Business English for Success

Business writing books

The first stage of writing your book is understanding the why behind it. Why do you want to write your book? What is the objective? What does success look like? In other words, once the book is written what do you want it to do?

Decide which apply to you before you start your book journey. Maybe you want to achieve all those things, or perhaps you are only writing it for one reason. It doesn’t matter, as long as you understand what your goal is before you set out. Knowing what you want to achieve makes it easier to achieve it.

Leave a legacy – The bucket list book

If your sole purpose is simply to get your story out there, and you aren’t worried about mass sales, making a ton of money or winning any business as a result, then there’s far less pressure on you. You will still have to invest a lot of time and probably some money, but once it’s written and out there, you can tick it off the bucket list.

Inspire or help others

Maybe you have an inspirational journey to share or have achieved success against the odds. Perhaps you have built a business from nothing and want to show others how to do it. Maybe you want to teach people the basics of something such as money management, marketing, public speaking, sales or leadership.

Your main dilemma is going to be making your book different from other books on the same subject. You might be good at what you do, but there are probably hundreds of other ‘how to’ books in your field. Your story may be unique, but overcoming adversity isn’t. How are you going to make your message stand out from the rest?

Improve credibility and authority

Writing a book is a great way of showcasing your industry knowledge. You can include case studies, research, and your own observations. As with the above point, the difficulty you’ll have is standing out from other books unless your ideas and theories are completely unique.

Think about who you are trying to establish credibility with. Are you showing potential clients that you are knowledgeable in your field, or do you want other people in your industry to view you as an authority on a subject? Is your aim to become an influencer, an expert, a guru?

Generate new leads

Books can be used as marketing tools to generate more leads. You might decide to write a couple of e-books to be used as lead magnets, giving it away to the clients you want to win or selling it at a low price.

If the purpose of your book is to win business, think about what to include to persuade people to invest in you. You’ll need to demonstrate proven results, build trust and show that you are an expert in your field.

Give the reader actionable advice that they can test out. When your advice gets them the results they want, they’re more likely to come back and invest in your higher-value services.

Win speaking events

Being a published author in your field will increase your chances of winning paid speaking events. The fact that you have written an entire book about something shows that you have in-depth knowledge of the subject. Speaking at events is an excellent way of raising your profile, which leads to more business and often, increased pricing.

Having said that, there are now so many people with their own book, that it doesn’t always hold the same status as it used to. You’ll need to back your book up with strong marketing, relevant speaking topics and an engaging presentation style.

Make money

This is probably the hardest goal to achieve. While you can make money indirectly from your book through speaking events, lead generation and increased credibility, making money directly from book sales is more of a challenge.

If you choose to self-publish, you’ll need to do a lot of marketing. Employing the services of a marketing company adds additional costs, but doing it yourself is a lot of work. If you work with a traditional publisher, they will do a lot of promotional work, but you still aren’t guaranteed huge profits.

Don’t let this put you off. If you have an established following, then this will work to your advantage. You might not make millions, but it is possible to make a nice residual income if you do the right things (or just get very lucky).

The Who

What audience do you need to reach to achieve your goal? Who are you targeting and why would they read your book? What can you offer them? How will reading your book add value to their life? What pain or problem are they experiencing that you can help with?

Picture them in your head as you write as if you are having a conversation with them. Consider how much subject knowledge they already have, if any. Think about the type of language they use. What questions would they have? What actionable advice can you give them? How can you present information in the most logical way?

Stage Two: Creating your Content

Writing

Everyone has their own way of writing. Some people like to start at the beginning and work through the chapters one by one. Others may start in the middle or choose random sections to work on and then put everything in order later.

Your first draft doesn’t have to be perfect, so focus on getting your ideas down on paper, then go back and edit later with fresh eyes. If you try and edit each section as you write, you may find that it takes you hours just to write a couple of paragraphs.

Instead, write for as long as you have set aside time for. Leave what you have written overnight, for a couple of days or for a couple of weeks, and then come back to it. You’ll be more objective and will find it easier to spot mistakes.

One suggestion, which is particularly effective, is to start each writing session by editing the last thing you wrote. Let’s say you have decided to write one chapter a week. You write your first chapter in week one. In week two, you edit what you wrote in week one and then move on to the next chapter. This reminds you where you were and gets you back in the flow of writing. It is often much easier than starting with a blank page.

Write your first draft using software you feel comfortable with such as Microsoft Word or something similar. If you are including lots of images and charts, you might find PowerPoint easier to work in. You can convert your document to a more suitable format for publishing once you’ve finished your first draft.

Ghostwriting

If you have read all the above and decided that you just don’t have time to dedicate to writing a book, you could use a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter will write your book for you based on your ideas and tone of voice. Once the book is completed and you have settled the balance, you gain the rights to the book and can publish under your name.

