Non-Fiction Book Writing - What To Write When Everything Has Been Said Before

Do you want to write a book but you feel like everything's been said before in your industry? This video is for you. Hey, I'm Julie the Book Broad, author and founder of Book Launchers, your professional self publishing team. We do everything from helping you write all the way through to self publishing and helping you sell your book. Alright, this question is from Karen Z or Z. I just revealed my Canadian Karen Z. What do you do if everything you want to say has already been said in your niche? Overall, I'm asking how to be original in a nonfiction book. Thanks so much. Maybe you can make a video for this. This is for you, Karen, and anyone else wondering the same thing. First, I have to say I'm really, really glad you're even thinking this. One of the best ways to write a very boring book is to repeat the what everyone else has already said. My background is in real estate investment space and at one point I had read almost every book out in that space and I can tell you that a large number of them said exactly the same thing. There just aren't a lot of variances in how you can calculate cash flow on a property or figure out what makes a good tenant. Despite that, I still wrote a real estate investing book and it's one that even five years, almost six years later still sells. And I believed that many people needed to read it. It wasn't because they needed another book telling them how to invest in real estate. In the case of my book, I actually felt they needed another book that walked them through how to decide if real estate was right for them and if it was how they should do it to create a life they wanted to live. It still involved me repeating some of the stuff that's already been said before, like how to calculate cash flow because it's a fundamental but it had some essential things that made it very different. So so the first thing is to believe that you do have something to say that is different and develop that you need a hook. I covered that in this video, which you can find in the link below or the end card at the end of this video. But you must have a hook. Usually you can find your hook by looking at what most people believe that you think isn't right or maybe you even think is dead wrong and what your solution is to it. Or think about what makes you mad in your industry or what you do that no one else does. If there's nothing, well, you probably haven't been in your industry long enough, so you have to do research and maybe wait a bit till you have more experience. I find that everybody I speak to who's been doing something for more than five years can easily answer these questions with a hook in place. Everything you write will be framed around that slightly differently. Our client, S.A. bradley, wrote a book about horror. In some ways, these horror movies have all been dissected every way imaginable. So what more is there to say? Right. Well, digging into it, he found that he believed in and research actually backed him up, that consuming horror actually makes you happy and healthy. Interesting hook. Another client, Ryan Berman, who's written a book called Return on Courage, he took the perspective of courage is something that can be learned. It's a leadership book. There's a lot of leadership books out there, but he has just a slightly different message and spin on it and showing how people can develop courage and use it for building strong businesses and living great impactful lives. So. So once you have something different, a slightly different frame or lens to offer your readers, you do have a different book. The second part of this is to develop stories. This is especially important if you're a speaker or a consultant, because these stories will be essential not just to your book, but to your business. It's how people remember and take home your lessons. But the stories you share will be another element that makes your book something interesting and new. Now, stories do require development. I said you're going to have to develop stories. You have to focus on find them from your life, from your history, from your experiences. Now here's just a quick couple of questions that I've asked writers retreat participants to help them uncover some stories. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up and what happened? Your worst decision and what you learned from it? Strangest experience or advice you didn't follow, and it's good you didn't. There's so many questions to help you uncover stories in your life, but many people haven't spent much time digging in to find them. So you must do that, and it's not always easy to do on your own. Getting a writing coach can really help. This one or a therapist. Number three, get super clear on who this book is for and what specifically that person needs to learn from you. If you get clear on this person and how you can help them, and you've got the above two pieces in place, likely you're seeing how your book is different. If you're not, then it might be time to question whether you should write this book because you really don't want to write a boring book that won't matter, right? No boring books. I believe so strongly in it. I'd put it on a mug like this video. I always appreciate a thumbs up. And of course subscribe so we can stay in touch and you can catch the next video. New videos every Tuesday and Friday. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win one of those cool mugs. Have questions? Post it in the comments below and I just might shoot a video to answer it for you like I did for Karen Z. And now you might want to watch the video on how to develop a hook for your book. So check out this, this one or this one on how to captivate your reader with every single chapter start. That will definitely make you stand out. Go ahead, click it. Or click that one. Click one of them. See you on the next video.