Julia Ortiz grew up wearing hand-me-downs and learning how to mend clothing at a young age. She did what she needed to do to help her financially struggling family, discovering how to creatively enhance pants, shirts, dresses, and more to the degree that others began to admire her unique style. 

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Julia received a scholarship to go to college, earned a business degree, and formed a business that took castaway garments and turned them into fashionable, in-demand items. Through this venture, she has met fascinating people, traveled, and lived a lifestyle that, as a child, she never would have imagined.

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Now she wants to write a business book to help her stand out as she shares her unique expertise. The reality is that highly successful authors of business books can reap significant rewards as they share what they know. 

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One of the most successful has been Tim Ferriss. His book in 2007, The 4-Hour Workweek, became a New York Times bestseller, earning him national attention. He leveraged this fame to launch a successful podcast with hundreds of millions of downloads and become an angel investor.

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Although not all authors, obviously, reach this pinnacle of success, they’ll each want to write the best book possible. So, what essential elements are needed to craft successful business books? Here are ten of them.

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In Julia’s case, she hopes that her business book will position her as a thought leader in the sustainability space; draw attention to her company, Restyled Elegance; and inspire other people through her success story to think big when forming their own companies.  

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People in the earlier stages of business development might want to establish credibility by writing about their expertise in their chosen fields, add an income stream to their company, and get media attention. Each author will have their own combination of reasons to write business books—what is yours? It’s important to gain clarity and craft a book that will help you to achieve these goals.

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Julia might decide, for example, to detail how she obtained financing for her business: From personal investments to bank financing to a crowdsourcing campaign. 

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In another section of her business book, she might explain how she found the right piece of real estate for her company, what equipment she decided to purchase, and so forth—with yet another section on hiring the best people. 

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Although, in and of itself, this wouldn’t differentiate Julia’s project from other business books, she would describe each section through the lens of her company and the fashion industry, making it a uniquely useful resource. You might decide to go a totally different route—and that’s okay.

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What pictures, images, and charts would you include? Checklists? Would you ask your readers to answer certain questions about their own visions at the end of each chapter? Include a list of more resources for them to consult? It’s your book! Dream big.

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There’s a saying in the publishing industry that when you write a book for everyone, you’re really not writing it for anyone. 

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So, it’s important to envision specific audiences for your business books, which can include aspiring entrepreneurs, people in business who want to grow their companies, and so forth. 

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Your audience choices will have an impact on the type of information they’ll need, the language and amount of detail that you’ll use to explain concepts, the examples you’ll use, and more.

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Julia’s business book won’t be the first one to share insights about financing a company, buying equipment, hiring people, and so forth. So, she’ll want to highlight aspects that make her book unique. 

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For example, many business books in the past haven’t emphasized sustainability to the degree that Julia would, and her real world examples from her childhood couldn’t come from anyone but her. Julia’s journey is unique, which is what makes her business book different from others. Highlight that in yours!

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So, emphasize your book’s differentiators while still providing the foundational material that your selected audiences will need to benefit from the essentials shared in your book.

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When authors open up their lives to readers, this helps them to build connections, and business books that include memoir details can inspire readers to reach their own goals. Even when writing about “regular” business topics, each story has a struggle. Each struggle is different. So, be honest when sharing relevant details.

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How much to share (and what, specifically, to share) will depend upon your specific scenario. With Julia, she might be perfectly willing to discuss how her parents struggled financially, which caused her to learn to repair and enhance clothing from a young age. That’s an important part of her story. 

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But, depending upon the details, Julia may decide not to get into the reasons why her family experienced financial troubles. She may realize that it isn’t necessary information to tell the story she wants to impart and that she prefers to keep certain parts of her life private.

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Boundaries are important! Choose yours wisely.

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Now that you’ve decided what information to include, how much of your personal story to share, and your audience and goals, you can craft your book’s structure. An outline just contains the broad essentials of the book, and it can be as formal or informal as you’d like. It’s your outline!

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This outline just helps you to write your book—much like a car’s headlights will tell you where to turn next when it’s dark outside. You don’t necessarily have to stick to your outline, either, if a better structure of your business book comes to mind.

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As you fill in your outline for your business book with more details, some of the essentials will come naturally to you while others may require you to brainstorm more about which of your experiences will be helpful to your readers and in how much detail. 

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You may decide to interview other people for your book, cite helpful information that you’ve read elsewhere, and so forth. You’ll need to make plenty of these types of choices as you actually write your book. At this point, you should consider tip #8 as an option.

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As you continue to develop your business book plan, it may become more time consuming than you’d hoped—and, in a case like Julia’s, it could take her attention away from growing her business further. You may feel the same way—so now, it’s time to decide if it makes sense to hire a ghostwriter. 

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Using an experienced ghostwriter for your business book can be ideal when you're too busy or want a sounding board for your ideas. Sometimes, you can know too much about your topic or be too close to your story to know what precisely to include or how to structure the book. 

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A skilled ghostwriter can also help with pacing, tone, point of view, and much more. Forbes notes how top entrepreneurs are hiring ghostwriters because they recognize the importance of publishing quality material but can struggle to find the time away from running their successful business. 

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The article shares how “With a ghostwriter as your secret weapon, you’ll build your brand and have a steady flow of content that establishes your expertise and elevates your profile”—which dovetails with Julia’s desires for her business book.

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Whether you’re writing your own book or using a ghostwriter, the next step would be to create a draft that would satisfy your target audience and allow you to meet your goals for the book. 

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In your first draft, you’ll want to get the gist of your book in writing so that you can decide where to polish the text, add more images, and so forth. 

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In Julia’s case, she could go two routes in her first draft when it comes to deciding how much personal information to share:

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• She could get a brief overview of her childhood challenges in draft one and, during revisions, decide whether adding more details would be helpful.
• She could describe her childhood in significant detail and, during revisions, decide if anything should be cut out for privacy or other reasons.

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Briefly putting your draft away before polishing it can be helpful because it allows you to see the text with fresh eyes.

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Getting your book published the right way is essential for the writer to maximize the benefits: exposure, credibility, and boosted social standing. 

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Traditional publishing is one route, one that involves researching publishing companies to see what types of material they’re seeking. Typically, you’d craft a book proposal to submit to them or to a literary agent that you’d want to negotiate on your behalf. If your book gets accepted, then you’d go through the editing, design, and publishing processes with them. 

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Julia, being busy at work, decided that she didn’t want to go through this often-long process before getting her book to market. 

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But, if you’d like complete control over the finished product, you might prefer self publishing where you’d hire your own professionals to edit and format your book, design your book cover, and print the business books. 

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With this route, you’d obtain your own ISBN and barcode, develop your own distribution plan, and otherwise oversee the whole process. Even though this sounded better to Julia, she also wanted help in streamlining the process in a highly professional way. 

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At StoryTerrace, we simplify the entire book writing, editing, designing, and publishing process. Here’s how it works. You’ll meet virtually with a seasoned project manager who will explain the entire process to you, answering all of your questions. 

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You’ll then get matched with one of our 600-plus talented writers to craft a stellar business book. If this sounds like what you’re looking for or if you’d like to explore your options, please reach out today!

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