The truth is many successful authors have felt their message insignificant in the LARGE scheme of things. But at some point they had to realize what I'm about to tell you, "With all the great books in the marketplace, there's only one voice that's uniquely yours. I am convinced there are people waiting for your perspective, your solution, or your message. They're waiting to be inspired, entertained or helped by YOUR book."



With all that said, the way to make your book stand out in a crowded marketplace is to target a niche market related to your book's topic. Identifying a niche is really hot in the marketing world right now and rightly so.

Simply put, to target a niche market in your book's topic area: Identify a problem/solution and research your competition. Then develop a different approach. With all the books in the world on your topic, it's not enough to know the solution. You must present the solution in a different way than existing books do.

Develop a way of making your book different. You need a different viewpoint, a niche, or a different spin on perhaps the same information. Examine the problem again. Look at the solution your book solves with the goal of coming up with a way to present your knowledge differently than existing books.

Here are four more ways to do this:

Program.

I love this one. Base your solution on the way you solve a large problem by breaking it into steps, i.e. Write Your Best Book Now: An 7 Step Program for book writing.

Expertise.

Base your niche on your market's previous experience with a topic, i.e. The Last Business Book You'll Ever Need!

Goal.

Organize your existing information around benefits of achieving the goal: Free Again, Healthy Again!

Affinity.

Perhaps you have a relationship with a high visibility organization that has benefited from your ideas; you can reframe your knowledge by leveraging off your association: The Bank of America Financial Program or the Southern Methodist University Weight Loss Program.

You may have noticed in each one of the above examples of the same market, the contents of the book would probably be the same! The books would contain the same basic ideas, suggestions, tips, etc. For example, all the books about diets would probably stress the importance of eating right, choosing the right foods in right portions and daily exercise. Yet, each book presents a different viewpoint targeting a different market.

So BE BOLD; have no fear about approaching the same subject as existing books. Focus in on your unique ideas and viewpoint. Remember, according to the writer of Ecclesiastes, "There's nothing new under the sun." Bernice Fitz?Gibbon said so eloquently, "Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were only thought up only little more than a century ago." Now go start your successful book journey. Make it different. Make it count. Make it yours.