It’s chucking it down in LA this week. Record-breaking rainfall, and the main highway into town is even shut down due to snow! Stormy weather like this normally puts me in the mood for getting a bunch of creative writing done, but today I’m having trouble focusing. I happen to be babysitting the world’s cutest dogs, so there’s a turf war raging over my lap, and frankly my laptop is losing.
I’ve shared a lot of rather personal creative work in this newsletter recently, so to switch things up a bit and give the poetic and confessional sides of my brain a break, this week’s installment will have more of a practical bent.
Last week my Wonderwell team and I hosted a small group of aspiring authors at a swanky hotel / private members’ club here in Hollywood for a four-night book planning retreat that we like to call The Big Leap.
If you’re trying to write a book, or even just thinking of trying, I thought you might like to know how our book-planning process goes so that you can draw inspiration for your own.
Before you begin: Ditch your initial idea
You probably already have at least a general idea of what you want to write about, maybe even a specific idea. I’m going to encourage you to sweep it right off the table. Why? You’re probably obsessed with what you want to say — the stories you want to share and the practical information you think people need. But there’s almost always a major disconnect between what you want to tell your reader and what they want to read. Clinging to your early assumptions is only going to get in the way of your success.
Step one: Do a brain dump
Before you can decide what meal you’re going to cook, you have to look at what’s in your fridge. Let’s get your stories and content points out of your head and onto the wall where we can see what we’re working with.
First, take inventory of all the things you might want to include in your book by writing them onto sticky notes, then stick them on a big wall or window. I like to use differently colored stickies for various elements so you can see how it all balances out. The mix will be a little different for each book depending on its focus, but most nonfiction books include some or all of the following. Adapt this list for your own situation, and don’t stress out about getting the categories perfect.
Reader problems and pain points
Foundational stuff; definitions, explanations and background info
Principles and key messages
Myths to debunk
Stories, anecdotes, or case studies
Teaching points (by which I mean your processes or frameworks, and the steps or stages within them)
Tools, exercises, and other interactive elements
Research pieces: studies, statistics, etc. (Just focus on major ones that are important to making your case, e.g: 70% of second marriages end in divorce.)
Don’t try to organize this content into chapters yet! If it looks messy at this point, you’re right on track. Leave it on the wall to marinate for a day or more while you move onto the next step.
Step two: Get inside your reader’s head
At the Big Leap, we do an exercise called “Reading Your Reader’s Mind”. It starts with defining who your target reader is.
Who are you writing this for?
List the qualities that your target readers share. Depending on the book, this could mean demographics (such as age, gender, their role or life stage, eg Millennial parents, or women in midlife) or it could mean shared experiences or problems (such as newly sober folks or people who are frustrated at work). If you don’t know who your target reader is, start by defining who your reader is not, and work backwards.
Your book should not try to be all things to all people, so if you think that “anyone and everyone” could benefit from your book, choose who you want to focus on based on which reader group you care about most, or whose lives you understand well.
What do they want help with?
This is about meeting the reader where they are now.
What problems or issues are weighing on their minds as they go looking for a book on your topic?
Which type of solution do they need from a book?
Are they looking for entertainment (a thought-provoking, moving, or funny read), education (to learn how something works), inspiration (emotional or psychological support from a role model), or instruction (to learn how to do something)? It’s crucial that your ability to deliver aligns with what they need and want from the book.
How do they believe their life would be different if they got what they want?
This is about what they’ll get out of reading your book.
This is super important: In order to deliver a satisfying experience, you need to know what results they’re trying to achieve, and make sure that you’re actually able to take them there. (If you can’t deliver the results they want, your book has to make a different promise to them.)
What do they think is getting in their way of getting what they want?
Humans often mistakenly blame their problems on the wrong causes, which is why it can be so hard to fix them! You want to present your book as the solution to the problem they think they have…
What’s actually getting in their way?
…then slip in the solution they actually need. This is a “Trojan horse” approach.
Of course, not everything is a Trojan horse. Sometimes your reader knows exactly what they need, and you can just give it to them.
There’s more to this process, but if you do your best to honestly answer the questions above, you’re way ahead of most first-time authors.
Step three: Research the competition
You don’t have to guess what kinds of books readers are buying in your topic space; the answers you need are right there on store shelves.
