So I’ve been thinking about my next book. Not my next ebook or eguide, but my next traditional book, one my agent and I would pitch to publishers.
For a while I thought I knew what that project might be, but long story short, that topic no longer appeals to me. So I’m at this place I never expected but am kind of enjoying: I know I want to write another book, but I don’t know what it will be about.
The road toward my next book.
Why do I enjoy this? Because the opportunities are endless, and I know the day will come when an idea hits me. I look forward to that ah-ha moment.
Here’s what I do know: I want this next book to be non-fiction. But not memoir like my first book; this one will combine my journalistic skills — so I can interview interesting people with interesting experiences and dreams — and my new-found love for the conversational voice. I want to write this next book like I’m writing this blog post, telling you a story and letting you learn along the way.
And I think I want the topic to fit somewhere in the sphere of the new world of work that I’m always writing and talking about. About how now, more than ever before, you can create your own career and make money doing what you love. There’s a movement in this direction, toward finding freedom in your job so you can find freedom in your life, and I want to write about that in a way that turns gears in readers’ heads, helping you apply this new opportunity to your own lives.
It’s a seed of an idea, one that will grow over time. But I’m not going to force it to grow. I’m going to water that seed by continuing to write and talk about careers and the alternative workforce, and let it grow on its own. I’ve watched several friends grapple for book ideas simply because they wanted to write a book, and I prefer to come at this from the opposite angle, to have a story I want to share or an idea I want to spread and figure out how to turn that genius into a book.
What type of career book might you pick up? And what’s your next book idea?