In this strategic episode, Ally Machate, Founder and CEO of The Writer’s Ally, shares how to write the right book that actually grows your business instead of one that just looks good. If you’re a stage 2 founder considering a book but unsure what it should achieve or who it’s for, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
– What turns a book into a marketable tool rather than a Field of Dreams project
– Why clarifying your book’s business goal is more important than writing a “good” book
– How to reverse-engineer the right book from your desired outcome and ideal reader
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a founder. I’m your host Scott Ritzheimer, and today we’re going to talk about that moment when you realize you’re losing to people that aren’t better at whatever it is that you do, they’re just better known, and especially for those of you who are in that startup entrepreneur stage, pursuing life as a successful solopreneur, you might find yourself with the desire or even the decision to write a book. But here’s the thing: I don’t think we talk about enough is you can’t know what the right book is until you actually know what you want to do with it. And being in the midst of my own first book release myself, I can tell you that starting out a book project with a goal is probably not what most of us do. At least it’s not what I do. And the moment that I I was able to develop that goal, it really made everything else fall into line.
My guest today is going to help us do that just right. And my guest is Ali Machate, who’s a publishing strategist, author, services expert, and founder of the Writers Ally. A former Simon and Schuster editor with over 25 years of experience in the industry, she helps authors write, publish, and sell high-quality books that fuel business growth, attract ideal clients, and boost authority. Known for her honest and strategic approach, Ali helps authors cut through the noise, avoid costly mistakes, and turn their books into real engines of visibility and results. Ali, so excited you’re here. This is again, as you might guess from the intro, something that’s near and dear to my heart because it is right in the center of my world right now. But for founders out there who are listening and are thinking about, or have even decided to write a book for their business, how you bring up this idea of writing the right book, R I G H T. How do you know if you’re writing the right or correct book?
Ally Machate
Well, the first question I would ask myself, or I would encourage someone to ask themselves, is: Did you actually think about what you wanted this book to do for you out in the world? And are you really clear on who this book is for, you know. As you mentioned, most people when they start writing a book, especially in the very early stages, they’re motivated by passion, right? There’s an idea they really want to share, a message they really want to get out there, something they really think is going to help people, and that’s a great way to get started. There’s nothing wrong with that, but at some point you have to stop thinking about you, right? What you want to say, what’s important to you to put into the book, and start thinking about the person on the other end, right? On the receiving end, who is it that’s going to buy this book? What exactly is it that they’re looking for that’s going to lead them to get your book, right?
So if you haven’t asked yourself those questions, that’s probably the first red flag that you may not actually be writing the right book, and the risk there is falling into something I call the good book wrong book trap, which is that it is possible, very possible, to write an objectively good book, something well written, interesting to read, got a professional cover on it, but if it isn’t strategically dialed into your goals, if it isn’t clear who the book is for, you can end up with this book that, by all objective measures, is a good book that does absolutely nothing for your business and just sits there looking pretty in your Zoom background. And that’s not really what most people want at the end of the process.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, it’s fascinating. So when we think about this, who I think most folks would say either some version of it’s for everybody, everyone can benefit from this, or maybe even a little bit dialed in, like my existing client. How is your book reader different from your ideal, let’s say, coaching client or consulting client or your your typical profile.
Ally Machate
Well, they may not be different. It really depends on those goals. You know, if you have a business that’s successful, and you know, as you mentioned in your introduction, the problem is really visibility. You’re just not, you know, being considered because people don’t know that you’re in the mix. Then your target reader may be exactly the same as your ideal client because your book is going to be designed to attract more of those types of people, but that again goes speaks to the importance of knowing what exactly you want your book to do for you. I’ve had clients, for example, who are ready to make a shift in their business. They’re pivoting into a slightly different but adjacent niche, or they’re trying to change how they’re perceived, you know what they’re being perceived as the expert on. If you’re writing that kind of book, well, the people you’re targeting are going to be different than the pool that you’ve been speaking to. So then you’ll know that your ideal reader is going to be a little bit different than your current ideal client.
Scott Ritzheimer
So I think it’s pretty safe to say that. There are that no goals is not as good as a goal, but is there such a thing as a wrong goal? Like, are some goals for a book better than others?
Ally Machate
Yeah, absolutely. So I definitely don’t think any goal is wrong per se, but when you are a business owner, when you are an expert, and you’re thinking about that book in terms of how it can help your business, you really want to think of that book as a tool, right? It’s a tool in your toolbox. It’s a lever that you’re going to pull on to get certain benefits and certain results. So when you think of it that way, just like in any other scenario, you have to have the right tool for the job. Sometimes the thing you’re trying to achieve in your business, you think, oh, I’m going to write a book because that’s going to help me do that. But maybe the book isn’t actually the right lever to pull. It may not be the right tool for that job. You know, I go on a lot of these podcasts, and people are always surprised because I’m probably one of the few people who work with authors out there saying not everyone should write a book. I actually don’t think it’s right for everybody for exactly this reason.
