Publishing Builds Professional Credibility in Every Corner of the Marketplace

Now that the majority of white-collar professionals have college degrees, what can you do to distinguish yourself from your well-educated peers? To gain the next promotion? To promote your product, service, or professional practice? To make money for yourself and your business?

Publish your ideas in a book or a trade journal article. Could the answer be that simple? Texas author and professional speaker Dianna Booher says she has proven the theory true. “Thought leaders today want to know that they have made a significant impact in the world before they leave the marketplace,” Ms. Booher reports. “I’m seeing interest in publishing growing, especially among the baby boomers who are beginning to retire over the next few years. They want to make a long-standing contribution beyond just earning a paycheck.” Ms. Booher is certainly qualified to make these observations: Her writings have been published over 40 times (printed in 24 foreign editions) with the likes of Simon and Schuster, McGraw-Hill, and Warner.

But let’s be real. Can businesspeople truly impact their careers by being published? Yes, indeed, according to Booher. “The trend has spread worldwide,” she says. She sees great publishing potential in several groups.

The Rich and Famous. Booher says, “To see a money-making trend, watch what the successful people are doing. The likes of Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Michael Eisner, Lee Iacocca, Jack Welch, Queen Noor, and Harvey Mackay have turned publishing into power. Publishing has certainly added pizzazz to their already prestigious careers.”

Thought Leaders. Those who want to shape world thinking, improve people’s lives, change how organizations are run—these people feel compelled to put their ideas in book form to establish significance beyond their lifetime.

The Average Working Joe or Josephine. There is a healthy amount of interest from the corporate arena to write the next Who Moved My Cheese. Each month five to ten callers approach Ms. Booher with a publishing idea, and the conversation follows one of these lines:

“I'm a lawyer, and our firm is working on a really interesting case. We're thinking of doing a book on it. Can you tell me how to go about it?”

“I've got a manuscript about real estate equities that I've just finished. As a stockbroker, I don't know much about publishing. Do I just take it to a publisher or a printer, or what?”

“My boss is really after me to get a book published on this new anticorrosion process our company will be marketing next year to get some PR. It was originally a technical paper, but I guess I'll have to change the approach a little bit for the general reader, don't you think?”

Of course, there is always the weekend writer with a “human interest” story that could morph into the Great American Novel:

“I've had an interesting life and I think other people would enjoy reading my story. Can you help me turn my journals into a book?”

As a publishing coach and workshop instructor, Ms. Booher knows that any of these scenarios could be a best-seller,…if the content, proposal, and marketing strategies fit a publisher’s needs.

The Competitive Corporation. According to Booher, the mere mention of a company's name and product/service in a published work is worth measurable dollars—dollars these companies are willing to pass on to their executives, managers, and PR people for their writing efforts.

Whichever category you fall into—the rich and famous, the thought leader, the average Joe or Josephine, or the competitive corporation—the timing for getting your ideas into book form couldn't be better. “That third-party endorsement from a major publisher says to the world that somebody out there, some objective editor, thinks what you have to say is worthwhile and that people would pay money to read about it,” says Booher. “Corporations underscore that credibility factor when they pay their employees bonuses and give them high visibility for their publishing efforts–-whether books or journal articles.” She’ll unveil her publishing secrets to an intimate group of author hopefuls in the upcoming "Get Your Book Published" workshop November 30-December 2 at the Booher Training Center in Grapevine, Texas.

Nothing enhances your credibility or brings recognition—from colleagues, from your own management, from customers and clients—like publishing a work on your subject of expertise. In fact, this principle has even worked its way into our language. What do we say to firmly establish someone's credibility? You’ll often hear this terminology: “Oh, Charlie’s teaching the phone class? That’s great! He wrote the book on telecommunications.”

Somehow it’s comforting that—despite the digital age of the Internet, the advertising age of the $4 million thirty-second TV spot, and the “now” generation of fast food—the old tried-and-true method of ink on paper still commands attention, respect, and credibility.

Johannes Gutenberg would be proud.