9. How to Write a Business Book to Attract New Customers, Clients, or Natural-health Patients
—The Blog Series: Blog 9
Part 1: Develop Your Concept
Research Your Competitors
Welcome back! Now that you have your list of topics and subtopics, it’s time to research published books that have content and target readers similar to yours, so that you can further define your particular writing and selling niche.
Research inside your favorite bookstore and/or online; www.BarnesAndNoble.com is an excellent resource for this. At their website, simply search books by subject, then sort the results by “best selling” or “top selling” (the best-selling books first). You can also research at www.Amazon.com and by keyword searches online.
When you locate books with subject matter similar to yours, study each book’s title, subtitle or front-cover description, cover testimonials, back-cover copy, table of contents, plus the overview/book description provided online.
As you read, ask yourself: “How does each of these books’ textual content and/or target readers differ from mine? What new information can my book deliver that none of these books provides? Or, What distinctive angle can I use that these authors have not used?”
While you research online, be sure to bookmark the webpage of each book you find that is similar to yours. We’ll refer back to those webpages later when we brainstorm ideas for other aspects of your book.
Below is a chart—“Competitor Book Research Sheet”—that you can download and print out (from our Blog Downloads webpage) and fill in for each competitor book you research. Research all the books you can find that have content similar to yours.
Be sure to fill in all of the information on the chart. You’ll need it all later.
Do your competitor research now. When you’re finished, use the research sheets’ combined information to plan your book’s niche.
How? you ask? On the bottom of each Competitor Book Research Sheet, you’ll fill in the space “How my book’s audience and/or content will be unique.” On a fresh piece of paper or new word-processing document, compile those notes to answer the questions:
· “How does each of these books’ textual content and/or target readers differ from mine?”
· “What new information can my book deliver that none of these books provides?”
· and/or, “What unique angle can I use that these authors have not used?”
Do this once you have completed your competitor research, and you’ll have a clear blueprint for how your book will stand out from your competitors’.
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The content for this blog series is taken from my book Business Gold: How to Write a Book to Spotlight Your Expertise, Attract a Ton of New Customers, and Explode Your Profits!, available at Amazon.com. (The publisher, Business Book Productions, is now PogoFish Media, owned by the author of this article).