As a coach and lifelong learner himself, Mindvalley co-founder Ajit Nawalkha often talks about the importance of reading. It expands your worldview and helps you gain new skills.
Ajit himself has written three books to help professionals in this field accelerate their businesses: The Book of Coaching, The Business Book of Coaching, and Live Big.
Now, he shares his eight best pieces of advice on how to become the author of a book so you can share your coaching wisdom with the world.
Step 1: Identify your intent for writing a book
Like with all new projects, the first step is getting clear on your intentions. This will help you clarify your unique purpose with your book and focus your energy in the right places.
Having a clear intent will also guide your actions throughout the writing process and help you through writer’s block.
Do you want your new book to inspire, educate, or entertain? Think about how you can align your writing with your values and vision to ensure your book is not just informational but meaningful and resonates with your audience.
Step 2: Choose a publishing model
Honestly, how hard is it to become an author today when you can self-publish a book on Amazon?
But before you rush into it, consider whether you want to pitch your book to a publishing house instead, because both routes have their benefits.
The self-publishing model is great if you consider the book as a creative vehicle to support your marketing and branding efforts. You’ll have total creative freedom, and you can take your manuscript in any direction you like. Plus, you’ll get to create a passive income source and keep most of your earnings.
On the other hand, if your objective for writing a book is to get an advance or reach a wider audience, you may want to go with a publisher. This will take quite an extensive editing process in collaboration with your publisher; however, it will make monetizing your book way easier.
Step 3: Identify what you will write about
This is probably the most important piece of the puzzle: defining a specific angle for your book.
Come up with topics that you are an expert in and often talk about as a coach. Consider what your unique niche most struggles with and how you can offer tangible advice and a new perspective on it. Your coaching packages and recurrent themes in your sessions may offer a great starting point for this.
Some outcome-driven coaching book ideas are:
- Mastering Mindfulness: A Coach’s Guide to Inner Peace
- The Confident Coach: Building Self-Assurance and Empowering Others
- Transformative Leadership: Leading with Purpose and Impact
- Empowering Relationships: Nurturing Connection and Growth
- Mindset Mastery: Coaching Strategies for Personal Growth
Step 4: Define the outline of the book
Now, you have a clear angle for your book, but it can still take many different directions. This is why it’s important that you write out a detailed outline of what each chapter will contain.
This is essentially part of your pitch if you want to sell your book idea to a publisher. What’s more, it is key to making the writing flow more easily.
Sitting in front of a blank page is a recipe for writer’s block. However, knowing what you’ll need to articulate in each section will make your work much easier.
Your book should meet your readers (and potential future clients) where they currently are in their journey and then take them, step by step, to where they aspire to be.
Step 5: Write out potential topics for each chapter
Now, go even deeper. Come up with the chapter titles and start brainstorming potential topics you will be covering in each of them.
Think of this as creating an idea stack—a library of several subtopics that you want to discuss in your chapters. Once you start writing, you will get down to each of them in more detail.
This, again, gives you a framework to write your book with more ease.
Step 6: Define your writing method
If you’re a frequent writer who puts thoughts into words daily, you may simply take one chapter at a time and follow a writing routine. However, if you’re new to this, you may want to experiment with different approaches to suit your working style.
You may prefer free-flowing ideation in a journal, structured outlines on a digital platform, or collaborative writing sessions with peers. Find what suits your rhythm and explore different techniques so you can take your book from inspiration to publication.
Step 7: Pick a publish date
You may be wondering, “How long does it take to become an author?”
The answer may vary based on the depth of research you’ll do, but writing a book is a long-term project. If you don’t want it to drag on and you want to keep up your momentum, defining a definitive deadline can be a great motivator.
This will help you backtrack and set up milestones for your chapters and sections. Having a clear schedule will make your writing more structured. It will also help you realize that when you’re stuck with a chapter for too long, you can reiterate its angle or ask for help.
Step 8: Write, write, write
If you’ve followed the above steps, there’s nothing else to do but get down to writing. Brush up on some writing tools for coaches and establish a consistent writing schedule.
The more you do it, the easier it gets.
If you get lost during writing, go back to your outline and see how you can add even more details to it to guide your creative process.
Start your journey as an author
Writing a book is one of the best things you can do to create a long-lasting impact as a coach. Your book will stay out there for a long time, spreading your ideas and contributing to people’s lives.
If you want to learn more about how you can create time freedom as a coach and have more time for writing, join our free Become a Mindvalley Certified Life Coach masterclass.
In it, best-selling authors Vishen Lakhiani and Ajit Nawalkha will lead you through their process of creating a lucrative and purposeful coaching business.
