So You Want to Write a Book

Sharing your story in a book is the most powerful way to get your message out and to build your reputation, authority and brand

The Authors Program is for people who believe that writing a book is the BEST way to get your story out into the world.

It’s for business owners who believe that demonstrating and showcasing your expertise, by sharing your stories in a book, with the educational stories of your clients and colleagues, is better than marketing with high pressure tactics or bribery.

It’s for experts and thought leaders who believe that the key is serving and mattering, by sharing your knowledge in a world of noise and distractions.

In short, it’s for people who believe the best way to show you can actually help people is by actually helping them. And to do this in a book is the best and fastest way to build your reputation and authority.

You’re Not Alone

The Authors Program is also an accountability program. We will help you set this attraction strategy in place in your business in the next 6-9 months.

If the sound of winning great clients – authentically and automatically – resonates with you, schedule your complimentary strategy session now.

I wish I had a resource like this when I first started out! There’s nothing like a well written book to brand you as somebody who has important ideas. More than that writing a book can change your life. It’s certainly changed mine. What are you waiting for?

David Meerman Scott, Bestselling Author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR in the foreword to You Should Write a Book

What is the Authors Program?

The Authors Program is a rigorous, research-led approach to writing and publishing a book.

It’s designed to attract the right people into your world and filter out everyone else.

And it’s designed to persuade people to see the world differently – to help them be more successful in their life or business.

But the Authors Program goes way beyond simply printing and publishing a text that you’ve written.

It’s about attracting your best ever clients

It’s about creating a marketing approach that PULLS the best people towards you and your business, and introduces them to the products and services you offer as something they should seriously consider.

TIP: The big secret is to focus on better clients, customers or prospects and write your book for them from the very beginning.

One more thing…

Above everything else – the Authors Program is an accountability program.

We will help you create a great book and put it in your hands within 12 months.

If this resonates with you, schedule your consultation now.


Want the details?

Want the details? Read on.

We are Jacqueline Moore (a former Financial Times columnist) and Steven Sonsino (a business school professor working at London Business School for more than 20 years). And what we have will excite you and help you create deeper relationships with your people and clients.

Working on this program in the early days made the vision of my book more concrete. Those elements you facilitated were really critical in terms of turning my vision into a reality. I soon felt more confident. You guys have a great process. What a journey we have been on! I feel transformed, accomplished, and relieved!

Maitri O’Brien, author, The New Leaders of Change

THE DETAILS

There is more to the Authors Program than this high-level summary, of course. The details are where all the impact lies. The details that lie between-the-lines.

Because once you know the basics of writing a book, the breakthroughs come in the details.

So instead of shallow tips, shallow bullet points, shallow interactions, in the Authors Program we go deep.

Instead of creating a basic ‘videocourse’ for ‘everyone’ to dip into, we’ve decided to do something different.

In the Authors Program we filter out most people and create DEPTH and DETAIL for just ‘a few people’ who care to be PULLED in deeper.

This is the essence of what the Authors Program is about.

Because there’s a word.

Accountability

The word is accountability. And when you work with someone who holds you accountable your success is (almost) guaranteed.

If this resonates with you, the detailed methods we’ve codified into the Authors Program will leave an impact.

In addition, having a book will reframe communicating with your community for you. As Marty Neumeier told us in our podcast interview, your book is your calling card.

You owe it to yourself, and the people you seek to serve, to write a book. (How many people have told you ‘you should write a book?’) The Authors Program will help you do just that.

If you have any questions, let us know. We’re here to help you get this done.

What now?

To ensure you have the best possible experience working with us, there’s a short application process and that includes a phone consultation with us.

Because we won’t work with you unless we believe in your idea. We have to believe that you have a good book in you – one that will help your reader.

We will not just take your money.

So we need to speak to you before you join the Authors Program to make sure we are the right people who can help you.

We’ll give you a link to set that up below.

In the meantime, here’s how it works in three steps.

Here’s how it works in 3 steps

We’re here to help you navigate the entire process of writing and publishing your book.


  1. Step 1: You join us online for an in-depth workshop
    You’ll join us online over two days and you’ll work with us intensively to put your book plan together. (You’ll be tired afterwards. You better believe it.)
  2. Step 2: You write your book
    You’ll research and write your book using the exact same book plan we created together in the online workshop.
  3. Step 3: We publish your book
    When you’ve finished the manuscript, hand it over to us and we do all the detailed production work – the editing, the typesetting, the publishing and the distribution – so you don’t have to.

OK, that’s the helicopter view.

Let’s drill into the elements that make this work.

How to write and publish your book this year

The Authors Program is a structured methodology that we have honed over the last 37 years.

We’ll give you this methodology and all the practical tools you need to write, publish and market your book in the next 12 months. (You can do it faster if you like.)

Here it is, for reference. (Take a deep breath.)

It’s detailed, isn’t it?

This process might be detailed – there are 194 steps in this process after all – but don’t get too hung up on the details at this stage.

Because we’ll take you through it, step-by-step.

And the good news is you won’t be doing all of them.

You’ll be doing just the research and writing steps, over the next 6-7 months.