I met a woman not too long ago, had been in corporate America, been working for a really long time in the C-suite, tons of great experience, tons of wisdom to share. Was just leaving her office job, wanted to start a coaching and consulting business, and was thinking about writing a book. But the more we dug into what she wanted to do with the book. We realized that what she really needed was a client base and an income flow. And a book will eventually bring you opportunities and bring more income into your business, but it’s certainly not the shortest, most direct path to generating income in a new business. So you know that’s just an example of where her goal to bring in clients and bring in money didn’t 100% align with her initial plan of writing a book.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I like that. So this might not be the fairest way to ask the question, but I think it might be helpful when you talk to a new author, you know, new to you at least. Maybe they’ve done it before, and they start. You ask, “What are your goals for the book? And they start sharing some of those goals. Which are the ones that excite you the most, or or maybe even just feel the most achievable and realistic?
Ally Machate
I love it when an author comes to me with a very clear business growth goal. So they know I want to start getting on stages and speaking, and I want this book to help me, you know, get up on stage. Whether that’s for promotional purposes or to actually be a paid speaker, you know, keynote speaker, it’s a slightly different business model, or someone who comes in and says, you know, I’m I’ve got online courses, I need to create a better pipeline of people to come in for my online courses. The more clear a client is about what they want in their business, the easier it is for me to help them figure out precisely what book is going to be really dialed into. Not only what they want to achieve, but like we keep talking about with that reader, what exactly is the journey, right?
What are they looking for that brings them to the book in the first place? What do they need to see there to really know? Like, yeah, this is the book I’m looking for. This is the thing that’s right for me. And how do we bring them on that transformative journey so that when they end up, they feel both that they’ve gotten real value and also they’ve gotten enough of a taste of this author of this expert to feel ready to take the next step and motivated to take the next step, whatever that looks like. Because that’s ultimately what most people are writing a book for. Whatever that next step is might vary, but that’s the whole point, right? We want people to read it, get a taste, get hooked, get into it, and then want to hire you, attend your class, whatever.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So let’s say we have a goal for our book, and let’s use the example you gave of being invited to more stages. How do you know if the idea in your head will lead to the right book for that goal?
Ally Machate
So, a simple process. We’ve already sort of you know touched on it, but asking yourself those questions so that you kind of backwards engineer things, kind of the same way you would any product or any offer in your business really does work for a book as well. So you know, starting with that end goal in mind, I want to get on stages. I want to do more speaking. All right, great. Well, what kind of people do you want to be speaking to? You know, is this a situation where you just want to be paid for speaking, or is this a situation where you want to be in front of the room of ideal clients and prospects, people that you might actually you know bring into your business in some way. You’re not going to give exactly the same talk, right? It’s going to be designed a little bit differently. You also might not be attending the same kind of events. You know, large large conferences typically will have you know maybe one or two really great keynote speakers who are inspirational and exciting and motivational, but the people who at the conference who are usually giving the talks that lead to work, those are usually the breakout sessions, right?
They’re the people who are teaching something, a specific topic or on a specific track. So even those kinds of details will change the book that you’re writing and how you market it. And I’ll give you an. Another quick example: I had a client once who had been very successful running corporate workshops, like retreats, weekend retreats, and had been running these retreats for years and years. Didn’t want to be in the room anymore. Basically, just wanted to get up on stage and be paid to be a keynote speaker, and that was great. Except he forgot that when he was taking all his material from all of his retreats and putting them together in a book. That ultimately there was another factor. He wasn’t just writing that book for the people in the room. He was writing it for the people who were hiring the keynote speakers, right? He was writing it for the conference organizers, and he had this book that was truly a great book with lots of great information. But it was so deeply rooted in the workshop that he wasn’t getting any results. And when he came to me, that was the question: like, what’s wrong here? What’s not happening? I pointed out to him that nothing about his book was allowing those organizers to see him as a keynote speaker. They were seeing him as a workshop leader. They were seeing him as an instructor. So the book itself was not positioned to achieve the goal he actually wanted.
Scott Ritzheimer
So once folks have dialed in on, they’ve got a clear goal. They’ve structured the book so that it aligns with that goal. What are some of the mistakes that you see folks make from that point onward?
