~by Haley Lynn Gray~
I wrote a book called Choosing a Caregiver: Expect the Best & Know How to Ask for It, and it became a best-seller in its category.
I wrote it because it was the book I wanted when I was arranging care for my own parents and had no idea what to ask, what was normal, or what I was entitled to expect. Everything in it came from that, plus the years I spent running a home care company and watching families navigate the same fog.
It also had a job to do. The book was written as collateral for Extension of You Home Care — something to hand a family that was genuinely useful to them whether or not they ever hired us. That turned out to be a better marketing decision than anything I could have bought.
What “best-selling author” actually means
Worth being straightforward about this, because the phrase is used loosely and I’d rather be accurate.
It means the book reached the top of its category on Amazon during its launch period. It does not mean vast sales, and it certainly doesn’t mean a publishing advance. Categories are narrow, launches are coordinated, and the title is considerably easier to obtain than most people assume.
That isn’t a reason not to do it. It’s a reason to be clear-eyed about what you’re buying.
Why write one anyway
It’s the most durable credibility you can build. A book outlasts every social platform, and it’s the one credential that opens speaking, press and referral doors simultaneously.
It forces you to organise what you know. The single most useful part, honestly. You discover the gaps in your own thinking when you have to explain it in order.
It answers the same questions once. If you explain something repeatedly to clients, a book does that work permanently.
And it reaches people you’ll never meet. Mine went to families making decisions at a difficult moment, which is exactly who I wrote it for.
What I’d tell anyone considering it
Write from something you actually know. Not a topic you researched — a thing you’ve lived. Your story is the part nobody can copy.
Decide what the book is for before you write it. Credibility, leads, speaking, or a genuine desire to help a specific group? All valid, and they produce different books.
Understand what publishing services do and don’t do. They’ll get you formatted, launched and positioned. They won’t create demand, and the marketing after launch is yours.
Budget properly. Editing, design and launch cost real money. Treat it as a marketing investment with a long payback, not a revenue plan — book royalties are rarely the return.
And expect it to take longer than planned. Everything does.
Would I do it again
Yes — and I have, twice since: Leadership Girl: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs to Achieve Extraordinary Results by Capturing Massive Sales, and Fearless Marketing: Your 8-Figure Business Blueprint. I’ve also contributed to two collaborative books, The Walls Around Me and Seek The Heart.
The books
And two written with others:
The credibility is real, the organising of my own thinking was worth the effort by itself, and the letters from people who found it useful are the part I didn’t anticipate and value most.
Just go in knowing what the title means, and what it doesn’t.
