Sarah ArcherProfessional Speaker, Organisational Consultant & Coach, Lemon Squeeze Limited · International Speaker | Speaking Coach | Top 1% Podcast Host | Helping Organisations Unlock Business Transformation & Growth Through Strategic Storytelling | Helping Experts & Business Authors Nail th

The #1 mistake aspiring business authors make #businessbooks #writingadvice

19 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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1:19

In this segment, the speaker explains that many aspiring business authors treat book positioning merely as a marketing exercise—identifying a target audience and stopping there. He argues that true positioning goes deeper, encompassing the author's purpose, mission, and the transformative impact the book should have on readers. By stepping into the readers' shoes, authors can pinpoint a single insight or change that will snowball into broader influence. Publishers traditionally help authors clarify this deeper message, but even self‑publishers can adopt the same rigorous approach to ensure their work delivers real value.

Chapters

This is something that I think that publishers do that perhaps sometimes self-publishers miss out on. You know, you kind of think of positioning and you think of it in a marketing sense as being, well, you know, if I know who I'm writing for, then that's about it really. But actually it's a lot more than that. It's a lot more about what's driving you to write the book in the first place. It's about purpose, it's about mission, it's about how you're gonna make a difference. It's about, Very specifically stepping into the shoes of the people that you're writing for and understanding how to deliver to them something that they are going to find transformative. Actually, it could be just one thing in, in your book that changes the way somebody thinks. Yeah. That in itself is the kind of snowball beginnings. Publishers have a role helping you to clarify your message. Mm-hmm. And even if you self-publish, you can take a lot from that. You can do a lot of work on that by yourself.