Nonfiction Ideas

Is there any way you can live a member of a market you are going to write for?  Sure you can.  You can subscribe and read the magazines people in the market read.  Go to trade shows and other special events.  Read the newsgroups and message forums on the Internet.  Find others that live near you that are involved in the subject you are writing about.  Are there local clubs you can join?  Start with the magazines and web sites related to your field of interest and go from there.  If you are writing from research or a topic you are interested in but still new at, this is a good way to approach it.  What dreams does this person have?  What is their income?  Are they married?  Do they have kids?  The more you know about your audience the better.

Get in the habit of focusing to find good ideas.  Have you ever noticed if you buy a new car, you soon start noticing other people that are driving the same car is you?  Why did you not notice those cars before?  It’s because you are now focused on your car and you notice it more.  The same thing happens if you think of the color blue and try to find 5 things nearby that have the color blue in it.  Right away you’ll start finding things with blue in it.

Use this same strategy to focus in and find book topics.  If you are going to write a book under the broad category of hobbies, it is much easier to find an idea if you are more focused on a specific category such as “kites”.  Stay focused on the subject, read on the subject, search the Internet on the subject and go to a kite store if possible.  Keep the subject of kites fresh in your mind from day to day and write down any interesting thoughts that come to mind.  You could also say you are tuning into a specific channel for more clarity.

Train your brain to get in the habit of focusing and being alert for idea possibilities so that it becomes second nature.  Open your eyes and ears, talk and listen.  Ask questions.

One idea may lead you to another and to another which could lead you to a final workable idea.  Ideas are all around you – like the new car you just bought.  But, you might not notice them until you tune in.

When you get interested in a specific subject you will find yourself tuning in and noticing information, idea germs you otherwise might not have noticed.  Keep a specific topic area in the back of your mind and you will be more prepared to receive ideas that match that topic area.

It is much tougher to find ideas when your mind isn’t tuned in, is blank and you’re not sure what you are thinking about.  Do yourself a favor and tune into a more specific area of interest and then start brainstorming.  Ask yourself the question “What book could I write on the subject of kites that other people would buy as well”?

What current events are dominating the news these days?  Are there any shocking personal or political scandals taking place?  Mysterious murders?  Wars?  Elections?  Stock markets up or down?  Finding the current events is easy – you simply turn on the news and keep up to date on what’s going on.

Whether it is the OJ Simpson trial or September 11th you can guarantee someone will write a book about the news stories that dominate the headlines.  You can also guarantee there will be new major current events every year.  If a story grabs your attention and you are passionate about it, why not jump in and write a book about it?  Be the first to do so and you’ll grab most of the market share.

Check best seller lists to see what’s hot and what’s not.  The first best seller list that probably comes to mind is the New York Times bestseller list.  The lists are divided into Hardcover Fiction, Hardcover Nonfiction, Hardcover Advice, Children’s Picture, Paperback Fiction, Paperback Nonfiction, Paperback Advice and Business Books.

Take a look at the current best sellers and best sellers of the past.  What is the current trend?  Obviously these are the types of books people want or they wouldn’t be on the best seller list.  Do you notice any patterns here that you might be able to take advantage of?  Of course, you will have to be quick if you want to cash in on the current trends as they won’t last forever.  If you wait too long the trend will be over by the time your book gets to print.  You can also take note of patterns in people’s buying behaviors.  Is there a topic you could write about that won’t just be a trend or fad and possibly have a long life span?

The New York Times isn’t the only place to look at the best sellers.  Here are some other places to take a look:

USA Today’s Best-Selling Books Database

Bestseller Lists from 1900-1995

Publisher’s Weekly Best Seller List

Barnes & Noble Top 100

Amazon.com Best Seller List

The nice thing about Amazon.com is you can browse books by category and then sort them by best selling books first.  This way you can explore more obscure categories that will probably never make their way to the larger best seller lists such as New York Times, etc.  Some categories on Amazon.com will not display best sellers.  On Barnes & Noble’s web site at  you can check out the best sellers in any and all categories.

