If someone came to you and suggested that writing a book about math would be the ticket to a top selling book business what would your answer be?
I sure know what mine would be….What!
But, just to prove that there are pockets of demand within almost any topic, here is a recent interview with the successful author of "Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math and not Break a Nail"
In the words of Winnie Cooper…
I had done quite a bit of research about math education when I spoke before Congress in 2000 about the importance of women in mathematics. The session of Congress was all about raising more scholarships for girls (in math) in college. I told them I felt that it’s too late by (the time they get to) college. If you look the stats, girls start losing interest in math and grades start dropping in middle school. That’s where you have to put the money. So (I told) Laura Nolan I want to help middle-school girls stay interested in math and be good at it, and see it as friendly and accessible and not this scary thing.
There are some very powerful tips in this article for aspiring "how to" book authors…
- Passion About The Topic. She mentions how she researched math education – enough to go before Congress back in 2000 – this research led to the fundamental understanding of a gap leading to an opportunity – what she found was that girls were especially prone to dropping out of math early in grade school. Viola – a hot topic.
- Started by writing articles. Notice that she didn’t jump right in an begin writing an ambitious book – she started by building a reputation around the topic through articles which attracted a publisher and the rest is history.
- She sees her work as a "Mission" – not just a business. This is so important – your big business idea needs to be something you get up with each morning and can hardly wait to get started on.
- She tested early drafts of the book and book idea with the target audience – grade school girls. Testing your idea, outline and system with your audience is critical to your ultimate success
- Understood "Why" the problem existed – in this case girls were getting ‘bored’ with math, so the book she wrote is done in a simple, entertaining way to directly combat that problem.
Was there competition?
Of course, there are hundreds of math books, tutorials and workbooks, but not one recognized the real root of the problem which gave this author her unique position in the market.
A big part of developing successful information product marketing business we cover in InfoMarketer’sZone is to help you differentiate yourself in busy, competitive markets so you can take a nice piece of the profits and be more successful in achieving your ‘mission’
Jeff
