How Do I Know If My Book Idea Is Actually Worth Pursuing? This is one of the smartest questions you can ask before you start writing a book. And strangely enough, it’s a question that a lot of aspiring authors don’t spend nearly enough time answering.
Having a book idea is easy. I have about seventeen before breakfast most days. But having an idea that’s worth spending the next year or two of your life developing, writing, rewriting, publishing and then talking about endlessly is an entirely different proposition.
Because not every good idea is a good book idea. Some ideas are articles, some are keynote presentations, some are workshops, some are great conversations over a bottle of wine and some are ideas that seemed absolutely bloody brilliant at 2am and look considerably less impressive in the cold light of day.
So before you race off and start writing Chapter One, I think there are some tougher questions worth asking.
1. Are you actually the person to write this book?
This is where I’d start. Why you? What have you done, experienced, learned, discovered, survived, built, tested, screwed up, fixed or figured out that gives you the right to write about this particular topic?
I’m not suggesting you need three PhDs, 30 years of experience and a Nobel Prize before you’re allowed near a keyboard. But there needs to be a credible reason why you should write this book.
Your credibility might come from years of professional experience. It might come from an extraordinary personal journey. It might come from research, experimentation, thousands of conversations, building something, losing something, discovering something or simply spending far more time thinking about a particular problem than most people ever will. But there needs to be something.
2. Where is the conversation currently?
Please don’t write your book in a vacuum. Before deciding what you want to say, spend some serious time understanding what’s already being said. What books have been written? Who are the recognised authorities? What are they saying? What’s working? What’s dated? What’s changing? What are people arguing about? And, perhaps most interestingly, what isn’t anyone talking about?
I think this is where a lot of potentially good books come unstuck. The author becomes so consumed with what they want to say that they haven’t spent enough time understanding the conversation they’re about to join.
You don’t necessarily have to start a completely new conversation, but you do need to understand the existing one if you’re hoping to move it somewhere interesting.
3. Do you have enough wisdom and experience to become an authority on this topic?
Knowing about something and having enough substance to write a book about it are two very different things.
Where are your stories? Your scars? Your mistakes? Your successes? Your observations? Your case studies? Your frameworks? Your lessons learned the hard way? Where are the things you’ve figured out that perhaps other people haven’t?
This has become even more important in the age of AI because information is no longer particularly difficult to find. We can all generate a perfectly respectable collection of information about virtually any subject in seconds.
What AI can’t manufacture quite so easily is your perspective. And perspective generally comes from experience, curiosity, mistakes, reflection and time. That’s the stuff that gives a book substance.
4. Do you have something unique to add to the conversation?
Now we get to the really interesting bit. You don’t have to invent an entirely new subject. That’s setting the bar ridiculously high. There probably aren’t too many completely untouched subjects left anyway. But what is your contribution?
Perhaps you see an old problem differently. Perhaps you’ve developed a better way to solve it. Perhaps you’ve created a framework nobody else has. Perhaps your experience has led you to completely disagree with conventional thinking. Perhaps you’ve connected two ideas that nobody else seems to have connected.
There needs to be something that makes me say, “I haven’t thought about it like that before.” Your book should add something to the bookshelf, not simply take up more space on it.
5. Have you done enough homework?
Your experience matters enormously, but experience alone isn’t always enough.
Read the books. Study the research. Talk to people. Interview experts. Look at what’s happening internationally. Understand the opposing views. Find the people who disagree with you and understand why. Challenge your own assumptions rather than simply collecting evidence that proves you’re right.
I think a good author needs to be deeply curious before they become deeply certain. Know the territory before you start planting your flag in it.
6. Have you had your idea properly challenged?
I hear some version of this all the time.
“I’ve asked a heap of people about my book idea and everyone thinks it’s fantastic.”
Excellent.
But who exactly did you ask?
Your partner? Your friends? Your team? Your clients? Your mum? People who like you and have absolutely no desire to crush your lifelong dream of becoming an author while you’re having coffee together?
Ask enough people whether they think your book is a good idea and you’ll probably end up with a lovely pile of YESES from people who would never have said NO in the first place.
I’m not saying your idea isn’t good. It might be sensational. I’m simply saying I’d want a little more evidence than that before committing a year of my life and a considerable amount of money, energy and reputation to it.
This is where some genuinely independent third-party review can be incredibly valuable. Find someone who understands books, understands the market, understands what makes a book work and isn’t emotionally invested in keeping you happy.
Then give them permission to challenge your thinking. I’d much rather have someone find the holes in my book idea before I’ve written 50,000 words than after.
7. Does anyone actually care?
This might sound a little harsh, but it’s an important question.
You might be completely fascinated by your topic. That doesn’t necessarily mean anyone else is.
Is there a real problem, frustration, aspiration, challenge or unanswered question sitting underneath your book idea? Are people actively looking for answers? Are organisations spending money trying to solve this problem? Are people talking about it, searching for it, debating it or struggling with it?
There needs to be some evidence that the conversation matters beyond your own fascination with it. A commercially viable book needs more than an interesting idea it needs relevance.
8. Why does this book need to exist now?
Timing matters more than we sometimes realise. A perfectly good book idea can be five years too late. Occasionally it can be five years too early.
What’s happening in the world, your industry, your profession or the lives of your readers that makes this conversation particularly relevant today? What’s changing? What’s coming? What’s becoming more difficult? What’s becoming possible for the first time?
Some of the strongest book ideas sit at the intersection of something important and something changing. If you can clearly explain why your book needs to exist now, you’re getting somewhere.
9. Is there actually enough here for a book?
And finally, let’s make sure you’ve actually got a book. Because some absolutely brilliant ideas should be articles. Others should be keynote presentations, workshops, podcasts, white papers or very enthusiastic LinkedIn posts.
Not every good idea needs 50,000 words wrapped around it. Can you see the depth? Are there stories, frameworks, research, examples, case studies, arguments, opposing views and practical applications? Can you imagine 10 or 12 strong chapters that each earn their place rather than simply repeating the same core idea in increasingly creative ways?
Whatever you do, don’t stretch a 5,000-word idea into a 50,000-word book. Your readers will know. Probably by Chapter Three.
So perhaps the question isn’t really:
“Is this a good book idea?”
I think the much better question is:
“Have I done enough work to know this is a book worth writing?”
Writing a book is a significant investment of time, money, energy and reputation. I don’t say that to put anyone off. Quite the opposite. I want more people with genuine wisdom, experience, original thinking and something worthwhile to contribute to write books. But I want them to write books that matter.