An obvious and simple way to get ideas is to simply brainstorm them. There are many ways to do this, but one of the most common ways is to simply get some paper and a pen out and start writing down thoughts as they come to your mind. The goal is to get ideas, so write any thought that comes to mind. Does one thought connect with another thought? One of the best forms of brainstorming is called mind mapping and it works this way. You start with one idea or thought and then draw a circle around it. Then you try to think of something that relates to that which has a circle around it.

Draw a circle around the related thought and a line between the two. Keep doing this until you run out of related thoughts to the first one, then start writing thoughts that relate to the others and lines between those. Pretty soon you have a page full of thoughts inside a circle all interconnected. It is possible by the time you’ve exhausted all of your thoughts or in the middle that you will have thought of at least one good idea that you can investigate further.

Sample Brainstorming Mind Map

You might try these brainstorming exercises away from your normal environment, away from distractions and in different settings. Computer software is available to do brainstorming on your computer. See the appendix for a list of creativity and brainstorming software. If you are thinking of working on a book with one or more other writer’s, try brainstorming together for even better ideas.

When you brainstorm there are no rules. You can do it however you like. Use random words, pictures, stand on your head or eat ice cream while you brainstorm. The only thing that matters is you come up with good ideas.

From time to time, you may have to resort to finding some unusual places to get good ideas.  Whether you lock yourself in your bathroom or site under a tree the key thing here is getting out of your routine.  Do you ride the subway to and from work?  Bring your notebook with you and do some brainstorming.  If you have a long commute, bring a voice recorder on your drive to record your ideas.  Try to find some different places to do your thinking.  Find a picnic table at a nearby park.  Climb or sit under a tree.  Take note of the places that are most stimulating to you and take advantage of them.

Pay attention to your dreams at night and daydreams while you are awake.  Start a dream journal and write down what your dreams were about as soon as you wake up.  You never know when you might have a good idea come to you in a dream, so be prepared to write it down before you forget!

Next to libraries, the Internet probably the biggest potential source for coming up with good book ideas.  With billions and billions of online libraries, web sites, search tools at your disposal you can’t go wrong here.  I’m assuming most people here have access to the Internet, but I know that not everyone has.  If you don’t, see the appendix for a list of major nationwide companies that can offer you Internet access, or check your local library and see if they have public Internet available.

Google Answers – This is really an amazing site and service.  Basically you can ask any question and Google’s team of experts will answer it for you.  There are millions of people that have used this service, and the good thing about that is all of the questions and answers are archived.  You can browse by subjects such as Arts and Entertainment, Business and Money, Computers, Health and more.  Browse around and if you look to the column under “Status” the questions that are completely answered are marked “Answered”.  Some people offer more money to have their questions answered than others.  What does this mean?  This means that the higher price means that people are willing to fork over a lot of cash for particular information.

If you spot something that interests you and could be converted into a book idea there could be many out there that will pay to have your information as well.  Google Answers is also a good place to conduct your research.  You may be able to find answers to questions you have been stumped on in your research, or, if you really need the information you could pay for it.

Yahoo’s Directory - Yahoo! is of course one of the leading Internet directories to do some idea hunting.  An easy way to start is to browse the directory under categories that interest you.  Start at the top level of the directory first.  Click on a main category, and then find a specific subcategory.  Under the subcategory you will notice that they first list the most popular sites and then they list the rest alphabetically.  Keep on the lookout for patterns within that subcategory that people are interested in.  Check out the most popular sites as well. A book could be made that is more complete or goes into further depth than the web sites do.

Google Directory -  This is another web directory similar to Yahoo.  Browsing these directories will give you a good idea of markets to target.  Take note of the number of links in each specific directory category.  Which ones have larger numbers than others?  Larger numbers means more interest and more demand.

Leading Specialty Web Sites - Be sure to check some of the leading “specialty web sites” relating to your field of interest.  These are usually the ones that will be highest ranking when searching on your area of interest.  Look through these sites to get a feel for what is in demand.  These sites are highly targeted which is exactly what you want.  How popular are these sites?  Are they kept up to date?  What are popular subtopics on these sites?

