One of the best things you could do for your business is to position yourself as an authority figure.

Writing a book comes with the promise of better sales and an increased number of prospects knocking at your door.

Even if it’s not for business, writing a book and getting it published has lots of benefits, such as making money, immortalising the author, giving the author instant authority and promoting one’s business.

Before you determine the topic of your book, it’s important to do some basic research first.

Choosing a topic

You’d want to write on topics that are useful. For example, in Malaysia, people are more interested in books that can help them make more money, increase productivity, improve their health and entertain them (such as novels or comics).

To determine the right topic, focus on the following points:

• What is your strategy in business?
• What is your career about?
• Is the topic relevant to your business?

One of the easiest methods to search for the right topic is to check out the most popular and bestseller lists on Amazon.

If you have a target niche, you can refine the topics and check out the bestselling books listed in your desired category.

After you’re done choosing the topic, select some of the highly-rated books in that category, purchase them and study them thoroughly. You’ll come up with some good ideas soon enough.

Planning the outline

Before you actually start writing the book, it’s very important that you plan an outline. It makes the book writing process a lot easier.

Take a big piece of paper and start scribbling out what you have in your mind.

If you’re not sure about the table of contents for your book, you need to check out other books under a similar niche, and this will provide a clear picture of what your topics are going to be.

When you have a properly designed and detailed outline, you can say that the book is half done, because once you’ve got your outline ready, you know exactly what you need to do and what to write.

Effective ways to produce content

Writing a book might seem to be a very daunting task. It doesn’t really have to be so. If you do it the right way, it can be very easy.

Here are the three most effective ways to produce useful content.

1. Co-writing

You can write a book on your own, or you can find yourself a co-writer to help you write the book. In many cases, it might happen that someone has the information for the book and you have the tactical strategy.

Your co-writer can write 70% of the book and you can contribute the remaining 30%. The percentage of contribution doesn’t matter, because you’ll still become an author.

2. Outsourcing

Instead of writing the book by yourself, you can hire a reputable ghostwriter. A ghostwriter will do all the research for you, but his or her name will not go into the book; yours will.

Although this method costs a lot of money, it is still worth it.

Once you’ve come up with the topics and outline, the ghostwriter will prepare the content. All you need to do is go through it, verify the information and maybe add some of your own flavour.

Give the ghostwriter a guideline or example as to how the content should be written. And in return for your investment, you’ll get a good book.

3. Interviewing

You’ll find lots of books which are filled with interviews inside. These are the interviews of experts answering different questions on the topic, which are then converted into words in a book.

10 interviews can give you 50 pages worth of content. If it’s a book containing 100 pages, you can outsource 80% of the book and you’ll need to write just 10 to 20 pages on your own.

Getting published

This step is the most important part and the point of writing a book. Here are a couple of things to think about:

• Approaching a publisher

When is the best time to approach a publisher? Well, any time is a good time.

Even when you have just an idea in your mind, you can approach a publisher. However, if it’s your first book, it’s recommended that you have something to show to your publisher.

• Negotiating agreements

It’s important to negotiate the contract details with your publisher. This includes royalty, terms, restrictions and expectations.

Royalty is what you’re getting paid for the book. Usually, authors are paid 8% of the selling price. With the increase in sales, the royalty increases.

On top of that, you should be informed of the publisher’s terms, rights and restrictions.

In some cases, the publisher will expect you to help them promote the book at book fairs or stalls, so make sure that you’re aware of all their restrictions and expectations, and negotiate accordingly.

How becoming an author gives you credibility

It can take years to gain the trust of people which can be done just by writing a decent book. When you have written a book, people will look at you as a doer and not as a talker or a dreamer.

This brings you a whole new level of respect, and you will then be able to attract a lot more clients than ever before.

Most importantly, you will be remembered for your ideas and even when you’re gone, you will live forever in the hearts of people whose lives have been changed by your creation.

This article first appeared in kclau.com

KC Lau’s first book Top Money Tips for Malaysians has sold thousands of copies. He launched the first online personal finance course specifically designed for Malaysians, entitled the Money Automation System. He also co-founded many other online financial courses including the Bursa Method, Property Method, Founder Method and REIT Method.