Choosing a topic for your practice
You already have the outline of your book. It is in the questions clients ask before they hire you, the ones you answer in every first meeting. This guide turns those questions into a topic and a table of contents, with real author examples and a worked example.
Why the questions are the topic
A practice book has one main job: to do, in advance and at scale, the explaining you now do one meeting at a time. The best guide to that explaining is the list of questions people bring you. They tell you what readers worry about, the words they use, and the order in which they need answers. A book built from them is useful to the reader and does work for the practice at the same time.
The Scribe Method makes the same point from the reader's side: decide who the book is for and what problem it solves for them before anything else. Read the chapter on figuring out your audience.
What real authors' topics came from
| Author | The question behind the book | The book |
|---|---|---|
| Jake Falcon, wealth advisor | What should I read as I approach retirement? He could never find a book he was confident giving clients. | Retiring Right |
| Dr. Joseph Field, cosmetic dentist | What actually happens in a smile makeover, how do I choose a dentist, and will it hurt? | Creating a Confident Smile |
| Harris Nydick, advisor to 401(k) and 403(b) plans | How do I invest my retirement plan sensibly, explained in plain English? | Common Financial Sense |
| Colin Dombroski, pedorthist | How do I get rid of this heel pain? | The Plantar Fasciitis Plan |
| Mark Baird, financial planner | The basic money questions he heard from employees who did not understand their benefits | Rules to Riches |
| Chris Belchamber, investment advisor | Is it possible to get a higher return with less risk? | Invest Like the Best |
| Jeb White, admissions consultant | How does a student with no connections get into a top school? | Breaking Into College |
| Kirk Drake, credit union consultant | How do credit unions compete with digital banks and payment apps? | CU 2.0 |
Two of these stories also show how topics get narrower and better. Mark Baird's first fear was that his book would be too broad, since he could write ten books on personal finance; narrowing it was the first hard decision. Dr. Laura Brown's first idea was challenged by one of Scribe's founders as the wrong book for her, and she landed on the subject she treated most: digestion, food sensitivities and their root causes (story).
The method, in seven steps
Collect the questions
For the next month, write down every question prospects and new clients ask, word for word, in meetings, calls and emails. Add the ones you remember from the past year. Aim for forty or more. Ask your assistant or front desk too; clients ask them the questions they are embarrassed to ask you.
Sort them by stage
Mark each one B (before hiring: "how do I choose", "what does it cost", "what happens if I wait"), D (during the work: "what do I need to bring") or A (after). The book is built mostly from the B questions, because those are the ones that decide whether someone hires you.
Pick one reader
Which client do you want more of? Keep only the questions that person asks. A book that answers everyone's questions answers no one's well. The Scribe Method advises writing for one specific person.
Name the job
Write one sentence: "This book will [job] so that [result for the practice]." For example: "This book will answer a pre-retiree's first ten questions so they arrive at a first meeting ready to plan." Then name the moment you will know it worked, which the Scribe Method calls the champagne moment, such as the first client who says they hired you because of the book. Read the chapter on book objectives.
Cluster into chapters
Group related questions. Each group is a chapter that answers them fully. Expect eight to fifteen groups. Questions that fit nowhere usually belong in a different book.
Order from worry to decision
Readers arrive worried and leave ready to act. Put the chapters in the order a client moves through that change: what is happening, what the options are, what the risks are, how to decide, how to choose help.
Test it
Show the chapter list to three good clients and one referral partner. Ask: which chapter would you read first, and who would you give this to? Harris Nydick went further with his draft: he gave it to four college students with orange Sharpies and told them to circle every word they did not understand, then rewrote.
Answer the questions completely. Professionals worry that a full answer gives away the business. In practice, a reader who sees the whole method is more likely to hire the person who wrote it. The Scribe Method chapter on how much to give away explains why.
Worked example: from question list to chapters
Say you are a dentist whose most valuable patients come for dental implants, and most are referred by general dentists. Over a month you collect 46 questions. You keep the 21 that patients ask before deciding on treatment, and cluster them.
| Questions patients asked (sample) | Chapter |
|---|---|
| "Why did I lose this tooth?" "Will it happen to the others?" | 1. What happened to your tooth, and what happens next if you wait |
| "What are my options?" "Why not a bridge?" | 2. Implants, bridges and dentures: an honest comparison |
| "Does it hurt?" "Will I be awake?" | 3. What the procedure is actually like, step by step |
| "How long does it take?" "Can I work?" | 4. The timeline, and why it takes as long as it does |
| "What does it cost?" "Does insurance cover it?" | 5. Costs, insurance and the questions to ask any office |
| "What can go wrong?" "Do they fail?" | 6. Risks, and how to lower yours |
| "How do I choose who does it?" | 7. How to choose a clinician, including what to ask me |
| "How do I look after it?" | 8. Living with an implant |
The job sentence: "This book will answer an implant patient's real questions before their consultation so they arrive informed and less afraid." The referral use is obvious: general dentists can hand it to the patients they refer. And the privacy plan is set at the start: every patient story will be either authorized in writing or properly de-identified (see the physicians and dentists guide).
Five traps
- The memoir by accident. Your story belongs in the book where it helps the reader trust you or understand a point. A book about you, for a reader who came with a question, loses them.
- The whole field. "Everything about retirement" competes with every finance book in print. "Retiring from a corporate job in your fifties" competes with very few.
- The brochure. Chapters that end in "call us" read as advertising and, for licensed professionals, draw harder review. Teach; let the author bio do the inviting.
- Jargon. Write in the words clients used in your question list, not the words you use with colleagues.
- Advice to one person. A book can explain how decisions are made; it should not tell a particular reader what to do with their money, case or health. That keeps it useful and keeps it inside your profession's rules.
Once the topic is set, the practice worksheet helps you plan where the book will do its work, and the profession guides cover what your reviewer will look for: financial advisors, attorneys, physicians and dentists, consultants and coaches.