Getting Started
It takes years to write a book, right?
What on earth are you going to write about? This can be a difficult question. There are, after all, probably hundreds of potential topics to consider. When writing your book, choosing your topic is the single most important step in the process.
Why This Is The Most Important Step
Your book topic is the foundation for the rest of the writing process. It dictates your overall approach, including any existing content or resources you leverage. It also is the start point for the structure of your book.
For example, a book about the 10 Steps to Mastering Mindset would logically have ten chapters, each chapter being a step. A book about why mindset is important for success may have a much more fluid structure because there’s no clear need to break it up into ten distinct steps. So let’s work through the process of identifying your book’s topic.
If you’re still scratching your head and wondering how on earth you could start and finish an entire book, take a look at the following questions and answer them for yourself.
- Are you an authority on a subject?
- Do you possess a skill or information that others wish to learn?
- Do you have specialized knowledge or unique experience?
- Have you created a process or system that can help others?
- Do you have a desire to tell a story, share information or teach others?
- Can you talk about your subject?
- Do you already have an abundance of information published on your topic (i.e., video posts, blog posts, interviews, etc…)?
That last point is an important one. You probably already have much of the material you need to write your book. In fact, you've already written it. The key now is to create a cohesive and compelling theme and to pull it all together.