Bestselling writer and acclaimed writing coach Linden Gross

Customer and media response to our book has been beyond our wildest expectations. The book we wrote and published with Linden's skillful assistance is directly responsible for generating most of our business last year.

No matter how lovely or expensive, most business cards get round-filed hours or days after being given out. Even if they avoid the trash can, in a stack of other business cards they’re little more than calling cards with laryngitis. That does nothing to promote business. But a book turns its author into an expert, and that perceived expertise can turn a business into a runaway success, according to bestselling writer and acclaimed writing coach Linden Gross.

Think about it. A book:

•     Gets filed on a shelf instead of thrown out
•     Establishes immediate credibility
•     Generates media attention

“Sadly, most people never take advantage of this opportunity to become the go-to person in their field because they figure they can’t write a book by themselves,” says Gross. “But they don’t have to.”

When Fred and Sarah Swisher, owners of Bend Pine Nursery and Sculptural Landscapes in Bend, Oregon, decided they should write a book about landscaping in the high desert, the fact that neither had much writing experience beyond promoting their own businesses didn’t matter. They knew that Gross, who draws on her background in editing, writing and teaching when working with others, would guide them along the way.

The business- and life-partners barely had to write a word during their first writing coach session. They just talked. Then Gross asked each to write a Big Sloppy Letter to Linden, something she asks of almost all her clients writing a book. The instructions are simple: “Write anything and everything that pops in your head. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, repetition, or anything else. It doesn’t matter if your ideas are all over the place. What matters is that you get them all down, so we have something to work from.”

Rather than being daunting, this sort of brain dump can be downright liberating. Instead of worrying about what goes where or how it sounds, writers can just let their thoughts flood over them and onto the page or the computer screen. Ironically, this stream of consciousness approach leads to prose that lacks the self-consciousness often found in more purposeful writing. That means that much of this sloppy letter material, once organized, winds up being plopped directly into a first draft.

Before long, an outline for the Swishers’ book 55 Myths, Tips & Secrets started to take shape. Gross worked with the Swishers individually to provide guidance, instruction and encouragement during the writing process. When the manuscript was done, she jumped in as editor and gave it a quick polish. Then the couple published the book themselves through Gross' on demand publishing company Incubation Press, initially ordering just enough copies for advance readers and eventually printing batches of fifty to two hundred books.

Being the authors of a book about landscaping allowed the Swishers to establish themselves as the local landscaping experts. They built on that reputation with presentations to everyone from homeowner and business associations to horticultural gatherings. Their book also triggered a number of newspaper and magazine articles—along with several television appearances. And all that helped their bottom line. “Customer and media response to our book has been beyond our wildest expectations,” says Fred Swisher. “The book we wrote and published with Linden's skillful assistance is directly responsible for generating most of our business last year.”

As a writing coach who helps increase writing effectiveness, Gross works with people who love writing and those who dread it. Some of her clients are great with words, but disasters when it comes to organizing their ideas. Others have plenty to say if they could only bring themselves to sit down and write instead of sharpening their pencils down to stubs or revising their first page (or paragraph) until their erasers are mere nubs. Still more start to sweat the second they pick up a pen or hit their computers.

“I have helped business professionals—from Jill Harris, whose book The Five Guide gained media exposure for her San Francisco Pilates studio to Tara Nicholle-Nelson, a real estate broker whose book hit Amazon’s top ten business books list—conquer their writing challenges,” says Gross. “The first and hardest step is convincing them to put their inner critic on hold until they've gotten their ideas down. Compared to that, the rest is easy.”

For more information about Linden Gross' writing coach or editing services, visit www.lindengross.com. You'll find more information about Incubation Press, her on demand publishing company, at www.incubationpress.com.