You’ve probably heard the line before: a book is the ultimate business card. It gets repeated so often in business circles that it’s easy to dismiss as a marketing slogan.
Marina Aris, founder of Brooklyn Writers Press, is happy to admit it is a slogan — and that it isn’t even hers. But she also believes it’s true, with one important caveat: it barely scratches the surface.
“Think about a business card,” she says. “How often do people actually keep them? Maybe you glance at it, maybe you toss it. But a book is tangible. It has staying power with whoever happens to have it.” A card gets lost in a drawer. A book ends up on a shelf, where it keeps working for you long after the conversation that produced it.
The three L’s: leads, leverage, legacy
Almost by accident, Marina has developed her own philosophy of the business book, and it comes down to three words: leads, leverage, and legacy.
Leverage
Leverage means taking one effective asset and using it to create something greater. A book is that asset.
When someone reads your book, they’re essentially in a private conversation with you. They get a direct line into how you think, what you know, and how you approach problems. For a non-fiction author or business owner, that intimacy is the whole point.
“There are thousands upon thousands of professionals in every industry. But when someone chooses to work with someone, it’s because there’s a match — a click. A book, if it’s well written by someone who knows their stuff, lets a reader connect with your voice and the way you think.”
That connection is the expertise being leveraged into something bigger than the page.
Leads
Here’s where modern publishing changes the math. In the traditional model, you wrote a manuscript, sent it to an agent, and waited for a yes or no. Today, in the hybrid space Marina works in — the middle ground between self-publishing and traditional houses — the author is an active participant in how the book is built.
That participation opens the door to lead generation by design. Say an author wants the book to bring in business. Marina will ask the obvious questions: Do you have a website? A course? Do you teach? Anything connected to your expertise becomes a destination.
“You can open the first few pages of a book and put in a page that says, if you picked up this book and you’re interested in this topic, you may also be interested in this.”
Designed well, it’s subtle — not a hard sell. The reader already likes you; the next step is right there.
Marina frames the whole thing as marketing spend that most businesses already budget for. Companies pour money into Google ads and social posts every month. A book is an investment too — there’s no getting around the cost of producing one well — but a well-made book seeded with these breadcrumbs keeps marketing for you indefinitely.
Legacy
The third L is the one most people skip over, and the one Marina refused to end the conversation without.
Social media disappears almost overnight. A book doesn’t. It goes on a shelf, and it stays — not just for the clients and readers you’ll never meet, but for your family, your children, your grandchildren.
“Maybe that’s a bit hokey. But I believe so much in the power of words and what they can do. When you’re done working, having that book out there as your legacy — for the work you did, that you believed in and were good at — there’s something beautiful about that.”
What working business books have in common
A book only delivers on the three L’s if it’s actually good. So what does “good” look like?
Solid writing — even if you’re not a writer. Plenty of experts tell Marina the same thing: I’d love a book, but I’m not a writer. Her answer is a hack she swears by. Don’t hire an expensive ghostwriter. Instead, figure out your topics chapter by chapter, then dictate — interview yourself, or have someone interview you, using your phone or any dictation app.
Why does it work? Two reasons. You speak far faster than you write, so the manuscript comes together quickly. And the best books read like a conversation anyway, because the reader is alone with you on the page. Speaking your book produces something authentic and conversational, already in your own voice. From there, it just needs a professional edit to clean it up and make it publish-ready.
Treating the book as a product. A book is, at the end of the day, a product — and the most effective products are well-made to standard. That means the cover design, the interior layout, the formatting, and the editing all have to be excellent. Blurbs, a foreword, a resources section — every element that can lift the book should be considered.
“You need someone who knows how to package it.”
None of the leads or leverage matters if the book doesn’t look and read like something a traditional house would put out.
Why books fail
Most business books that fall flat don’t fail because of the writing. They fail at the connection.
Authors publish, head to social media, and don’t make sales — because they misunderstand what a sale actually is.
“Getting the sale is about connecting with the right prospect or the right reader. The myth is that you need to be on every platform with hundreds of thousands of followers. You don’t.”
What you need is to show up as the professional you already are and talk about your book the right way. Not “buy my book,” but “I wrote this because I’ve devoted my life to X, and this is what I’ve learned.” When you speak from that place, the right people lean in — and the wrong ones walk away. That’s the goal. In sales you don’t want maybe; you want a clear yes or no. The hard no is fine. It means the right people can find their yes.
It’s all about human connection, she argues, and that hasn’t changed no matter how much the technology around us shifts.
Before you write a word
Should you write a book at all? Marina is the first to say not everyone should — only those with a real reason.
Take one of her authors, Scott Skurm, known online as “the repo guy” for his command of the repo market in finance. He’s not a writer; he’s simply the best at what he does, and when he tweets, the book sells. His first book took two years, largely because his ideas lived in scattered folders. The next two will go far faster now that he knows his process. As Marina puts it, the timeline depends entirely on the person and their goal.
If you’re a writer, you can knock out a manuscript in a weekend, a week, or a month — whatever you choose. And once a solid manuscript exists, hybrid publishing moves fast: Marina can take a finished book to market in about 12 weeks, against the roughly three years of the traditional route.
Her closing advice comes back to intention. Don’t write a book to write a book.
“If you have a good reason, and you really believe it’s going to help you leave your mark, that’s one of the first ways to do it.”
FAQ
Why should a business professional write a book? A book delivers three things a business card can’t: leads through embedded calls-to-action, leverage by letting prospects experience your thinking before they meet you, and legacy that outlasts any social media feed.
I’m not a writer — can I still write a business book? Yes. Dictate it instead. Map out your chapters, then interview yourself or have someone interview you. You speak far faster than you write, the result is naturally conversational, and a professional edit turns it into a publish-ready manuscript.
How long does it take to publish a business book? With a hybrid publisher like Brooklyn Writers Press, a finished manuscript can go to market in roughly 12 weeks — compared to the three-year timeline typical of traditional publishing.
Why do most business books fail to generate leads or clients? Usually because the author misunderstands what a sale is. Posting “buy my book” on social media doesn’t work. Speaking from genuine expertise — “I wrote this because I’ve devoted my life to X” — attracts the right readers and repels the wrong ones, which is exactly the goal.
Build a book that works for your business
A book built with intention doesn’t just sit on a shelf — it generates leads, scales your authority, and marks your place in your industry for the long term. That’s the book Beehive helps you plan and market.
Let’s talk about your launch. And for the full conversation with Marina Aris — her complete breakdown of the three L’s, the dictation method, and how she gets books to market in 12 weeks — connect with Marina on LinkedIn.