Ally Machate
Well, one of the mistakes, one of the really common mistakes, and we touched on it again earlier, was along the path of writing being so focused and so narrowly focused on writing a good book, which is not a dumb thing, right? Of course, you want your book to be good. Of course, it’s important that you’re conscientious about what you’re creating, but again, at the end of the day, a good book is not necessarily a marketable book. So one of the biggest mistakes is being so focused on just making sure the book is good, whatever that means to you, looks good, reads well, whatever. They take sort of a field of dreams mentality. If the book is just really, really good, then people will discover it, right? And things will blow up, and I’ll get those benefits. But that’s not really how it works. Your book has to actually be marketable as well, and it needs to be the right book, as we’ve been talking about. So you have to pick your head up out of the sand somewhere in the process and make that shift to start thinking about it differently, and sort of hold those two ideas in your head at the same time to create a book that is both good and marketable.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, when you talked about getting on stage, you talked about kind of the the dual dynamic of speaking to your ultimate audience and then kind of the gatekeepers, the the folks who are organizing. When you talk about making a marketable book, is there a similar dynamic there as well?
Ally Machate
Yeah, absolutely. So it’s it’s always really kind of comes down to those things. What do you want the book to do out in the world? You know, you said something earlier about people think like, oh, well, anybody can enjoy my book, or anybody could benefit from my book. Excuse me. When you ask about goals, their goals are often things like, well, I just want people to like it, right? I just want people to read it. I want people to benefit from it. I’m trying to help people. Really common, really wonderful. You know, really worthwhile heart-centered goal. It’s a great motivation for writing it. But you you really do have to understand and make that shift. Otherwise, it’s like the tree that fell in the woods. Nobody will ever know about your book, right?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, Ally. There’s this question that I have that I ask all my guests. I’m very interested to to hear what you’d have to say. But the question is this: What would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish every founder watching or listening today knew?
Ally Machate
Oh, that’s such a juicy question. Well, to keep it specific to books, I would say the one secret I really want people to know is that your job is not to sell books.
Ally Machate
A lot of people, when they write a book, again, especially with a business goal in mind, they’re consciously or unconsciously working with this model that they’ve probably seen in pop culture, they’ve seen it in the media, and it’s the traditional book publishing model. You get a book deal, you get a publisher, you sell this book, it becomes a New York Times bestseller, and all of these wonderful things happen. But book publishers are in the business of selling books. That’s how they make money. Every copy they sell is where their income is from. But you, as a business owner, you’re not in the business of selling books. You’re in the business of selling whatever it is that you sell, and the book is a tool to help you do that. So the secret is not to focus on book sales really at all, because that’s not where the value of that book really lies for you when you have a business and you’re selling services or products or other types of things, and I have known clients who have had a book that didn’t sell very many copies. I even know one guy who’s never sold a copy ever, and he’s been leveraging that book for 20 years. He’s made millions of dollars because of the book, but not in book sales.
Scott Ritzheimer
Wow! Wow! Fascinating. What a fascinating conversation and a timely one, at least for me. And I know for others listening today. So, Allie, there there are some folks that are listening to this. They’re in that process, or maybe they’ve got a dream of writing a book and they really want it to serve their business and their clients well. Where can they reach out to you? What would be a next step be? How can they move from here?
Ally Machate
So, if you come to our site thewritersally.com, we have a library full of free resources. Is in one, in fact, called “Don’t Write the Wrong Book. It’s a 25 minute webinar training, sort of along the lines we’ve been talking about. It walks you through exactly what it means to write the right book, how to avoid writing the wrong one, and a simple five-step process you can apply to any ideas you’re currently working with, whether you started writing or you just have a bunch of ideas and you’re trying to pick one, I highly recommend you check it out. If you’re already drafting or close to finish and you’re ready to actually talk to somebody about your book, we’ve got a contact form there you can fill out to get a free book strategy call.
Scott Ritzheimer
Excellent, excellent. I highly recommend it. Do not try to publish a book on your own, bring in some some qualified help, and Allie is certainly there to help. Fascinating conversation again, and and a privilege, Ali, and honor having you on the show. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today, and for those of you watching and listening, you know that your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Scott Ritzheimer
Hey everyone, Scott Ritzheimer here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you exactly what you need for the level you’re in right now. If you want to discover what level you’re in, take our 10-question Founders Evolution Quiz for free at foundersquiz.com. That’s foundersquiz.com. It’ll pinpoint exactly where you are and give you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next level in your journey as a founder. If you got something out of today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, or review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let’s be honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible guests. So keep starting, scaling, and succeeding, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
Contact Ally Machate
Ally Machate is a publishing strategist, author services expert, and founder of The Writer’s Ally. A former Simon & Schuster editor with 25+ years in the industry, she helps authors write, publish, and sell high-quality books that fuel business growth, attract ideal clients, and boost authority. Known for her honest, strategic approach, Ally helps authors cut through the noise, avoid costly mistakes, and turn their books into real engines of visibility and results.
Want to learn more about Ally Machate’s work at The Writer’s Ally? Check out her website at https://www.thewritersally.com/
Connect with Ally through her LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/allysonemachate