Writing a book can be difficult, but there is no greater disappointment than completing that book and seeing it sit on Amazon’s shelves without ever selling a copy.
Granted when someone is self-publishing, it is a two part project. One is to write the book, the other is to sell it. But, there is something about choosing a topic that has enough appeal to be sure that there will be sales of the book.
The magic is in choosing the topic, or subtopic. There are a number of places to look that will point out some of the popular topics, and give you a good idea of what to cover about that topic.
How and where to discover what people are looking for can be found in Discover Book Ideas. Take a moment to look through the table of contents on Amazon.
You too can Discover The Magic.
Niches
What are niches? When I was young my mother had a hutch with a number of little cubbies. Each open rectangle she called a niche. She classified mail and other important documents and filed them in the niches. Some of those niches held a lot of documents, and others only a few.
Niches are little categories that have readers and customers. When you are planning to write a book, you want a book that will have a lot of appeal, but do you think that it is good to try to appeal to everyone? No, not at all! There is an old saying that goes something like this: Made for everyone and used by no one.
You absolutely can’t please everyone. So, you have to be selective. Choosing a niche is actually an exercise in choosing a customer. Find a group of people to write to specifically, ignore everyone else.
I know that sounds crazy–but that is the best advice that I can give you. For example, people who like romance probably won’t be huge science fiction fans, and visa versa.
Selecting a Niche
There a many ways to choose niches, but among the most important things to keep in mind is you want customers that really want to get a hold of your writing. If you select a niche to write about that solves people’s problems you will be selecting the right customers.
There are many places to look for problems to solve, but none will be as good as the problems that you have solved yourself. What problems have you run into? Have you had troubles loosing weight? How about issues with relationships? Have you had problems with pimples or other skin problems? Have you struggled with focusing your life or being creative? If you have, then first of all realize that you aren’t the only one. Secondly, think about how it felt when you solved your personal problems.
Helping Others
If you have found a problem or two that you needed to solve, and have found a solution to, wouldn’t you want to share that information with others?
That is the kind of book that makes for the best reading. A book that describes things that you struggled with, the many things that you tried to solve the problem, and finally how you managed to come up with the right solution.
Conclusion
You can write a book that will be well received if you are willing to write about solutions to problems that people have. Those things are found in specific niches and have to be written to the specific audience that need that solution–it can’t be written generally. Writing generally is the fastest way to fail. You try to please everyone, and end up pleasing no one. Finally, if you can add some personal tidbits to the account you will create a bond with your reader and write the best book possible.
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