Transcript:
In my role as the chief editor and publisher, I advice experts, entrepreneurs, professionals and thought-leaders on writing and publishing their own books. So, I talk to many leaders everyday.
The one common excuse I keep hearing from people when I ask them whether they have considered writing a book is…. “Raam, I am not sure what subject or topic I should write about.”
It’s not that they don’t have any expertise or knowledge. Most often, people have a range of experiences, insights, multiple skills that they can teach others. But when it comes to writing a book, they just can’t choose or pick a specific topic or subject, that could become a good book.
So, they clip the wings of their dream of becoming a celebrated author, forever… because they started the book-writing project with “Topic Selection” as their fist step. That’s like asking the girl for marriage on the very first date.
Before asking what should I write about, there are other questions to ask so that you gain 100% clarity and 200% confidence in realising this dream. Let me explain… but before that, I want to remind you to subscribe to my channel if you’d like to watch more breakthrough videos like these in the coming weeks.
Now, back to important question number one… ask “Why should I write a book?”.
At my publishing house, we call it ‘The Authors Goals’. Before you even think about your topic, you must know the reason behind creating a book. Is it for your business? Is it for your personal branding? Is it for lead generation or for becoming a thought leader?
Is it to gain PR in the media or is it for hitting the bestsellers list?
There are many different goals to choose. Every author must have a primary goal and a secondary goal. This is the first step because there are different kinds of books for each set of goals. This brings in a lot of clarity on your first book.
The second question to ask yourself is…… “Who is going to read my book?”.
Well.. you don’t have a clue, do you? Let’s put it another way… “Who are those groups of people that you want to reach through your business, profession or career?… Let’s call this your message to the world.”
Most experts, entrepreneurs, professionals, and thought-leaders, know this is already. Let’s call them your audience.
Now, listen… here comes the most important part… the key to your messaging success…….. Now, write down all the ideas, questions, thoughts, statements, problems, that your audience may be having or going through. What are their challenges? What keeps them awake at 3am in the morning? What questions are they asking? You get the drift… don’t you?
When you know as much as you can about your audience, the next step is to match your audience’s interests with your author goals. BAM… you get book topics for multiple books now. When our aspiring authors do this exercise using our tools and resources, they get at least 5-6 great topics that can become bestselling books. The final step is… of course, to pick the topic that resonates best with you.
That’s how my friend, bestselling book topics are chosen and now you know, why starting with the topic question first, is NOT the best way to begin your book. There are 2 qualifying steps that are crucial. When authors skip these 2 steps and jump directly on the topic, even if they successfully write and publish their book, it will be extremely difficult to sell because the book is not directed towards a specific audience and neither does it resonate with them. It’s like shooting in the dark. You may hit the target or you may not. That’s gambling. Why gamble when you can have a clear path to success?
Now, here’s the truth. Having choices is powerful. You can either choose to remain in the dark, believing that you don’t know about a good topic to write a book on… OR you can invest in yourself and learn the steps to discover you own hidden talents, aspirations, and qualities that could become a bestselling book in the near future.
Your path to finding your message and creating a book around it can be found at www.raamanand.com that’s r-a-a-m-a-n-a-n-d dot com… See you there.