Some days, it seems like all business authors sound alike. They use the same examples. They share the same stories from business magazines and case studies. They share the same wise sayings. That’s good for you.
Your business book should share your unique point of view. Your business book should be well-written and use helpful devices so readers can put your ideas to work. But you’ll stand out from the crowd of other authors who do that by making your book distinctive. You do that by sharing content that’s yours alone. Here are three ways.
Unique Research
Use good research that no one else has. How do you do that? You do it yourself.
Suzi McAlpine did that writing her book on burnout for Penguin New Zealand. She engaged a professional research firm, Cogo Research, to do a survey and analyze some of the findings.
Blaine Strickland conducted focus groups. What he discovered made his bestselling book adapt unique and distinctive.
Tell Your Story
Rod Santomassimo, told readers how to build a successful business in his book Knowing Isn’t Doing: Build the Business and Life You Desire. The story of how he did it is the throughline of the book.
If you do this, be sure to follow Rod’s example and tell the reader about failures and misjudgments as well as successes. Readers know you aren’t perfect. Don’t try to pretend you are.
Use Your Experience
Mark Deterding wrote about servant leadership in Leading Jesus’ Way. He illustrated important points by sharing experiences from his learning journey. He also made the book distinctive by making it a faith-based approach to servant leadership.
There’s a ton of great content in Stephen Lynch’s book Business Execution for Results. Stephen has some truly unusual life experiences. He was Mr. New Zealand and he’s the only client I’ve ever had who’s pulled a truck down the street.
Unlike Mark and Rod, though, Stephen was not telling his own story. He just used elements of his life as examples for some points. He also used examples from his consulting clients.
Takeaways
Make your book distinctive with unique material.
Do some unique research.
Tell your story.
Tell stories from your experience.
Use examples from your clients.