Nonfiction 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.

All of us have different wants and needs.  There is a difference between the two though.  A need is something we must have to survive.  We all need oxygen, food and water to survive.  The next need in line is shelter.  But, you could argue that this is a want.  Do you really need shelter to survive?  If it is cold out, most likely you will.  We can then move to say other needs include having an income, a car, a family and so forth.  This is when we start getting into the area of wants.

We have to fulfill our needs before we can move to our wants.  We can keep going on and on and pretty soon we get to the point where we think we need DVD players and televisions in our cars, high speed Internet access and a new wardrobe.  When you think about it, there are many more wants than there are needs.  For the most part, it is best to focus on the wants of a particular market.

What are some of the basic wants we humans have?  We want to look better, feel better, be happier, have more money, be loved, live a long life, be free of disease, be popular, go on vacations, and enjoy hobbies and other recreational activities.  In the broadest general sense, we all want to improve our lives, and certain aspects of our lives.  We want more pleasure, more happiness.  We want a car, but what we really want is a nice car.  We want a house, but we really want a mansion.  What are the wants of a particular market?  What book could you sell that would be absolutely irresistible to that market?

Wants are simply more exciting.  We all want to live longer, drive fast cars, look better, have more money, love, etc.  But they are not needed to survive.  Sure, we might need a car, but the goal is to get from point A to point B.

When you go to a market, try to find out what the market wants or needs. You will probably make more money by appealing to people’s wants first and then their needs.

This is an excellent area to find book ideas.  Problems are everywhere.  From old problems to new problems, there will never be a lack of problems in the world.  New problems are born every day.  If you can tackle a tough problem and write a book that book solves the problem, you could have a money maker.  If you think about it, most nonfiction books primarily are there to help people solve problems.  So, start keeping track of your day to day and big problems that you can’t seem to tackle.  Get out a piece of paper and start listing your problems.

This is also a nice frame of mind to get in.  Whenever you encounter a problem, think of it as a potential money maker.  Not all problems will translate into a book.  Sometimes problems are best solved by inventions or new technologies.  If you can come up with a cure to a big nagging problem, you could strike it rich.  Find a diet plan that is guaranteed to work for everyone, and then you will strike it rich.

Do you have some bad habits that you would like to get rid of?  Chances are someone else has those same annoying habits and would like to get rid of them too.  Conquer your bad habits and write about how you did it.  How about stuff that makes you angry or irritates you?

The next time a problem comes up, try to view it from a better perspective… one that could make you money.  Not only will you handle your problem with a better attitude you may come up with a best seller in the process.  What are your worries?  What are your fears?

Perhaps you are a very happy person with a good attitude most of the time and you drive others crazy with your constant happiness.  You can take note of other people’s problems and write about the cure to them.  Or, just share your secret to how you are happy so much.

Take a look at the books you have.  How many of them are the solution to a problem?  Here is the magic formula:  Problem + Book + Solution = Cash

Your book should be the cure to the problem.  People with the same problem will look at your book and think – If I buy this book, my problem will be solved.

When a problem surfaces take a step back and try to think of it from a different perspective.  Look at it as a blessing in disguise.  If you are going to be unhappy, at least be creatively unhappy and try to turn lemons into lemonade and then sell the solution.  It’s a win-win situation.  You solve the problem, you help others solve the problem, and you laugh all the way to the bank.

The simple act of asking can make a world of difference in your life.  We all have friends and relatives, so why not ask them what you should write about?  Ask business associates and colleagues.  Perhaps they can shed some light on what to write about.  What kind of book would they like to have?  Librarians and booksellers are asked questions from their customers all of the time.  Why not ask them what customers are seeking.

Ask those in a market you are considering writing for what they need to know.  Find ways to communicate with several people within a market to get some good ideas and look for popular, recurring themes.

Probably the most important advice regarding finding and choosing a nonfiction book topic is to go to the market first and find a book for that market rather than finding a topic first and trying to find a market for that topic.  Keep this in mind in all areas you search for topics and when narrowing down your topics of your chosen book idea.

There are many ways to go to the market first.  You can do so by looking through magazines that are targeted to a specific group of people.  Mailing lists are another way.  Anywhere large groups of people gather with a common interest.  Find ways to go to specific markets first, whether it is through magazines, newsgroups and message forums on the Internet, mailing lists, etc.  Go to the market, and then search for a subject that sells.

Take a personal inventory of yourself to spark some ideas.  Find a place to go where you won’t be disturbed and get your pen and paper out and start making a list.  What are you good at?  What are you best at?  List things that you know well enough to teach to others.  What kind of work experience do you have?  What hobbies are you involved in?  Are you involved in sports?

What other skills do you have?  What do you enjoy?  What are you absolutely passionate about?  In any of these areas, do you have authority or credibility as well?  Take inventory of yourself and share your strengths with others.  Take a look at your personal, professional and spiritual life.  Search for areas you need to improve and areas you have mastered.