6 reasons why you need to structure your book

On 1 August I started the 10,000 Word Summer Book Challenge with 4 training webinars throughout the month, and dozens of entrepreneurs challenging themselves to start or finish their book this August. 

Last Friday I held the second webinar and one of the topics I talked about was planning the content.

If you’re like many people, you’ll probably just want to write your content, get words on paper and see it develop, but what if I said that it would be easier to finish if you start with a structure for your book? Here are 6 reasons why this is essential.

1. It makes your book easier to write 

When you’ve planned your book, whether you do my infamous post-it note exercise, develop a mind-map or braindump your information, it will be easier to write. You’ll have exactly what you want to cover in a logical order and you’ll find that you’re less likely to get blocked with your writing. 

2. It helps you to avoid duplications 

If you just write and never plan, there will be no structure to what you’ve written. This can result in duplications in your work where you land up sharing the same information multiple times, or you may not be sure on where to fit a particular story or exercise.

3. It helps you to get clear on what you do and where you’ve an expert

When you start to take out of your head everything that you do with your clients, you’ll start to notice what you actually do, the results that you get with your clients and where you are an expert. This invaluable process will acknowledge your strengths, what makes you different and how you can use these abilities to stand out through your book. 

4. It helps you to develop your signature system or process

When I work with clients and map out their book for them it often has the added advantage of helping them to develop their signature system or process. What this gives them is a step-by-step process that they can teach all of their clients, that is memorable and helps them to get noticed. 

5. It helps you to build your sales funnel

When you’re clear on what you do and how you do it, it will help you to develop your sales funnel. Your lead magnet will automatically lead into your book (hence generating more sales) and this will feed into group programmes, events and one-to-one support. All of this will help you to grow your business.

6. It will facilitate your reader’s journey and next steps 

Creating a structure for your book will help you to facilitate your reader’s journey. This not only makes your book easier for them to read and digest, but easier for them to see the next steps in the journey and how you can help them. 

Are you ready to create your book structure? 

Who knew that sitting down to create a structure for your book would have such brilliant business benefits and advantages to your writing! What do you need to do to create your structure?

If you’d like to find out how I can help you, please contact me to have a free business strategy session to find out how I work one-to-one or through my retreats.