How to become an author as a coach?
We get this question a lot, from our students, and from coaches who are already doing an amazing job!
As a coach, and lifelong learner himself, our Founder & CEO Ajit Nawalkha, always talks about the importance and necessity of reading a great book. Something that is contributing to your knowledge, and helping you develop a broader and more diverse worldview.
Books are an excellent medium to make an impact. Ajit himself has written three books till now!
The Book of Coaching, The Business Book of Coaching, and Live Big.
These are all books authored by Ajit, and they serve as an amazing medium for the wide distribution of coaching knowledge, resources, ideas, and wisdom.
So to get to the main question,
how to become an author… as a coach?
In this YouTube video, Ajit explores 8 simple steps that you need to follow, to become a valued author.
Step 1: Identify Your Intent For Writing A Book
Setting an intention for anything (and yes that includes writing a book), really helps put things in perspective.
These days, everyone’s writing a book. But does that mean, you must too?
What is your purpose behind writing? Why do you choose a book as a medium and not something else?
The first step is to really identify your reason for deciding to write… a book.
Step 2: Choose Your Publishing Model
The next step is to identify whether you want to go for a self-publishing sprint, or you wish to get published by a house.
The self-publishing model is great if you’re looking at the book as a creative element of your unique marketing/branding. In this model, authors usually have creative freedom and are totally unrestricted.
But, if your objective for writing a book is to get an advance, or to get immediate recognition, you may want to go for a publisher model. It is slightly more complex since a lot of back and forth coordination and communication are involved.
Step 3: Identify What You Will Write About
This is probably the most important piece of the puzzle. Identifying what you will write about, specifically to the t, will help you gain clarity on how to become an author as a coach.
The best way to identify what you will be great at writing about… is to identify the topics that you are most conversant in, or talk most about, as a coach.
Once you are clear on what you will feel most comfortable writing about, go to the next step.
Step 4: Define The Outline Of The Book
In the previous step, you already worked on the direction your book will take… that is, the outcome you want to achieve by writing about a certain set of topics.
In this step, your job is to define the outline you will take, to reach that outcome.
And the best way to do that is to meet your clients where they currently are in their journey… then take them, step by step, to where they aspire to be (in other words, that’s the outcome of your book).
This process helps you give your readers what they really bought the book for.
Step 5: Freewrite Potential Topics For Each Chapter
Once you’ve decided the outline of the book in the previous step, you can then narrow down on each chapter.
Come up with the chapter titles, and start brainwriting potential topics you will be covering in each of them.
Think of this as creating an idea stack… a library of several sub-topics that you want to talk about in your chapters. You will be getting down to each of them in more detail once you actually start writing.
This simply gives you a framework to write your book in an easy way.
Step 6: Define Your Writing Style
You may be a frequent writer… someone who writes on a daily basis, and thus makes up the chapters of their book as they go.
You may also be a batch writer… someone who blocks time off to write with intention, over a short period of time. A batch writer would typically take the outline of their book (that you created in the previous chapter), and focus on meeting the objectives there.
For them, the intention is to get the book done with the best input from their side.
Choose which of these writing styles suit you… consider the amount of time and energy you will be able to invest in the process. And thus, define a writing style for yourself.
Step 7: Pick A Publish Date
If you’re a batch writer, picking a publish date is going to be an easier deal for you.
Since publishing your book is more like a process to get the product out… and not as a recreational daily activity, it will be easier for you to set a calendar for publishing.
Picking a publish date, and then setting calendar milestones like final edits, design touches, etc., will actually push you to get past your imposter syndrome, and finish writing your book within the designated time frame.
Step 8: Write, Write, Write!
That’s apparent, isn’t it?
Now that you’re done with all the necessary stuff, it’s time to actually get down to writing. Write your book the way you want!
There you have it… some simple steps on how to become an author as a coach.
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 the knowledge world of coaching.
If you haven’t yet considered writing a book, it may be worth it to think in that direction!
