An authority-building book is an investment that provides lasting value on several levels.
As the name infers, an authority-building book establishes you as a leader—someone to be taken seriously and recognized for your experience, knowledge, and unique contributions to your field.
This differentiates you from others, opening doors to business opportunities such as consulting work or speaking engagements, and sharing your expertise with a wide swath of readers.
An authority-building book also provides a durable business asset.
We live in a noisy world in which a lot of people have a lot to say.
Showcasing your expertise, credibility, and well-earned respect in a professionally written and produced book sets your story apart and gives readers a chance to absorb the knowledge and experiences you’ve acquired over time. It provides a valuable resource they can return to again and again.
Such a book can be meaningful to colleagues, prospective clients, industry peers, and referral partners, as it establishes you as a trustworthy authority whose words stand out in a sea of chatter.
Every successful authority-building book must give readers a compelling answer to one essential question: “Why should we listen to you?”
At OneTrueLine, we will work with you to produce a book that answers that question unequivocally, bringing to life your experiences and insights in a way that invites readers in to share and learn from the wisdom you’ve acquired.
We will position you as a trustworthy source of information by sharing with readers what you’ve mastered, the basis for important decisions you’ve made, your successes, some mistakes you’ve experienced, your community influence, and how, ultimately, you’ve risen to the top of your area of expertise.
How is an Authority-Building Book Different?
Every person and every business have a story.
Team members at OneTrueLine have collaborated with technology and business leaders, real estate investors, financial experts, attorneys, parenting experts, and many others—all with compelling stories to tell.
We’ve produced corporate biographies and family business histories and how-to books and step-by-step guides. And while we faithfully worked with all these clients to capture their experiences and share their thoughts, ideas, and accomplishments with readers, not all those books were written with the express purpose of establishing authority.
Unlike a book that is written simply to generate sales or call attention to a person or business, an authority-building book is designed to establish the author as a genuine, trusted authority in a particular area, establishing a clearly defined area of expertise. It is geared toward a specific group of readers who share a common challenge or need, incorporating the author’s unique point of view while addressing the issues readers care about.
By doing so, the book sets the author apart as someone with something meaningful to say, with whom readers can connect and learn from. It builds trust with customers and investors as they come to understand your reasons for the decisions you’ve made and the conviction behind your ideas.
It establishes your credibility in a thoughtful, humble manner, without self-promotion or reading like a sales brochure. And it creates lasting value and a sound return on your investment.
Ultimately, an authority-building book supports your larger career while providing an insightful learning tool for your readers.
What’s Included in an Authority-Building Book?
An authority-building book should include a variety of key elements, of which the most important are expertise, original thinking, practical value, and credibility.
The book addresses a problem that’s relevant to readers, offering the author’s unique insights into dealing with the problem and a framework for solving it.
The owner of a family business, for instance, might be unprepared for handing the company over to members of the next generation and looking for an authoritative source to provide guidance for doing so.
The author of an authority-building book recognizes and acknowledges the problem and offers solutions for readers based on real-life experience, original ideas, and examples. The book also includes a practical framework for addressing the problem, and providing readers with actionable steps for doing so.
Think about Stephen R. Covey’s renowned book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Rather than just presenting information about productivity and effectiveness, the book forever establishes Covey as an authority by providing readers with a list of desirable habits and instructions for implementing them.
The book, which was first published in 1989, gives readers an enduring lesson in how to live life with fairness, integrity, and honesty. It includes Covey’s unique insights into living effectively and well, based on his expertise as a businessperson, researcher, and educator.
What sets the book apart and has made it beloved across generations, however, is the blueprint it provides for living that kind of life. Readers are presented not only with the components of effective living but given the steps they need to implement them into their lives.
An authority-building book presents the author’s knowledge and expertise through personal experience, walking readers down the unique path that has led the author to leadership and a position of authority. It draws the reader in with stories and shares the important lessons that the author has learned over time.
The OneTrueLine Approach
Three qualities permeate every aspect of OneTrueLine’s business dealings: trust, collaboration, and human authenticity. Relating a client’s experiences, knowledge, and expertise in a way that establishes the person as an expert and assures authority is a responsibility we do not take lightly.
