Last week I asked, “Which book should I write?” and received a slew of great responses. Thank you!
Interestingly, the book concept that rose to the top was that of how to come up with a book concept! The irony is not lost on me.
I thought I would start by writing some posts on the subject.
What is the key to writing a bestselling book concept?
Meet a Need
Bestselling book concepts address an actual need that other people have. The need could be practical, recreational, financial, relational, inspirational, emotional, spiritual, mental, physical, or behavioral.
It could have to do with a person’s relationships, dreams, organization, or all the above.
What’s important is that you identify a need your book will address.
It’s also important to get really clear about the group or groups of people your book will help.
Need vs. Heart
Some might balk and say, “I don’t write need-driven books. I write from my heart, thank you very much!” And I understand the point. If our books are driven entirely by external factors like the needs people have, we run the risk of writing very shallow books and compromising our values in the process.
We run the risk of writing the literary equivalent to candy instead of meat and potatoes.
The trick, it seems to me, is in finding the intersection between where we are and where readers are. If all we do is “write from the heart” without regard to helping people, we run the risk of ending up with a journal, not a book.
Recently I saw a store that sells olive oil. That’s it. Olive oil. Now I’ve been to Italy, and I know how passionate people can get about their olive oil. I appreciate high-quality extra virgin oil as much as anyone, but this store will not survive unless it reaches a lot of people who care intensely about olive oil. The owners may be passionate about procuring the very best olive oil, but if they can’t find customers, they won’t be in business for long. That’s just reality.
The same is true for books. Look for the place where your passion meets the world’s need.
Felt Need vs. Real Need
Sometimes our felt needs, the needs that are immediate to us, are not our real needs.
I may feel a need for a donut when what I really need is an apple!
I may feel a need to better communicate when what I really need is to start preparing for my speeches much earlier than I do.
I may feel a need for a million dollars when what I really need is to become content with less.
As an author, you have an opportunity to meet readers where they are and then take them to a new place. Obviously you should not bait and switch or offer false promises. (Don’t tell me you can make me a millionaire unless you can.) But you can speak to what I’m feeling and then offer a solution I may not have expected. (You could offer a path to contentment, for example, that involves becoming free of an attachment to things.)
Do you have an example of a book that spoke to a need you have but took you to a new place? Where does your passion meet the world’s need? What need do you want to address with your writing?
I believe people, particularly women and Christians, struggling in difficult marriages, and people who are recovering from divorce, need assurance that #1 they are not bad or crazy, and #2 know that if they cling to the Lord, they will find peace, hope, and love.
Frederick Buechner has an awesome quote that I think applies to what you’re saying.
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Our passions plus a person’s need = the book we should write.
Love me some Buechner!
Oh man Chad. This was exactly what I needed to see. I’m toes over the edge ready to write my first book. I know what I want to do (provide value, relief and empathy to my readers). I’m having a hard time nailing down exact what to write it on. I’m a therapist and I want to write about mental health self care for artists but that’s a BIG topic. How would I find out what angle, focus or specific ailment would be most beneficial for my readers? Maybe this is all just resistance. lol (I know some of it is for sure “you have no business writing a book” talk)
Branden, that is a big topic, but such an important one! I would start interviewing artists about the needs they have that a book could address. What kind of book would they buy? Have some titles in your back pocket and try them out on people. Use hashtag searches in Twitter to find people to interact with; some will, some won’t, of course. There are a lot of different angles you could pursue. Is the felt need burnout, productivity, quality, confidence, I’m sure the list goes on. Zeroing in on the need your readers actually feel is the trick. Also, are you sure your target market is only people who self-identify as artists? That limits things, which may be fine, but if you’re after the people Seth Godin refers to as artists, your research group just got much bigger!
I love the simplicity of how this boils down to the basics of any marketing/product development: Meet a need. I don’t have a good book example in mind, but I can share a product example which drove my fascination with marketing back in college. Our class did a case study on the packaging of pregnancy tests. We looked at a company that doubled revenues because of a simple insight into the felt needs of consumers: some people buying a pregnancy test are hoping it will come out positive; others are buying one hoping it will come out negative. They both have the “real need” of having an answer (so the product would function the same for both groups), but the very different “felt need” of specific outcomes drove the company to develop two different packages. One was dark looking and discreet, for those who weren’t excited about the process. The other was bright, pink, and cheerful – for those who wanted a positive outcome. The company’s sales skyrocketed from segmenting their consumers by these need states. I was absolutely amazed by the psychology behind that! I loved marketing forever more.
