The Book as a Business Investment: Timeline, Cost, and the Credibility It Buys
Featuring Richard Lowe on Business Innovators Network
TL;DR: What This Conversation Establishes
- For a business, a book is a credibility move competitors rarely make: it positions you as the expert and gives you something concrete to point to.
- Treat it as an investment, not an Amazon play. The return shows up as leads, speaking, and authority, not book royalties.
- A ghostwritten book is measured in months, not weeks: interviews, drafting, revisions, then publishing.
- The owner doesn’t have to write it. A ghostwriter does the work from interviews, and the finished book carries your name.
- Richard’s ghostwriting runs at his standard rate of a dollar a word, with the real payoff being what the book does for the business afterward.
What You’ll Learn
- For a business, a book is a credibility move competitors rarely make: it positions you as the expert and gives you something concrete to point to.
- Treat it as an investment, not an Amazon play. The return shows up as leads, speaking, and authority, not book royalties.
- A ghostwritten book is measured in months, not weeks: interviews, drafting, revisions, then publishing.
- The owner doesn’t have to write it. A ghostwriter does the work from interviews, and the finished book carries your name.
- Richard’s ghostwriting runs at his standard rate of a dollar a word, with the real payoff being what the book does for the business afterward.
Richard Lowe, The Writing King, joined Business Innovators Network to talk about branding a business through a book, the credibility that authorship buys, and what the ghostwriting process actually asks of you. The most useful thread for a business owner weighing the idea is the plainest one: a book is an investment, with a real timeline and a real budget, and the smart question isn’t “how do I sell copies?” but “what will it do for the business?”
Most businesses never publish a book, which is exactly why the ones that do stand out. A book is a credibility instrument: it tells a prospect, the press, and an event organizer that you’re the expert in your field, in a way a website or a brochure can’t. It gives you something to hand across the table, something to talk about from a stage, and a reason for people to take you seriously before they’ve even worked with you. That’s the branding case Richard makes for authorship, it positions the business and the person behind it as the authority.
Richard Lowe is The Writing King, a professional ghostwriter and author who has written more than 113 books under his own name and ghostwritten over 54 more for clients.
Before writing full time he spent 33 years in enterprise IT, including two decades as Director of Computer Operations at Trader Joe’s.
Quotable moments
Why a business brands itself with a book Most businesses never publish a book, which is exactly why the ones that do stand out. — Richard LoweShare on X
The investment, and the return Treating a book as an investment changes how you judge it. — Richard LoweShare on X
Richard interviews you to capture what only you know, researches around it, and writes the book, with revisions until it’s right. — Richard LoweShare on X
Related appearances
Frequently asked questions
Why would a business publish a book?
Because authorship signals expertise and credibility that competitors usually lack. A book positions the business as the authority and becomes a tool for press, speaking engagements, and qualified leads.
How long does a ghostwritten book take?
Months, not weeks. There’s an interview phase, a drafting phase, rounds of revision, and then publishing. It’s a real project, not a quick content dump, and honest timelines are set at the start.
What does it cost, and is it worth it?
It’s an investment. Richard’s ghostwriting runs at a dollar a word, and the return is measured in business value, leads, speaking, and authority, rather than book royalties, which rarely cover the cost on their own.
Does the business owner have to write it?
No. The ghostwriter does the work from interviews and research. The owner supplies the expertise; the finished book carries the owner’s name, with the ghostwriter’s nowhere on it.
Related Reading
Your story could be a book
The conversations I have as a guest all circle the same idea: the people doing interesting work usually have a book in them. If that is you, let’s talk about turning your expertise into the book that outlasts the work.
Part of Richard Lowe on Air, his complete run of podcast, radio, and video guest appearances.