You want to blog a book…fast. After all, it’s National Book Blogging Month (NaBoBloMo). But you are making slow progress because you can’t decide upon a book topic. Without a subject, you can’t write.
NaBoBloMo only provides the impetus for you to do what you’ve meant to do for a long time. The challenge asks that you complete a book project that makes you an author, strengthens your brand, builds your mailing list, or boosts your business. To achieve this goal, you do, indeed, need to determine what to write about. How do you do so? Here are four tips.
Tip #1: Determine your goal or purpose.
What are you trying to accomplish by writing a book? Knowing this can lead you to the topic of your book.
For example, if you want to build your business, focus your book on the interests of your customers and clients. If you want to build your email list, create an ebook that provides an irresistible offer—something your readers or clients gladly will trade their email address to receive. If you want to begin a career as a professional speaker, write a book related the topic of your speech; make that book long enough to print so you can sell it at the back of the room.
Tip #2: Focus on a Target Market
You must know who your reader is. Have you created what many marketing experts call an “avatar,” a profile of the person you want to reach with your message? If not, do this and pay attention to your description. It will lead you to book topics.
The more you know about you ideal reader, the better equipped you become to write a book that targets that reader (or customer). As you discover your readers’ likes and dislikes, problems, questions, pain points, interests, and needs, you uncover potential book topics. A viable book subject solves readers’ problems, answers readers’ question, eases readers’ pain, or addresses readers’ interests, needs and desires.
Focus on providing your target market with the benefits they seek, and you’ll have ideas for a viable book.
Tip #3: Uncover Your Knowledge Base
There’s a bit of wisdom that gets tossed around a lot in writing circles: Write about what you know. Take this advice if you seek a topic for your book.
Make a list of your areas of expertise, experience and knowledge. If you are also passionate about these subjects, they make great subjects for books—especially if a lot of other people are also interested in or passionate about them.
Tip #4: Follow Your Heart
If you simply want to start blogging or writing, and you care less about how many readers (or buyers) and clients you attract to the final product (your book) than you do about the joy of writing, just follow your heart. Trust your intuition. Combine your passion and your sense of purpose or mission. This action will lead you to a book you want to blog. Even if no one reads it (and someone surely will), you’ll feel good about sharing your words with the world. And sometimes that’s enough.
In the blogosphere often successful blogs are born out of someone’s passion and purpose, which leads to an inspired idea. They pursue that idea…and the readers follow. Often these blogs are “discovered” by agents or publishers as well and turned into books. The same could happen to you.
Do you have another tip to add to the list? Leave it for me in a comment below.
Tell your friends about National Book Blogging Month! Share this post or the image to the left. Let’s get more people blogging books!
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