Trust is Not an Option
Mutual trust is vital to a successful relationship of any kind, and OneTrueLine is committed to nurturing that trust through confidentiality, value alignment, and understanding.
We want to learn as much as possible about you, your business, and your area of expertise; understanding that you must feel comfortable sharing personal memories, stories, successes, failures, and memorable experiences for that to happen. You must be able to trust us to hold your stories carefully, and we must be able to trust you to relate them clearly and accurately. That requires the trust OneTrueLine is known for.
With a full understanding of one another’s expectations, we will trust each other throughout the process of shaping ideas into a book that sets you apart as someone with exceptional insights and ideas that help readers think differently about how they approach and overcome challenges.
Collaboration Counts
The team at OneTrueLine doesn’t just write authority-establishing books. We serve as your creative partner to produce a work that creates lasting value and returns more to you than what you put in.
Together, we’ll work through OneTrueLine’s proven process, sharing thoughts and ideas along with way. You’ll be included in every aspect of the project including its scope, timelines, schedules, our process, ownership and usage rights, and payment terms. With collaboration, we’ll achieve a product worthy of authority and praise.
Authenticity in Our Work and Relationships
Merriam-Webster defines authenticity as “the quality of being true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character,” a definition that pertains to both OneTrueLine’s work and our relationships with clients.
We understand that to achieve authentic storytelling, we must nurture authentic interactions with our clients. Authenticity is a foundation of strong relationship that’s built on trust, mutual respect, and collaboration.
We’ll work with you to capture your voice and to understand your role within your field and the factors that have influenced your approach to problem solving. We’ll dig into the reasons behind important decisions you’ve made and communicate the breadth of your authority to readers.
Together, we can build an authority-building book that authentically represents you, your work, and the impact you’ve had in your area of expertise. Readers will gain understanding of the challenges you’ve faced and be moved to celebrate your accomplishments.
Our Process
OneTrueLine employs a proven, five-step process when producing an authority-building book. Because every client is different, the time needed to achieve each step can vary, but we are committed to staying true to your approved timeline and finishing the job on time.
We’ve employed this process time and time again and are confident in its effectiveness and value.
Step One: Building Client-Writer Rapport
Establishing a good rapport with our clients is essential, and we work hard to accomplish that early in the process of producing your book. We’ll meet with you according to your preferences—in person, over the phone, or through video chat sessions.
These meetings enable us to get to know one another and discover our most important values. And, as you share your thoughts and ideas about what you’re looking to create, we’ll get to know your speaking style, diction, dialect, and other elements that enable us to “find your voice.” This is critical to producing an authentic, personal telling of your work.
We’ll provide recordings, video playbacks, and transcriptions of all meetings, ensuring accuracy and enabling you to review all information.
Step Two: Building an Outline
A good outline is the foundation of a book and necessary for building a logically organized accounting of your story. It is not, however, set in stone.
As we get to know you better and discover more about your business and your work through our research efforts, the outline is likely to change to accommodate new ideas, discoveries, and revelations.
After approving an initial outline, we’ll keep you informed of any changes that are made, assuring constant collaboration and teamwork.
Step Three: Open-Access Drafting
Open-access manuscript drafting has proven extremely successful for OneTrueLine, and our clients love it. All our draft work is done in the cloud in a shared document, meaning that at any time you can see where we are in the process of producing your book.
Open-access drafting keeps you informed, us accountable, and everyone happy.
Step Four: Manuscript Revision
A good story may write itself, as the saying goes, but a crafted work showcasing your business expertise, knowledge, and experience is likely to call for some revisions.
Clients are sometimes surprised at how long-forgotten events, ideas, aspirations, and people come back to them as they share stories and experiences of the past. Essential themes of your story may emerge and become clear for the very first time.
If that happens, you may want to shift some focus points or showcase information you hadn’t previously considered. We’ll work with you to do that, along with making sure we’ve fulfilled any promises we’ve made to readers and satisfied all other key objectives for your work.
Step Five: Finalization and Next Steps
At OneTrueLine, we are meticulous with our writing; editing; and finalizing copy, graphics, and additional elements for our clients’ books. Your authority-building book will undergo line-by-line editing and thorough scrutiny of every detail.
