The one big idea for your book
When you’ve written a book – whether it be a business book, a self-help guide, or a thought-leadership book – you want it to be noticed.
Of course! You didn’t spend months creating it only for it to slip under the world’s radar. You want it to grab people’s attention, be talked about, and recommended far and wide.
In other words, you want it to make a difference.
So what special ingredient does your book need if it’s to be the hot topic of the year?
It’s this: it must revolve around ONE big idea, and that idea must have exactly the right qualities.
Why have one big idea?
Let’s look first at why this one big idea is the key to your book’s success. There are three key reasons:
- It gets your book noticed. People browsing bookshops and online bookstores find it much easier to alight on a book if it’s clearly about one striking idea than a whole bunch of them. Or, even worse, gives advice on how to generally improve a situation. One idea is concrete and simple to grasp, five ideas is a mess, and general advice is too woolly.
- It gets your book talked about and recommended. Do you remember the last time you went to a movie you loved? When you talked about it afterwards with your friends, did you give them a complicated blow-by-blow account of the plot or theme? Or did you say something like, ‘It’s about a girl who goes to live with her estranged father and they end up turning each others’ lives around.’ It’s the same with books. Readers love to talk about and recommend one easy-to-express idea – don’t make it hard for them.
- It gives your book more value. We humans find it tricky to absorb lots of different ideas at once. Which is why the book that hangs off one clear idea will always make more of a difference than one that tries to do too much. Just think what people can do with that message once they’ve absorbed and understood it – it could be a game changer for them.
What makes the right kind of big idea?
So you’re clear on why one big idea is the best basis for your book. But what makes a big idea? And what are the right qualities for it, if it’s to make your book noticed, talked about, and valued?
It flips a switch
Publisher Eric Nelson put it beautifully when he said: ‘All the most contagious ideas are switches’ not dials.
In other words, your idea must cause an about-turn in your readers’ view of a problem or situation. It’s a bit like that picture of the old woman with a big nose who turns into the young woman (or is the the other way around?). Something that you’d assumed was one way now appears to be a different way. It will never look the same to you again.
It gives a distinctive point of view
Your big idea should force your readers to agree or disagree with you.
If they don’t agree, it doesn’t matter (here’s why), and if they do – you’ve won a new member of your fan club.
The point is for your book to be memorable, talked about, and discussed, and it won’t be if it simply advises people to carry on as they are but a bit differently.
Think of books which have done this successfully: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, or The One Thing by Gary Keller. Tolle puts forward the idea that that the present moment is all that matters, and explores the world-changing implications of that viewpoint. Keller shares the opinion that by doing less you achieve more, which while not a new idea is certainly revolutionary in today’s busy world.
It comes from fresh insight
If you have an idea that originates from recent research or events, that can be another groundbreaking basis for your book.
For Invisible Women, for instance, Caroline Criado Perez researched global attitudes to collecting data on women’s experiences, and found it sorely lacking. Her book denounces the practice of treating men as the ‘default human’ and calls for a more inclusive approach to policy making.
And in their book The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley and William Danko explore the data they’ve collected on what it takes to become rich. They contend that, contrary to popular opinion (they’re being contrarian, see?), almost anyone can become a millionaire if they do the right things regularly and consistently.
It shines a new light
Not all ideas are new – in fact, none are. But what makes a difference is when they’re presented in a way that few people have thought of before.
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, by Reni Eddo-Lodge, sparked a national conversation by refusing to engage with ‘white denial’, and instead focused on the reality of the black experience. Prior to this, much of the literature about racial injustice focused on the reasons for it and how it could be addressed; Eddo-Lodge’s take was different.
Alchemy by advertising legend Rory Sutherland explores the advantages of creativity over logic when solving business problems. Essentially there’s nothing new in that view, but the insightful examples he gives of cultural movements and hugely successful products which originated from ‘illogical’ thinking give the reader pause for thought.
Don’t be an author who simply adds to what’s already there, be the author who changes the conversation. When you help your readers to flip their thinking so that what was once black is white, you’ve achieved a powerful and memorable transformation.
What you want is for your book to be noticed, talked about, and deliver value. And your one big idea is the way to achieve it.
