How to Choose a Book Topic | Brian Tracy

Hello, I'm Brian Tracy. Thank you for being with me today. This is the most remarkable time in our lives with the coronavirus. And so we're kind of experimenting a little bit, and please bear with us. Our goal is to give you some really great information and ideas that you can use during this time. And I want to talk to you today about how to choose a topic. When you write a book, the customer will always assume that you are more skilled and knowledgeable, so your book becomes your business card. As you know, I've written more than 80 books, so I know a little bit about what it takes to plan to write and publish a book. But a question I hear quite often is, how do you decide what to write an entire book about? And that is a great question. When I was growing up, I was a. What they call, it's a bibliophile. It's a person who loves to read. I used to think it was a readaholic, but they say, no, it's a bibliophile. And so I read and read and read and read. And I dreamed and fantasized about being an author sometime. And one day a publisher called me and said, have you got anything that you've written about that we could publish as a book? And I said, well, when I was traveling, I wrote out the outline of a book for my trip across the Sahara. And I had written it out, and it was called Success is a Journey. And they said that would be very good. So I wrote that book, Success is a Journey, about my travel from Vancouver, British Columbia, across Canada, working on a ship across the Atlantic, riding a bicycle down to Gibraltar, driving a Land Rover all the way to South Africa. And the book was published and became a best seller worldwide. Most amazing darn thing. And so after that, I was asked, could you write another book? And I had to think, what would it be about? And so I know a lot about how to choose a topic. But I've now published 86 books in 46 languages all over the world. And for example, a few years ago, we had the crisis, the financial crisis. And people said to me, could you write something to help people through the financial crisis? So I came up with a title, and it was Crunch Point or Crunch Time. What to do when the. You know, what hits the fan. And I sent it down to them, and they said, that's a little bit rough. So they changed the title and they called it Crunch point is the 21 secrets to succeeding When It Matters Most. And I was teaching these concepts in management and leadership seminars So I wrote down 21 things you can do. Stay calm and get the facts. Accept responsibility, take charge, be confident. And so I wrote the book, and the book became a top seller worldwide, in fact, in 20 or 25 languages. But it started off with just a concept. What would be the best subject that would help the most people the most at this time? And by the way, there's two types of books. There's fiction books and nonfiction. And nonfiction is where you're teaching people something that can help them. A fiction book is where you want to talk, something that's romantic or adventurous or something else. And you can write about anything with a nonfiction title. You have to be accurate. So a question that we hear is, how do you decide a concept or a book title? And this is really important. So choosing a topic for your book may seem daunting, but the simple solution is for you to look inside yourself. Ask yourself, what unique or special message do I have that other people could benefit from? Remember, in life, all of your success comes from serving or helping other people. So you always think in terms of, how can I help other people by sharing this information with them? You say, what unique message do I have that other people could benefit from? Now, this is a key starting point. Writing a book can be a long process. So you must make sure that you're writing about a topic that truly interests you and that you are passionate about and will also be beneficial and will interest other people. Otherwise, you'll be writing a book that no one will want to read. So you brainstorm topics you feel the most strongly about and consider these final points to start. Number one, influential moments. Sometimes you have had a moment in your life that changed your life, and share what you learned from those experiences. One of the things that I really like is the concept of turning points. In fact, I'm thinking of writing a book on it. But it's such an enormous book. It basically, as you go through life, driving down the highway of life, you have turning points. And a turning point is where you decide to go this way rather than that way. You decide to do this rather than that. You decide to accept this idea or opportunity rather than something else. And later you look back and you realize that that changed your whole life. If you had not gone in this direction, your life would have been different. So think of the influential moments in your life that have really made a difference. And sometimes somebody else can benefit from that. Maybe it's just a decision that you took. Maybe it was a great risk that you took. Maybe it was a Big challenge that you took. Maybe it was danger that you accepted, but after that, that made all the difference. Now, another subject is your area of expertise. This is really important because if you're going to write a book, write a book about something that you know. And I was talking to an author and he was very popular, and his book and his area of expertise was tea. As he fell in love with tea as a young man and he began to experiment with tea and he learned so much. And then he taught tea, and he taught how tea is blended and how tea is. Is grown and how tea is served and so on. And I sat through a presentation that he made based on one of his books, and it was absolutely fascinating, Absolutely fascinating. And there are a whole series of very successful business people there, top business people, I mean, millionaires and jillionaires. And they're all so impressed with the way he talked about tea because this was his area of expertise. So it could be in your career, it could be the hobbies that you enjoy, or it could be your personal life. Now, another topic is a favorite topic in conversation. You can take notice of the topics in conversation that you most enjoy talking about or teaching to others. Sometimes you'll find you're talking to people and everybody gathers around and you just get sort of wired on the subject and you speak about it in a very entertaining way. And people really enjoy hearing you talk. That's a good idea for a book topic. Another is a favorite topic to read about. Take notice of the types of articles or topics in the newspaper that you gravitate towards. What. What is it that you really enjoy? And find a way to offer your unique opinion in this area. Another way that you can pick a topic is think about the audience that you want to attract. Consider who your audience is and what information they will be looking to gain. For example, I've taught this in my classes because I've written so many books that people keep asking me, how can you write so many books? Where do you come up with topics? Well, I'm a little bit selfish. I come up with topics to sell my services. And I, of course, have trained more than 2 million salespeople in 84 countries. So I think, well, I want to get more people to come to my seminars. So I have written five books on selling small and large. And people read the book books and they say, wow, this guy really knows what he's talking about. And so they hire me at my fee rate, which is high because they read a book which cost $10. And so therefore you may want to use a book as a business card and you want people to take the book. And here's what we have discovered. If you are being considered for the teacher, the speaker, the consultant, the lawyer, the architect, whatever it happens to be, and you have written a book but your competitors have not written a book, the customer will always assume that you are more skilled and knowledgeable. So your book becomes your business card. Here's my business card. I have a book. The other person doesn't have a book. And it has made an enormous difference. These are the reasons. These are the ways that you can find and discover a book title. Just starting off from who you are, what you enjoy, who your audience is, what is important to them, and be selfish about it. Write a book that talks about a subject that you want people to hire you to teach or train. Now I'd love to hear from you. So my question today is this is what topics have you come up with after using these strategies? What topics come up in your mind that would be of interest to a lot of people and if they buy the book, it can be really helpful to you in your life and be perfectly selfish. Many people who write nonfiction books about themselves and their lives and their childhood are writing for themselves. But if you want to attract an audience in order to earn money, then think about the audience and what they want and what they need and how you can help them. So leave a comment below and I'll be sure to follow up with you. Thanks for watching. And remember, if you want to change your future, take action. And take action now. If you enjoyed this video and feel that it was valuable in teaching you about how to choose a topic for your book, subscribe to my channel like this video and share this video with your friends. Don't forget to click the button on the screen for a free gift. And thanks again for watching.