Communications

Last time I discussed some things to bear in mind when embarking on writing and publishing your business book because you can save yourself a lot of trouble if you get the basics right. I covered talking to your printer before doing anything else and not trying to write and layout at the same time.

Using styles

I also introduced the idea of using your wordprocessor’s styles feature to apply formatting to text instead of instead of changing font or size from the menu. It’s easy to change the appearance of your document by altering the style definition and not having to search for every instance of formatting. It will also help whoever is laying out your masterpiece and minimise the time they spend importing and formatting the content. Styles also make it much quicker and easier to generate tables of contents.

There are a number of built-in styles in MS Word. Here are a few suggestions about ones you can use:

• Heading 1 – chapter headings
• Heading 2 – sub-headings
• Emphasis – italics
• Strong – Bold

Read moreWriting a book for business: Part II

Only a small number of authors ever manage to make a living writing but producing a book is still a good idea for many business people. That is because writing a book for business is a great way to publicise yourself if intellectual property is your stock in trade.

Add value to courses and lectures by selling your book or even giving it away. Only a tiny minority ever get as far as writing a book and it really impresses people when you show them the freshly printed fruits of your genius and it convinces them you know what you’re talking about. I experienced this after I wrote a book of historical snippets about Durban, my former hometown.

There was zero interest in me and my project while I talked the talk but that all changed as soon as I had a manuscript to show. The City Council took an interest and pre-ordered copies which paid for the printing. Community groups began to approach me to speak at their meetings when the book hit the streets; I became an authority overnight.

Read moreWriting a book for business: Part I

One of the most important things to remember when communicating in writing is that you won’t be around when your audience sits down and tries to make sense of what you’ve written. You therefore need to write simply and clearly and be careful to answer all the questions that your readers are likely to want to know the answers to.

Anticipating those is pretty easy if you take a leaf out of the reporters’ handbook and include the 5Ws in any informative writing that you do. As a junior reporter I was introduced to them and taught to check my writing to make sure they were all included before hitting the send button on any story I wrote.

So what are the 5Ws? They are What, Why, Where, When and Who and can be applied to any situation. For example:

Read moreIncluding all the facts