Businesses benefit from business books and business book authors benefit from working with ghostwriters

Writing a book is hard.

When I have my initial chat with clients, a common statement is, “I’ve been trying to write this book for [insert number] years,” or “I got started and it was more work than I expected,” or “I don’t know if I have a book in me.”

These are reasons why prospective and returning business book authors seek my services.

However, the benefits of business book authors working with a ghostwriter, especially first-time authors, go beyond getting your book written. Working with a ghostwriter can directly influence your book’s success, profits, and ROI.

How Ghostwriters Help Book Planning, Writing, and Completion

One of my clients came to me after two years of trying to write his book. He had an office wall covered in sticky notes with names, dates, and events he tried to organize for the narrative. There was a whiteboard with all kinds of scribbled notes in the background.

While he had everything he needed for the book content, he didn’t know where or how to get started.

Our first step was organization, planning, and project development.

Book ghostwriters don’t only write content. We do a deep dive into planning, development, and outlining before any words are written.

With all of my clients, I go through a book plan to narrow down areas of focus like target audience, niche, tone of voice. We look at what content should be included, what content to exclude, goals and purpose of the book. We refine the themes and hook and answer a lot of questions pertinent to the book’s presentation, content, and post-publication expectations.

Not only is this an important step in organization, but it also helps my clients narrow down their thoughts and get a feel for what a book can do for them, their brand, and their business.

This organizational step is necessary for putting together a high quality book.

I’ll even take my clients through a well developed chapter by chapter outline so we can organize the desired content, breaking it into themes, narrative anecdotes, and eventually chapters.

Most first time authors don’t understand the necessity of this book framework or project development phase. A lot of manuscripts come to me with absolutely no organization and read like stream of consciousness. It’s chaos, hard to follow, and there’s no continuity.

Once the planning is done, a ghostwriter helps write the book. Even for talented copy writers, article writers, or long-form writers, it’s hard to find the time to write an entire book while running a business. Book writing is a different kind of writing.

There’s a heavier emphasis on detail and narrative as well as tying threads from one chapter or story together with later concepts.

Experienced book ghostwriters have the skills to write a well thought out book as well as interview you to draw out the necessary talking points, details, and stories to make the book exciting, impactful, and readable. We are also effective at cutting out content that might sound cool but doesn’t contribute to the overall theme of the book.

One of the greatest benefits of working with a ghostwriter is finishing your manuscript rather than sitting on it for two, three, five years waiting for the time to get it done.

Working with a ghostwriter provides organization, project development, writing proficiency, narrative design, and a high rate of manuscript completion.

These are technical benefits of working with a ghostwriter. What are the larger benefits that continue after your book is published?

Ghostwritten Books Generate More Revenue

Business books are a specialized marketing tool designed to increase your reach and visibility, grow your brand and business, and provide additional revenue streams.

There’s a common misconception that book sales make books successful.

For business books, it’s not about the sales. It’s about the opportunities.

Now, based on this fantastic study, 64% of business book authors generated $96,000 ROI for their book within 6 to 12 months of publication. Those are some pretty sweet numbers.

But here’s the kicker, that same study revealed books written by ghostwriters offered 4x’s more ROI than books not written by ghostwriters.

Why is that?

I believe it goes back to the benefits from the previous section.

An organized, well written book with a hook, themes, anecdotes, clear style and tone, personality, and authenticity all lead to readability. Audiences connect with readability. They connect with authors who inspire them with their words.

If a book is chaotic, disorganized, lacks structure, and reads like stream of consciousness, the audience won’t be able to decipher the themes or takeaways. In extreme cases, the author comes off as being uneducated or not articulate.  

As a client once told me, a key tool to marketing is to make it easy for your audience. If they have to do mental gymnastics to figure out what you’re trying to tell them in every chapter, the book won’t be an effective marketing tool.

The quality of your book will directly influence the speaking engagements and guests spots you’ll land, and this can hinder your company’s growth, opportunities, visibility, and reach.

One of the best selling nonfiction books, Atomic Habits by James Clear, isn’t a best seller because it is so innovative and novel. There are many authors who published books about behavioral science, adjusting behaviors, and influencing behaviors. However, James Clear was the first to make it a readable, accessible, and easy to consume by the masses.

Book writing is a skill and a craft. It takes time, attention, planning, development, and detail. Without the knowledge and expertise a professional book writer like a ghostwriter brings to the table, you may never see the expected results from your business book.

When you work with a ghostwriter, you set yourself up for continued success once your book is published. In fact, you set yourself up for 4x’s the success you’d get by writing the book on your own.

First time book authors don’t know what they’re getting into. Working with a ghostwriter helps cut out the complications and the headache while also ensuring your book has a higher rate of success. Several of my clients return with second or third book ideas they want my help with because after going through it once, they know it’s better to have a book writing professional on their side.