niche (niCH,nēSH/)
- (n.) a comfortable or suitable position in life.
- (adj.) interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.
Three ways to find your niche:
1. Audience.
You could have a broad idea for a book. Something like How to find love. That’s something a lot of people would like to know and read about, but the market size is too large and diverse to write a niche and relevant topic on. So you narrow down the audience.
You find your niche via audience by going very deep on who would read this book. Think small and specialized. Keep asking questions about their pain points and what they want as solutions and what they care about.
Instead of using demographics like “between the ages of 16 and 45, single, recently divorced and anyone with a broken heart,” which describes hundreds of millions of people, you would use something much more specific to corner the market on a certain type of reader.
Something like, “women between the ages of 24 and 35, educated, working professionals, living in the US or Australia, who have not found the right guy yet.” Pain point: haven’t found the right guy yet.
That’s specific and cuts your audience way down. This is good. Now you know exactly who you are speaking to, both when writing the book and talking about it.
Having a market of a hundred thousand people is better than a market size of ten million. Most people don’t go deep enough on their audience before writing and selling their book idea.
2. Uniqueness of topic.
That broad book idea you have, on How to find love. That’s likely not to spark much interest given the thousands of other books out there on the same idea. This time, you need to narrow down the topic so more people will find relevance.
The book needs to have a unique twist on a common topic. Or it will go unnoticed. So with our previous niche audience — women who haven’t found the right guy yet — let’s create a unique topic specifically for them.
We are not looking for the entire world of women adults without love. Most topics couldn’t speak to that many people. Still thinking small and specialized. What solutions can you offer to the pain points you discovered?
Something like, “ How to get the guy.”
That phrase speaks directly to that niche audience of women and is unique to the other books out there on love. It’s not about relationship coaching or how to improve your love life. It’s a solution. And your book is going to go deep there. It can be a practical guide on how women of a certain age can get the guy of their dreams.
Matthew Hussey wrote this book, and it became a NYT bestseller. Get the Guy: Learn Secrets of the Male Mind to Find the Man You Want and the Love You Deserve.
Matthew found his niche. And a formula that he step-by-step provided a solution to a clear pain point with his audience.
3. Positioning.
Okay. So how do you make this as easy as possible?
Search Amazon for the main keywords in your book and look at the number of reviews they have. If they have a lot then that means they’ve sold a lot of copies, and that’s a good title to reference. That means there is a big readership for that category. If it’s low on reviews it’s not a good book to mention or reference.
Research trends or stats about your topic or ideal reader. i.e. According to the Pew Research Center, 31% of women single at any given time, and 15% are actively looking. Consider information like this when formulating your book idea and who it appeals to.
From our similar titles list, determine which book titles are already out there and what pain points they are covering. How might yours be unique and different, and appeal to the same readers?
Here is a free Book title doc that provides steps to create a good topic based on similar titles in the market.
Cheers,
PS This is not a plug for Hussey’s book, just a good example of a unique topic that found traction in a crowded market.
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