Google Groups – Here you can search Internet newsgroups for ideas.  This is one of the best places to look on the Internet.  Google Groups is an archive of current and past Internet newsgroup feeds.  Newsgroups are questions, answers, opinions, comments and other stuff – all related to specific fields of interest.    From here you can search just like you would anywhere.  Do a search for “cheesecake” and you will see several search results and under each search result you will see something that says something like “rec.food.recipes”  This is an example of a newsgroup.  Click on that link and it will take you to the current topics within that newsgroup.  You can go near the top of the page and see other newsgroups within the “rec.food” category.  You can also go to the main Google Groups page and browse newsgroups by category.  If you’ve never played around with Internet newsgroups, you’ll have a blast.  A word of warning before you jump in and start posting questions: set up a free email account somewhere like Hotmail or Yahoo to use when posting to newsgroups.  There are many “wonderful” people who may find your email address in the newsgroups and decide to send junk email to the email address you use in your posts.  So, set up an email address specifically for the purpose of using to post on these newsgroups to avoid that problem.

Now, find some newsgroups in your area of interest and see what everyone is talking about.  What questions are people asking?  Are there any big problems no one seems to be able to answer?  Are there any “threads” which have a lot of replies?  Have you noticed there is a newsgroup on almost any topic imaginable?  Which newsgroups are the most active?  Some aren’t as active as others, while others will have dozens of posts each day.  Did you know you can search messages posted as far back as 1981?

Once you find some of your favorite newsgroups try to find out what is in demand.  Find out what problems people have that need solved or what questions people are asking answers for.  Try searching for phrases such as “How Do I…”, “wanted”, “help”,  “need”, “how”, etc.  Take a look at the questions people are asking and as you first start looking at questions take note of the main keywords used for each question.  Build a list of key words and phrases you can use in other newsgroups to find what people need.

Web Site Message Boards - If newsgroups aren’t enough to satisfy you, be sure to check out the great abundance of web sites that have message forums and bulletin board discussions.  These are similar to newsgroups and have some pluses and some minuses.  On the plus side, you will find a lot more helpful people and better more up to date information.  You also can avoid all of the junk email problems and other spam issues.  On the down side, you will likely have to subscribe to each message forum on each site in order to post messages.  Usually you can browse through, so if you don’t need to post, you’ll be in luck.  To find a forum on your topic of interest just go to:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Message_Boards

You can also go Google.com and search for something such as Parrot Forum or Beer Forum, etc.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, why not start your own message forum?  There are several services out there that you can have your own forum for free, and some charge.  You can see a list of free message board providers at http://www.freecenter.com/forums.html.

Internet Mailing Lists – http://lists.topica.com.  Internet mailing lists are another great source of information.  They are similar to newsgroups and forums except all messages are emailed to your inbox.  Search or browse for your area of interest.  Some lists are interactive meaning you can email the list and it will go out to everyone on the list, others are more along the lines of newsletters that go directly to you.  Some lists are moderated meaning your message sent to the group must be approved by a moderator first before it goes out.  Others are not moderated so your message will go out to the others right away.

Buzz Indexes - Want to see what’s hot on the Internet?  What everyone is searching for?  Check out the various “buzz indexes” to see what the buzz is.  Check these lists to see the most frequent searches and what’s popular on the Internet.  Similar to how music is ranked week to week in Billboard magazine.

Some buzz indexes include:

Yahoo! Buzz Index

Google Zeitgeist

Lycos 50

Chat Rooms are another area where you can sit back and read what everyone’s talking about – assuming the chat room is not full of a bunch of idiots and jerks and they are actually talking about the chat room topic.  You can use IRC, Yahoo chat, MSN Chat, Talk City, and other places to find chat rooms on almost any subject imaginable.  The key is finding chat rooms that actually have people discussing the chat room topic.  Good luck!

Some places to chat include:

Yahoo! Chat

Talk City

MSN Chat

Creativity Web Sites are another area to look into for tips and techniques to create more and better ideas.  There are many to check out, so please see the appendix for a listing of some of the better ones.  Books, tips, techniques, software, tools, exercises and links to other creativity sites are all included.

