This is a core objective and it’s where your work begins in earnest.
Without efficient research you are blowing in the wind and your proposal for publication is unlikely to touch the vital nerve that captures the attention of commissioning editors. For many established authors researching is often the most fulfilling aspect of preparing a given topic for publication.
As you research you will find yourself uncovering diverse strands of critical new information that will tempt you veer off in other rewarding directions or even on occasion, change direction completely.
CHARTING THE ROUTE BEFORE YOU RESEARCH
Let’s imagine you are intent on producing a resource manual notionally entitled How to Become an Expert on Light Bulbs (you wouldn’t, but let’s just hypothecate for illustration purposes). Make out a list of the pivotal aspects of the subject. It might pan out like this.
and so on
Now compare this listing with your list of what you know, what you don’t know, and annotate each item on the list accordingly; tick for ‘yes’, cross for ‘no’.
1. Connect to the Internet and open your browser – choose a search engine and type in light bulbs’.
2. Start collecting links for everything you come across.
3. Divide the links into categories and sub-categories.
Finding out what you need to know online shouldn’t prove too difficult but you will cut down considerably on research time if you follow the directions outlined in the next section.
HOW TO CONDUCT INTENSIVE RESEARCH ONLINE
For best results the bulk of your research ought to be conducted online, but unless you know the shortcuts to effective cyberspace fact-finding, you could spend hours on end in fruitless searches. It’s very easy to stray when you are using the search engines because loads of similar looking topics and dissertations abound on the Internet. But with your goals properly defined before you go out searching, you will be able to focus on exactly what it is you are setting out to uncover.
Comprehensive briefings are available in three authoritative reports you can read online or download for free.
How to Conduct Research on the Internet
http://www.tbchad.com/resrch.html
How to Conduct a Search Online
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/ivc/library/how1.htm
Internet Research – Finding Hard Data
http://www.bugsoft.com/research/index.html
Having absorbed the valuable information contained in these reports, I recommend you restrict your searching to http://www.google.com. Use the advanced search’ facility and you’ll reduce your workload by several hours. For some of the items on the list where you thought you knew it all, you’ll learn more; for those you marked with a cross, you will locate answers to further enhance your grasp on the topic.
NICHE RESEARCHING
An excellent method for conducting online niche research is to use the keyword suggestion tool provided by http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
At that page, enter a keyword relating to the potential niche feature you have in mind, and the tool will present you with the number of times that keyword was searched on via the network. It will also show the number of times related keywords were searched on. This will give you an indication of what your possible niche bears for interest. If you find a decent amount of interest, say a few thousand or more combined monthly searches on keywords directly related to what you want to write about then you may be in a solid niche. Keep a file of the results of your keyword research. Next, go to your favorite search engine and search on some of those same keywords. Keep a file of these results too. The information you uncover will be invaluable.
As you can readily appreciate, developing your concept requires some legwork and even after you have completed the research, you still have to write your book. But as with all good things, you get out of it only what you put in.
These online models for effective research can yield excellent results when done properly.
CENTRALISING THE ACCUMULATED DATA
>From your files of keyword search results and as you travel from link to link, from category to sub-category, copy everything of interest to one master research file on your computer. That way you will have all of the accumulated data readily to hand whenever you need it for reference – and you will be referring back and forth frequently as you string together the elements for the construction of your book.
POSITIONING YOUR FINDINGS IN SEQUENTIAL ORDER
Now sift through the data, moving all items of prime significance to the top of the list and those of secondary and tertiary significance to middle and bottom respectively. This is how to position your findings in sequential order and it will be of immense assistance when you come to sketch out an initial outline of the content for your book.
PUTTING YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS TO WORK
When you have completed your research, do not indulge in any rash decision-making. Put all your findings to the back of your mind. Allow osmosis and catharsis to take over the work for a while – and just watch the ideas for execution spill out from your subconscious.
SKETCHING THE INITIAL OUTLINE
Now you can have a stab at producing the first outline of the list of contents: chapter headings and sub-heads. At the outset you will find yourself jumping all over the place, moving items from one section to another and perhaps even toying with the idea of starting the book from a direction entirely different to that initially envisaged. Do not be fazed or irritated by any of this; you are in exploratory mode and a long way away from setting anything in stone. In Chapter 7 we will focus on the elements appertaining to professional construction of your defined list of contents.
WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER DISPOSE OF RESEARCH MATERIAL
Why? Quite simply because you never know when it might come in handy. The questions to which you found answers for your first project will return again and again in different guises when you set about researching on new book concepts. Never dispose of any research material; store it away for future reference. You may have to do some updating but even so, the task won’t be nearly so difficult with a benchmark to start from.
Effective researching fuels your enthusiasm, so stick at it until you have collected everything you need for the work ahead. If you run into snags in your early Internet searches try creating your own ‘pathway’ e.g. ‘light bulbs – sizes’, etc.
Jim Green is an online enthusiast and bestselling author with an ever-growing string of traditionally published niche non-fiction hard copy titles to his credit. View his test marketing experiment at this website:
http://howtobecomefamousonline.howtoproducts-xl.com
