How and Why Your Calling Should Become a Book
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
The answers will vary from person to person, and may depend on your stage of life. Perhaps it’s your career or an artistic pursuit. Or maybe it’s a new baby or pet that needs taking care of.
As life goes on, and we come to know ourselves more deeply, some of us will be lucky enough to discover what might be considered our calling in life. Not only is realizing your calling a spiritually impactful process, it may also be what launches you into a successful and rewarding book project.
This post will define the many benefits of writing a book about your calling — whether it’s an aspect of your career, your business, or your personal life — and how to go about spreading your knowledge and enthusiasm as written (and published) word.
But first, let’s answer this deceptively simple question:
What is a calling?
I have a friend who is an exceptionally good family lawyer, but she doesn’t think of her work as a calling. In fact, to her, it’s not even a career — even though she has been solving family problems for decades. She calls it a job, but she’s wrong. It’s her calling. Being a lawyer is what she was meant to do and it’s extremely difficult (if not impossible) to imagine her doing anything else. It’s a calling because of how devoted she is to the work and how good she is at what she does.
A calling is usually something we love to do, but it doesn’t have to be. My lawyer friend, for example, doesn’t “love” what she does. It’s incredibly difficult work. A calling is more about having pursued a path, either personally or professionally, to the point that you have acquired deep experience and sought-after knowledge you can share for others’ benefit. Forget about all the warm and fuzzy feelings associated with following your passion. If you have something worthy to share, you surely paid the price for it. You sweated and suffered and sacrificed to get where you are or to do what you’ve done. That’s a calling.
The benefits of turning your calling into a book
There are a great many benefits to writing a book about your calling. First of all, you can get even better at doing whatever it is you do. Whether your calling is a career or a personal pursuit, when you finally sit down to capture the essence of that endeavour, it will deepen your understanding of the work you’re writing about.
You will be forced to analyze why you’re actually so darn good at your job or interest. Things that have become automatic or almost second nature will have to be dissected and simplified so you can share the information with others in a way that makes sense. In my experience as a book coach, I’ve seen numerous authors become better at what they do by undertaking a stringent examination of their process, values, and talents in preparation for writing their book.
If your calling is connected to a job or a business, a book can indeed make you more money. It can clarify and promote your brand to attract more customers. A book can also help you find the right kind of customers. It establishes your expertise and differentiates you from your competitors. And the book itself can become a new revenue stream through direct sales.
Finally, writing a book about your calling can make a difference in the lives of others. You have acquired knowledge — even wisdom — that people are hungry for. What may seem quite natural to you because of your expertise could be the missing link for someone else who is trying to achieve your level of mastery in your chosen subject. Many of my authors have heard from people in the farthest corners of the planet who benefitted from what they shared.
The best genres to consider
There are four genres best suited to a book about a calling: memoir, self-help, how-to, and leadership.
A memoir is the obvious choice for a celebrity within a particular discipline. For example, if you are a famous chef or restauranteur (even just in your region), then this genre is the obvious choice. If you’re someone with name recognition, many readers would be interested in your career story. A good example is Kitchen Confidential, a memoir written by the late Anthony Bourdain. In 1999, he submitted an unsolicited essay to The New Yorker magazine called “Don’t Eat Before Reading This.” It was such a hit that it led to his memoir in 2000 and launched his career in media. You don’t need to be notorious to pen a memoir about your calling but, if you lack name recognition, the story itself must be very compelling — a real page-turner.
Another aspect to consider is that writing a memoir will limit your ability to share practical advice. The style of a memoir is primarily narrative-based with little room to depart from your storytelling. If you’re not sure whether a memoir is the right choice to tell the world about your calling, a good book coach can assess the viability of your story in memoir form. But don’t be dismayed if this is not your genre; there are three other great options.
Self-help books are a good alternative if memoir doesn’t suit your story or style. In this genre, you can both dive into the details of what you do and the wisdom you want to share. Self-help books are perfect for those in professions based on dispensing advice. Lawyers can tell clients how to avoid common pitfalls in their chosen area of practice. Counsellors and therapists can translate their unique methodology into a book on healing, coping, and growing. Accountants can show would-be entrepreneurs the mindset required for understanding a business’s financial data.
