Researching what your reader wants to read

Hi Everyone

Today’s post is in response to a comment from hutchagoodlife. To find out how you can research what your reader is wanting to read.

I recently wrote a non-fiction book proposal about redundancy and this involved a lot of research. This is what I did and what I would advise you to do, in order to increase your chances of giving the reader what they want and of getting published.

• Google your subject – paying attention to the top 5 websites and browse them thoroughly
• Use Google Keyword search tools for finding out what words and combinations of words are most searched for
• Search the web in general for your subject matter and note and explore your results
• Read as many books as possible, written by other authors on the subject/genre for which you want to write
• Read books by the publisher/s you are going to submit your work to, to see what’s been done before
• Look through magazines/newspapers, watch TV programmes on your subject
• Devise a market research survey or questionnaire and find a suitable place to action it – then ensure you do take action by noting the results
• Join social networking forums relevant to your subject and find out what everyone is talking about –  A good one for me is LinkedIn
• Go to your local bookstores and ask them for a print out on books that you can buy relevant to your subject, if there is a lot, choose between 5 -10. – Different bookstores will have some different titles that you can potentially buy but there will always be crossovers, which is when you can start to see patterns emerging of the most popular titles that you need to study
• Go to visit your local library and look at books similar to or the same as your subject – Pay attention to how many times each book has been taken out – That way you can compare the most popular titles with the most unpopular ones and analyse why you believe they are better

The amount of time you spend doing each of the above, will most likely be different for a fiction book to a non-fiction book and although all are relevant, you may find that some work better for you than others, depending on what it is that you want to write about.

Whatever you are writing about, ensure you put a different slant on it, to what has been done before. Stay positive, stay focused and believe in your-self.

Good luck.

If you want any more help, please let me know.

Write soon

Sandra