Many CEOs have built successful companies. They’ve taken the helm and helped their businesses expand organically or through acquisition, rolled out new products and services, added headcount, and/or maybe pursued new target markets. They’ve generated millions, or even billions, in revenue for shareholders.
After those major accomplishments, you’d think writing a successful book would be easy, right?
Not so much.
Yes, my clients do well with their books, but not all books written by CEOs and business owners — even with the help of a ghostwriter — will automatically achieve their goals.
After ghostwriting dozens of business books with CEOs, business owners, founders, professors, and experts, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. I’ve also witnessed other authors with fantastic ideas make costly mistakes that negatively impact how well their book performs.
Fortunately, these failures are completely preventable. You just need to learn what the red flags are so that you can avoid them when you’re writing your own.
Mistake #1: Writing for Anyone and Everyone
One problem many business leaders have is that they almost know too much. They have so many amazing experiences and lessons learned that they know could be helpful. And they want to share all of them with everyone.
Unfortunately, targeting a broad audience can lead to a book that is so generic that it gets lost amongst all the other general business advice books.
A better approach is to zero in on a particular group that will benefit most from your insights and observations. Maybe that’s fellow CEOs of organizations with 1,000+ employees. Maybe it’s leaders of companies in the AI space. Or maybe it’s new college grads looking for their first job.
By focusing on one particular group of potential readers, you’re in a much better position to help them with their specific challenges and opportunities. But the challenges that new college grads are facing today are very different from what a Fortune 500 CEO faces.
Pick one narrow group and write your book for them, specifically.
A client of mine several years ago wanted to write his company’s corporate history for anyone, anywhere who had ever heard of it. That’s a massive audience, I pointed out. I encouraged him, instead, to write it for the company’s biggest fans. Assume some existing knowledge of the company and then share inside stories that its advocates would love to hear. After all, they would be the most likely to want such a book and to recommend it to others.
The book became an international bestseller.
Mistake #2: Underestimating How Long a Book Takes to Produce
Many business leaders have been thinking about writing a book for years. They’ve had a lot of time to think about it and frequently have a well-developed idea of what they want included. Although the scope of their book may be clear to them, they generally underestimate how long it’s going to take to draft a manuscript of 60,000 to 65,000 words.
Some think they’ll be able to work on it in the evenings or on weekends, or even while on vacation.
They expect that 30 to 60 days should be plenty of time to get it done. Of course, once they sit down and try to make significant headway on their own, they realize their thinking was flawed.
It typically takes much longer than 30 days to produce a quality manuscript, even with the help of a ghostwriter. A well-written, high-quality business book more often takes 9 to 12 months to finish. Yes, it can be done in less time, but only if the author (you) has the ability to carve out time weekly in their schedule to talk through chapters and review drafts. Without that dedicated time, it can take more than a year, or longer.
If you can block off 1-2 hours per week to meet with your ghostwriter, it’s possible to get your book done in a matter of months.
Mistake #3: Leading with Ego, Not Value
CEOs who write books to inflate their own egos generally end up with boring content. If the primary purpose is telling everyone how great you are, it’s going to fall flat.
I say that because most readers today want takeaways. They want actionable insights.
One of the bestselling categories at the moment is prescriptive memoir, because readers like compelling stories, but they also want to know what to do with the information shared. How can they apply it in their own lives?
CEO books need to include strategy, recommendations, and useful ideas, not just story after story about what an incredible job they’ve done at their current employer.
A CEO client of mine several years ago wanted to write a book to explain her company’s intellectual property. Her goal was to help other business leaders by sharing easy-to-understand anecdotes and stories alongside insights and recommendations. She wanted to have a positive impact, first and foremost.
Several times I had to push her to toot her own horn because she was so focused on making sure she explained the business principles and how-to information she knew would be helpful.
And it was. Her book immediately hit the Wall Street Journal bestseller list because she made it all about service to her reader and not about her.
Mistake #4: Putting Off Marketing Until the Release Date
Many leaders are under the impression that marketing their book starts as soon as it hits bookstores. Some also expect publishers to do all of the promotion, which is not true, but what’s important to understand here is that activity surrounding raising the visibility of the author, their message, and their book needs to start well before the book is done.
I often recommend that authors begin blogging, if they aren’t already, about their book’s topic now. Start sharing research, reports, articles, op-eds, and related speeches that can help explain why the book’s content is needed or relevant.
Pursuing guest podcast interviews, public speaking opportunities, conference participation, publicity, and advertising are all good starting points to make your target audience aware of you and your message months before your book is out.
The worst thing that can happen is that you put off marketing until you have books in hand, and at that point, media outlets view it as old news. Some have three-month lead times and need to receive advance reader copies before the book is available in bookstores.
I can’t say that I have too many clients who wait until the last minute to promote their books because I’m constantly emailing them publicity opportunities to pursue while we’re working together. I push them to get their title finalized and cover designed so that they can share that image of their “forthcoming book” with everyone they come in contact with.
Mistake #5: Viewing their Book as a One-Off Project Rather than an Asset
Some CEOs get so focused on the process of writing their book that they lose sight of the bigger picture. They’re relieved when the time-intensive work on their book is concluded. Then, their book comes out, they share it, and they move on to other tasks.
Sure, their book is a useful credential, but they don’t invest as much time as they could in leveraging it.
In truth, a book should serve as an asset for years to come. The most successful CEO authors do all they can to extract value from their investment of time and money.
In truth, you can slice and dice the sections and chapters of your book in many new ways to repurpose it for maximum benefit if you’re strategic about it.
You can use chapters as potential keynote topics. You can take lessons from chapters and convert them into LinkedIn articles or blog posts. You can convert some of the content into lead magnets for your company. You can mail your book out with a personalized note as a way to forge new business relationships.
Really, the opportunities are endless.
One of my clients years ago wrote a book to launch their new company. From the outset, it was a critical asset, and they used it as evidence of their expertise. The book helped them land lucrative consulting engagements and training opportunities worth millions of dollars. Then, they pitched a second book, which they sold for a six-figure advance. That book, which I edited, was a New York Times bestseller.
The book was successful because they planned from the outset for it to be the foundation of their marketing strategy, which they then built on and added to so as to create new business opportunities.
Business leaders who invest in books as tools to showcase and amplify what they’re doing frequently find that it can spark new business opportunities for them and for their company. But it does take strategizing and planning from the outset.