Boni Wagner-Stafford writes about 5 Ways to Find Your Why: the Secret to Your Success as an Author

Before you embark on your writing journey, you need to find your why. You need to know why you’re going on this journey in the first place. And why a reader would benefit from buying and reading your book.

1. Start at the Beginning

When you find your why, it becomes the foundation for every decision you make through the process of writing, publishing, and marketing the book. It affects everything.

It’s why we spend so much time on each and every one of our discovery calls speaking to potential authors before we agree to take them on board: we want to know what is motivating them to write their book, what they already understand about why a reader will want their book, and it tells us a lot about whether we will be a fit for the long and in-depth project that is partnering on a book project.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing business or self-help or memoir or true crime. The why is simply the most important starting point for any book project.

2. Start With You

Being clear on why you want to write and publish your book and to become a published author helps you articulate your aspirations, goals, and objectives for a passion project that no one ever disputes is going to be a lot of work.

Your list of why statements become the pillars for everything you plan and do related to your book: how you write it, what you include and exclude, design and publishing decisions, marketing and promotion decisions.

Is your objective to support yourself and make a decent living with your writing?

To publish a book that helps grow influence through your business?

Help others by revealing a poignant personal experience with some lessons?

Create a legacy of knowledge for family, including future generations?

Gain credibility before a career change?

In One Million Readers: Your Guide to a Nonfiction Book Marketing Strategy that Saves Time, Money, and Sells More Books, we dive into the why notion, framed as objectives, related to what you want to achieve with your book marketing. I’m going to share an excerpt for you here because I think it’s helpful to see this when you’re at the beginning of your book journey.