How Do I Know If I Have a Good Idea?

Because writing is a lot of work

Is your New Year’s resolution to write (or finish) your book? Me, too! When you’re finished reading this newsletter, turn off the internet and get back to work.

Wanting to write a book is all well and good, but at some point that book has to be a specific idea explained by words, and if you’re hoping to be traditionally published, it should be something other people will want to read. Agents and editors say the best way to get published is to write a good book. But what’s good? And how do you know it’s good until you write the whole thing?

Unfortunately, you won’t know. Believe me, I have been there. Ask me about the complete YA novel I have in a drawer that will never see the light of day. And yes, it takes forever to write a book and then to publish it and you want to have a book deal yesterday and you just don’t have time to waste on an idea that won’t sell or doesn’t work.

I know. I know. I know.

I could write the rest of this telling you how to get comfortable with the uncertainty of publishing and writing, but that’s not what the headline promised. You should do that, but here are also some ways to tell if you should keep going with the idea you’re working on. There are many definitions of a good book or a good idea, but here’s how to troubleshoot if your idea is viable as a published book.

1. It has a clear audience.

   Notice I didn’t say market here. A book’s market is a whole ‘nother thing. But your audience is a group of people who’ve probably already read books like yours. Of course your book is one of a kind, but if, say, people who like legal thrillers set in Key West would like your book too, you probably have a definable audience. The generally interested reader doesn’t exist. You have to get more specific. Think about how you choose a book to read. Would you be interested in your book if you hadn’t written it?

2. It fits in a book-shaped container.

   Books are often a similar size and shape because of the deals publishers have with suppliers for the physical goods that go into making a book. And readers expect a certain amount of content for their money. That’s why your 20,000 adult literary novel won’t work. (That’s like 75 pages.) Publishers can’t charge $25 for it (or even $17 in paperback) because readers won’t buy such a short book for that price. (And no, they can’t just make it cheaper.) Obvs we’re not talking about ebook-only publishing here, but the point stands. Who wants to pay $9.99 (or 99 cents) for a 5,000 word novel?

3. It calls to be written.

   Nothing sucks more than having to write a book you don’t want to write. Remember the slog of writing dumb essays in school? Multiply that by 100. If you have a great idea with a fantastic hook that is clearly marketable, but you’re bored to tears every time you sit down at your computer, that book is going to suck, no matter how good your idea sounds. If you can’t stop thinking about it, the ins and outs, the character details, the plot points that come to you in the shower, that’s a decent indicator that you’re on to something.

4. It won’t be quickly outdated or stale by the time it hits the shelves.

   It’ll take you the better part of a year to write your book, more or less. It’ll take a better part of a year to publish that book traditionally. So, if your book is all about how to use Tinder like a pro, or, say, a biting satire of certain political figures, you have to consider what the world might look like in two years.

5. You can tell what shelf it would go on in the bookstore.

   Your book will only live on one shelf in the bookstore. You might be writing a thriller romance science fiction memoir hybrid, but you won’t see your book on each of those shelves. You get one. Can you imagine what that is? Can you see how it will fit next to other books similar to yours? Congratulations—you just figured out your book’s genre. If you can’t find the shelf your book would live on, you might have a problem.

None of this advice speaks to the quality of your prose, the viability of your idea in the market, whether anyone else is working on the same idea you are. There’s basically nothing you can do about those things until after you’ve written your book. Try not to worry about it if you can. A little perspective early on, though, about what you can control or look out for as you start (or finish) a project, could make all the difference.

Thanks for reading. Good luck with your books this year.