Many non fiction writers have done books based upon lessons they themselves have learned.  It’s a safe bet that if tackling something has frustrated you then it will be frustrating others too, and a well worded guide to how to overcome the issue would make a great book.

I maintain that the first book I wrote is the one I wish I could have read when I set up my business as a Virtual Assistant, but there wasn’t such a book around at the time so 4 years later – I wrote it and it became an immediate Amazon Best-Seller!  There are well known sayings that go “Where there is pain – there is profit” and “Where there is misinformation – there is a market”, this basically means that if you have struggled to work something out without your own ‘guide-book’ then maybe others are doing so too and could use your hard won expertise!

The best way to get started on this path is to find the pain….

You will have heard the saying “write what you know”.  This is sound advice because to be a successful author you need solid subject mastery in order to be credible.  Readers won’t buy your book unless you are the ‘expert’ in the field you write about so once you have an idea for a subject area from your own life, you can start to formulate a plan of how the book will flow, what topics within your subject need to be addressed first for the later chapters to make sense.

Once you know the rough journey of your book (what topic will lead to the next and the next), you have to find a ‘reader friendly’ way to present that information, so it is not too ‘textbook-y’ or uninspiring.  A good way to do that is to consider the readers pain if they don’t follow your advice.

For example, if you are well organised and efficient, the better you’ll be able to deal with someone who’s not.  Say that a disorganised person in your life is your boss, and you want to get them to plan so you and the rest of the team have a better idea about the activities you are going to be doing, you’ll have to find the reason that the boss doesn’t plan, and appeal to that.

It’s probably due to disorganization and if so, the boss is suffering as much as you are. You must therefore find some pain so you can treat it. The next time you’re together, find out what your boss would really like to do if he or she had extra time. It might be the pain they feel when they disappoint their son by showing up late (or not at all) to his football games. Once you find some pain, help them see how changing some aspects of how they work will give them the extra time they need. Try to get them to make small changes—changes that you know will have an immediate effect. Continue doing this with the focus on how the changes will help them, and the situation will change for the better.  This is a gentle process but it shows how you can find the readers’ ‘hot spot’ and find a way to address it.  If you actually do this process with someone (like your boss!) then you can write about what exactly you did to help them, and thus getting content for your book!