What kind of business book should you write?

Maybe a helpful colleague said, “You should write a book.” Maybe you scribbled a few ideas in the margins of a board presentation or woke up one morning with a strong urge to make sense of everything you’ve learned. You know you’ve got a story to tell—but you’re not quite sure what shape it should take.

Welcome to the club. Many of the people who reach out to me—entrepreneurs, CEOs, consultants, senior professionals—have valuable insight and experience to share, but no clear label for what they’re trying to create. They don’t speak the language of publishing, and they don’t want to write the wrong book.

Over the years, I’ve come to think about business books in three broad categories: legacy memoirs, authority-builders, and a third, often-overlooked type that sits between them.

Let’s start with the memoirs. These are usually written by people in their late 50s, 60s, or 70s who’ve lived the long arc of a business or leadership journey and want to make sense of it—first for themselves, and then for others. These books tend to focus less on teaching a framework and more on telling the truth: the zigzag path, the stumbles, the close calls, the realizations that came late. The best of them offer insight without ever sounding like a lecture. They don’t set out to “inspire,” and yet they often do—by being candid, generous, and real.

Then there are the authority-building books, typically written in mid-career, by people who have something to teach and a desire to reach a broader audience. These books distill the author’s expertise into a clear, practical message that solves a problem or offers a roadmap. Think of Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup or Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand—books that laid out a compelling idea and launched a speaking career, a consultancy, or a movement. They’re clear, structured, and helpful. And when done right, they elevate both the author and the reader.

But not everyone fits neatly into one category or the other. That’s where the third kind of business book comes in: the blended or hybrid book. These are often my favorite projects, and they were the focus of an earlier blog post I wrote about why memoirs make the best business books. These books use the tools of storytelling—character, conflict, turning points—to draw readers in, but they don’t stop there. They also offer something useful, whether it’s a leadership insight, a negotiation strategy, or a model for personal and professional growth.

Books like Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog or Chris Voss’s Never Split the Difference show how well this approach can work. Knight tells the story of building Nike with drama and humor, yet along the way, you learn a great deal about resilience, risk, and values. Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator, blends thrilling real-world stories with concrete strategies for getting better outcomes in everyday life. They’re business books that don’t feel like homework—and that’s precisely why they work.

So if you’re not sure what kind of book you want to write, don’t worry. The first step isn’t outlining chapters—it’s having a conversation. We’ll talk about your goals, your audience, and what kind of story you actually want to tell. You may be surprised at what you discover.

And when you’re ready, we’ll shape it into the kind of book only you can write.