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How To Do Market Research For Your Next Book
And why it’s a part of the writing process you shouldn’t skip.
So you’re ready to write a book, and you’ve received the advice that you should just sit down and get to writing… what are you waiting for?
Hold up! After publishing 30+ books and making all the mistakes possible, I know that while the “butt-in-chair” approach can often work for shorter projects, it usually doesn’t work as well for a book.
A book is a long writing project, and you’ll save a lot of time by writing a book that your audience wants. This requires research, smart outlining, and a bit of strategy before you start.
Why You Should Research the Market Before You Write Your Book
Why do market research before you write your book? Basically, you want to match your vision for your book to what your future readers will want from it.
That’s literally all you’re doing when you “write to market”—a phrase coined by my friend, Chris Fox, in his book, Write To Market.
In my opinion, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you “sell out.” It simply means that you understand the “rules” of the tropes in whatever genre or niche you’re writing in, and you consciously choose to tweak or…
