word 12 pt, 1.5 space lining formatting. Many books are longer, and some books shorter, but a nonfiction book should be approximately 100-150 Microsoft Word pages.
Ask yourself, “Can I write 100 to 150 pages on my topic?”
If you think you can't, ask yourself, “Is there anything that can help me develop my ideas so that I can?” Writing 100 to 150 pages is not as hard as it seems, and it might only require you a little extra research to get there.
And don’t worry about the mechanics and process. There are ways to learn or get help, as outlined in this book.
But if you answered “no” to most of the questions above, you may not be ready to be writing a book. Or it may simply mean you need to talk with someone about it and get help on the project.
TLDR; Take a course, hire a ghostwriter, or work with a coach or consultant—all of which require different levels of investment.
Writing a book is different from writing any other type of content. Unless you have professional writing training, you’ll need some form of guidance on how to write your book.
You can also get hands-on help to write your book—as with the Author Partnership Program.
Three main methods are at your disposal to help you write your book, all of which have benefits and inconveniences:
The best method for you depends on how much time and capital you have at your disposal and how you wish to allocate these resources. It also depends on the quality of the book you wish to produce. By doing everything yourself, you’re unlikely to produce a professional-looking book. By working with a coach, consultant, or ghostwriter, you can create an incredible product.
TLDR; Use a traditional publisher, a hybrid publisher, or self-publish. All these options come with pros and cons in terms of cost and creative freedom.
Many publishing methods are available on the market today, and the best one depends on you, your goals, and your resources. While not all publishing methods are equal, they all have merits and can be leveraged to create a successful book.
The three main publishing methods are:
When you consider which type of publishing is right for you, consider the following elements:
Let’s look at the different options:
Most coaches and consultants use self-publishing or hybrid publishing for two main reasons:
Examples of Self-Publishing Coaches and Consultants
(Note that Trivium Writing helps authors land book deals and work with hybrid publishers in addition to self-publishing. For a more in-depth analysis of the different publishing approaches, read this article. )
TLDR; It’s harder than you might think, but it’s worth even more than you realize.
People often come to the book writing/publishing process with the wrong expectations. Some think that writing the book is the end of the process, while some think it should be all about marketing and that publishing a book is an easy money grab.
While every perspective is valid, and what matters is that the author is happy with the results, the most successful and fulfilled authors subscribe to neither of these views. They realize that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Here is what to expect from writing and publishing a book:
TLDR; Between 5,000 and 80,000 words, depending on whether you write a lead magnet, a client primer, or a leadership/philosophy book.
It’s no secret that the length of your book will depend on the subject matter, your intended audience, and what you want to achieve in terms of content and message. But there is a simple framework to determine how long your book should be.
To begin with, a book’s length does not matter as much as we typically imagine. True, most professionally published books share a similar length. But that’s because traditional publishing has a certain standard for how much substance should go into a book.
That said, not all traditionally published books are good books, let alone life-changing. Some of the world’s best books are very short and self-published.
In today’s publishing landscape for coaches and consultants, there are three types of books coaches and consultants can write
While lead magnets and client primers are great tools, leadership/philosophy books are the best way to build true, lasting authority because not anyone takes the time to write such books.
TLDR; Between 4 months to a year, depending on how long your book is and how much time you spend writing weekly.
Writing a book is like running a business. If you run a business, you must know your product or service’s economics. The same is true of writing. You must know your word count economics. The trickiest part of figuring out how long writing a book takes is being able to predict how many words you can write in each period. But we’ll solve that in a moment.
The first thing you need is to figure out how long your book should be. If you’re writing a lead magnet, you’ll write from 5,000 to 10,000 words. If you write a client primer, you’ll write from 10,000 to 30,000 words. And if you write a leadership and philosophy book, you’ll write from 30,000 to 60,000 words.
Our clients at Trivium Writing use our unique method—a hybrid between writing coaching and ghostwriting—which allows them to write around 900 words an hour. Let’s break down the word count economics based on our method and recommendations:
Based on these economics, you could write a lead magnet in a week, a client primer in a month, and a leadership/philosophy book in 2 to 3 months.
TLDR; From planning to launching, there are 10 steps to the writing and publishing process.
The book writing/publishing process isn't complicated, but it does comprise a number of different steps that need to be taken in order to make a book successful.
The process comprises four broad categories:
Here are the ten steps to writing and publishing a book, according to the Trivium Writing process.
Note that this process can differ based on client needs. Moreover, the steps outlined in this process assume that the client follows the self-publishing route. Clients taking the traditional publishing route follow a different process. For more information, book a free consultation.
TLDR; Between $2,000 and $200,000, depending on how you go about your process.
If you’re going to self-publish and cover the cost, you have to factor in 3 different types of costs:
In theory, you could do everything yourself and pay nothing. But as a coach or consultant, you can’t afford to publish a botched book. It will reflect poorly on your brand and turn off readers as well as potential clients.
Getting help writing your book could be taking a course, hiring a ghostwriter, or working with a coach or consultant. Here are some typical price ranges for each option:
Publishing your book involves four main expenses to cover:
Marketing your book is up to you and depends on your budget.
Expenses can include, but at not limited to:
Writing and publishing a nonfiction book is no small feat. But as a coach or a consultant, it's worth all the time, money, and effort you'll put into it. A book is the best tool to get more business, gain influence, and accelerate your personal growth. In this guide, I've answered the questions coaches and consultants ask the most to help you start. Now it's time to go use this information!
Trivium Writing has helped produce 20 books and counting. We know the writing and publishing process inside and out and offer custom services to help you write your book. For example, our Author Partnership Program is a coaching program specifically tailored to coaches and consultants. We also offer consulting, ghostwriting, and editing services, which you can learn more about over a free 30-minute consultation.
Best wishes on your writing and publishing journey!