And we’ve shown that here in the red box.

This could amount to as little as an hour a day, if you want to spread it out.

Once you’re done we’ll take over, managing everything else for you. (The editing, the design, the proof reading, the ISBN, the printing, the publishing… we mean everything.)

And although it could be shorter or longer if you want, in about 6-9 months you’ll have your book in your hand.

Here’s how the Authors Program comes to life.

1. Two-Day Book Visioning Workshop

Right up front you and we both need to know where you’re heading.

So first, we’ll schedule an online workshop and you’ll spend two complete and very full days with us. (Lots of screenbreaks and private working time!)

During the online visioning workshop Jacqueline and Steven will personally help you:

  • position your book,
  • create your structure and outline,
  • ensure it flows logically throughout
  • and we’ll help you schedule your writing plan

After two intensive days you’ll be mentally exhausted – we guarantee it – but you’ll leave knowing everything you have to do to write your book efficiently and well.

And you’ll know all your deadlines for the weeks and months ahead. They’ll be locked in to your calendar.

2. Your Accountability Partner

A professional editor will take responsibility for you and your book and will hold you accountable to your writing schedule.

We’re not going to gloss over this. Writing a book is hard work. But your editor will keep you motivated and they won’t let your schedule slip.

3. Fortnightly Coaching Calls

After the workshop, you’ll get personalised help in fortnightly group coaching calls with Jacqueline or Steven, sometimes both of us.

These take place every other Friday, but at a time to suit everyone in the group. They’re recorded in case you can’t make it for any reason. (But we hope you can make every single one.)

During the calls we’ll answer all your questions and help you stick to your plan to finish your book.

The long and the short of it is that we will help you see your book finished.

4. A Full Edit of Your Draft Manuscript

When you’ve finished the first draft of your manuscript, the editor working with you will do a full round of notes for you to review.

They’ll go into your draft deeply, giving you a high-level structural note, together with deeper guidance on every line. The goal is to help you refine, polish and complete your manuscript as soon as possible.

Your editor’s job is to ensure that your book is good enough to publish.

You might ask yourself why we are so invested in making your book great? But that’s easy. As your publisher, our name as well as yours is on the cover.

5. Full Writing Templates and Guidance

We know how hard it can be to tackle a book that’s 50,000-60,000 words or so in length. So we’ll give you complete writing templates, interview checklists (if you’re speaking to people in your research) and instructions to help you tackle every single phase of writing your book.

With these checklists and templates you will never be unsure what to do next.

You will know exactly what to do at every step.

6. Full Book Publishing Services

Once you have finished revising your manuscript, we will:

  • create the book cover for you,
  • and the layout of the interior pages.

Then we’ll typeset everything:

  • all the front and end matter,
  • your author’s biography,
  • your back cover blurb
  • and acknowledgements.

We’ll also help you create an index, if you have one. That’ll save you a massive amount of time. (And money.)

In short, we will manage everything you need to create a professionally published book.

But we won’t stop there.

We will co-ordinate with all the official agencies on your behalf.

We’ll help you register an ISBN and – when your book is printed – we’ll help you deal with all relevant legal deposit processes.

In the UK, that’s with the British Library.

As part of this process we’ll create the following editions for you:

  • hardback,
  • paperback,
  • and ebook editions of your book for you.

(We can discuss any special requirements you want to explore later.)

Let us say at this point, that you retain all rights and ownership of your book. You will receive all royalties and revenue from book sales (minus any fees from online agencies such as Amazon, for example).

7. Full Book Distribution Services

As part of our services to you we will organise full printing services for your book. (You won’t have to waste time setting this up yourself.)

As a gift from us (for seeing this through) we’ll pay for and give you 50 paperback copies of your book. Copies that you can give away to family and friends and to your important contacts.

The important point about the printing we organise for you is that you will be able to order unlimited copies of your book at the base production cost. (We don’t make any money on any copies of your books.)

This gives you the ability to give copies away to your contacts, to arrange bulk discount deals with your clients, to sell your books, or to give them away at conferences or workshops, for example

We will also set up full distribution through major online retailers such as Amazon. Using print-on-demand you will never have to handle postage of single copies here and there to your general community.

Once again let’s spell this out – you get and keep 100% of the royalties from your book sales. (There may be sales commission from Amazon, or whichever online retailer you use. But we don’t make anything on books that you sell. Ever.)

8. Full Marketing Course and Guidance

Just to be clear, we won’t market your book for you. But you will have a marketing review with us before your book launches and we’ll help you create an effective marketing plan.

And you’ll get our complete methodology on book marketing – from getting reviews, to media coverage, to any other objective you could have with a book.

In short, we make it as easy as possible for you to market your book.

9. Full Money-Back Guarantee

You need to know that we fully guarantee the Authors Program process and product, and if, at the end of the two-day seminar, you are unsatisfied for any reason, we will happily refund your money.

This program and our process is not right for everyone


In a spirit of openness we need to tell you that the Authors Program – and our methodology – is not right for everyone.

Steven spells it out in the video right here.


Again, who should attend?

This program is really meant for people writing non-fiction books.

