Book Coach's Advice for Authors: How much of your personal story should you reveal?

Positively Powered – Advice for Authors

As a book coach, I ask the authors I work with, “Have you thought about how much of yourself you would put into your book? How much is TMI?”

A lot of business and leadership authors leave themselves out of the story, like stealthy onlookers to their own creation. But any time you’re helping someone with personal or professional development, the topic is transformation. As a reader, I want to know how you got there: What’s your story about finding your purpose, your passion? How did you get so fired up about it that you just had to write a book? How did your transformation happen? And most of all – can you teach me how to get there?

The people who pick up your book are attracted to you for some reason and want some of the magic that you’ve found, whether that’s happiness, success, purpose, love, creativity – whatever it is that you write about. They need to connect with you on a personal level. But how much should you reveal? It’s scary enough to become an author – do you need to start from birth and give every detail of your life? Do you need to share all your deep, dark secrets?

In this podcast, I talk about several authors who take different approaches, from listing just their credentials to revealing everything but their nude photos. You get to decide what’s right for you.

Listen in to learn a practical exercise to work through how to talk about yourself and how to discover what’s best for the people you hope to impact – the readers who will become your loyal fans.

Listen now >>