Once the manuscript is finalized to everyone’s satisfaction, we can, at your direction, oversee any necessary post-production tasks, including ebook design, querying, or marketing for your book.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some benefits of an authority-building book?
As you read earlier, an authority-building book provides value on several levels. Much more than a marketing tool, the book sets you apart as a leader in your area—someone who understands the issues impacting the field and has the expertise and perspectives necessary to address them.
This establishes you as a recognized authority within your industry or area of expertise, a position that builds trust with prospective clients and can lead to new business opportunities. You may become sought after as a speaker or source for journalists.
An authority building book also can present your ideas and solutions in a distinctive, structured manner, bestowing you with ownership of a methodology to be shared with and employed by your readers. This creates a lasting business asset and reinforces your status as an expert.
What will my authority-building book look like?
The scope and look of the project depends on your wishes, timeframe, and budget. It can proceed as a full-length book, or take shape as a narrative website, documentary, digital instructive piece, a series of recorded interviews, or another form. We’ll work with you to assess your situation and decide what format may be best for your needs.
What kind of information does an authority-building book include?
An authority-building book normally combines specific information that establishes you as an authority within your area of expertise while also providing readers with useful, actionable steps for solving an identified problem.
We’ll detail your background and work experience and share your perspectives regarding your area of expertise and your insights into issues affecting that area. The book may include in-depth information about your industry, government data or historical information, insights from colleagues, or case studies and real-life examples.
How is that information gathered?
The single most important source of information for an authority-building book is you, the author and keeper of the expertise and unique point of view we want to present to readers.
OneTrueLine employs professional, innovative researchers who are skilled in uncovering information that will bring your ideas to life. This is accomplished through interviews with you, during which our researcher will explore your professional background and experiences, problems you’ve encountered, successes, your recommended approaches to specific problems, and lessons learned.
We will listen carefully to your stories and ask the right questions to learn everything we can about your journey, while also tapping other reliable sources of information that can support and expand on your ideas and expertise. We may interview other experts or clients you’ve worked with who can provide case studies or supporting information.
Our researchers are adept at locating and availing all approved sources of information that can positively contribute to the book, and everyone at OneTrueLine works under confidentiality agreements and cooperates with clients to make sure any confidential or sensitive information is properly handled and protected.
How involved with the project must I be?
Your degree of involvement largely depends on how much time you have available and wish to spend on the project. Because interviews with the author of an authority-building book are so important, we will need some commitment of time from you.
We realize, however, that some of our clients are more hands-on than others, and we can, to a point, accommodate your desired level of involvement. Again, this goes back to OneTrueLine’s steadfast commitment to establishing and maintaining high levels of trust, collaboration, and authenticity with every client.
We respect your level of interest and availability when scheduling interviews, accessing company records, locating archival media, and completing other tasks.
How long is the process of producing an authority-building book?
Every project is different, but it normally takes between six and 12 months to research, write, design, and produce an authority-building book.
Time required depends on factors such as the length and format of the book; your availability for interviews and how many are needed; how much of your expertise has already been documented in articles, presentations, or other sources; and the amount of research required.
We also must consider book design and printing requirements; the need to acquire photos, video, or digital assets; and other factors.
OneTrueLine will work with you to determine a timeline based on all those variables and any special needs you may have.
How much does an authority-building book cost?
The price for an authority-building book can vary tremendously, based on the size of the manuscript, depth of research, the number and location of interviews, how the book is edited, use of graphic materials, photography needs, design and printing costs, how the book is distributed, and other factors.
Industry research indicates a price range of between $2,500 and $10,000 for a basic book with a shorter narrative and minimal research and interviews, to $300,000 for a very high-end project. A mid-range project typically ranges between $10,000 and $50,000.
OneTrueLine works with every client to determine a price point with which they’re comfortable and is transparent regarding what our costs entail and our fees include.
How do I get started?
All you have to do is contact OneTrueLine by calling us at (805) 901-4566 or clicking here to schedule a complimentary, 30-minute discovery call with Bryan Basamanowicz, founder of OneTrueLine. Let’s get started. We’re looking forward to meeting you!
