Picking the Best Topics for eBooks That Entice Readers

Whether your decision to write an eBook is driven by marketing goals for your organization or a creative light bulb going off, it’s a significantly sizeable undertaking. It will involve long writing days and twice as long and often frustrating days of thinking and brainstorming.

You don’t want your hard work to fall flat against your readers’ expectations or general marketability. This is why you must spend some finding a topic for your eBook that will resonate with people and help you achieve your marketing goals regardless of what they are.

Even if you decide to involve professional writers and their expertise, they still need an interesting topic to work with. To help you in your quest to becoming a published author, we’ve compiled some tips that will aid you in picking the best topics for eBooks.

Before you Start Brainstorming Topics

Figure out the eBook’s purpose. Do you want to create a source for technicians within your industry? Or do you want to try your hand at fiction and give your fantasy saga a life in the form of an eBook?

Without a purpose, you won’t have an idea of how and whom to market it. All eBook writers need a direction and a goal to work towards. The purpose of your eBook will help them decide the kind of language and verbiage to follow.

For example, if your eBook is intended to be solely a marketing tool, the flow and language will be more promotional and sales-y. On the other hand, a guide for amateurs and industry beginners will be easy to understand and free of complicated jargon.

If their potential as content marketing tools is not the reason for you writing an eBook, you then have a whole world of possibilities when it comes to the best topics for eBooks.

What to Consider? Fact or Fiction?

When you’re choosing a topic, the purpose is the main driver. The other most important aspect to consider is whether your eBook will be factual or fictional work.

We suggest this step before topic brainstorming sessions as the genres and sub-genres within both, fiction and non-fictional, categories are different; and so is the audience.

Depending on your writing skills and authorial strengths, you may find one of the categories easier to approach. If you decide to use professional eBook writing services, this clarity will help the writer realign their approach to the content.

Then you have the major and minor genre/trope to think about. Every story has a main plot, which will be your major genre, and then there’s a B plot, which is connected to the main story but not directly.

The genre or trope for this plot is often quite different the major genre. For example, let’s consider you a manuscript for a romance eBook all complete but it needs a minor plotline to drive the story home. You can use this plotline to turn your romance eBook into a romantic comedy, romantic tragedy, etc.

Make sure that both the genres you end up choosing are something you are comfortable writing about. While you can get a professional freelance eBook writer, it should be within a category that you like.

With these pointers in mind, you can decide whether you want to go the factual route or give fiction a try.

Popular Categories in Fact and Fiction

Once you have identified whether you are going to go fictional or factual, you can begin to identify and work out the sub-categories. Considering the popularity of eBooks, some of these categories are saturated. If you need objectivity from a third-party, there are professional book writers available to hash out the details.

Here are some sub-categories you can play around with:

Horror/Supernatural

Spectral beings and things that go bump in the night have always captured the fancy of the human mind. This is why this genre happens to be one of the most lucrative ones. Keep in mind that there is a large demand for good horror and an exceedingly short supply of it.

Well established authors in the horror genre include Stephen King and Dean Koontz. While these won’t be your competitors when you’re writing an eBook, they can very well be good sources of inspiration for you. Their horror stories incorporate not only horror but at times also have mystery, science fiction, and even romance.

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Think of Suzanne Collins, George R.R.Martin, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien and others like them. They’re renowned for their stories that contain rich imagery and are all situated in fictional times and lands that don’t exist but which draw inspiration from our lives. This genre is one that is often considered to be the pure form of fiction where everything is entirely based on the author’s imagination.

Keep in mind that this is one of the hardest genres to write in, largely because it is over-saturated as it is often counted among the best topics for eBooks. On the other hand, if you’ve got a good premise and strong storyline, you could also end up with a best seller and a fan following too.

Crime/Mystery

This is another genre that is much loved owing to characters like Sherlock Holmes. This is another genre that is rather difficult to write in since it requires a lot of skill. For beginners, this can be a tough genre to master and crack into.

