Before writing a single word of your business or speaker book manuscript, you must have a plan. My experience is that two days of focused, strategic planning can transform a frustrating 12-month project into a fruitful and rewarding 2 or 3-month pleasure. Writing a good business book is not easy – but it is made significantly easier if you have first written a comprehensive BookPlan.

In his seminal book, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ Stephen Covey tells the story of a woodcutter cutting down trees. As time goes by, he finds he is cutting down fewer trees per day and begins to worry he is losing his edge. One day his boss, explains that is precisely what is happening. His saw is becoming blunt, meaning his increased effort is seeing a decreased return. My favourite application of this principle is to demonstrate the exponential effects of planning and preparation.

“Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them.” Stephen R Covey

A typical Business Ghost BookPlan is a 2000-word document identifying the perfect reader, capturing the essence of the story, and planning the entire story-driven structure of the book: titles, parts, chapters, content, prose, style, forewords and contributions.