Is Market Research an Essential First Step for Authors? Yes. 100%

Are you thinking about writing a book?

Go to a bookshop.

Now.

When I was working inhouse for a trade packager and creating book proposals for pitch meetings which we’d have quarterly – the type of publishing I worked in was a bit backwards – we’d come up with an idea, research it, create the table of contents and then attach an author to it, before taking it to the Frankfurt Book Fair or the London Book Fair and pitching the book as a product for a publishing house to buy – the first thing I’d do is go to a bookshop.

Well, actually, the first thing was always coming up with the idea.

How to come up with the idea (the publishing house edition)

In illustrated non-fiction, it was about either working out what the next big thing would be nine to twelve months before it was a thing (think parkour, think sourdough and you’re on the right lines!) or it was about working out where there was a gap on the shelf and how we could create a book that brought something new to the market.

Going to the bookshop was THE most important step in working out if the book idea had legs or not.

And it also helped us to see who we might be able to sell our book to.

How to come up with the idea (the self-publishing author edition)

For you, considering self-publishing, the idea should be something you already know. It’s part of your framework, it’s something that you help your clients with all the time. It’s something that you rabbit on about on podcasts, in other people’s membership groups (you just can’t keep quiet about it).

But the trip to the bookshop? Still essential.

Not only for inspiration (ooh, my book could go beside – insert the author that you look up to here) as well as a cold, hard look at the competition on the shelf.

Look for the gaps in the market.

Review “the competition” aka books that have already been published and are being stocked by the bookshop (this means that a publishing house thought the book had enough of a platform to invest money in it to create and print it) and how they performed in the marketplace.

By the end of your research, you need to know why your book is going to be different or better from what’s out there right now.

Publishers and readers want books that offer something fresh - a new voice, a new system, a new format.

Your market research task (if you choose to accept it)

Head out to a bookshop or library. (Can’t go now? Put it in your diary and go tomorrow/next week)

Your book needs to be similar enough to existing books to find an audience but at the same time different enough to stand out.

Try to answer as many of these questions on as many titles as you can.

• How many pages are these titles?
• What are the covers like?
• What price are they selling at?
• Who publishes them?
• How many reviews do they have?
• What do the reviews say?
• What do they look like on the inside, as far as design goes?
• What do they cover in the Table of Contents?
• What tools to they use to get their point across to the reader?
• How useful/transformative are they?
• What do you like about them?
• What don’t you like about them?
• What do you think is missing in the market?
• What do you think you can bring to it?
• What will you definitely be including in your book having done this research?
• What will you definitely not be including in your book having done this research?

Why do this task?

It will help you to understand all the things your book could be.

It will help you to visualise what the finished product could look like.

It will help you work out what you want to include and what you don’t want to include.

It’s powerful.

It flicks a switch from I want to write a book to I am writing a book and it’s going on this shelf and it’s definitely going to include this and definitely not going to include that.

So, if you are one of those 60% of people in the world who apparently want to write a book (where do they get these stats from anyway?) go to a bookshop and do some research. It will help you take that step along the journey and perhaps become one of those 3% that actually do write and publish their book.

What are you still doing here?

Off you go – and get a coffee while you’re there.

Photo by John Michael Thomson on Unsplash