Is there a book lurking in your speech?
Speakers ask me all the time if “Do I need a book to be a successful speaker?”
I get why they ask.
Books are a lot of work, right? Hours locked in a room, toiling away at your computer to develop your SFD (shitty first draft…thanks Anne Lamott for that term).
You feel like it can take a year or two to get the book done. Then there’s the editing. The question of do I publish this myself or go the traditional route. What about the cover? All the while, your speaking career is languishing away.
What if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you could write a book in a month?
What if your book was lurking on your computer, your website, or in your speech right now?
Guess what? It doesn’t. You can. It is!
Last month, I committed to my friend and business strategist, Tara Gentile that I would write a book in a month. I’m pleased to announce that Speak for Impact: Write a Speech that’s Your Next Best-Selling Product is coming out on Tuesday, July 26th.
With the help of Tara’s CreativeLive class, How to Write & Publish Your eBook, I’m in the final throes of writing my book. Scratch that. Compiling my book.
Through Tara’s process, I’ve learned three lessons for speakers who want to write a book but don't want to spend years doing it.
Table of Contents
1. Your book is the business card for your speech
If you want to be a paid professional speaker (or even get client attracting speeches), your intention for writing a book should be marketing for your speech. Tara explained that her 4th book The Observation Engine is the reason she landed the speaking gig at Copyblogger’s Digital Commerce Summit. They read her book and asked her to speak on it. Boo-yah!
2. Your book is lurking in your speech (or your blog, or interviews, or webinars)
Let’s face it, you and me, we are content creating machines and that means your book already exists. It’s in your blog posts, your long social media update, podcast interviews, and even your speech. Your job is to take that content and package it as a book. For instance, Tara took one of her keynote speech, Lead Yourself Backwards, transcribed it, wrote bridge content around it, and is releasing as a book. Her intent with doing that is to market her business and the speech.
3. Small books are all the rage
Did you know most readers drop off after the first chapter of a non-fiction book? In our time-starved society, people are looking for quick reads that are useful immediately. The book you want to create should be between 8,000 to 10,000 words.
Let’s put that in perspective, a 60-minute, keynote speech transcribed is about 10,000 words (that’s a book). 8 blog posts of 1000 words each are 8,000 words (that’s a book). Four twenty-minute podcast episodes transcribed is about 12,000 words (that’s a book).
It’s a book that makes a concise point that's easy to read and implement.
My first book, Speak Up for Your Business, clocked in at about 40,000 words and took 2 years for me to produce. It’s a hardcore, comprehensive skills building book for entrepreneurs who want to speak for their business.
Speak for Impact is around 10,000 words and it’s a strategy book for speakers and business owners who want to make money speaking.
Although my first book is awesome, I know that the new book will be the one that makes a lasting impact.
Do you need to write a book to be a successful speaker? No. Instead, you need to compile a book to market yourself as a speaker and that will make you a success.
Join me for my book launch
I’m looking for a few good women and men to help me get the word out about my book in style!
What do you get for being a member for the Speak for Impact launch team?
- A free copy of the multimedia pack of the book ($15 value) including the .pdf, .epub. and .mobi files of the book, the audiobook, and the toolkit mentioned in the book.
- An early review PDF of the book
- A backstage look at what it’s like to publish a book in a month
- You'll ALSO get your name mentioned in the acknowledgment section of the book!
What will you do as a part of the Speak for Impact launch team?
You’ll join our private FB where I’ll ask you to do 1-2 small promotional activities for the book over the course of 6-weeks. It could include activities like leaving a review of the book, sharing the book on social media or with your community or reaching out to your favorite podcasters and letting them know about the book.
I guarantee it will be fun! You can apply to be apart of the launch team here:
Yes! I want to join the Speak for Impact launch team!
