How to Write an Executive Thought Leadership Book
I’m in the early research phase of one client book project as I polish the final pages of another. Everyone knows good books require months (often years!) of consistent creative work. But what happens in those months looks a little fuzzy when you’ve never walked through them.
Since I’m actively working at both “bookends” of that production process, I wanted to take you behind the scenes. I specialize in narrative-driven executive thought leadership. Translation: I help business leaders write world-class books.
Thought leadership as a category gets a bad rap. The stereotype is the book that should have been a blog post, an airy manuscript with more jargon than substance. But a negative stereotype, to me, is just an opportunity.
Competition is bloodiest amongst mediocre books. It’s hard to promote a bad book because there are so many bad books to choose from!
But there’s always demand for another great book.
That’s the secret, then, isn’t it? The most effective thought leadership books (for building authority, attracting customers, meeting investors) are simply the best books.
Good stories. Memorable ideas. Clear, punchy, confident prose. Ideas that enter and alter the industry zeitgeist. So, how’s it done? How do you write a great book?
After over a decade of ghostwriting for C-suite executives, I’ve refined the process into five distinct stages:
Plan
Research
Conversation
Structure
Craft
Let’s get into it.
1. Plan and workshop your thesis
The first step is workshopping your idea. I can’t overstate the importance of this step. Writing your way to your idea is highly inefficient for this type of book. In fiction, people like to describe the difference between planners and pantsers (also called “discovery writers”). Planners outline their book and know every detail before drafting a word of copy. Pantsers just start typing and see where the story leads.
Pantsing may work in fiction. Pantsing for a thought leadership book makes your job a lot harder than it needs to be. Find the ideas first, decide what you’re going to say and how, and then get that plan on paper. You can always change your mind later, but it’s better to begin with a general sense of direction than to stare at a blinking cursor.
This is top of mind because I just completed it for my latest client project. My latest client book began with a 5-call workshop, which we used to draft a proposal. Starting with the book proposal meant putting the full idea on paper. We had to tighten the core thesis, translate the logic of the book into an outline, break that outline down into descriptions of each chapter, and clearly define who we’re writing to and the book marketing plan. This required several hours of collaborative work.
Those hours are well spent. Every hour you spend planning your book saves you weeks of indecision and dancing around ideas later.
2. Deep-dive industry research
You might call this the “nerd out” phase. This is one of my favorite parts. This is the data collection portion of the research process. I don’t have to worry about drafting.
I usually set out with a set of questions based on each chapter. If I’m writing a chapter about capital allocation decisions for hedge fund managers, then I like to begin my research with the most basic questions imaginable: What is capital allocation? Who are the best capital allocators? What are the hot-button issues among capital allocators today? What technology are they using? What are they worried about? Who do they follow online, and what books are they reading?
I want to immerse myself in the research. Usually, one simple question leads to a slightly more complex one, which leads to another more complex one, and so on. Before I know it, I’m reading research papers and transcripts from niche industry podcasts. I might buy books just to understand the contents of this one chapter.
My job as a ghostwriter is to bring good questions to my author so that they can speak to what’s happening in the zeitgeist. I have to plant some real roots first. I need to understand their industry and the topics we’ll investigate together so we’re never stuck at the surface. Armed with my research and questions, I start talking to my author.
3. Conduct subject-matter interviews
My favorite stage of the book writing process is the interview. Most book writing projects require numerous interviews with my client. We go chapter by chapter. One call focuses on chapter 1. Call two probably continues chapter 1, maybe begins to bleed into chapter 2. The more frequently I can get on the phone with my client, the better. My latest book project: my client and I speak weekly for an hour.
One caveat I’ll mention: Technically, steps two and three happen in parallel. Our conversations add to my research process, and my research process arms me with better questions. So, it’s not quite chronological.
This stage also includes expert interviews. Beyond my client, I look for additional stories and industry stats by speaking with other people in the industry. The best nonfiction books are collections of stories. Stanford Research found that learning facts through stories is 22x more effective than trying to remember those facts by themselves.
As I interview my client, often the stories they tell send me on side quests. They might tell me about a chance run-in they had with a good friend that led to an important moment in the book. I could just use my client’s story here. But the richer story is almost always on the other side of interviewing the good friend also, to hear their experience. This adds more color, more detail.
