If Your Non-Fiction Book Doesn’t Solve a Problem, There’s No Point Writing It

“At the centre of every book is this formula: ask a question; go on an exploration to find an answer; find an answer; and from that answer, ask a new question” ~ Mattie Bamman

Wondering why your book is going off track, feels painful to write, or why you just can’t get yourself to sit down and make space for it?

Perhaps you haven’t started yet or you’ve had a few false starts.

Talking of false starts, I’m willing to bet you’ve got more than one half finished (okay, quarter-started) draft on your computer and you’ve abandoned more ideas than you think you’ll ever publish.

Here’s the deal. What every book has in common is that it solves a problem for someone else. And the reason you can’t stick to it is often that you’re making it all about you and not all about solving a problem.

We need to understand where the book sits in the world, where it fits in space and time.

Every single book out there has a context and speaks to something in that context that could be improved, solved, learned, found, enhanced, destroyed, course-corrected, or reframed.

So, answer that question for yourself.

What problem does your book aim to solve?

What if it doesn’t solve a problem?

Well, maybe it answers a question.

What if it doesn’t answer a question?

Try dispelling a myth.

And what if it doesn’t dispel a myth?

Perhaps counter the status quo.

Bottom line: you need to find out why people would seek out your book and what need they think they have that they are trying to satisfy.

The clearer you are on this, the more convincing your book will be, because every single chapter, every single paragraph, every single sentence will come back to this one problem-solving pivotal point.

Not sure if your book is a thing, because you can’t figure out what problem your reader might have in the first place? Don’t go any further with writing it until you’ve come over to the FREE Destination :: Author program to figure out if your book idea is The One you should write.

If you haven’t read Eight Questions to Ask Yourself about the Book You Want to Write, go check that out too, because it’s likely more than one thing holding you back.