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Dig A Well Before You Need Water: Talk To Experts Prior To Beginning Your Business Writing

By: Donald Mitchell

Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.

--James Russell Lowell

Most people who are thinking about sharing business expertise just start writing. In fact, some people talk into a tape recorder and expect a professional writer to create a perfect book or article. You can spot those books and articles a mile away for their lack of objectivity. I often wish that an expert had reviewed the material before I saw it.

But that's not the entire lesson. It's far more valuable to get comments from experts about your business writing plans before you dictate or type a single word.

Here's what you should do:

1. Identify business experts who can improve your book.

2. Read what they've written on your subject.

3. Arrange to interview them.

4. Ask them if they would be willing to make suggestions for your book.

5. Ask them if they would be willing to review a draft of the book.

6. Ask them if they would write a foreword or introduction to the book, or a commentary that could be used on the cover.

Let me share an example with you to show what can go wrong if you don't follow that advice.

When Carol Coles, Robert Metz and I were thinking about writing a business book, we were advised to avoid getting feedback early in the process. Why? The comments might confuse us. At worse, we might gain conflicting advice.

In retrospect, that was bad information. We should have spoken to the leading experts first. Here is what we learned from doing it backwards.

We had scheduled a day to see Peter Drucker in Claremont, California, on our way to the islands for a vacation. I liked to stop off in California on my way to Hawaii whenever possible because my parents, sister, and a nephew lived there.

The distance between Peter's house and my parent's house was about 35 miles. We would have dinner in San Bernardino after a day with Peter.

We looked forward to our day with Peter. But we were in for a surprise: Peter had been studying a manuscript for weeks and wasn't at all happy with what he had seen.

"The beginning is all wrong," he said.

Peter waved our objections aside. "Tell them I said to change it, and they will," commented Peter confidently. He had, after all, sold more business books than any other author in history.

"What do we change it to?" we asked with concern.

"I'm not very good at editing," he replied. "I'm better at writing: Here's how I would write it."

We started taking down notes as fast as we could as he dictated hundreds of words.

As Peter expected, our editor said that she would accept the new material if we got it to her within 48 hours.

Finally, the attachment was off in an e-mail and had been received in New York. Whew!

Imagine if we had asked Peter Drucker to help us before we started. The whole book could have been written to build on the themes and language that he so generously shared with us.

Good luck with your business writing!

Article Source: http://bytepowered.org/articles

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through and receive tips by e-mail through registering for free at www.2000percentsolution.com

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