How to Write and Publish a Successful Business Book with Weston Lyon

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Writing and publishing a business book is an art and science. I discuss pitfalls to avoid along with proven writing and publishing success strategies in this episode with my guest, Weston Lyon.

Weston is the author of 23 books, including The Book Writing Blueprint, and the founder of Plug and Play Publishing. Known as one of the only authors to write nine books in 11 months, he has delivered more than 600 presentations and interviews over the past 25 years.

Weston helps entrepreneurs and business owners write the right book and use it to build authority, attract clients, and grow their business.

We dive into topics including:

Weston’s origin story when it comes to authorship and profiting from his books.
Where the book writing process begins.
The three phases every author goes through when writing a book.
A deep dive into the five-step process of writing and profiting from your book.
The concept of time blocking and its necessity in the authorship space.
The two things you need to look at to set your book up for success.
How to find a topic that fits your target markets.
The biggest problem people face when writing a book and other things not to do.
The two types of book outlines you need to create.
The three subconscious questions you need to answer for every chapter before you write them.
The first thing you need to do after you finish writing your book.
The five steps to successfully publishing your book before you start marketing it.
How to start the profiting phase of your book after it’s published.
How to leverage and profit from your book for the rest of your career.
The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to successfully write and publish your business book.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

Weston’s Authorship Origin Story

Weston started writing his first book in 2005. He owned a personal training company and admits that he didn’t know the first thing about marketing when he got started in business.

He was luckily enough to have a mentor hand him a book. It was “No BS Sales Success” by Dan Kennedy. Inside that book, there was a chapter in which Dan said “If you want to stop prospecting and start having people magnetically attract you, here’s how you do it.” The formula Dan gave was to write a book, go speak on it, and get into the media.

Weston didn’t know how he was going to do that. He was broke, he was struggling, so he had to take the first step and write my first book to get the marketing ball rolling. He wrote it and everything changed. Weston got on television; he got on the radio. He was able to start speaking on local and national levels. He rode that wave for three years.

And then in 2008, Weston ended up writing nine books in eleven months (and he would never do it again). The first book that year was a personal training business book. It was about how to grow your personal training business. The rest of the books were just therapy.

Reasons to Write a Book

Writing them was cathartic for Weston. The other books weren’t even meant to sell well. He was writing on business, marketing, time management and other things that he learned over the past three years after writing his first book. That’s where he really developed his step-by-step process for helping people write books.

That was it. He wasn’t doing it to start a business. Weston still owned a personal training business at the time. But after having 10 books before he was 30, people started asking him how he did it. He told them he had a five-step process.

Helping Would-Be Authors Becomes a Business

Weston helped two or three dozen of his friends and colleagues write and publish books. That made him realize that helping people write books could be a business. It was something that could be interesting for him. And it was just perfect timing. Even though his fitness business was lucrative, it was getting boring.

Helping people write books became the next step in his evolution. He was able to start helping people. Over the past 16 years, he’s helped hundreds of business owners, coaches, consultants, speakers, CEOs, write, publish, and then profit from their books.

Where Does the Book Writing Process Begin?

Weston told me first of all, there is a five-step process and step one of that is to position yourself for success. What Weston meant by that is you must figure out why you want to write the book in the first place.

That’s one of the first things you must do because writing a book isn’t like writing a blog post or a LinkedIn post. It’s a process, and it’s not hard if you have the right strategy, but it is a lengthier process than writing a short post or article or something like that.

So, you must know why you’re writing the book. That’s number one. You create that burning desire because when you have that, when you know exactly why you want to write it, then it’s going to speed up the process. You’re going to stick with it because we all know life throws things at us every single day. And so, number one, you must know why you’re writing it, and you must keep it at the forefront of your mind to keep that burning desire alive.

Number two, you must know how much time the writing process is going to take. That helps you set yourself up for success before you even get started. One way to do that that to block out time to write. What Weston likes to tell people is to block out one hour a day. If you do that, you’ll have your book done in two to three months.

That’s it. The rest of the process will fall in line if you block out that time. That’s mission critical. Successful people block out chunks of time in their days to do the things that are important to them.

The problem is, whenever someone doesn’t have those chunks of time already blocked out during their day, their day can go off the rails. Maybe they’re putting out fires and any other myriads of potential scenarios. That’s why you need to block out time on a regular basis. Blocked time is valuable time. For example, if you have a doctor’s appointment, it doesn’t matter what phone call you receive while you’re at the doctor’s, you’re not going to answer it.

You block out time in our personal life and now you need to block out time in your professional life and do it on a regular basis. So, when it comes to writing, step two is blocking out writing time. 5:11

And then we move onto the third step…

And that’s just the beginning of the story!

Watch this episode for the rest of the story and more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

Weston Lyon is the author of 23 books, including The Book Writing Blueprint, and the founder of Plug and Play Publishing. He helps entrepreneurs and business owners write the right book so they can build authority, attract clients, and grow their business.

Known as one of the only authors to write nine books in 11 months, Weston has spent more than 25 years helping people communicate powerful ideas clearly and persuasively.

Over that time, he has delivered more than 600 presentations and interviews and conducted hundreds of interviews himself, giving him a rare understanding of how to connect with an audience, deliver practical value, and make complex ideas easy to understand.

Through Plug and Play Publishing, Weston helps entrepreneurs and professionals turn their ideas, stories, and expertise into books that do more than sit on a shelf. His approach is built around helping clients choose the right book for their goals, get it done fast without wasting time, publish strategically, and use that book as a tool to build trust, strengthen authority, and attract more of the right clients.

Weston’s work is especially relevant for entrepreneurs, business owners, CEOs, coaches, consultants, and speakers who want a book that supports their message and their business at the same time.

He is also a seasoned interview guest known for bringing practical, real-world insight that audiences can use right away.

Click here to connect with Weston on LinkedIn!

Click here to learn more about Plug and Play Publishing!

Click here to get The Book Writing Blueprint in PDF or audiobook format!