And here’s the great news: your self-help book can be full of stories from your years at work or within the movement you were personally involved in. In fact, I urge you to include stories. No matter how passionate you might be about the nitty gritty details of your process, narrative is what carries the reader forward through the book. Self-help books without stories are nothing more than a recipe or formula to achieve something. They are the equivalent of toast without jam or butter: nutritious but not enjoyable. If your book is not a pleasure to digest, it simply won’t be consumed.
How-to books are a sub-genre of self-help. I distinguish these similar styles like this: a self-help book is more personal in nature. It’s about individual improvement, internal growth, and learning. How-to books are more transactional. The reader is learning how to achieve or create or obtain something quite specific.
Take this case of a world-class furniture restorer (and new client of mine) for example. He’s worked on furnishings aboard yachts and in homes of some of the richest and most famous people on the planet. He will name drop when he has the permission from his clients and that will keep the book moving along nicely. He will also share stories of his own struggles to get where he is today: the very pinnacle of success in his profession. But the primary goal of this book is to show both amateur and professional furniture restorers how to achieve some of the trademark effects that he has perfected over decades of practice. Despite incorporating some elements of the self-help genre into his writings, this is most definitely a how-to book for other furniture restoration aficionados to learn from.
Finally, we have the leadership book. This genre is really worth your consideration if you have achieved success as a visionary, CEO, business owner, military officer, or any other kind of leader. Whether you work in for-profit, nonprofit, education, or government, the leadership book is attractive because it expands your potential pool of readers. For example, if you have spent the last 20 years running a successful nonprofit that is striving to end poverty, you can certainly write a memoir or how-to book that guides others who are working in the nonprofit sector. But if it’s a leadership book, you expand your reach to almost anyone in the corporate world along with small business, healthcare, and government.
The challenge is finding ways to “universalize” your stories and message so that lessons can be applied to any endeavour requiring leadership. A qualified book coach can help you translate your wisdom for a broader audience.
How to start writing
Though each of the four genres have their own specific style and set of readers’ expectations, there are common elements that apply to any nonfiction book based on the author’s calling.
First of all, make sure you tell a story. It doesn’t have to be the whole story from start to finish — even if you’re writing a memoir. Instead, endeavour to tell stories that link to the messages you want to impart, as well as anecdotes that are simply too compelling to leave out. Conflict, struggle, and overcoming obstacles are the best raw material for a narrative that engages readers.
You also need to be very clear on who is going to read your book and what they are going to get out of it. Even if your leadership book is for a broader audience, drill down into the type of ideal reader you are writing for. What gender are they? What kind of work do they do? What are their struggles? How old is your imagined reader? The answers to these questions will guide both your writing and marketing efforts.
I’m coaching a retired surgeon who is writing a book about transforming the Canadian healthcare system, post-COVID. He’s deciding if fellow doctors are the primary audience for this book ... or if he should write a call to action for the public who own and use the universal healthcare system. Once the good doctor answers those questions, he must decide what his readers will gain. Even if you’re writing a book that’s 99 percent narrative and chock full of humorous, tragic, or gripping stories, the reader needs to get something out of the book other than entertainment. Decide what that benefit is and write with the focus that will provide that benefit to your reader.
Finally, say something that hasn’t been said. Add a nugget of knowledge to the corpus of books about your area of interest. Get in your two cents’ worth but make it stand out amidst the wealth of wisdom that has been shared through the ages. I often work with authors who have lived very unique lives but struggle to identify what makes them (and the way they pursued their calling) different. But it’s there. We always find what that X factor is. Sometimes the book is nearly finished before that eureka moment occurs. I’ve never coached someone who didn’t discover their specific spin on what they were called to do and why it mattered. This awareness always makes your book stand out.
Writing a book about your calling has many benefits, but you might also consider that it’s your duty to share your story. Someone out there in the land of book readers needs to know what you went through and the lessons you learned. You might never meet that person, nor receive an email of gratitude from them. But I can promise you that person exists and they are waiting for you to begin typing the words that will eventually become your published book.
Steve Donahue is a professional speaker, book coach, and the author of two bestselling nonfiction books. His works have sold over 100,000 copies and have been translated into Korean, Turkish, Russian and Greek. Steve helps new and experienced authors turn their book ideas into well-crafted publications that delight readers and inspire change. To learn more, visit his website at MyBookCoach.ca.