How to publish a nonfiction book that attracts clients and grows your business

Most business-owners understand the potential of writing a book, they just don’t know what to write about.

They usually try to find their “one perfect thing” – which can be hard if you’re not exactly sure what you want to do with your life or business; and of course you want everything to be perfect which can be intimidating.

Here’s the good news. You can write and publish a nonfiction book in under a month that attracts new clients and grows your business on autopilot. First, keep in mind there are two kinds of book: the perfect, huge brand book that announces your mission and value (but is hard to actually launch well until you HAVE a huge business or platform), and the lead-gen book, which is a short and simple guide to a specific problem or pain point your ideal customers are experiencing.

How to publish a nonfiction book to grow your business from Derek Murphy

THE LEADGEN BOOK

That’s the one I want you to write first, because:

1. It’s much faster, and it doesn’t have to be perfect
2. It’ll be less stressful
3. You don’t have to make it a literary masterpiece
4. It’s fine if you screw some things up.

Your own aim is to help people overcome a specific problem.

If you can do that, it’s a win – for both you and the reader.

You can experiment with permafree or paid books; personally I’d rather have more readers and less money for my lead-gen books, so I can get them to see my amazing optin offer in the back, sign up to my list, and hopefully go on to buy something more expensive from me.

Keep in mind, the more passionate about your subject you are, the harder it will be to actually finish the book; plus you’ll probably want to do something cool and quirky instead of a simple listicle title (10 ways to lose 10 pounds now WITHOUT doing 10 pushups a day) or something like that… which actually works.

Focus on keywords, specific benefits, and one topic at a time.

For a free optin or bonus, a 10 or 20 page PDF is enough. For a book on Amazon or elsewhere, I’d shoot for an least 10K (if you’re already used to writing a 500 word blog post a day, this will take you 20 days). Map out the outline or process, then fill in the blanks (there’s a sample outline for your nonfiction book here.)

Get a cover, format for ebook, and put it up for sale.

You’ll need to get some book reviews, and your launch will go better if you build an email list first...

But that can be stressful. You might actually just want to quietly publish and see what happens, so you can test things out, before showing it to your audience or asking for support.

Take all that content you’ve made and turn it into videos and powerpoint presentations and infographics and blog posts.

Repurpose the content and put it everywhere, linking to your book and website.
Then write 5 more. Link back to your main “money sites” or your best content (that ends in a content upgrade or upsell).

You’ll have more clients, traffic or business than you can handle.

THE MISSION BOOK

This is the book that most creative entrepreneurs want to start with. It will probably take a lot of research, and networking and interviews… and because it’s not a simple “how to X” book, it’s also going to be harder to sell, which means you need to build up your platform if you want it to be successful (what you don’t want to do is start with this, write a great book, and then be unable to get anyone to read it!)

I haven’t actually written any mission books yet, though I’ve mapped out several and hope to finish “Paid to Create” this year. Even so, I’m thinking about starting a podcast first just to launch that book as well as possible (I’m shooting for 10K sales on launch).

No matter what kind of nonfiction book you’re writing, make sure you read the following posts for crucial information on writing a successful book.

• How to write your first nonfiction book in a month
• How to write a nonfiction book that changes lives
• The 5 major problems with all contemporary nonfiction

FREE PUBLISHING CHEATSHEET

Go from zero platform to #1 bestseller in 90 days or less with my book, Guerrilla Publishing. Download now for free and get access to my new companion workbook and book launch roadmap (this is advanced stuff you won’t find anywhere else).

The 3 secrets to book marketing, and a haunted castle tour. Totally free. Get it here.

Derek Murphy

I’m a philosophy dropout with a PhD in Literature. I covet a cabin full of cats, where I can write fantasy novels to pay for my cake addiction. Sometimes I live in castles.