Recently I published my first book, a project that took me about two and a half years to complete on and off. I doubt it will be a New York Times best seller anytime soon, as it is a somewhat niche book focused on Internal Auditor Leadership Competencies, but that is just fine with me. For me the journey was my payback, and completing a close to 300 page book provided a real sense of accomplishment. I’m now a one percenter – neither in the richest one percent of people, nor thankfully, a member of an outlawed motorcycle gang; but a freshman in the one percent club of people who start writing a book, who publish it!
My book is titled: So, You Want To Be An Internal Audit Rock Star? And reflects two of my passions: internal auditing and rock music. At its heart my book is a leadership book for my target audience – assurance professionals, accountants and auditors.
My Writing Journey and Experience
Writing about topics that you are passionate about, and know, can be very therapeutic. When I started to write my book, I was working for myself after a long run in the corporate world. Time was on my side. I took solace from jotting down my thoughts on experiences I lived or observed. My words had no right or wrong – just me musing over memories and thoughts. My twist, I infused rock music analogies to make my key points memorable. One benefit was my research. Simply watching YouTube videos or listening to podcasts involving the musicians who inspired me. Nothing wrong with watching Motorhead documentaries or Rory Gallagher performances and interviews late at night, beer in hand. To be honest, it’s hard to call that work!
Some days I wrote four or five thousand words as content just oozed out of me. Other days I struggled to craft anything of substance. I found writing down key words or possible ideas very useful even if I didn’t have the words to support immediately. Most of my ideas were penned while waiting for my son’s lacrosse or basketball practice sessions. I used my phone to string a few sentences together – often 300 to 500 words at a go. I ended up with about 65,000 words in my book, and it felt about right.
It helped that I chose to write a book about a subject matter (internal auditing) that I had a lot of experience with and passion for. I worked in internal audit executive roles for most of my career, including many years working in a Wall Street Investment bank. My challenge was extracting experiences and describing them logically, for others to take in and understand. Context setting became a critical ingredient for my book. Creatively I had to match auditing leadership competencies such as having vision, with real rock star analogies, and choosing which analogies and which rock stars, made compelling reading for my target audience. I guess you can legitimately call me a creative accountant!
Did I have a perfect book outline to start with? No. However, I did have several articles I had composed to kick start my book writing process. As these articles all covered aspects of internal auditing and risk management, they proved to be an excellent foundation upon which to build.
I explored a book publishing contract and was offered one early on in my process, but in the end, I caved in to my desire to beat my own drum and decided to forgo the contract offered. I felt that a contract and deadline would put too much pressure on myself to deliver – the last thing I wanted my book to be was forced. Being my own boss and self-publishing, with editorial assistance was the right path for me. It was never about sales or profit.
So what did I learn about myself on this journey?
Focus, perseverance and creativity were my salvation.
Several times I took a step back and concluded I simply don’t have enough content or what I had lacked oomph. But each time I kept going and as the chapters fell into place my self-confidence grew. In the first 5 months I wrote about 75% of my book. Then I took about 9 months off to focus on my new job but picked it back up and completed the first full draft manuscript about a year before ultimate publication. It felt great to achieve that milestone and I had a few drafts printed into a book format. That step may sound a bit silly, but this was critical to maintaining my focus and motivation to complete my book. The finish line was now in sight as my book manifested in front of me, albeit with a plain white cover and a rather rudimentary layout.
Rounds of self-reflection and editing followed, and I made substantial changes in the period leading up to publication. My editor was great, he provided sparks in all the right places and at the right times, to bring the underlying rock vibe a bit more to the fore. He served up plenty of ideas, but I held the pen.
I did not use artificial intelligence (AI) at all writing my book, even though it is a topic that I do discuss in an internal audit sense, several times in my book. Obviously, AI can generate reams of content real-time but playing to my old-fashioned sensibilities I really wanted my book to be in my words and my voice – a globally experienced accountant, who is easy going and likes to make sense of things over a beer. AI slop be darned!
Storytelling is an art I embrace wholeheartedly. I love good outcomes and the suspense of a good story. Writing about lived experiences and reflecting on the lessons learnt was nostalgic and spurred me to describe events as if they were playing out right in front of me. Keeping it practical and relatable became my guide.
Feedback is a gift to be embraced! One of my beta readers was an experienced elementary school teacher; her high level feedback (a paragraph or two max) to me on every chapter was so insightful -with a grade of course! She had no accounting or auditing background, but she really related to the messaging in the book – practical ideas, uplifting thoughts on being ambitious and taking actions to improve. The feedback was provided almost real-time every day, and the freshness made it insightful. Feedback from all my beta readers was critical yet constructive and helped me to join more dots together, to deliver a more compelling and better flowing book.
In the End…
Publication of my book was a lifetime milestone achievement to be shared, that afforded me a sense of quiet personal elation. No big fanfare and no big financial reward, but as an achievement it felt so much more than any of that. My passion project was delivered and my insights and take on internal audit leadership competencies documented for the record. As my book takes on its own personae, I can now call myself an author, among other things. The book-writing journey for me proved to be more valuable than the destination and I would encourage everyone to consider writing a book, to pause, reflect inward, and learn.
If you are thinking of writing a book, I am happy to connect, share inspirations and connect you with a great editor if you need one. Connect with me on Linkedin.