Many celebrities use ghostwriters to tell their stories, and lots of businesses use ghostwriters to create blogs, articles and eBooks. The biggest benefit to using a ghostwriter is that it saves you time and ensures quality. A ghostwriter will have experience of writing and of the writing industry. They will know how to communicate your message.

The downside of ghostwriting is the cost. Ghostwriting a book can take months, and you will have to pay for this time. A ghostwriter will usually charge either a daily rate or a set project fee. Some may offer a lower initial fee in return for royalties, but most are unlikely to do this unless you have a solid marketing strategy or an existing book deal.

Self-editing

Editing is the most important part of the writing process as this is where you perfect your book. Once you have completed your first draft, go back through and review it. Even if you’ve been editing chapters throughout the creation of your book, you still need to go through it again.

Remember your intended audience

As you go through, remember who you are writing for and the purpose of your book. If there are sections which don’t add anything, remove them. Simplify any overcomplicated sections and include extra detail where required.

Ensure consistency

Ensure consistency throughout your book. For example, write your dates and times in the same format all the way through. Ensure headings and subheadings are in the same font and decide whether you will capitalise the first word only, or each word in your headings.

The tone of voice and style should be the same all the way through. Switching tenses, changing from formal to informal or swapping from first to third person without good reason will make your book feel disjointed.

Be concise and confident

It’s easy to go off at a tangent or spend longer than necessary trying to explain a point. Find where you have done this in your book and revise the copy to keep it concise. Readers don’t mind you including case studies, research or personal experiences to reinforce points, but they will get impatient if you spend 20 pages explaining something that only requires a paragraph.

Go back through every chapter and cut any unnecessary words or phrases. Quite often you’ll find that your copy will be made stronger if you remove the words that don’t add anything.

Avoid vague phrases such as ‘some people think that’ or ‘in some cases’ or ‘a number of’. Readers will wonder who these people are, which cases you are referring to or just how many this number is. If you know exact statistics, can cite real cases or have actual examples, then reference these. If you want to be viewed as an expert, then show you know your stuff and have confidence in your convictions.

Outsourced Editing

It’s a good idea to work with an editor or get someone to review your book before you publish it. You could ask a friend or colleague to read your book and give you honest feedback. However, working with a professional editor is the better option as they will have writing and/or editing experience.

Reviews

Business English for Success covers all aspects of business writing discussed in the classroom. The book is available in PDF and Online in the web browser. I preferred the online web browser because the table of contents had clickable links. This will allow students to click on the pages they would need to work on for that assignment. At the top of the page, there are clickable links for the student can click to the next section or go back to the table of contents. Each section has learning objectives and each point is reinforced by charts and tables.

The content is accurate, error-free and unbiased. In the preface, the authors provide a link to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab to allow students to have more practice on the grammar and mechanical rules discussed in the book. There were no content or grammatical errors that I could find. Finally, there was no cultural bias toward any specific group that I could find. The content and supporting exercises provide students, from any background, with practices that focus on business writing.

The content is up-to-date except for the business writing in action (Chapter 13) and APA and MLA documentation and formatting (Chapter 14). As this book was published in 2012, there have been updates to the APA style guide and business writing has evolved to meet the needs of a digital format. In addition, if I was using this book, I would include a supplemental section on using multimedia in business writing.

The text is written in Standard American English. While there may be specific words that are difficult for students, like memorandums and resumes, most of the language is accessible for students with English proficiency at the intermediate and advanced levels.

The topics in the text are well-organized. Each topic begins with a learning outcome, then the content explanation, following by a table or chart or graph that breaks down the information and finally, students will have a choice of exercises to practice the outcomes.

Business English for Success is comprehensive in its coverage of writing fundamentals, the writing process, and principles of good writing. The lessons are clear, concise and relevant to student-level writers in a variety of writing situations. read more

8 Books for Proposal Writers to Write Better Proposals

Unlike other writings, proposal writing needs a lot of time, persistence, commitment, and passion. Some of the proposal writers are expert in writing while some still struggle. It’s not easy to learn the nuances of grant writing.

One has to spend a lot of time learning tips and tricks on writing sales proposals. Proposal writers need to master the basics that include current trends, policies, funding requirements, etc. If one of these variables is not included, then you won’t be able to write an effective proposal. In the process of proposal writing not only you need to know how to write a proposal but you also need to learn about what really goes into a winning proposal.

Thankfully, there are a lot of really great books that can educate us and encourage us to become better writers of proposals. That’s why here I present the list of books proposal writers should read to write better proposals. Whether you are a beginner at proposal writing or a master who wants to brush up the skills, these books will provide you with the resources you need to win more deals.

Resource:

https://makeyourcopycount.com/how-to-write-a-business-book/
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/65
https://www.freshproposals.com/books-for-proposal-writers/