Blogs are another great spot to scan for ideas and get a pulse on what is on everyone’s mind.  There are blogs on just about every subject you can think of.  What is a blog?  Blog is short for weB LOG, or Blog.  They are usually written in a diary format updated daily or whenever the person who runs the Blog has the time.  Do some searching around and you will find many blogs on many different subjects.  There are thousands if not millions of blogs out there.  Another thing you can do is start your own blog on the subject of your choice.  There are several services that offer blog services for free or you can pay.  Before starting a blog, see what blogs are already out there and add a little twist to yours and make it different.  If you get a big enough following, write a book on the subject your blog covers and the first people you can sell it to are your readers.  A get started in blogging, check out Globe of Blogs.  Also visit Blogger.

Keep scanning these areas on a regular basis to see what’s up.  Keep your idea notebook handy and jot down any notes and ideas you find noteworthy.

Keyword Popularity Tools are a great way to see what people are searching for and what is in demand.  Start with the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool.  Type in a search term and see how often others are searching for the same word or phrase.  The people searching these phrases do so on sites such as Yahoo, MSN and other popular search engines.

Do a search on your area of interest and also try adding the word “book” to your phrase. Something like “parrot book” “treasure hunting book”, etc.  Other ways to check to see what search terms people are using is by going to Google Adwords Keyword Tool.  This site will also show you alternatives to your search term and other areas of interest to explore.  You can also limit your search to specific countries if you like.

There are many other key word spy tools you can use.  For a complete list, go to:

http://www.metaspy.com/info.metac.spy/metaspy

Amazon.com Sales Ranking - If you’ve been to Amazon.com, you may have noticed each book has something called “Amazon.com Sales Rank”.  It will look something like:

Amazon.com Sales Rank (Books): 9,112

The calculation for each book is based on Amazon.com sales and is updated daily.  The top 10,000 best sellers are updated each hour to reflect sales in the preceding 24 hours.  The next 100,000 are updated daily.  The rest of the list is updated monthly, based on several different factors.  The lower the number, the higher the sales are for that particular title.

JungleScan - With JungleScan you can see the top sellers on Amazon.com that have been submitted to JungleScan for sales ranking analysis.  You can add a book or other product on Amazon.com to JungleScan and it will start keeping track of its sales ranking.  Take a look through the site to see what types of books are hot.

Google News Alerts - If you want to stay on top of a certain subject area, join Google’s News Alerts and it will email you news articles pertaining to certain key words you choose.

Ulrichsweb.com – Here you can access online databases of books in print, magazines in print and more.  Complete and up to date, but you will have to pay to use this service.  Contact them for more information on current pricing and products available.

Thomson Gale – sells many directories you can search online or in print edition.  Many of their publications are fairly expensive, so if you’re interested in this information but not up to the price, go to your library to see if they have any of these titles for you to review for free.  You can also buy older editions on half.com or eBay for substantially lower prices than you pay for new editions.  The information might be out of date, but you will still get a good feel for the market.

The Creativity Pool – This is a nice find.  Go to and search or browse through actual ideas.  Not all are on books, but there are some book related ideas in there.  It is a very useful site for perking up your creativity.  Who knows you might just find an idea that is ready to go or only needs to be slightly adapted.

Suite 101 – This is another good spot to browse and search around for book ideas.  The site contains articles on just about anything written by volunteers.  You almost feel sorry for the hundreds of writers writing articles for Suite 101 for free, but at least they get to promote themselves and any link as long as it matches the article they are writing about.  Look around and you might find an idea that could be expanded upon.  Suite101 is also a good site to find categories to write under.  You could also start writing for Suite 101 and later write a book consisting of all of your articles.  There are many Suite 101 members doing just that.

Highly Targeted Web Directories are abundant on the Internet and one of the most popular types is created by a program called Gossamer Threads.  Do a search on Google for the following, and include the quotes:  “links/add.cgi” This will search sites using Gossamer Threads.  Now you can search within these results if you want to narrow the focus.  Try adding the word “beer”, “bird” or whatever you would like within the results.  Once you find a good directory, browse around for ideas.  Take note of sub categories that have a high amount of links, as they will have a higher demand and will be worth exploring possible books subjects within that category.