So ideally your book idea falls roughly in one of these broad genres:

  • business,
  • self-help,
  • or personal development

You may want to write a first-person business memoir, as opposed to a straight family memoir. So talk to us about this. It may be perfectly appropriate for the Authors Program.

So tell us – why do you want to write a memoir? What is it for? What will it achieve?

Another way of putting this: the Authors Program is for people whose books will share knowledge that helps their readers.

And people who want to write their book but who need assistance crafting a plan. You’re intelligent, but the process behind writing a book can be complex without understanding every step.

And then there are people who need accountability from professional editors. Because having someone hold you accountable makes all the difference.

Who should not attend?

People who want to write a novel or fiction of any kind. This program isn’t designed for writing fiction.

People who don’t know why they want to write a book. This is key.

People who expect us to ghostwrite their book. We’re not offering a ghostwriting service here. (But if you’re interested in having your book ghostwritten, talk to us. We can help there, too.)

People who expect us to do the book writing for them. In the Authors Program you’ll be doing the writing.

Who will you be working with?

Let’s pull up the official bios here.


About us

We are Jacqueline Moore and Steven Sonsino – a husband and wife team originally involved in training media professionals before moving into leadership development.

We have written almost 15 books together over the past 37 years and have twice won a National Training Award, from the UK government, “for excellence in training”.

Our bestseller The Seven Failings of Really Useless Leaders pushed Sir Richard Branson’s Screw It, Let’s Do It down the Amazon bestseller list when it was published in 2007. (Sorry, Richard.)

Jacqueline Moore

CEO and Co-Founder, Authors Channel
Former Columnist and Senior Editor, Financial Times London


Jacqueline Moore was for 16 years a columnist and senior journalist on the Financial Times. She was a director of the award-winning Journalism Training Centre from 1992 to 1998. Her books have been translated into French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Mandarin and US English. (Does that count?)

Steven Sonsino

Co-Founder, Authors Channel, and for 20 years a Fellow in the Centre for Management Development at London Business School


Steven Sonsino was a Fellow in the Centre for Management Development at London Business School for 20 years and is a visiting professor at four other business schools worldwide. His first leadership book, Leadership Unplugged, was called ‘learned yet practical’ by Harvard Business Press.

The main reason to write a business book is to create a really great calling card for what it is you do. If you’re doing something unique and valuable you’re going to have to explain it. If it’s not unique you won’t have to explain it because people have seen it a million times before.

Marty Neumeier, Bestselling Author, The Brand Gap on the Authors Channel podcast


Our Promises to You

We know it’s hard to trust the book writing process to someone else — even experienced professionals. It feels risky. It’s your reputation on the line, after all.

We take that very seriously, which is why we make the following promises:

01

We’ll be blunt with our feedback, rather than let you publish a bad book

We will always give you very direct opinions about your work. But rest assured: we will also help you understand how to make it better.

02

We won’t work with you unless we believe in your idea

We would never just take your money. We will talk with you about your idea and why you want to write a book before you sign up for the Authors Program. We have to be a good fit.

Let’s say it again: we’ll never take your money unless we think you have a good book in you that will help your readers.

03

We will always be there for you

This is not an impersonal video course or a quick checklist that promises you everything and then leaves you to figure out everything yourself.

We, Jacqueline and Steven, will give you our detailed, personalised guidance. We don’t delegate this to some office junior.

We will go deep with you. We will support you through every step. We will be your extended family.

04

You’ll work with high-level editors

Jacqueline and Steven have spent decades in business at the highest level and we’ve worked on magazines, national newspapers and books (including bestsellers).

05

Money-back guarantee

We fully guarantee the Authors Program process, so go through all the taught sessions in the two-day workshop and if, at the end of the seminar, you are unsatisfied for any reason, we will happily refund 100% of your money.

Upcoming Program: 2024

We are accepting applications for just one more author this year


By the very brilliant Austin Kleon

We couldn’t decide if we should put a Matrix red pill here (‘take the red pill and write your book’), or this from the very brilliant Austin Kleon. But Kleon just makes us laugh. (And what he says is so true, by the way. You’d better get ready.)

So tell us about your book idea

As we said above, to ensure you have the best possible experience, we have a short application process that includes a phone consultation with Jacqueline or Steven.

If you’d like to attend, or to get more information, start here by scheduling a call to tell us about your book.

It’ll take about 30 minutes and you can ask us any questions you like at the same time.

Your answers don’t need to be set in stone, by the way. Part of our methodology is to refine and perfect your idea. We just need to know what you’re thinking right now.

Schedule your Book Idea Audit right here

What I expected and predicted was to leave the first workshop being more overwhelmed and more daunted by the task ahead. But I feel really excited and way more committed to my book. It’s just a different feeling in my body. Your process has spat me out at the end saying ‘Bring it on!’ You’ve eradicated doubt. That’s effectively what you’ve done. And it’s a really good feeling! And how you’ve done that is with prompts and templates, to-ing and fro-ing, riffing on the ideas, your support and your feedback. It’s been brilliant.

– Mark Hanson / CEO, Inuous

Ready to take your next step?

Don‘t miss out. The next Authors Program starts soon