Why you should write a book
Even before we discuss the process of writing a book—you need to uncover why you are going to write the book, It’s your motivation and you need to uncover it before you begin!
Here’s my take on it: within you, there is a message. A story to tell. Advice to be given and education to be provided. You do it every day as part of your recommendations and care. You are called to share what you know, help people with what you do and impact the health of your patients. Writing a book is a powerful extension of your service and patient care. Writing a book magnifies the work that you do as a practitioner, extending your reach, expanding your education and exploring the patient’s story more deeply.
The story stirring within you has seven primary reasons for its expression:
- To expand the education you provide to your patients.
- You have a message beyond what you have the time or capacity to share within your consultations.
- You want to educate the community about the care, service or products you provide.
- You want to grow your practice—and a book represents an excellent marketing tool.
- You want to improve the conversion of your in-practice recommendations—and your book represents an educational platform that assists your patients’ understanding of the value of your care.
- You want to be recognised as an authority or an expert—and being a published author does this.
- You want to write a book and share your message with the world. You have a story to tell.
Whether it is for one of these reasons—or any other reason—writing a book allows you to serve the community, grow your practice and impact the health and lives of your patients. Yet, many practitioners are not sure where to begin or whether they could even write a book. Let me assure you, it is easier than you think and you most definitely can write a book, make an impact with that book as well as growing your practice and generating additional income through your endeavours.
If you can speak, you can write
Let me start by saying: if you can speak, you can write. If you can write, you can write a book. This is an author’s proverb.
You speak everyday, you have conversations, you engage with people, you tell stories—this interaction lets you educate, inform and impact people’s lives.
You also write everyday. Emails, letters, Facebook posts.
Your speaking and your existing writing skills are all that you need in order to write a book. Yes, there may be some support needed and creative processes to bring your spoken words and current writing to a finished product—but it is absolutely possible.
So, any doubt or uncertainty you had about your ability to write a book and share your message, they should now have completely evaporated—and you are now ready to embark on a journey of becoming a bestselling author!
The book you didn’t know you had already written
It’s true, you’ve already written a book. Actually, to be completely honest, you have dictated the book—it just hasn’t been transcribed yet.
Don’t believe me?
Is there anything you say to your patients, over and over and over again? Any message that you share with most, if not all of your patients?
Do you explain what chiropractic is? How chiropractic can help and benefit your patient and their specific circumstance? Do you emphasise the importance of making positive and beneficial lifestyle change?
Of course you do—this is a message you share with your patient all the time! This is the book you have already written—albeit, only in the spoken word.
But wait, there’s more—you’ve written other books!
Do you have people come into your practice with specific health problems or challenges they want solutions for? Do you find that people come into your practice with back pain, headache, stress or energy issues?
Do you solve these problems? Do you have solutions that lead them to the outcomes, benefits or results they desire?
Of course you do—that is the book that you have written, time and again.
Now, it’s time for you to get all those books you have in print—the only question is: what’s the process?
The novice writer’s guide to simply and easily finishing your book
Let me simplify the writing process for you. It is far easier than you can imagine:
- Uncover the #1 motivating reason to write and complete a book: the “why” you’ll write your book. When you uncover this, everything else becomes easier.
- Decide exactly what you will write. What are you interested in, what do you want to write about, what would you like to write about, what story do you want to tell? When you write in your interest area, writing is like a conversation that you enjoy having—enjoyable, easy and engaging.
- Decide your preferred writing style. Are you going to type it, dictate it, be interviewed and have somebody transcribe your interview or have a ghostwriter? You’ll have your preferences and your strengths—play to your strengths and the process is easy.
- Polish your book. This means, revise it, get feedback and then have it edited. You don’t necessarily have to do all of this work—and the work, when done by others, brings the book to completion.
- Publish the book and build your platform. Get into digital media and print, then you can begin selling the book. A completed book lends itself to your finding your platform, whether in speaking engagements, online webinars, or the creation of programs—a completed book is a powerful steppingstone!
- How can you leverage and maximise your published book? Expand your idea, uncover what additional products, services and programs you can deliver and begin to build your brand and profile.
- Amplify the benefits. Continue to promote your book, your practice and your leveraged ideas. That is how you get going—it’s not simply writing the book, but utilising the book as a launch pad. Also, this is when you might start writing another book, producing additional content—and expanding or amplifying the benefits of work already done.
As you can see, when you break it down in that way—it’s far easier than you imagine—and far more valuable than you would think.
If you want the complete guide on writing a book, see my complete overview Chapter 5: Step-by-Step: The Writing Process for Writing your Bestselling Chiropractic Book.
