The Executive Who Wanted Twelve Readers
An executive hired me to write a book for about twelve people. The narrowest goal I have ever been handed produced the biggest outcome, including a CEO foreword and $30 million in venture capital.
Series: What Your Book Is For
Every ghostwritten book that disappoints its author was aimed at nothing in particular. This series covers the first conversation: what the book has to do, who has to read it, and how you would know it worked. Real client projects, from a legacy novel written for one reader to an executive book aimed at twelve people that raised $30 million in venture capital.
What Your Book Is ForDoris and the Book for Her Daughter
Doris came to me in her late seventies, knowing the end was coming, and wanted her dreams written as a novel for one reader. The book made no money and worked perfectly.
What Your Book Is ForThe Accountant Who Loved His Book and Was Still Disappointed
An accountant hired me, loved the finished book, and felt disappointed anyway. Underneath his vague goal were three real ones that fought each other. Most goals do not go together.
What Your Book Is ForThe Coach and the Cover
A coach hired me to write the book he could hand people who asked what his coaching was about. The goal shaped the writing, then the cover, then the promotion. A book with a job gets done well.
What Your Book Is ForFifteen Minutes in the Middle of an Interview
Halfway through an interview session I stop and ask a question that has nothing to do with the chapter: are we still meeting the goal? That break is the difference between a ghostwriter and a manuscript vendor.
What Your Book Is ForThe Most Common Way a Book Dies
Books die three ways, and none of them involves the draft. The client goes silent. The finished manuscript never comes out. The book publishes and nothing happens. All three were decided in the first conversation.
What Your Book Is ForThe Consultant Who Wanted a Business Card
A consultant asked me for a book he could hand people. Not an argument, a credential. He got it, and nobody read it, and it did nothing for him.
What Your Book Is ForWhy Your Book Should Exclude People
A book that speaks to everybody in your field reaches nobody in it. Excluding people is not a cost of writing a good book. It is the mechanism.
What Your Book Is ForWhat Happens in a Room When Somebody Has Read You First
The usual first meeting spends its opening stretch on positioning that both parties know is throat-clearing. Somebody who read your book skips it and opens with the specific version of their problem.
What Your Book Is ForWhat You Get From a Book Nobody Buys
A book of mine sold poorly and has been quietly useful for years. Sales is the number everybody reaches for and it is close to irrelevant for most professionals.
What Your Book Is ForThe Difference Between Being Known and Being Findable
There are people in your field who everybody knows and nobody can find. That is not a visibility problem, and treating it as one is why it never gets fixed.
What Your Book Is ForWhat a Book Does That a LinkedIn Post Cannot
A good post reaches more people in a day than most business books reach in a year. The comparison is fair on reach and wrong on everything else.