how to write computer books

Book market research for Dummies

Quick ways to test if there is a market for your technical book:

• Go to Google Trends. Compare the keyword in your title to keywords for other topics that sell well.
• Check out the competition on Amazon. Look at the sales rank. Low is good. But… if there is already a book on your topic, how will yours compete? Remember — to compete on Amazon, the differentatior has to be obvious on Amazon. You can’t compete just by being “better” — people won’t know which book is better unless they read both.
• Look for download statistics: if you’re writing about an Open Source tool, you might be able to find out how much it’s downloaded. Encouraging?
• Look at forum discussions: are lots of people actively discussing the topic? What are they saying? Does it look like these are people who want your book?
• Check web site rankings: if the tool you’re writing about has its own web site, how is it doing on Compete.com?
• Search Google — are there lots of pages about the topic? Lots of pages is an indicator of lots of interest. Lots of ads is an indicator that people with money are interested in the topic too.

Always assume there is no market to start with — and look for strong evidence that disproves that assumption.

Remember that a popular tool doesn’t always mean a succesful book. Many tools are very popular, but not many of their users would want a whole book about it. Try to guess: what % of users of the tool really, really need your book?

After you’ve done this, I hope you’ll contact me and talk about the book idea! My address is to the right. —>

I can even help with the research too. :)