As a professional ghostwriter of self-help and business books, an important part of my job is to help my valued client identify the problem they intend to solve for their reader, as well as its solution. The problem and solution need to be very specific. This is the first rule of self-help books.

The second rule is to define the pool of potential readers (the market). It’s possible that the problem may be shared by millions of people, such as how to lose unwanted pounds and feel healthy, or how to make your business more profitable by hiring the right people and training them properly. On the other hand, the problem may be shared by a small number of people, such as how to prevent tennis elbow or how to buy commercial real estate in New York.

Many authors try to cast their net too wide. They think that by addressing multiple problems or vague problems, they will attract more readers and sell more books. In fact, the opposite is usually true. A potential reader is going to pay money and invest many hours of their time reading a book only if it addresses their specific problem or aspiration. Books are like conversations. If you talk to your friend about a problem they’re having and you wander off-topic, or even worse, start talking about your own problem, their eyes will glaze over and they’ll soon excuse themselves.

For example, I regularly have business clients who want to write a book about, say, how to hire the best person for a job, and how to keep them happy so they’ll be engaged and stick around longer, rather than seeking a better opportunity elsewhere. Employee turnover is a significant problem these days, especially in a strong economy with low unemployment, giving labor more leverage over management. So far, so good.

But some authors suggest that their book should be written for both the manager and the employee, and that somehow it should appeal to both the person being paid and the person signing the paycheck. The reasoning is that the potential market will include more people and therefore they could sell more books.  

I must gently tell them that this is impossible. No employee wants to read a book written for managers, and no manager wants to read a book that provides career advice to employees. You must choose one or the other. It’s far better to be the expert in a small market than to be a jack-of-all-trades in a big market and end up with nothing.

The solution could be to write two books—one aimed employees and one aimed at managers.

The Exceptions Prove the Rule

Of course there are exceptions—those magical books that somehow get a big, diverse audience to focus on a common problem. A good example is The Goal, a business novel centered on management principles. It was co-authored by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, who is known for his Theory of Constraints, and Jeff Cox, a writer with several management-focused novels to his credit. First released in 1984, it presents a practical case study on operations management, particularly focusing on identifying and resolving bottlenecks using the Theory of Constraints. To date it has sold an estimated five million copies.

In terms of approach, The Goal unfolds as a fictional narrative, a style common to a few blockbuster business books. The protagonist, Alex Rogo, oversees a struggling manufacturing plant. Bill Peach, a senior executive, challenges Alex to transform his failing plant into a profitable and reliable operation within three months. Assisting Alex is Jonah, a physicist believed to be a stand-in for Goldratt, who guides him through various fundamental business concepts via phone calls and brief meetings. Alongside the business challenges, the novel also explores Alex’s personal life, particularly his marital issues.

In 2011, Time magazine recognized The Goal as one of the top 25 most pivotal business management books.

Books like The Goal, which take a more literary or artistic approach to problem-solving, are risky because a publisher cannot predict how many copies might be sold. Such a book could be a total flop, or it could—in very rare cases—be a big success. In fact, the publisher of The Goal is The North River Press, tiny company that appears to be owned by none other than Eliyahu M. Goldratt. My guess is that Mr. Goldratt couldn’t get a traditional publishing deal because editors thought his book wouldn’t sell, so he published it himself. His gamble paid off.

As I tell my valued clients, when you self-publish your book, you can break all the rules and do whatever you want!