Writing about Experience vs Expertise

When people have been on a transformational journey, experienced loss and suffering and have come through it all with strength and a new awareness and now they want to write their ‘story’ as a book full of guidance to help other’s overcome their hardships, they often say out loud: ‘…this will help so may people’, and secretly think the book will be a huge success, (the media and even Oprah might call!) the first thing I say to them is:

There is a major difference between writing a book about an Experience vs your Expertise and here are a few examples of that:
It is understandable when people are happy and proud that they showed courage to overcome something sad or negative in their life and turned it into a success like one young woman who came to me and wanted to write a book about her experience with grief and how she got through with affirmations and prayer.

She had lost a loved one early in her life and at the time it seemed the darkness would never lift and when she finally got through it all, friends and family told her she should write a book about her story so others in similar situations can take heart and perhaps use her experience and find their way out of darkness.

It seems a lovely thing to do but here is the truth…

Writing a book about a personal story to ‘help’ others and expect there will be ‘many’ who would like to read it is like expecting to win the lottery top prize with just one entry and here is why:

1.- Firstly, unless you are already a well-known personality, no one knows you so why would people want to read your story?

When people like Oprah or Tony Robbins write a book about a personal story, there is a marketing machinery in the background to raise attention for the book and the topic, even a personal story, and the book was long ahead of writing carefully planned with a specific outcome to be achieved.

Clients who get my help to write their book are always amazed when I start them off with the question: What outcome do you have in mind?

2.- Secondly, there is no such thing as ‘many’ people. Whatever is to be seen, recognized or purchased by people, there needs to be research done before the thing is created.

This applies for setting up a business or buying in new products to be sold as much as it does for writing a book. Who exactly and specifically will want to read your book and why?

For example, when Oprah writes a book, it is most likely designed to attract new and more viewers to her show.

When clients of mine write a book, their answer to the question: ‘What outcome do you have in mind?’ reveals exactly who they need to write the book for.

For example, I wanted to share my experience with finding and keeping fantastic staff with my first book and logically, the reader of my book was the local business owner who could not find ‘good’ staff.

3.- Thirdly, your personal story may well have been experienced by many other people, perhaps in slightly different circumstances, certainly with different players involved, but the suffering may be quite similar, so what makes yours a ‘stand out’ that people do want to know about by reading your book?

Well, that’s a crucial piece missing by so many people who want to write a book about an experience!

The crucial missing piece here is knowing what exactly YOUR point of difference in your story is and the way clients of mine find it, is by bringing together the outcome they have in mind for their book, who they are going to write the book for and from that knowledge research what exactly those prospective readers are looking for.

For example, I had some fantastic experiences with staff who worked for me in my first two businesses. Because of my staff I was able to take time out and still my businesses would grow and turnover increased.

Every time I’d share this experience with other business owners, they’d ask me ‘How? How do you do that? How do you find staff like that?’

This led me to want to share my experience in a book, my first book. And it led me to discover my book writing, publishing and marketing framework and formula and here it is:

Writing a book about a personal experience needs to start with answering the question: ‘What outcome do you want to achieve by writing the book?’

Most people might now say, well, I want to share the experience so many people know about how they can have success, or overcome something and of course, in my case, I wanted to share my experience of finding and working with excellent staff so other businesses could have that too.

…but here’s the crucial thing that so many people miss when they want to write a book about their experience…that point of difference and with that point of difference you can reach people who WANT what you have to share and acknowledge not only your experience but see your expertise!

…and for me that was to become a consultant from my experience with staff in my businesses and the expertise gained from finding and keeping excellent staff!

Of course, this is only part of the unique method I’ve developed for coaches, consultants and other experts to write a book that shares their experience and expertise, shows their method is credible and the book attracts exactly the type of client they want to work with.

My program is a full end-to-end offer, from the planning through the writing, to the publishing AND you have your Marketing Strategy and Plan in place.

My program is not ‘just’ writing a book!

If that is what you want help with, a start-to-finish proven framework, just PM me and we’ll chat to see if it’s a good fit for you and your business.