I’m sure you already know that a nonfiction book would gain you credibility and authority within your target market.

But maybe you don’t know where to start. You may be having trouble thinking of even one idea that seems worthy of a whole book – that would help you move closer to your goal of becoming an expert on your topic or being seen as an authority or thought leader.

If you find yourself sitting and staring at your computer screen. Or watching as other entrepreneurs or, worse yet, your competition, produce not only one bestselling book but two or three… and you wonder, “How the heck do they come up with all those great ideas?”

Here are 10 ideas you can use to come up with your next great nonfiction books:

1. Ask Your Audience

Survey your subscribers by email. When you speak to a client or prospect in person or on the phone, never end a meeting without asking what they would most like to know about your subject, business, service or product. If you don’t yet have a mailing list, contact them using Facebook or LinkedIn. Once you have asked 10-50 people, analyze the answers. I bet you’ll have enough data to produce several books.

2. Answer Frequently Asked Questions

If you’re already in business for a while, your prospects and clients tell you everything they want to know… All you have to do is listen, and capture all those questions that keep coming back. Find a creative way to structure their questions and your answers in the most valuable format for them… and you’ve got a book – made to order…

3. Find Ideas in Your Website Stats

Use your website analytics data to check for the most read posts on your blog. Once you know which posts are most popular, you know what topics interest your potential readers – and what topics to focus on when writing your nonfiction book. (Hint: Just expand on your popular blog posts!)

4. Find Trending Topics on Amazon

One of the simplest and easiest ways to find popular book topics is to check the Amazon bestseller lists. When you click here, you can see (on the left side of the screen) all the different kindle books categories on Amazon.com. Go through the categories and subcategories that are relevant to your expertise and analyze the book topics and titles that show up. Make sure you are looking through the ‘Top 100 Paid’, not ‘Top 100 Free’ books, because you want to generate topic ideas for a book that people would pay to get.

5. Teach the Solution to the Problem You Solve

This works well when your expertise is related to a personal journey you went through (weight loss, dealing with grief, building a business…) First, identify a problem you had, one that created real pain for you. Second, describe the solution you came up with to solve that problem. Third, ask yourself, “Is this a problem for other people, and if so, would they find my solution valuable?” If the answer is, “Yes, there are people who would like that knowledge,” then you probably have a good book idea in you.

6. Write the “Everything You Wanted to Know…” Book
It all started in 1970 with the book “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex” by David Reuben. Its question-and-answer form is perfect for focusing on what you want to know and skipping sections that don’t concern you. The book was a huge success and its format was copied and created hundreds of bestselling books. Pick up 100 questions about your topic your reader would want to know the answer for and write a 1-2 page answer for each.

7. Compile a Series of Blog Posts
If you’ve already published daily or weekly blog articles, you’re well on your way! Look for a common thread or topic running throughout, organize your posts into chapters or sections, and take your stories to the next level – in a book format.

8. Transcribe a Course or a Workshop
My book The Enlightened Millionaire started as a sold-out one-day workshop. I’ve got the audio recording transcribed and cleaned up. Then I spent a couple of days adding valuable sections, deleting some repetitive or unclear paragraphs, tweaking the text and format. Then a professional editor did a final round to make everything coherent, and voila… a book was born. Total work for me – 6 hours to deliver the workshop and 2 days improving the transcription.

9. Collaborate With Other Experts

Most experts think that they need to write their book alone. But, when you’re trying to run and grow a business, you don’t always have the time to write your book alone. In this case, you might want to consider collaborating with other experts: find a co-author(s), you could hire a ghostwriter to turn your bullet points and unorganized notes into a coherent book, or, if you have a lot of content that’s broken into distinct pieces, you could interview other experts to fill in the holes.

10. Write a Fable that Illustrates Your Client’s Journey

Published in 1968, The Greatest Salesman in the World (by OG Mandino) is the original business fable. Using ancient scrolls to tell the story of a poor camel boy Hafid, the tale teaches readers how drive and determination lead to true success. Another example I like is Fish!: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results (by Stephen C. Lundin) – inspired by Seattle’s famous Pike Place Fish Market and its enthusiastic employees, a fictional manager applies simple leadership principles to create a much more effective and cooperative workplace.

Now It’s YOUR Turn

For five minutes… come up with as many ideas as you can… what books could YOU write to support your target audience and establish you as the expert and authority?