Think of writers like Mary Higgins Clark who was hailed as the Queen of Murder and Mystery. Her suspense novels are so good that they have the reader hooked from the start and many a reader has stayed up all night, eyes aching but glued to the pages and trying to figure out who the culprit is.

Romance

Romance is one of the easiest genres to tap into yet, it can be the least rewarding as well, particularly since the genre is a little over-saturated. A good romance is hard to write about and it is again, something a more seasoned writer can do with ease. For beginners, it’s much safer to opt for a different genre even though it is always among the best topics and will be easier to find an eBook writer to take up.

Once you are sure of your skills or know which direction you want to take the story, you can tap into this genre. The one good thing about it is the fact that if tapped into right, it can pay off well and you can get a huge fan following too. Just look at Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight as an example. If you can write better than those two titles, you have got it made.

Inspirational/Motivational

Paulo Coelho, Robin Sharma, and other inspirational writers are renowned for their eBooks that not only tell great stories, they explicitly move people to do better and be better in their lives. Sometimes, it’s not always enough to want to change or need advice. With guidance and the right tales, you can find yourself again, even in scenarios where you feel like you have lost yourself completely.

This is one genre that while it isn’t oversaturated, requires a lot of skill in writing. Keep in mind that Paulo Coelho and Robin Sharma use different strategies. While Paulo Coelho’s work resonates with readers and helps them connect spiritually with the work, Robin Sharma uses it to advertise his seminars and self-help workshops as well.

DIY/How-To Guides

These are the best topics for eBooks and are extremely popular owing to the DIY trend that took hold of readers everywhere, and it won’t go away anytime soon. From cookbooks to gardening to cleaning products at home, DIY and how-to eBook are extremely popular. The information they contain is bite-sized, usually easily applicable and often guarantees and delivers on the promise that has been made in the title of the book.

Also, for marketing purposes, this happens to be the best option. If you’re sure your product can deliver on what it says, go for a DIY or how-to eBook that educates your potential target audience on how to use the product.

This list is certainly not exhaustive of all the options you have available. There are others that you can test yourself. If you’re not sure of the two genres are working together, you can always ask your eBook editor to look it over.

Common Mistakes when Picking the Best Topics for eBooks

When looking for the best topics for eBooks, it is easy to make a few rookie mistakes as well that could end up hampering your work or discourage you from finishing your eBook. If you’re wondering why it’s becoming difficult to pick a topic or write about a particular topic, it’s never too late to get professional writing or editing advice.

1.Choosing a Difficult Topic

Make sure you aren’t choosing a difficult topic. While it is commendable to want to expand your skill-set and challenge yourself by picking a difficult one, if you just don’t have the skills, work on developing them while working on easier topics.

2.Needs Instead of Wants

You might be thinking about your audience’s needs but you kind of have to focus on what they want at the moment. If you focus on the need, it’s not always guaranteed that the audience will go for it, especially when it comes to picking the best topics for eBooks.

You might see that the target audience needs more romance eBooks but instead, if the market is already oversaturated or they are bored, you could find them gravitating more towards other genres. Always try to figure out what they want instead of working on their needs.

3.Being Lazy

When you’re writing an eBook, don’t be lazy about it. Write every day for at least an hour. Never allow yourself to fall into a habit where you only write when the mood hits you. This makes your work sporadic and greatly hampers your ability to meet a deadline. It also encourages you to procrastinate more. All great writers follow a writing schedule and have moments or hours of uninterrupted peace where all they do is sit, write, and read. Learn to do the same and you could end up changing the game with the help of the best topics for eBooks.

In Conclusion

Consider writing similar to the art of cooking. To get a tasty dish at the end, you have to begin the right with the topic for your eBook is the core ingredient. If you have trouble coming with a topic or have an idea for a story but are unsure which genre and category it falls under, there are experts eBook writing, editing, and proofreading services available to help you along the process.