WonDir.com – Take a look at this site and you will find thousands of people asking questions and seeking advice on just about anything.  You will probably need to browse around a bit and after awhile you might get some better ideas and a pulse as to what questions are being asked more than others.  The site features a live ticker that displays the most recent questions asked and you can click on a question to answer or see the most recent reply to the original question if it has been answered.  There are a few silly and juvenile questions from time to time, but isn’t that what makes the Internet so much fun?

Ewanted.com – Similar to eBay, but offers a unique twist.  This site is a reverse auction site.  Simply search or browse by category and you’ll find hundreds of requests for people looking for certain types of books in many categories.  A lot of these may be more of a rare type of book requests, but that’s ok.  It still could give you some ideas for book topics to look into further, or perhaps you will notice a trend among the requests.

Specialty Book Stores Online – there are hundreds of specialty bookstores online and as a starting point, go to http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Shopping_and_Services/Books/Bookstores.  There you will find a good starting point to browse through hundreds of specialty online book stores specializing in subjects ranging from Animals, Automotive, Computers, Health, Law, Parenting, Travel and more.  Take a look at some of the book stores and you will get some ideas of the types of obscure topics that are selling out there.  Contact the individual book store and ask them what some of their best selling topics are.  You will probably find a lot of specialized topics that you’ll rarely or never see in a big chain book store.

Online Advice Sites are another good resource to turn to and see what everyone needs advice on.  There are sites specializing in topics ranging from Health, Pets, Relationships, Financial Services and more.  Search Google.com for phrases such as “ask for advice”, “get advice” and include key words of your interest as well.  Some other advice sites include:

Ask Me Help Desk

All Experts

What questions and advice are people asking for?  Notice a pattern?  Use these sites to find some idea germs to start with.  You could even ask advice on what topics are asked the most.

Lexis Nexis – Do a Lexis Nexis search online where you can search the full text of over 5,600 news, business, legal, medical and reference publications.  You will have to pay for this service, but you can sign up for a free trial.  You may also check your local library to see if they have this service available for you to use for free.  This is another good starting point to find seeds of information you can research further and expand upon and possibly turn into a book.  This is also a good place to do research before writing your book.

Well, those are just a few places to look for ideas on the Internet.  As of this writing, there are over 4.2 billion pages indexed by Google, so this is by no means a complete list of tips and techniques.  Do some browsing and searching around and you will likely run into other places on the Internet to go prospecting for ideas.  If you find any new sources, tricks, tips or techniques be sure to let me know.

If you would like to travel forward into time and see what events will take place in the world, you are out of luck.  But, the closest thing to that could be attained by checking to see what the futurists of the world are up to.

A futurist is someone who studies and tries to predict emerging trends and discontinuities in the global marketplace including areas such as consumers, technology, health and health care, workplace, global business trends.  Most futurists are part time and spend their full time in another profession.  Some futurists could be considered crackpots, while others are more legitimate.

A fun place get acquainted with futurists is by visiting www.longbets.com.  Here you read and discuss what you or others think may or may not happen in the future, or what the future will be like.  For other links on the subject of Future Studies, go to:

http://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Futures_Studies

One thing about the future that is true is that change is guaranteed.  If you think you can predict the future, give it a try and cash in on it.  One thing that is guaranteed in life is change.  The only thing that isn’t known is how and when.

The Writer’s Market is a huge volume published annually that lists book and magazine publishers, how to contact them, editorial guidelines and most important – what they are looking for.  You can browse through certain subject areas and under that publishing company read what they are looking for.  This way, you can spot trends and get a better idea of what the public is looking for.  This will give you a better idea when judging your book project before you start.

This is also a good source for a list of book categories to research further.  The publishers will also list recently published titles which can be another valuable indicator if you are headed in the right direction.  Besides all of this, it is a must have source if you are considering having another publishing company publish your book and are not interested in self-publishing.  All of the names, addresses, guidelines and everything are there at your disposal including advice, tips, etc.