Is your book idea any good? I honestly don’t know. Because I don’t know your idea. But I do know how you can find out, and—hip hip hooray—it only involves two simple steps.

It DOES take a little balls, guts, gumption, and gizmo. But you can summon some of that, right? Just a little? A teeny smidge? Course you can.

 

You can find enough courage to tell people about your idea.

Step 1. Tell people your idea

That’s it. The first step to find out if your book idea is any good is… you tell people.

Lots of people.

All the people you can.

You might want to keep your idea safe and secure and unjudged, but that will not help you. You’ve got to tell people because THAT provides the opportunity for the essential second step…

Step 2. Watch their responses

You need to tell people and watch their responses.

Let me set the scene:

You’re at a summer barbeque, standing around the neighbor’s yard in the sun, holding a slightly-too-warm beer and making polite chit-chat with people you only see now and again.

Your neighbor’s husband says, “So, up to anything fun this week?”

You: “Probably putting in some hours on the laptop. I’m writing a book.”

Him: “Oh, that’s cool. What’s it about?”

[Liz’s note: They ALWAYS say this. Always. Guaran-friggin’-teed.]

You: It’s about… [insert your idea in a few sentences here].

THEN WATCH MR. NEIGHBOR’S FACE!

Does he look interested? A bit bored? Confused? Glassy-eyed? Put off? Turned on? Intrigued? Unimpressed?

His response will give you some insights, but not all of them….

Why LOTS of people?

Now, we have to remember that Mr. Neighbor might not be your ideal reader. He might not look interested in your idea because he truly doesn’t give a damn about healing generational trauma, or yoga for beginners, or six steps to real estate success, or whatever your idea is.

This is why we have to tell LOTS of people our ideas.

Some folks will be a good, receptive audience for us. Some won’t. So, we can’t tell much from one individual. We need bucketloads of responses to get a gauge on how our idea lands.

Go tell bucketloads of people.

Tell ‘em. Watch their responses. Find out how your idea lands. Tinker as needed.

If you haven’t shared your idea before, it might take balls, guts, gumption, and gizmo to start speaking the words out loud. But you’ve got that, remember?!

And if not, you can borrow my balls.

 

Thanks,

Liz “Ballsy” Green
Editor, Book Coach, and Ghostwriter
Green Goose Writing

P.S. Want to start by telling ME? Click here to tell me your idea, and I’ll write you back with my honest (and kind!) response.

 
 

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