Advocacy Books: Using Your Personal Story for Political Communication

by The Campaign Workshop

Advocacy books - spreading your message

Advocacy Books Spreading Your Political Message

Everyone has a story to tell. For politicians, advocates, and change makers, how you tell your story is essential. A great way to do this is through writing a book about your life. Every major politician of the last few decades has penned an autobiography, telling their story of how they achieved the American Dream. Political advocacy books include how the writer grew to overcome obstacles and persevere to make the world a better place.

These stories are tales of advocacy. They delight and inspire the reader to find their own inner advocate and spring them into action. Writing books of advocacy connects with voters in a way that speeches, social media, and political chum cannot. It tells the whole truth, from the writer’s perspective, and performs a deep dive into what makes the writer who they are at this moment in time. We all have different experiences, and advocacy books a great way to give that experience to fellow Americans who may share in it or may learn from it.  One of the best examples of this is Profiles in Courage by John f. Kennedy. It was published shortly before his presidential run and helped the voters get to know him and his early life.

Telling your story in print comes with caveats. After you pen a novel, your life becomes an open book. The internet makes it very easy to research anything, so make sure that you run a fact check before you publish. There are many examples of bad books to publish ahead of your election. We won’t list them here, but anything that will distract the voters from the election is better saved for another time.

Connecting with voters in an intimate way is the ultimate win. Telling your story in print will create a bond between you and the voter that will make you not just an idea, but a person, someone like them. This is the reason that how you tell your story is crucial also.  For more, read our blog about storytelling here.

Want to learn how to tell your advocacy story? Sign-up for one of our advocacy trainings!