How to Choose a Book Topic When You Have Too Many Ideas

Too many book ideas and no clue which one to start with? This episode walks you through a simple, repeatable process to choose a topic that’s both meaningful to you and valuable to your readers.​

In this quick coaching-style episode of The Author’s Edge, Publishing and Visibility Advisor Allison Lane shows you how to stop overthinking and start validating your ideas in the real world - without asking random people in a Facebook group to “vote” on your book.​

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why there is no single “right” book topic - and how chasing certainty keeps you stuck instead of shipping.​
• How to mine real reader questions (and Google’s “People Also Ask”) to find the problems your audience is already asking you to solve.​
• A simple 5-step “Questions My People Ask” exercise to validate your topic with a 5-minute voice note before you commit.​

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Transcript

0:14

Welcome back to the Author's Edge for this quickie episode. I'm your host, Allison Lane, and today we're answering this plea for help. That sounds super simple, but it's actually secretly emotional, and it's this, I have so many ideas. How do I choose the right topic to focus on? What you're really asking is. When you say the right topic is that you think that there's a best topic, and what I think what you might mean is what's the most marketable topic or the most meaningful or the most likely to open doors? You might even mean what's the most likely to fulfill me? I, I don't know. And here's the truth. There is no best and I can't pick it for you. That's why. A lot of high achievers struggle here because in a lot of your worlds there is an obvious right answer. There's a committee, there's a rubric, there's a stamp of approval in trade publishing, though that's, you know, general publishing in media invisibility, it doesn't work like that. No one is coming to certify your topic as the correct one. So you have to stop trying to think your way into certainty. You validate your way into it. And here's what I don't want you to do, for heaven's sake. Do not jump into a Facebook group and ask people to vote on your three book ideas. That is not validation. That is just vibes that without, and you don't know who's going to give you. Their opinion or not. What you want to look for is evidence. Go where your audience already gathers. And when I say your audience, I mean the people you know you can help, you could serve, you can inspire and watch what they ask. Go to Reddit, go to Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups. Um. You can hop into TikTok and ask a question and see what hops up. Uh, podcast reviews, newsletter replies any place where people are asking for help in their real language, with their phrasing, even with their bad grammar and bad spelling. Collect the exact questions and the exact words there. They're asking exact wording really matters because different wording usually means different intent. And you could think, oh, well they're asking for the same thing because you think the answer is the same. But when you think that you miss out on serving two different types of people, and so there's a reason why their questions are slightly different, uh, also use the. Easiest cheat on the internet. Google your topic area, so if your topic area is anxiety, google the word anxiety and then scroll down to the section called people. Also ask, because Google serves those up to you, which is so awesome. Thank you, Google. And, and it'll serve those up to you in, it'll show you at first three or four questions that people also ask, what is anxiety? What are the signs of anxiety? Do I have anxiety? Whatever those are, click on one and unclick it, and Google will add two or three more questions. Click on another one and unclick it and Google will add a couple more questions. Do it over and over again until there are 40 or 50 questions there, and scan those and you'll think, oh my gosh, these are all the same question. No, they're not. You're not looking for a topic you could write about. You're looking for the problem you feel pulled to answer. So that poll matters. So when you're looking at these questions. Don't start thinking about, oh, that's the book I wanna write, or that fits in with the book. I think I want to write because finishing your book or your talk or your building your platform requires consistency and also making it easy and fun for you. If you pick something you don't feel called to, you will quit halfway and blame time, or I couldn't find the time everyone. Can devote time, but time does not need to be found because it simply is you're welcome. That is super deep from me. Here's a just a simple process just to back this truck up. Start a document called, questions My People Ask. Collect 25 questions this week. Use Google. It's so easy. Circle the five questions with the highest stakes for them and the most pull for you. These are the the questions that cost people the most when they get them wrong, when they have misinformation. Once you have those five, record a five minute voice note answering it. And if you can answer it clearly out loud, you've got a real topic starter, you know, you've, you've really stepped into it.'cause then you've tested it. Now that you have that captured, look at that transcript and share your response. Share it somewhere. Share it with a friend, your partner. Share it online and see what people respond to. You could even share it in a Reddit thread. Someone's asking that question, why don't you be a helper? And respond and remember their response to you is just data. If they're like, well, I disagree, like, okay. Well, you know, that might mean that you're being provocative and that is good. Just remember this, that your book, your podcast, your talk, those are all vehicles. You have to choose the problem first. Then you can choose the vehicle that fits your life and your topic and your audience. There is no best, there's no stamp of approval. There's just validation and momentum, and you can control those. I can't wait to see what you do next. Do me a favor, please share this with someone who you know needs it and do the world a favor and give the podcast a five star review so other people can find it. Just scroll down wherever you're watching this, uh, in YouTube, which, you know, if you wanna see me wildly gesture, you can go on YouTube. If you're just listening to this, scroll down where, whichever. Listening platform you're on and give this a review. It really helps reach the people who need this guidance.