Got a book to write and don’t know where to start? Start with some pre-planning.
Here are a range of questions which are designed to get you thinking about your business book plan.
- Without thinking what is the book title?
- What is is about?
- Why are you writing the book?
- What will it do for your business?
- What will it do for you?
- Why would anyone read it, what do they get out of it?
- What does your reader learn?
- What research do you need to do? Who can help you? How will you do your research?
- Which customers can you ask to be case studies? What benefits did they get from your work or ideas? What innovations did they implement?
- What photos or illustrations do you need? How will you get them?
- How will you test your plans or theories?
- Thinking about the flow of your book, list each of the chapters?
- Now you have the chapter list, what will each chapter cover (be brief)?
- Who has the data, information and knowledge to make this book possible?
- What makes you (or your colleagues, or your business) an expert in this area?
- What makes the book stand out from it’s competitors?
- If you could visualise your book on the bookshelves, which other books would it nestle alongside?
- Someone walks to the area of the bookshop which sells your kind of book, describe the person, let your imagination run wild.
- You’ve decided to use your book to promote your business, how will this book help?
- What is your marketing strategy for this book? What is the cost? Who will do the marketing?
Yes lots of questions. Just take your time, brainstorm or journal over a week or so, you will be really pleased that you stopped to think.