Look for books like the one you want to write. I like to do this research in person in a bookstore because you get a much deeper and more detailed sense of the competitive titles by physically looking at them. Plus, the limited shelf space in a bookstore makes this task more manageable than searching online.
This isn’t about whether you like or dislike the competitive titles! You’re not setting out to reassure yourself that every other book is a piece of crap compared to yours. Just notice what’s already been published in your topic space, and especially take note of the titles that are prominently displayed, which indicates that they’re selling well. If you find a popular book that’s exactly what you wanted to write, don’t be discouraged! Better to know that now so you can pivot.
Notice how the title, subtitle, and table of contents communicate who the book is for and what problem it solves (or what need it meets).
Notice that most books are very clear and specific about these things. In fact, you’re unlikely to find any generic books in stores at all. Everything has an angle, and there’s a good reason for that.
Follow this up with some more research on Amazon, which carries far more titles than a physical store ever could.
The downside of doing your comp research on Amazon is that you have to wade through tons of self-published books that clutter up the topic category and aren’t representative of what consumers are actually buying. Focus on books that appear to be professionally developed and written by credible authors.
Reviews and rankings can point to what’s selling well.
Step four: Determine your book’s positioning and choose a title
“Positioning” means how your book is similar to—and different from—other books in the category. The goal is to find white space that your book could authentically fit into.
Now that you’ve combed through the competitive titles in your topic space, can you spot gaps in the market? Is there an unmet need that your book could be aimed at?
A great positioning strategy is to piggyback on a bestseller by drilling into an aspect of the topic that the popular book overlooked. (For example, if you’re writing about autism diagnosed in adulthood and you see that a famous book about autism in adults already exists, can you differentiate by writing specifically for women with autism, or about dating or parenting with autism?)
The key to success is to stand out among comparative titles while also fitting into the topic space. You don’t want to write a unicorn of a book that no one wants to buy, but you also don’t want to write a copycat book that offers nothing new.
Write a brief “positioning statement”: One line that sums up who the book is for, what it will do for them, and what’s so great about it. If applicable, it’s good to namecheck the well-known title that your book is positioned against. Here’s an example I made up out of thin air:
Autism in Love picks up where The Autistic Adult left off, providing the first-ever comprehensive guide to dating, mating, and navigating parenthood for adults on the autism spectrum, written by a pioneering veteran in the field.
Write a title and subtitle that speaks directly to this audience, their pain points, and your solution.
Step five: Rebuild your book outline
You didn’t think I forgot about that wall of stickies, did you? Now that you know which of your target readers’ needs you can uniquely meet, it’s time to revisit that big messy brain dump and make some hard-headed decisions.
You can probably immediately see what needs to be cut. Take everything off the wall that doesn’t align with the positioning you’ve chosen.
Notice that some of your ideas are more important than others. Which of your points are big enough to carry chapters, and which are sub-points or details?
Organize your ideas into a chapter structure. Think about the reader’s journey of transformation from the start of the book to its conclusion. What do they need to know first? And what logically follows? Make sure each chapter has a distinct focus and that you aren’t leaving anything important out. Your job is to make it as easy as possible for readers to follow along.
You can do this by grouping your stickies on the wall, or by typing up a draft table of contents with bullet points for the sub-points.
There are so many potential forms a book’s structure could take, I can’t really give you a hard and fast rule to follow, but here is a very common basic structure for a how-to book.
Start by describing the problem or explaining the underpinnings of your unique philosophy / methodology.
Then move into solutions. This is the teaching part of the book.
Explain how to apply your methodology in real life situations and special circumstances.
Finish with an encouraging send-off.
That’s it, you’ve got a solid, well thought out plan for your book! Now all you’ve gotta do is write it…
Get help if you need it
I hope that this gives you a head start on mapping your book out in the best possible way. Of course, it’s a complex process and not super easy for a novice to do well. If you’re stuck on one of these steps or you just don’t want to figure it all out alone, call in support from the pros! This kind of work is fun and games for me and my team.
We’ll be doing another Big Leap program later this year, likely in late summer or early fall. Get your name on the waitlist here, and we’ll be sure to let you know when we’re reopening for applications.
Until then, stay warm and dry, ideally with a dog on your lap.
xo