So You’ve Decided to Write Your Business Book. Have You, Though?

Last month, I ran Should I Even Write This Book?, my 90-minute workshop, twice — once online and once in person. Before I started the in-person session, I took the temperature of the room. As we went around the table making introductions, I asked them to say where they were in their book journey: thinking about writing a book (or already started) or not really considering writing a book now. 

The room was divided almost exactly in half.

By the end of the workshop, though, something unexpected happened. The people who came in ready to write a book? Several of them had decided to pump the brakes. And the people who came in saying “writing a book isn’t really for me?” Several of them left more interested than when they’d walked in.

I’ve been thinking about that flip ever since because what it tells me is that most people haven’t actually made a decision — in either direction. This actually proves the hypothesis I had when I created the workshop: Aspiring authorpreneurs need a decision procedure.

Let me explain.

“Obviously I’ve decided, Emily. I’m already writing.”

If you’re reading this and you have a Google Doc with a working title and a few thousand words in it, you might think the decision is behind you. 

You picked the topic. 

You’ve told people about your idea at networking events. 

You even bought a book on the writing process. 

Decision made. Done and dusted, right?

Maybe.

But here’s what I’ve noticed after 10+ years of helping business owners write their books: The authors who struggle most aren’t the ones who lack discipline or time or talent. They’re the ones who haven’t actually committed. 

They’ve decided to write a book in the way that you “decide” to run a 5K when you sign up in January — and suddenly it’s March and your new running shoes are still in the box.

There’s a difference between deciding and committing. And if your writing keeps stalling out, or you keep saying, “I just need to be more disciplined,” that might be a clue that you haven’t actually committed.

What It Actually Looks Like to Write a Business Book

I want to paint you a picture, because I think a lot of people have a fantasy version of this process in their heads — and the fantasy is part of what keeps them stuck.

The fantasy: You wake up at 4am, before the rest of the house stirs. You pour your mushroom coffee (I’m a tiny bit OBSESSED with mushroom coffee right now). You open your laptop and the words come easily. You feel like a freaking genius. This happens three or four times a week for a few months, and then, voilà!, you have a book.

The reality: You write in the cracks and crevices of your business and your life. You write on weekends. You write during your lunch hour and after you’ve put the kids to bed and your partner is zonked out on the couch. You write when you’re tired because you need to hit your weekly wordcount. You write when you’d rather be doing literally anything else, including rearranging your desk for the hundredth time (not that I would know anything about that).

And those are the good weeks. During the bad ones, you don’t write at all, and then you carry around the low-key guilt that haunts you everywhere — at dinner, on vacation, in the middle of a conversation about something else entirely… which, now that you think about it, is also kind of about the book.

Writing a business book, while also running a business, is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. And, by the way, this is not me trying to scare you off. This is me being honest with you, because I think you deserve honesty more than you deserve hype.

So Why Do It?

Oof. This is maybe the most profound question you can ask yourself. Next to not committing to writing your book, not asking yourself, “Why am I doing this? What is it all for?” (early and often) might be the biggest mistake aspiring authors make. 

So why do it? Well, when it’s the right idea, at the right time, for the right reasons, then the struggle is worth it.

The business owners I’ve worked with who’ve actually finished their books — and there are nearly 30 of them now — share one thing in common. They had a bone-deep commitment to getting their idea out into the world, and they knew that a business book was the form it needed to take. They didn’t write the book because it seemed like a good thing to do or because “experts” write books. They wrote it because they couldn’t not write it.

Your book is, at its core, a big idea that needs you to set it free. When the right idea finds you — and I do believe ideas pick us as much as we pick them — writing feels less like a slog and more like a responsibility. It’s still hard, but the momentum of purpose can carry you a long way in this process.

Two questions: Is this your idea? Is this your time?

A Few (More) Questions Worth Sitting With

I’m not going to walk you through the full Authorpreneur Decision Procedure (ADP) I use with my clients and workshop participants here. That’s a 90-minute conversation, not a blog post. But I do want to leave you with a few questions that might help you take your own temperature on this:

Does the idea fit like a glove? Not just “I think there’s a book here” but “this idea is so aligned with where I am in my business right now that I can’t imagine not writing it.” If you’re still searching for the right idea, that’s useful information.

Is it a “yes” in your body, not just in your head? A lot of people can build a logical case for writing a book. Fewer people feel it in their gut. That big brain of yours can talk you into a lot of things that aren’t right for you. Check in with ALL your parts (even the creaky ones).

Do you have the space — psychological and practical — to take this on right now? Have you checked in with your calendar? And I’m not talking about your fantasy calendar. I’m talking about your actual bandwidth. Writing a book while running a business requires both kinds of space: the practical kind (time, energy, support) and the mental kind (the ability to hold this project alongside everything else without it becoming one more thing to feel bad about).

If you answered “yes” to all three, you might be ready. Keep going.

If one or more of these questions gives you pause, it’s a sign to look more closely before you go all in. 

What Happens Next

Assuming you’ve done the honest reckoning and the answer is “yes” — this is the right idea, at the right time, and you’re truly committed — welcome. You’re in the right place.

The rest of this year, I’m writing blog articles for you. 

The DIY author. 

The business owner who’s going to write this book yourself, with or without a ghostwriter’s help. 

The person who has picked up Unwritten or is thinking about it. 

The person who wants to do this right.

Over the coming months, I’m going to focus on the how: how to stop overthinking and actually write the thing, how to know if you’ve found your big idea, how to use AI without losing your voice or your soul, how to navigate the wild world of publishing a book.

But before any of that is helpful, you need to decide. Actually decide.

So: did you?

If you’re still wrestling with the book question and want a guided framework for making the decision, I run Should I Even Write This Book? as a workshop periodically. Add your name to the waitlist if you’d like to know when the next one is.

Image by wayhomestudio at Freepik.