This year, I’ve seen several articles talking about businesses popping up that will write your book for your business so you don’t have to do it. They range from collecting some notes from you to interviewing you about all your chapter ideas . . . and then penning the thing in entirety no matter how they get their info.

This is amazing, right? I mean, writing a book is really hard. You have to come up with all the ideas and then come up with all the words. And the typing. There is just no way around typing. With all those fingers—not to mention all those letters!—it can take ab-sol-utely for-e-ver!

Going a little tongue-in-cheek here, but you get the point.

Writing a book really is tough. But really? This is something that is for YOUR business! Don’t you want your name on a book that you actually wrote? Wouldn’t you feel like a fraud with a stack of books that you didn’t write, handing them out or selling them to your fans, who are pointing at your name and thinking wonderful things about you?

A fraud? Well are you?

I don’t think so. You can write a book easily. No sweat. And if you think sweat will be involved, dab your fragile brow with thine pocket handkerchief and relax whilst I present a list of items that should put your mind at ease.

1. You actually don’t have to type the book. For real. You can have it transcribed by an actual person or use a software that converts audio to text on its own. Obviously, you would have to pay someone to transcribe what you say, but some audio-to-text software is actually free. Another trick is to use the voice text option on your phone’s typing program. I’ve used it to write blogs before, which was really handy because I could speak while I was driving and have a nearly completed blog when I arrived at my destination. I’ve run into a glitch with that method—sometimes it will beep and stop typing, which means I have to hit the button again to get it to type—but overall, it’s an efficient way to work.
2. Either way, you should be the one coming up with the main ideas. Have you ever played telephone? This is the children’s game where you start with a sentence, whisper it to the next person all the way around the circle, and by the time it gets back to you, it’s something completely different from what you said. Something similar can happen when you trust someone else to write your book for you. If you give them a paragraph concept for the entire book, or even just a few notes, they could go on tangents that you don’t want them to cover in the book, just to meet the word count or because they misunderstood what you meant. Circumvent this issue by just writing the first draft yourself. You can always work with a coach through the writing process and an editor when you’re done to make sure you have conveyed your thoughts smoothly. Plus, you want the book to sound like you! If you present to an audience and then sell them a book that doesn’t follow your speech patterns, words that you prefer to use, and ideas, they will be confused and possibly spot the fraud.
3. Writing a book is hard, but it’s not as hard as you may think. If you step back and look at your life, you’ve probably written enough text messages, grocery lists, Facebook posts, or articles to fill a book already. All those tiny increments really add up! If you’re concerned about not having enough to talk about, start by planning out your chapter topics and then writing a paragraph under each about what you want to discuss. Chances are, you will find that you have more than enough to talk about. Struggling? Talk to a friend about the topic, see what people are asking about the topic online, or hire a writing coach to help guide you. Maybe writing a book yourself isn’t so far-fetched.

You really can write a book for your business, without panicking, without spending years on it, without stumbling around clueless, and without investing your life savings. If you have questions, contact me! I’d love to set up a clarity call and discuss coaching options with you! And, I’m an editor, too. If you’d rather do it on your own and then have it professionally edited, that’s another great option!