What Makes a Great Book Idea? 5 Things to Look For

Do you have an idea for a book and you're trying to figure out if it's a good one? Or maybe you're convinced you have a great idea for your book, but you've been told by publishers or other folks that it's not good. If you're wondering what makes a great nonfiction book idea, stick around. This video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book Broad. I'm an Amazon Overall Number 1 Best Selling Author and the founder of a fabulous company called Book Launchers. Our super superpower is caring more about you and your book than anybody else as we help you write, publish, and sell a nonfiction book that will boost your brand and make you money. One of the challenging parts of my job is figuring out if someone has a good book idea or not, and more importantly, whether the idea is going to be marketable and have an audience. You might have an incredible story, but that doesn't automatically mean that people will buy your book. And you may have a great book idea, but writing it might not actually get you to where you want to go in your business or career. So here's the magic formula for figuring out if your book idea is good. I wish there was a magic formula that's not that easy to predict, but I can tell you the five things I look for when I'm evaluating book ideas. Before I do that, let me tell you what doesn't matter to me. You know, information I immediately disregard, and that is, is whether another publisher did or did not want to give the author a book deal or work with them. Because if we're talking about hybrid or vanity publishers, they tell pretty much everyone the book is good and will take their money. The other one is traditional publishers are less interested in what your book is about and more interested in the audience you already have. So if you have a large email list, 100,000 people or more, or a million followers, or subscribers on YouTube or social media, the publisher might be interested in working with you to find a book topic that they think is marketable because they know your audience will buy it. So it's irrelevant to me in many regards what publishers of any kind have told you. So when I'm evaluating a book idea, here's what I'm looking at. Number one, who is the audience for this book and where can we find them? If you tell me my book is for everyone, what I hear is my book is for nobody. Coca Cola is marketed at everyone, but do you know what kind of a marketing budget they have? And even though it's marketed at everyone. It's not for everyone. Health conscious folks like me who know what's in Coca Cola and what it'll do to your body or never buying it. Luckily for them, Bill Gates doesn't seem to care. Have you seen the new Inside the Mind of Bill Gates on Netflix? That man drinks a ton of Diet Coke. Anyway, your audience matters a lot. When someone says they're writing a book for people who run car dealerships, doctors who are just graduating med school, or parents who want to teach their kids to read, I get super excited because those are audiences we can reach through podcasts, magazines, events, media, and more. They're places where these people hang out and thought leaders they already listen to. There are tons of ways to market those kind of books to those kind of audiences. So the challenge is when someone has a memoir and they say it'll inspire you, you have to figure out who the memoir is really going to connect with, because your memoir isn't for everyone. So who is most likely to feel like they need your story or will get something from your book? Which leads to the next thing I look for in a book idea number two, how will this book help the audience? What's the the benefit for them? This is the undeveloped hook which we help our clients create, and I've talked about it in just about every video because the hook is really the benefit for the readers and it's so important. So what are you telling them that will make them richer, happier, more connected, more respected, more beautiful, fitter, or feel an emotion they need to feel? What's a pain you can solve for the reader? What do you know that most people don't know but really should? How do you do things you can save time, make money, et cetera. If there isn't a clear benefit for the audience, then we're going to struggle to market that book. Talia Kaddow's book is a great example. She helps strippers make more money and get out of the business with money in the bank and investments, Clear audience and a super clear promise. Tony LeBlanc helps property managers take their property management business and turn it into an empire of profitable businesses that aren't just based on the rent rolls. Again, great example of clear audience and clear benefits. Number three, what are the goals of the author? Well, maybe not directly related to whether the book idea is good or not. It's. It does clearly project the author's sense of reality, which can also help evaluate the book idea. If someone says they want to sell a million books in a year or they expect to be a New York Times bestseller or they want Ellen, Dr. Phil or Between2Ferns to interview them. Unless they have a track record that would show this could happen or they have a massive audience that could help it to happen. It's a struggle to see how a book idea is going to do that. Now if someone says I want to get a copy of my book into any every woman's shelter in the U.S. the goal is still lofty, but you can start to see how that might be possible with the right idea and the right strategy to approach this. Or if someone says I want to do 20 paid speaking gigs a year and their subject is going to appeal to corporate or large associations and they already do some speaking, I'm thinking this could happen. So I want to see if the idea lines up with the goal. Number four Will the idea be something other people want to talk about? This is so important because if people aren't going to tell their friends about the awesome book they just read, then you're going to miss out on the best marketing method in the world. Word of mouth. So my next question is, will people feel like they have something interesting or unexpected to share when they're at a party or hanging out with friends? William Hung's champion by choice will give people a great story to share with others as he shares what happened when Simon Cowell shot him down on American Idol and why he responded the way he responded. Robert Krabek's book Malibu Burning shares stories of what happened in the 2018 Los Angeles fires and how celebrities and Malibu residents handled the fires, and even some of his ideas around handling preventing these things in the future. That's a lot of things that could create interesting conversations for people to share after they read his book. So what is in the idea that is going to be share worthy that's really important? Finally, number five, what makes the author the right person to write this book? This is again less about the idea but also essential. What is unique and interesting about you, the author? What's the perspective that you're sharing that brings a different angle to this book? By the way, this is the thing that makes your book something that only you could write. I have a client that was doubting his book saying other people have similar stories, but I really had to remind him nobody has your story and nobody is sharing it for the exact reason that you are. You have to own this. And it's not about being completely different than everybody else, but it's knowing that you have a unique story and perspective and that what you're saying or what you've been through makes your perspective different. Not every book idea has to have all five, but it's much more likely to be a success if you do have all five. If you're wondering if you have a great nonfiction book idea and you're looking for a company to help you write, publish, and sell that book, let's chat. Just take a couple of minutes to tell me about your book idea and goals right here book launchers.com application and we'll hop on the phone and chat about it. Whether or not we decide to work together, I'll make sure you have clarity around your book idea and the direction that's most likely to work. What do you think matters for a great book idea? Share that in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet book launchers. Hashtag no boring books swag like this wonderful hoodie every once in a while, most often a coffee mug or a journal. And I've been told coffee tastes better in that mug, so you're just gonna have to try it and find out for yourself. So go ahead, comment on the video and make sure you subscribe. And turn those notifications on so you can make sure you're commenting on the day a video is out. You'll also be one step closer to being one of my special YouTube besties like IJ King, Alan West, Derek Silksky, and Lexi Price. Big virtual hugs to you for your comments, likes and shares. I'm so grateful to hang out with you in my YouTube community. Do you know how to write a nonfiction book? This video will give you three tips to write faster. Or maybe you don't want to do the typing and you want to hire a ghostwriter. This video will help with that. Either way, let's keep hanging out for a while, okay? I'm really enjoying our time together, so click on the next video because I'm waiting for you.