Bursts vs consistency: The two writing methods that account for 98% of all completed books
In my experience, there are two primary writing methods that are going to get your book done:
- Consistent writing, 15 minutes or greater done every morning, habitually—until the book is done. This is how most successful authors write.
- Bursts of productivity. Commit to writing until the writing is done in massive bursts of energy. For example, I’m not going anywhere this weekend or this week until the book is complete!
I have written both ways. They both work. The question is—which is going to work for you?
I know you might be thinking, what are the remaining 2%? Those are the thousands of people who do a little bit, some writing here, some writing there—and they take years to finish their book. That’s okay for some—just not me… and you!
Focus on the process, not the outcome
Now, a word of warning—let go of your expectations. There’s still a learning curve. The solution again is simple: focus in the process, not the outcome.
Enjoy the process. Get excited about the fact that you are starting a new adventure—you’re going to be a writer! You’re going to put your thoughts and your message into writing and share it with your patients and the community.
That should be enough—to start with.
If you get caught up with expectations now—it can take away the joy, the energy and the fun of writing. It can detract from the experience of doing something new and creating something wonderful.
When you are with your patients—you’re not focusing upon how much money they will make you, whether they will like you and listen to your recommendations. You’re present with them. You are serving them. You are focused on uncovering their needs, finding a solution and delivering benefits through the care you provide. You know that an adjustment is enough. Use this parallel to drive your writing.
I have one suggestion—enjoy the process. Be present. Engage in writing your book—and let that be enough!
Give freely, share quality content and make a difference
My final suggestion is to give freely. You want to give quality content for free. You want to be able to make a difference in people’s lives by sharing your quality content, freely, willingly and openly.
It builds trust. It creates appreciation. It engenders respect. This is the platform from which to build a relationship.
Give quality content. And I mean real quality!
A lot of people want to share information that will lead a person to a purchase. This limiting value represents limited thinking, almost a poverty consciousness.
To succeed—you need an abundant mind. To have an abundant mind, you need to express abundance. You have an abundance of quality information that you can share freely with your audience.
You don’t need to worry that people will take this information and not connect with you through a purchasing decision. The truth is, those people were not going to buy from you anyway. However, the people who are likely to buy from you need to know more about you, need to have a sense of the depth of your knowledge and wisdom, the understanding you bring through your message—and this requires them seeing this in the service you provide. This means, giving them so much value they know how impactful your message is and how valuable it will be in their life.
If they can see that what you’re giving away for free is valuable—they will feel confident, in fact, inspired to connect with you to gain access to personalisation of that information.
As such, how and when and where you can—make an impact through your writing, your message and your communication. Do not hold back on serving your community and patients. Give freely, abundantly and willingly.
When you do, several things will happen:
- You will change the reader’s life.
- Some readers may never connect with you, having received everything they need from your free material. That’s perfectly fine, it simply means you are serving more people and adding more value—and this, in and of itself, should be enough.
- Of course, many of these people may become subscribers, purchasers or people who refer to you because of the incredible content and value you provide.
- A number will connect with you—purchase a product or service, an online program, your book—or even come into the practice. Yay!!!
It is always a win-win when you serve your patients and the community. Give fully of yourself and your purpose will be fulfilled.
Write—and the world will rejoice!
Writing a book is going to be one of the most significant and profound acts of your professional career. In a moment, I will tell you why…
…Before I do, let me answer one of the key objections: there are already enough books in my area of interest, there doesn’t need to be another book!
Rubbish! Did Raymond E. Feist forego writing The Magician or did Terry Brooks give up on The Shannara Chronicles just because The Lord of The Rings had already been written and captured the imagination of fantasy readers around the world? Did Dr. Daniel Pompa give up on the idea of writing Beyond Fasting just because Dr. Jason Fung had produced a landmark book in the same area?
No, there are never enough quality books. No one says, “There’s already one great book in fiction [in fasting, in chiropractic—or in any topic], I won’t buy either.”
The reality is, great books do not compete with one another. They complement one another. They add benefit to the reader, deepening their understanding and expanding the scope of their interest.
It’s important to recognise, the ideas you have and the message that you will share in your book is unique. It will add to the body of knowledge in the area you write—and add value to the health and lives of your readers!
Think about it for a moment, have you ever been recommended a book by a friend who enjoyed the book and shared the title with you and then replied, saying, “I don’t need to read that. I’ve already read a book on that topic area before!”
Of course not, you know that a book that receives a recommendation is invariably read—even if a person has read in that area! Because, people like to read in their interest area. They like to develop their knowledge and expand their understanding.
There will always be a need for more books. There will always be a need for you to share your information—and write!
If you’d like to discuss how you can write a book, on what topic and it can do for your practice—book a strategy session today.