As with many Christian parenting books, I’m writing to meet the felt need of parents who want practical resources to help them raise their kids to know the Lord – but I’m addressing a topic that parents of kids under 12 don’t usually realize they need to know about and address (one that is almost always reserved for parents of teens). So, while the felt need is quite broad, the real need here is something somewhat surprising – and I feel that element of surprise becomes a great hook!
Love this story about the pregnancy tests. Terrific example. I would just encourage you to hone in on the need parents feel which your book will address. Get really specific about that. Then take them to the real need… Thanks, Natasha!
Thanks for the nudge! I’ll work on tightening that part further. I am done with the “proposal” part now and am working on a chapter – I’m really looking forward to your post about the writing sample. 🙂 In particular, how many chapters and which chapters to do! Thank you!
One of the main points of that post will be: Don’t skimp on the sample chapter. Authors sometimes spend so much energy and time on the rest of the proposal that they get pooped when writing the sample. My advice: extend your timeline and do a bang-up job. Make it as engaging as you can. Get some trusted friends to give you feedback. Strive for including an introduction and sample chapter or two. Hope this helps!
Ha! I can relate to being a bit mentally pooped after the proposal. It’s amazing how much thought and time can go into a relatively short document. On the other hand, there is a certain level of excitement about wanting to get this thing out the door now, so your note is a good reminder to take a deep breath and keep focusing.
Thanks very much for the sneak preview of this post – one of my key questions was whether to do the intro as part of the sample, so that alone was very helpful!
I’m with Susan on the concept of ‘introducing a need’. But, how does one find out if there are people, indeed, who have the same need and how does one draw them into to a ‘new place’? More specifically, I discovered that I struggled with depression after my husband miraculously recovered from cancer (stage 4 with central nervous system involvement). As a Christian, I felt doubly depressed because I felt I shouldn’t be depressed–I’d witnessed a miracle, after all! My passion is to address depression in caregivers–but often times caregivers can’t tell that they’re stressed and depressed. My gut instinct tells me to go at it from a back door sort of way–address the experience of caregiving and take the reader to the new place of discovering and dealing with depression.
Anita, your intuition sounds like a very wise one. One place to do some exploring is via social media. Come up with a list of questions that you think will help you answer your questions. But I think you’re on the right track here!
Great post. John Bevere’s “Bait of Satan” regarding the intersections of Christian unity, spiritual warfare, and how we are so easily given to taking offense and divisions making us powerless to witness in a hurting society. Took me to a new place of more readily assessing hurt feelings versus moral / doctrinal issues. I think you choice of topic is a winning one
Thank you! I hope you’re right.
I am working on addressing a need that most parents do not realize they have until they are faced with it. So, I suppose there is also the task of exposing or introducing a need. Great post!
Yes! And sometimes the presenting need is not the real one. Meet readers where they are, and you’ll gain more readers and help more people.
Hmm, I had not considered that. Any advice on identifying or even surfacing the core need?
Mary DeMuth’s Thin Places – Excellent, insightful read – didn’t just meet the current need but gave me a passion and template to write as well.
Awesome! I’ve heard great things about this book. I think she’s giving a lot of people what Jon Acuff calls the “gift of going second.” She’s vulnerable about her story which somehow gives us permission to do the same.
I really like that statement about finding the intersection. Jen Hatmaker’s Seven, talking about a mutiny against excess is a topic that has been on my mind. Reading her words brought me to a new place by seeing the concrete examples of what she did to address this in her own life.
I love drawing up in close proximity to God’s people in places of renewal. I love seeing where Christianity and social justice intersect. I think that can meet the need of a very divided society today in our views of what justice means and what Jesus asks of us.
Going concrete is a perfect way to take readers to a new place. Sometimes it’s all about the application.