A book is a container of refined thoughts on a topic or theme.

You can write one quickly by scheduling time to write and review.

A lot of people (want to) write a book to get famous. Sure, you can be famous once your book reaches in the hands of a lot of people.

Then why everyone who writes a book does not become famous?

Because for an author to become famous a large number of people need to see and read her work. But writers write the book and think their job is done and hope that the fame will automatically come to them.

This is not how it works. Promotion is the next logical step after writing a book. It should not be an afterthought.

Through my guided author program, I work with authors working on non-fiction books, especially business books. Most of these authors run their own businesses and they want to use books to grow their business.

How To Grow Your Business With A Book

There are a lot of ways to grow a business with a book.

But for that to happen, you need to write a book and once it is done your number one goal should be to put it in the hands of the right people.

If fame is your goal then you should make an elaborate marketing plan for your book. But if you sell solutions to other businesses and want to grow your business then don’t worry about getting thousands of people to read your book.

Instead, work to getting it in the hands of all those you want to do business with.

Here is how the process to grow your business with a book looks like.

• Make a list of 200-500 names. Include all your potential customers there.
• Reach out to them and connect (on LinkedIn), in a phased manner over a 3-6 month window.
• Thank those who accept your request to connect, for including you in their network.
• Next, introduce your book via a short note and offer to send a copy.
• You can take two angles here. You can focus on building a long term relationship and ask for advice. Or, you can be direct, tell that you run a business and are looking to work with brands like the one they represent and you’d love to send a copy of your new book.
• If you reach out to 30 people in a month, 10-12 will take you up on your offer.
• Once they say yes, ask for their mailing address and send your book over. After you receive notification of delivery from your courier service, send a short note. Something like – Hope you received the book. I am excited to hear your thoughts.
• Follow up after a week or two to schedule a chat or meeting.

The Number Game

• Your goal should be to meet 2 new people every week.
• This way you’ll meet 100 new people in a year. Out of these, you should get about 20-30 proposal requests.
• Out of these, you should form 10-20 business relationships.
• About 5-10 of these will become long term.

Do this for a couple of years. And if you have an ongoing consulting or monthly retainer offering, you’ll have 10-20 regular clients paying a monthly fee. At a base price of INR 100,000 – 200,000 / $2000 – 4000 per month, you will be looking at annual revenue in INR 1-3 crore / $ 200,000 – 500,000 range.

Of course, this can be much higher. Depends on what level you are playing the game. You can very well do a million dollars in a year or more if you are aggressive and charge a premium over others. A good book with your name on it would certainly help. It also depends on how confident you are in your skills and articulating your value.

I hope you will give it a shot.

Tweet me or write to me [ mohit @ mohitpawar.com] if you have questions or just want to chat about this.