Browse Bookstore for Ideas
An obvious and perhaps the best place to look for ideas is your nearest book store such as Barnes & Noble or Borders. Bring a little notebook and pen with you to jot down any ideas you have or titles of interesting books that catch your eye. A trip to the book store can be very stimulating to your creativity and will trigger a lot of ideas. This is also a good time for visualization. Picture your book on the shelves sometime in the near future.
When you start browsing through the book store, write down which sections you tend to gravitate towards. Do you go to the cookbook section? Computer section? Business? Photography? Self-Help? Reference? What sections do you go to on a regular basis? It’s good to try to get a good idea of what you gravitate towards as there are tons of topics to write about, and you won’t be able to write about them all. Narrow down your interests so you can focus in on a more targeted subject. Look through books in your favorite categories and see what’s selling. Is there anything missing you could write about? What books are on the shelves placed with the cover facing you? Shelf space in bookstores is valuable and books placed with the cover out are better sellers than others.
If you have already picked a topic to write about, try to find a book that is written in a format you might be able to emulate. Is it a book written with chapters, a 101 solutions book, an encyclopedia format? Try to find a model book.
Are there books that are out of date and perhaps you think it is time for you to write a competing book that is updated?
Within your favorite sections of the bookstore, what types of books do you like the most?
What are the best sellers in the best seller section? Notice people shopping. What books are they looking at? What books are they buying?
If you want to get really crazy, try to get a job at a bookstore to get a feel for things. What books are people looking for? What books cannot be found?
Browse the newspaper and magazine sections in the book stores for ideas.
If you have some specialty book stores in your area, visit them as well. There are used book stores, religious book stores, health book stores, alternative book stores, and many more. A lot of times they won’t limit themselves to just books – so you might go to a health food store that sells more specialized topics on health food.
Alternative bookstores are another interesting place to look for unusual, offbeat book topics. Here you will truly find some really obscure topics. Take a look at Loompanics Unlimited at http://www.loompanics.com where you will find topics such as how to create a fake identity to advanced techniques on being a fugitive. They are even looking for authors of similar controversial subjects.