What’s my book about?

You need to own your expertise: the people who look up
to you need to see you own it, and your customers need to
see you own it. This is not something to shy away from or
be embarrassed about; what you do is important, and it is
important that you share it with the world.

Chapter 3, There’s a Book in Every Expert

In my book (due out in May 2020), I show you why you need to write your book for yourself, for your business, and for your (future) clients. Writing your book will solidify your identity as an expert in your field for you and your readers. Positioning yourself this way through your book will help your business grow and help your future clients understand how you can help them and why they need to work with you. For your existing and past clients, it’s the perfect way for you to keep supporting them – your book is better at communicating your practices than even their most detailed notes.

When it comes to the practicalities of writing, I use what I’ve learned over almost two decades of teaching writing to help you see how you can fit writing your book in around running your business, taking care of your family, and having a life.

I show that when you reimagine what it means to be a writer, you see that you don’t need hours and hours in a quiet office to write a book. Instead, you need a few hours each week. More importantly for busy businesswomen, these hours don’t need to come all at once – you can write your book in short (15 to 30 minute) blocks of time spread throughout your week once you master the art of using ‘breadcrumbs’. These are notes that help you quickly pick up your train of thought when you return to your draft.

Once you accept that you have time to write your book, my book guides you through the process. I help you develop your topic and produce a rough working outline. I then guides you in the process of developing a writing ritual that works for you. Like your bedtime ritual, this is an easy way to signal to your brain that you’re ready to shift gears.

I know writing doesn’t always go to plan, so I help you recognise and battle writing demons so you can maintain your momentum. I also know that sometimes what goes wrong is that our computers crash, or our dogs eat our drafts (so much worse than eating our homework), so I give clear advice on keeping your work safe. Since we can’t all be experts in everything, I also help you identify what support you’re going to need and get it in place to make your book a success.

Crucially, I help you accept that your first draft needs to be very rough, and then I guide you through the revision process. This begins by looking at big picture issues and then focuses down to the sentence and word level of writing. When you follow this process you can be confident that you are making your book clearer more useful for your readers.

I then guide you through the processes of working with beta readers and sending your work to a proofreader. I help you understand how to help your beta readers help you, as well as how to respond to constructive criticism (and how to ignore unhelpful negativity). I also help you understand that your proofreader isn’t being difficult, nor is she criticising you. Instead, she’s trying to make your book the best it can possibly be. By the end of the process, you will have a ready to publish manuscript!

Finally, the afterword by Samantha Pearce, owner of Swatt Books, gives you an overview of the self-publishing process. This information will help you decide whether you want to go it alone or budget for a publishing consultant to help you along the way.

As Lauryn Bradley, author of Grow Your Tribe: How to scale and skyrocket your business by loving your audience, says in the foreword: ‘You are an expert, so unleash your knowledge, own your passion and allow your words to flow!’