Review the intelligence you have accumulated over the years and determine where where your primary source of expertise lies.

However, before cementing your choice of a topic it will be necessary to run the data through several tests to confirm its suitability as the subject matter for your first book, your first potential bestseller.

Will the topic be convincing enough to warrant widespread appeal among devotees? Will you be capable of confirming its validity and expanding on received data? Will you be able to convert your expertise into a teaching module? Will the accumulated material manifest a disposition for regular updating? Will the topic have the potential for subsequent editions? Will it have the propensity to spawn more books on disparate aspects of the subject? Will you be tempted to abandon the project if your topic has already been covered?

You won’t be able to resolve all of these questions right now but you will be by the time you’ve finished reading the course.

WHAT ATTRACTS PEOPLE TO WORKS OF NON-FICTION?

Autobiographies and biographies of celebrities are always in demand because they arouse the curiosity factor and particularly so when the material evokes an expectation of salacity.

The curiosity factor is equally evident in readers of how-to books, guides and manuals, but directed by a more responsible motive: the thirst for information on how to do something, do it better, and excel at it. And so the chosen topic must be capable of fulfilling these wholesome expectations by ensuring that readers will become better informed on the subject matter for which you and they share a common interest.

Your personal expertise must be equal to the task you set yourself because otherwise, no matter how cleverly conceived or creatively scripted, your work will never be published. Commissioning editors can spot a fake a mile away. While they may not be expert on your subject, they will very quickly ascertain whether or not you are.

PASSIVE V ACTIVE PARTICIPATION

Levels of reader participation tend to vary between different genres and the differential with regard to commitment invariably favors non-fiction.

People read fiction to be entertained

(Passive participation: in one ear and out the other)

People read non-fiction to…

 Become better informed

Learn new skills Hone existing talents

(Active participation: invoking the faculties of reasoning and memory retention)

Much popular fiction is in style for just a while but superior niche non-fiction can be around forever, earning the estates of its originators drip feed residuals in perpetuity. For example How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie was first published in the mid-1930s, sold millions of copies worldwide, and is still re-issued from time to time. This famous book has been through several publishing houses but it has only one originator.

Whenever people pick up a how-to or self-help book they are demonstrating willingness to engage in active participation. They know they are in for some work and you should in there pitching with them, providing an interesting topic and knowledgeable text in an easy-to-read format that transforms a chore into a pleasure.

WHY GUIDES, MANUALS, HOW-TO AND SELF-HELP BOOKS

ARE ALWAYS IN DEMAND

No one willingly volunteers for instruction unless there is more, much more than mere passing interest in the topic, and therein resides the market for quality guides, instruction manuals and how-to books. However, before cementing your choice of a topic it will be necessary to run the data through several tests to confirm its suitability as the subject matter for your first book, your first potential bestseller.