Why would my book be any different?

“Everybody writes a book these days. Why would mine be any different? What if I write one and nobody reads it?”

I’ve heard some version of this sequence of questions from clients or prospects several times now.

And I get it, Kindle Direct Publishing and the like have lowered the barriers to entry, and the market is flooded with self-published, niche business books gathering digital dust.

That market is saturated.

But the question, Why should I write a book?, confuses form with substance.

Many books aren’t worth writing, but that’s a fault of the substance, not the form.

Take film as a form.

Just looking at major Hollywood studio films, according to ProdPro, 706 were produced in 2022, 600 in 2023 (when the writer’s strikes took place), and 679 in 2024.

These movies join the catalogue of all other movies produced in the past 100+ years.

Does the market need more movies?

No.

Does it want more?

Depends.

Christopher Nolan has a new movie coming out this summer.

That movie is in a category of one because it’s written and directed by Christopher Nolan. His name and reputation means something.

The market is not saturated with Nolan movies.

But it is saturated with average, cookie-cutter template movies.

The form isn’t a differentiator. The substance is.

The same is true for business books. The market doesn’t need more books, but it always has room for the right book.

My intuition tells me that there are two types of business book.

The first type is extremely common, and it’s driven by the common sense theory that, “I’m an advisor, I need a book.” I’ll join a writing cohort, outline what I know, follow a proven system to get it done, use it as a sales asset to generate leads. And don’t get me wrong, that type of book can generate leads. The market is full of them.

If it works, it works for a year, maybe two. It’s usually highly tactical, and highly tactical books age fast.

That’s book type one.

The second type is rare and timeless. These are the types of books where sales rise year after year, sometimes even decades later. Books like Steal Like An Artist, Obviously Awesome, and The Coaching Habit.

1. It speaks to a painful frustration as experienced by a particular group of people.
2. It delivers a new frame of thinking about that problem, solving that problem, or both.
3. The way in which the message is delivered is as compelling as the ideas themselves.

How many books like that exist in your niche?

Not many, right?

Markets are not flooded with substance, and they’re certainly not flooded with advisors solving relevant frustrations with unique voice and style.

Books are just vehicles to tell a story, and our appetite for great stories is unquenchable.

So back to that question, “Why would my book be any different?”

A better question would be, “Why do I want to write a book?”

Is this a sales tool to deliver immediate uplift and an excuse to get on stages?

Or is this an artefact designed to genuinely help a particular person overcome a particular frustration, and any opportunities that come your way are a byproduct? That type of book builds a moat that puts distance between you and your competitors. It gives you a space in the market that you can own.

There is no right or wrong answer. It’s possible to achieve “results” with either approach, but only one of these books risks getting lost in the noise.