Nonfiction books can be an excellent tool for establishing thought leadership in your industry.

Of course, taking a book from a blank manuscript to a published product is much easier said than done.

One of the most common yet seldom considered challenges to writing a nonfiction book is whether it’s the right time to do so. After all, just because you can do something right now doesn’t mean you necessarily should.

In this blog, we’ll lay out how to decide the right time for you by going over how to set goals for your book, conduct research, and tackle common problems to give you a competitive edge.

3 Ways To Know if Now Is the Right Time To Write a Nonfiction Book

1. Setting the Right Goals

The first step to deciding if now is the right time is to figure out what the goals of your book will be.

Without something to aim for, you could easily find your writing drifting off course and not even realize it until you’ve invested far too much time and money into the project.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What are you trying to achieve beyond establishing or demonstrating thought leadership?
• What new insight, advice, or expertise are you trying to share with your audience?
• Who is the primary audience of your book? Those already deep in your industry who could be seen as peers? Those just breaking into the industry who could use advice? Outsiders looking into the industry? This should also be informed by what you’re trying to communicate via your book.
• What do you want your audience to do after they finish reading your book? Take action based on your advice? Come to respect your expertise? Both?

Whatever your answers to these questions may be, remember to keep your goals realistic. Be honest with yourself about whether you have the expertise and vision to make this book a reality.

If the answer is no, then it’s better to wait until that changes.

2. Using Competitive Research To Find a Good Angle

As this excellent article from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce explains, competitive research helps you to understand why your customers might choose to buy from you over your competitors, and vice versa. It helps you to understand trends in your market, improve your marketing, identify market gaps, and then use that information to plan for the future.

For the purposes of your nonfiction book, the most important benefit of competitive research will be identifying market gaps.

In identifying market gaps, you’ll learn which segments of the population are being underserved in your industry, giving you a clear angle to aim for with your book.

Another means to find an angle is to pay close attention to ongoing trends and events in the industry and try to offer your insight on what effect they’ve had and where they might be going.

As the Chamber of Commerce’s article goes over in detail, there are six steps to conducting competitive research:

1. Identify your main competitors. This step is usually as simple as going on the web and searching for others in your industry offering similar products and services. For the sake of your book’s angle, it’s also a good idea to search for those putting out similar thought leadership content.
2. Analyze your competitors’ online presence. Go through your competitor’s website, their content, and their social media. You’ll be gathering a variety of information here: what the user experience on their website is like; how active they are on social media; how often they post and update content; and what type of content and topics they focus on. This will all help to get an idea of the existing landscape and how your book might be able to alter it.
3. Gather information about your competitors. One of the best ways to do this is to pose as a customer. This can include signing up for their email list; following their blog and social media to get a feel for how they communicate; and shopping from them to better understand what their customer experience is like.
4. Track your findings. Keep track of your competitors and the data you collect on them somewhere that’s easily organized and updated, such as a spreadsheet. You’ll want to record the information gathered and continue to monitor it over time in case of changes.
5. Check online reviews. Read through as many online reviews of your competitors as you can find, including social media posts and blog comments left by customers. Doing so will give you a better understanding of not just what your competitors are doing right, but also what they’re getting wrong. By identifying their strengths and weaknesses, you gain a point of reference to better reflect on your own. This will, in turn, help you decide if now is truly the right time to write your nonfiction book.
6. Identify areas for improvement. How can you use the above information to improve your own business or strengthen your thought leadership in the industry? What gaps in the market have you identified? What trends and developments are your competitors seeming to take advantage of, and which ones are they neglecting?

There are many potential angles you might find in the course of your competitive research. Which one you go with is ultimately up to you.

If, after your first round of research, you can’t find an angle, there’s no shame in delaying your book until you do. Just remember to keep monitoring the competition so you’ll know about ongoing developments.

3. Identifying Common Problems You Can Help Solve

Beyond identifying what portions of the population are being underserved, competitive research can also help you find common problems in your industry that your competitors have yet to solve.

Perhaps you have some insights that could help improve the customer experience in your industry, or a potential solution for a problematic trend?

Perhaps you simply want to spread the word on new techniques and practices that can help push the industry forward?

Or maybe you simply want to create a guide for those new to the industry, a collection of knowledge you wished you’d had in their shoes?

Whatever it is, make sure it’s something your audience will value and be able to apply to their own experience going forward.

Armed with your set of goals, the information from your competitive research, and an angle to aim for, completing this final step should leave you fully prepared to begin writing.