An email from Thrive Themes this morning reminded me of the worries that writers have about choosing the right topic for their first book. We tend to either think that topic is going to be ‘over-saturated’ – every other educator with a keyboard has a book on it – or we believe that our ideas are somehow less important than someone else’s.
I call this last issue ‘the myth of creation’. If you’ve ever thought, “who am I to be writing on…..”, then you fall into this common trap.
I’ve had this doubt a few times when writing a book on personal brand, since I’m hardly a branding expert. However, it seemed to be a resonating theme from lots of my blog posts 2013 to 2019, so with a few more tips and expert opinions, the book was on the starter’s block this year.
This year my blog celebrates 10 years in existence, helping writers and aspiring authors to get a grip on self-publishing without losing their shirt.
Finding a Niche of Your Own
This is also called Category creation by the Category Pirates, but a truly new category is a pink diamond indeed. What we might look to do – rather than going for original categories of books because we’re the new Malcolm Gladwell – is seek some area of life, science or business that’s been overlooked for some time.
For instance, rather than copying the AI hype and fear, you might write about how your grandparents lived off the land and fixed things constantly. I can see it as rather than being a history book, it could be a guide to use your things more and live a less consumptive lifestyle.
If you want to make it truly your own, you’ll also need to come up with some modern twists on the old lifestyle traditions. Frugal living is quite big in North America already – but that means nothing, as a strong voice carries far.
If you want to delve into this, then go find the short book ‘Snow Leopard’ – a really pertinent book for non-fiction writers, especially ones who want their writing to land.
Search for the book at Booktopia. Advertising Partner.
Your voice can be an important one – helping to influence the world around you in a particular direction. Starting a series of how-to conversations with a relevant podcast host may help to get your confidence up.
Serving a niche can certainly be done through podcasting, a radio spot or guest column in magazines, a blog, or video content for YouTube and audio for Alexa. From making this content, you are very likely to find your hooks for your next book. And hooks are how we sell the book’s concept.
