Making your non-fiction book more inclusive is about way more than worrying about cancel culture. It is about making sure that as many people as possible can benefit from your coaching. Yes, you have a niche, but within your niche there are multiple different needs and life experiences. Let’s take a look at what you can do to include everyone.
What Does It Mean to Make a Book More Accessible and Inclusive
Making a book more accessible means ensuring people with disabilities and chronic conditions can read your non-fiction book. The blind and vision impaired are an obvious group who can benefit from making your book more accessible, but accessibility can also benefit the following groups:
- People with dyslexia
- People with ADHD
- People with colour blindness
- People with different learning styles (for example visual learners)
- People using different devices (for eBooks or digital copies of your non-fiction book)
Making your non-fiction book more inclusive means writing your book to be helpful to people from different backgrounds. It also means being careful not to alienate people from different backgrounds through word choice. Here are some examples of the differences you need to consider:
- Different race
- Different gender
- Different sexual orientation
- Different religion
- Different health and abilities
- Different nationality and culture (growing up in different countries can lead to different experiences)
- Different income levels/privilege/opportunities/upbringing
Everyone who reads your non-fiction book will read it through different eyes. Their lived experience will impact the way they interpret your coaching.
Why Is It Important to Make Your Book Inclusive
The most important reason why you should make your non-fiction book inclusive is out of compassion for your fellow humans. It can hurt to read a book and have your lived experiences dismissed or overlooked. Your readers just want to be treated with respect and empathy.
Aside from that, making your book more inclusive and accessible leads to more profits. The more people who read your book, the more money you make. While, of course, the primary goal of writing a non-fiction book for your coaching business is to make money selling your book, your secondary goal should be to convert at least a few of those readers into coaching clients. You can’t do that if you alienate your readers. We don’t believe a cost-benefit analysis should be required to treat your fellow human beings well, but if you need help convincing someone in your business, then it makes financial sense too.
7 Ways to Make Your Book More Inclusive
Here are some of the things we do to make our writing more inclusive when we ghostwrite non-fiction books for coaches.
Inclusive Language
Inclusive language just means using language that is respectful to people from different backgrounds. It ensures that your choice of words isn’t off-putting to some of your readers. Follow these Dos and Don’ts to improve the inclusivity of your language.
Do
- Use gender-neutral terms when you’re not speaking about someone specifically (using they instead of she/he or defaulting to a pronoun)
- Write examples with names from different cultures (instead of defaulting to white-sounding names)
- Use gender-neutral terms instead of gendered terms (firefighter instead of fireman, parent instead of defaulting to mum or dad, spouse or partner instead of wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend)
- Quote experts and sources from a range of backgrounds
- Acknowledge that lived experiences may differ (seek out different perspectives where appropriate)
- Try to address any disability/culture/race-specific issues that may change the advice you give
Don’t
- Use derogatory words that target a particular demographic (like insults targeted towards gender, race, religion, or ability)
- Use words associated with a specific demographic that are culturally used in a negative way
- Speak on behalf of a minority group if you are not a part of that minority group (quote someone who is a part of that minority group or consider if you are the right person to speak on that particular issue)
- Make sweeping statements or generalise
Just like anything else, it can take some practice to break old habits and transition to more inclusive language. Making an effort to use it in your everyday life will help you to switch to inclusive language a lot quicker.
Outside Advice
The best way to learn about the lived experiences of people from different backgrounds is to seek out information from people from different backgrounds. When you are writing your book and you believe that another group of people may have a different perspective, do some research and find out if that is the case. If there is a particularly complex issue, then it could be worth reaching out to an expert for advice.
Make sure you credit your sources in the acknowledgements and if they gave you a lot of help, pay them! Not paying a minority group for their work (yes, including advice) is not allyship, it is exploitation.
End of Chapter Summary
Finish each chapter with a short summary of the important points and actionable advice on what to do next. This is great for people with dyslexia because they need to understand the big picture when they’re reading. They’ll read the end of chapter summary first, so they can understand the context and then go back and read the chapter. Before reading your entire book, they may read all of the end of chapter summaries to understand the context of the entire book.
In addition to people with dyslexia, you will find that everyone who reads your book will appreciate end of chapter summaries. It gives them a brief summary if they didn’t read the chapter in one sitting. It will also give them a to do list so they can implement the advice right away.
Simplify the Layout
Simplify the layout of your book to help people with vision impairments and dyslexia. Consider the following things:
- Use a font that is easy to read (Times New Roman, Verdana, and Arial are the easiest)
- Check the font size is not too small
- Increase the line spacing to provide white space between the lines
- Keep chapters relatively short (break long chapters into smaller subtopics if necessary)
- Use images to illustrate data
- Balance colour with readability (remember people with colour blindness)
Audiobooks or Enable TTS (Text to Speech)
The best way to make your book accessible is to create an audiobook. You can record the audio of your book yourself or hire someone to record a reading of your book depending on your budget and preferences. When you’re considering the costs, remember that audiobooks are really popular amongst all types of audiences.
If you cannot create an audiobook, then at least enable TTS (text to speech) for your book.
Be Respectful of Different Experiences
Just acknowledging that people may have had different experiences from you can go a long way. This can be as simple as using parts of your story as an example rather than simply assuming your readers are in the same place as you.
Let’s say you’re suggesting your readers free up a little time by automating, simplifying, and outsourcing what they can. Instead of just telling your readers to hire a cleaner and dog walker, you could say something like this. “Look at the tasks that would have the biggest impact. For me, hiring a cleaner and a dog walker freed up 10 hours each week. I know that’s not financially possible for a lot of people, but I would recommend seeing where you can claim back time. For example, you could walk the dog while you’re walking the kids to school to free up some time or you could adjust the frequency or standards of your cleaning a little bit. Can you live with a little bit of mess if it means you get 3 hours back every week? Here are some more ideas of ways you can save time for a range of different budgets and needs.”
Think bigger than just finances though, consider if you need to acknowledge that certain minorities have vastly different experiences. For example, if you are a career coach, then you need to acknowledge that workplace discrimination and hiring discrimination exists, even if you’re not the right person to talk about how to overcome it. You can’t just ignore its existence.
Consider Using a Sensitivity Reader
The best way to check the inclusivity of your non-fiction book is to hire a sensitivity reader to proofread your book. They will go through your book with a fine-tooth comb, flag anything that could be considered insensitive, and suggest ways it can be more inclusive. If there is a particular demographic you need to consider, then hire a sensitivity reader from that background.
What Is the Difference Between Being Inclusive and Stepping Outside of Your Zone of Genius?
There is a huge difference between writing an inclusive non-fiction book and speaking on matters that you know nothing about. As a coach, it is important to recognise when you are not the right person to give advice on a subject. When that happens, it is far more powerful to use your platform to recommend someone who is better qualified to address the topic than to pretend that you are an expert. This can be difficult because on social media everyone is bombarded with comments demanding they use their platform to speak out about every single newsworthy issues. It can make us feel like we have to speak out about every single issue. There is great power in knowing when you are not the right person to speak about something.
For example, if you are a dating coach, there are HUGE differences between dating as a heterosexual person vs someone who is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. If your experiences as a human and as a coach are with heterosexual dating, it would not be your place to speak on dating as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. You should acknowledge in your book that the experiences are different and that your advice is tailored towards heterosexual cis-gendered people.
In some cases, it may be appropriate to ask someone more qualified to write a chapter on a particular topic (pay them for their work). In other cases, like the above example, the topic is too large to cover in one chapter, so stay in your lane and make it clear that you are writing from a particular perspective.