Leader, thinker, changemaker, and cultural influencer, you are fluent in a wide variety of topics. You are innovative, ideas driven, emotionally centered, and solutions oriented. You are called in when things get hot and people need to know the next right steps. You are the motivator, frame worker, vision caster, and ignitor of inspiration. You enter the room or sit at the table and the temperature shifts, a light comes on, and the mood is lifted. And now you can't shake the gnawing feeling that you've got to get this…thing in a book. The unique way you look a critical moment or movement in our shared human story is at the tip of your pen, but you are feeling a bit stuck on how to tease it out.
A big book is a book concept that is easy to understand, highly relevant and relatable; urgent, pressing, and demanding in its appeal; and is novel, transformational, paradigm-shifting in significant ways to a wide readership. Hence, it has outstanding sales potential and is predicted to make a lasting mark on culture or society.
I've worked with hundreds of leaders and creators like you helping them shape their next big book idea. Many of them had written books before, just like you, but somewhere and somehow, since the last book, things had changed within themselves and in the world they occupied. Whatever they decided to write next had to be different.
Brainstorming together, we sought answers to deep and abiding questions that helped lead them to their next big book idea, expanding them into a broader sphere of thought, expertise, service, and influence. Sharing this simplified reframing of our process with you now, I hope it will help you find yours.
1. What are you known for (or becoming known for) right now?
Where are you currently in your service or leadership? What pivots have you recently made or shifts in culture have you been responding to most? What solutions or conversations are you being asked to contribute to most?
2. What are you discerning as people's greatest needs?
What are the trends in conversation or responses in media saying about people’s deepest longings, desires, or pain points? What root issues are being unearthed? Make a list of what you’re noticing. Organize the list into larger categories or themes.
3. What are publishers looking for?
Visit bookstores, peruse book categories of your favorite online retailer site, track titles on national best-seller lists, listen to popular bookish podcasts, and the like. What do your findings communicate about how publishers are addressing your findings from tips 1 and 2? How do all three categories intersect? What perspectives are missing? Are these things you can and should write to?
These steps may take some time. Involve your trusted friends or advisors in your process. If you have an literary agent or editor friend, bring them in on the discussion as well. Find ways to discreetly test iterations of your forming idea with your community, fans, or followers. Your next big book idea--the one that will transform how people think or how the world goes around--may not be discovered in a day. But this deep work will pay off with an idea that will change your world as you know it.
What are some other ideas for how to nail down that next big idea?