You know your topic. You live your topic. You breathe your topic. You can’t wait to share your passion with the world! You will pour all of your passion into the pages of your book. Your book will radiate every ounce of passion you have for your topic. It will be extraordinary and it will change the lives of your readers and your life as you know it. But wait! There’s more. Did you really think it would be that simple? You can’t only have passion—you need purpose, too.

Now that you have found your true passion and you want to write about it, it’s time to discover your purpose. What is your purpose in writing this book? You cannot expect your publisher to answer this for you. They will not know what the purpose of your book is if you don’t. By now you have found your passion, so ask yourself: why do you want to share this particular passion with the world?

Questions: Answer with Purpose

In the next few weeks we will list some questions that you can use as guidelines in order to help you discover the purpose behind your book. The more you think about the answers to these questions, the more they will help you discover your intentions for yourself and your readers. I have provided for you possible answers to help get you thinking, but I encourage you to extend upon these answers with your own personal responses. Feel free to disregard the provided answers altogether and instead replace them with more applicable and specified informatio

Why are you writing this book?

You might be writing your book as a form of therapeutic release for your own mental health and wellbeing. Writing a book can be calming for your heart and soul. Writing can inspire emotional rejuvenation and can have healing capabilities that other remedies cannot. If this is the case, why do you want to publish your book? You might want to publish it because you feel that other people will benefit from reading it, will relate it to their own lives, and might also feel the same therapeutic effect that you felt while writing it.

You might be writing your book because you believe you can inspire and empower other people if they read about your past personal experiences, or your first-hand advice for building strong relationships, or your spirituality. Whatever your book is about, you trust that your readers will learn from your book and that they will take from it positive reinforcement and examples that they can apply to their own lives, and be happier because of it.

You might be writing your book because you want to use it as an extension of your business. In many cases, your book can be like a 200+ page business card. It can delve into the depths of case studies that you have previously performed. Your book can be a direct link to your business platform in relating to your readers what you have been through to get to the professional stage you are at in your life today. Your book can go into the meticulous details and complications that you face on an everyday basis. Your book can communicate to your readers what meetings, phone calls with clients, and paperwork cannot.

Next week we will explore the question, “who will read your book?”

These questions are used in the InspireABook® Webinar program to help the writer understand why they are writing their book and what the purpose of the book is. In discussion groups, the answers to these questions helps the writer to understand how to write the book for their specific readership and how to market to that readership.

For more information on the InsprireABook® Webinar program and to watch a free educational seminar please go to www.inspireabook.com/publishing-coaching/

This blog is an excerpt from the E-Book “All you need to know about publishing your book” by Amy O-Hara, to claim your free E-Book sign up for our newsletter here.