The answer is “YES”. Imagine you are a recognized domain expert in your industry. You might be a trainer, facilitator, coach, teacher, etc., who constantly imparts your knowledge and experience to groups of people you work with. You know that you have something of value to share and the only way now is through your workshops and seminars. There is something nagging inside you to share your knowledge and experience with more people, but in a way that is not constrained by your physical presence. You are convinced that one of the ways is to write and publish a book but before you take the first step, you reminded yourself “It’s an impossible dream. I can teach and share very well but I certainly can’t write or I do not have the luxury of time to write.”
Let me be upfront with this message: “A published author is a content expert but not necessarily an acclaimed writer.” It is perfect if you have the content and you can write well, but in reality, it is often not the case. What I am about to share with you now are 3 ways that you can still publish a book and share your expertise with your target readers without having to write it.
Ghostwriters.
Many a times, when we are aware that we are not proficient in a certain task, we leverage on other people’s expertise. For example, if you know nuts about book-keeping, you will outsource the work to an accountant. If designing websites sounds alien to you, you will also outsource to a web designer. So what is so different about writing? An average person likes to Do-It-Yourself (DIY), but the successful ones like to leverage on others. Successful people are aware of their limitations and thus they would rather pay and leverage on other people’s expertise. They are aware of the opportunity cost -the time saved can be better spent generating higher returns from their core competency e.g. conducting training. I have known of authors who took a 2 years’ break from their career just to focus on writing their book. Unfortunately, if writing is not their forte, the manuscript that they painstakingly wrote might not even make the grade.
Therefore, as a content expert, your focus should be on research to prepare the materials for your book and also on creating a structure to hold the materials. Next, you can outsource the writing to a ghostwriter who will basically act as your hands. Of course, you can do some writing yourself to establish a style you desire, and leave most of the writing to the professional writer. But do bear in mind it is important to brief, guide and review the work done by the ghostwriter regularly to ensure that the book is written in your preferred style. To find ghostwriters, you can search online, ask for recommendations from people in your network or approach publishers or your local writing clubs for help.
Co-author(s)/ Contributors.
You can also leverage on other people’s knowledge and writing ability by forming partnerships with co-author(s). You might be expert in one area but you feel that another person’s knowledge would be complementary to what you have to offer in the book to make it more appealing to your target readers. If your co-author(s) can write better or have more experience in writing than you, work out a win-win arrangement whereby you can contribute your part of the content and your co-author can write and put the book together.
Alternatively, you can also think of a common theme and invite different people to contribute their expertise in writing. Your job then would be to compile all the writings together and to create a structure to hold the book. This form of leverage is powerful not only in the writing phase, but eventually in marketing and selling the book as well because every co-author(s)/ contributor(s) has a common stake.
Transcription.
I know of people who can speak for hours when they start talking about their pet topic but freeze when they sit in front of their computer trying to type what they know. To solve this problem, you can leverage on technology tools like transcription software. Basically, you talk, it types. Do a search on the internet and you will find tons of feature-rich software performing this function. So now, you can imagine yourself delivering your content to your target audience while a tool captures what you have said and converts it into text. With a voice recorder, you can also literally be ‘writing’ on the go– as and when inspiration strikes.
After the transcription, you will still need to edit the text because there is no software that can boast 100% accuracy. Next, you should polish up the transcribed writing before fitting it into your book structure. Alternatively, if you do not like to use software, you can also outsource to people whose job is to listen to your recordings and type them out. Whichever way you choose, the purpose of transcription is to play to your strength in the extraction of your content for the book. Furthermore, as we all speak faster than we write, transcription is actually a very efficient process to extract content.
To conclude, do not let your limiting belief stop you from writing and publishing a book. The key is to leverage on other people’s expertise and tools so that you can achieve more than what you personally can.
To help you or your organisation turn ideas into marketable books, contact us today. We provide a one-stop publishing service that takes individuals and organizations from idea to market. Our objective is to lower the barriers to getting published and to make professional publishing accessible to all and with a personal touch.
