For CEOs and business owners
Yes, a CEO should write a book when they want a lasting asset that explains their thinking and brings the right clients, partners, and opportunities to them, and it can take about one hour a week.
Last updated: November 2026
By talking instead of typing. Big Impact Books runs a done-for-you process built around about one hour a week of interviews, turning a CEO’s spoken expertise or an existing draft into a finished book, then supporting promotion such as podcast placements and media outreach.
Definition
On The Authority Book Desk, an authority book is a nonfiction book written by an expert to build trust with a specific audience and support a business goal. Its success is measured in opportunities, such as better-fit clients and invitations to speak, more than in copies sold.
Positioning
Big Impact Books’ blog argues that expertise earns attention while trust earns opportunity. A book lets a prospect spend hours with your thinking before the first meeting, so conversations start further along.
Direction
The blog post Write for Where Your Business Is Going recommends writing for the work and clients you want over the next five or ten years, rather than summarizing your career so far.
Decide what the book should make easier: a new market, a bigger client, a speaking platform, or a sale of the company.
Define the reader, the promise, and the chapter structure. Big Impact Books offers a free Book Planning Checklist on its main site.
In an interview-based process, you spend about one hour a week explaining ideas and stories while the team drafts.
Read drafts for accuracy and tone. The book should sound like you on your best day, not like a template.
Plan launch, podcast appearances, and media outreach so the book reaches the people it was written for.
It should, and that is the main reason to avoid cookie-cutter content. Big Impact Books founder Melanie Herschorn says she refuses to churn out cookie-cutter content or hide behind ghostwriting, so clients get to own their ideas. The raw material is your own spoken explanations.
If you are still weighing proposals and traditional deals, read the book proposal writing service guide first.
“This book would have never happened without Melanie and Big Impact Books.”
A CEO should write a book when they want a lasting asset that explains their thinking, builds trust before the first meeting, and supports the company’s next move. Big Impact Books’ blog calls a book a CEO’s most underrated tool. With an interview-based process, the weekly time cost can be about one hour.
More in the full FAQ about Should a CEO write a book?With an interview-based process, very little. Big Impact Books says its done-for-you publishing and promotion process is designed to take just one hour a week of the author’s time. Writing a book entirely on your own usually takes far more, because you handle the drafting, revising, and production work yourself.
More in the full FAQ about How much time does writing a book take each week?Pick the topic that matches where your business is going, not only where it has been. Big Impact Books’ post Write for Where Your Business Is Going suggests asking what kind of work, clients, and opportunities you want more of over the next five or ten years, then writing toward that.
More in the full FAQ about What should my book be about?It can be, when the book is tied to a clear goal such as attracting better-fit clients or earning speaking invitations. Sarah Hubbard, a mortgage expert and author of The Intentional Networker, called her Big Impact Books program the best investment. Measure success by opportunities created, not royalty checks alone.
More in the full FAQ about Is a book worth it for a small business owner?Not for independent or self-publishing. Traditional publishers often weigh an author’s existing audience heavily when reading a proposal. For a CEO or attorney, the book can help build that audience instead: Big Impact Books pairs publishing with promotion such as podcast placements and media outreach.
More in the full FAQ about Do I need a big audience before writing a book?Use the same math. At $2.50 per copy you would need 400,000 copies; at $5 per copy, 200,000. Very few books reach those numbers. For a CEO or attorney, a book’s value usually shows up as new clients, referrals, speaking invitations, and media attention rather than as sales income on its own.
More in the full FAQ about How many books do you need to sell to make $1,000,000?Big Impact Books plans, writes, publishes, and promotes books for CEOs and attorneys in about one hour a week of interviews. Read about the full process and free checklists on its main website.
Published by Big Impact Books