I try to abide by Robert Caro’s advice to “turn every page” and a line I heard David Quammen say: “get on the plane.” Great stories are on the other side of having more conversations, reading more sources, and just entering every book project with endless curiosity.
That’s the fun of this work!
4. Map research to your narrative structure
All this research, and all these conversations, lead you to an interesting place. You have a good outline from planning, but that doesn’t mean you know exactly where every stat, story, and side note fits into the larger book. Armed with all your information, it’s time to begin really outlining everything you've got.
The way to do this is by just returning to your initial outline and comparing it against all the content you’ve gathered. I literally like to just begin dropping things into docs under headings. “Oh, this stat belongs in this chapter, just before that story.” “Do I introduce the brother in chapter one or chapter three when he actually becomes critical to the story? Let’s just leave a note about it in both places.”
The point is, I give myself substance. I am anchoring the direction of the book using all the data I’ve spent weeks or months collecting. Once everything is distributed in one place, the real work begins: turning this outline into a real narrative.
5. Polish the prose
I know I said researching and interviewing was the most fun. But actually, it’s probably writing. I’m a writer’s writer. I love thinking about craft and telling a great story. Finally, that work can begin.
Craft is the most overlooked part of thought leadership writing. These books exist to demonstrate expertise, so most authors assume substance is all that matters. While a useful nonfiction book with plain prose will always beat a beautifully written book with zero substance, readers today expect both. As AI tools lower the barrier to generic information, craft is what sets memorable books apart.
What do I mean when I talk about craft? In nonfiction, craft is what makes your ideas digestible and memorable. It doesn’t just matter what you say, but how you say it.
There is also an authority to good writing. When a reader senses that you put real effort into your ideas, they view the author as someone patient, calculated, and meticulous. You care about the small details. There is another meta message going on as well. Every nonfiction book requires effort. The less effort the author puts in to convey their ideas, the more effort the reader must put forth to understand those ideas. Conversely, the more effort an author puts into clarifying their ideas (through metaphor, storytelling, tight prose), the simpler it is for readers to understand the information and remember it.
All to say, craft isn’t merely an add-on feature. The best thought leadership books in the world achieve legacy status because of how they are written.
I’m passionate about this part because it’s my favorite part. For over a decade, my core expertise has been taking boring or technical concepts and making them interesting. Almost all that work is done through craft. What’s a story I can add here, or a joke, or a clearer sentence, so that the reader stays with me here?
You can’t shortcut the craft process. It takes time. That’s what makes your book competitive once it’s released. Most people frankly aren’t willing to put in that time to take a mediocre book and make it great.
The finish line
The craft polish is my final step in writing the book. But there’s still work to be done: Cover design, publishing strategy, marketing strategy, book layout, beta readers, and so on. I don’t personally manage these aspects of the project, but I do advise my clients throughout this portion.
I was recently asked on X (Twitter), “What’s the most underrated distribution strategy in business?” I wrote: “A book.”
It’s a big push getting a book from idea to published manuscript. That’s precisely what makes it such a powerful vehicle for delivering ideas and building a personal platform. A book with your name on the spine is physical proof that you’ve spent more hours thinking about your subject than almost anyone in the world. That’s why so many podcast guests, conference speakers, and top consultants put effort into authoring books. It is underrated as a distribution strategy because writing a book requires so much time and effort.
A book also strategically narrows your audience. People online like to shout about how no one reads today. They have a point: Fewer people do read today than in previous decades. But those who do read books have a few things in common. Thought leadership readers, in particular, are often decision-makers. They are entrepreneurs, politicians, and C-suite executives, the most premium.
Sometimes I think about one of my favorite finance writers, Michael Mauboussin. He authors niche finance books about valuations. Most people have never read him. But flip over any of his books, and the people reading and recommending them are the leaders of the largest companies in the world. Who would read a book about valuing companies? Not many people. But among those readers is Jeff Bezos.
I hope this helps you. Writing a book requires real effort. If you have an idea and want an experienced partner to help you bring it across the finish line, let’s talk. Book a call with me here or email me at alex@lewiscommercialwriting.com. This is going to be awesome.
