Is it possible to find book ideas in your local yellow pages?  Let’s give it a shot.  Go find your phone book and take a look through the yellow pages.  First thing that comes to mind is that this in itself is a directory put together by a company and they are making money off of it.  If you live in a large populated area, how about writing a guide for dining out?

Or, think nationally and compile a directory on plumbers.  Perhaps a book on how businesses can maximize their advertising dollar in phone books?  Since the yellow pages consists of businesses and businesses need more business, what book could you provide to help these businesses?  Don’t just think about the local businesses near you – think globally.  If you’re a lawyer, a doctor, a mechanic, photographer or hair dresser and you’ve succeeded you could write a book and share your secrets with the same type of businesses.

If you would like to travel forward into time and see what events will take place in the world, you are out of luck.  But, the closest thing to that could be attained by checking to see what the futurists of the world are up to.

A futurist is someone who studies and tries to predict emerging trends and discontinuities in the global marketplace including areas such as consumers, technology, health and health care, workplace, global business trends.  Most futurists are part time and spend their full time in another profession.  Some futurists could be considered crackpots, while others are more legitimate.

A fun place get acquainted with futurists is by visiting www.longbets.com.  Here you read and discuss what you or others think may or may not happen in the future, or what the future will be like.  For other links on the subject of Future Studies, go to:

http://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Futures_Studies

One thing about the future that is true is that change is guaranteed.  If you think you can predict the future, give it a try and cash in on it.  One thing that is guaranteed in life is change.  The only thing that isn’t known is how and when.

The Writer’s Market is a huge volume published annually that lists book and magazine publishers, how to contact them, editorial guidelines and most important – what they are looking for.  You can browse through certain subject areas and under that publishing company read what they are looking for.  This way, you can spot trends and get a better idea of what the public is looking for.  This will give you a better idea when judging your book project before you start.

This is also a good source for a list of book categories to research further.  The publishers will also list recently published titles which can be another valuable indicator if you are headed in the right direction.  Besides all of this, it is a must have source if you are considering having another publishing company publish your book and are not interested in self-publishing.  All of the names, addresses, guidelines and everything are there at your disposal including advice, tips, etc.

All of us have different wants and needs.  There is a difference between the two though.  A need is something we must have to survive.  We all need oxygen, food and water to survive.  The next need in line is shelter.  But, you could argue that this is a want.  Do you really need shelter to survive?  If it is cold out, most likely you will.  We can then move to say other needs include having an income, a car, a family and so forth.  This is when we start getting into the area of wants.

We have to fulfill our needs before we can move to our wants.  We can keep going on and on and pretty soon we get to the point where we think we need DVD players and televisions in our cars, high speed Internet access and a new wardrobe.  When you think about it, there are many more wants than there are needs.  For the most part, it is best to focus on the wants of a particular market.

What are some of the basic wants we humans have?  We want to look better, feel better, be happier, have more money, be loved, live a long life, be free of disease, be popular, go on vacations, and enjoy hobbies and other recreational activities.  In the broadest general sense, we all want to improve our lives, and certain aspects of our lives.  We want more pleasure, more happiness.  We want a car, but what we really want is a nice car.  We want a house, but we really want a mansion.  What are the wants of a particular market?  What book could you sell that would be absolutely irresistible to that market?

Wants are simply more exciting.  We all want to live longer, drive fast cars, look better, have more money, love, etc.  But they are not needed to survive.  Sure, we might need a car, but the goal is to get from point A to point B.

When you go to a market, try to find out what the market wants or needs. You will probably make more money by appealing to people’s wants first and then their needs.

The simple act of asking can make a world of difference in your life.  We all have friends and relatives, so why not ask them what you should write about?  Ask business associates and colleagues.  Perhaps they can shed some light on what to write about.  What kind of book would they like to have?  Librarians and booksellers are asked questions from their customers all of the time.  Why not ask them what customers are seeking.

Ask those in a market you are considering writing for what they need to know.  Find ways to communicate with several people within a market to get some good ideas and look for popular, recurring themes.

Take a personal inventory of yourself to spark some ideas.  Find a place to go where you won’t be disturbed and get your pen and paper out and start making a list.  What are you good at?  What are you best at?  List things that you know well enough to teach to others.  What kind of work experience do you have?  What hobbies are you involved in?  Are you involved in sports?

What other skills do you have?  What do you enjoy?  What are you absolutely passionate about?  In any of these areas, do you have authority or credibility as well?  Take inventory of yourself and share your strengths with others.  Take a look at your personal, professional and spiritual life.  Search for areas you need to improve and areas you have mastered.

Often, the best thing to do is to simply get a lot of ideas.  Eventually, you will find a really good idea this way.  One of the best ways to get good ideas is to get a lot of ideas.  Don’t censor yourself on this one.  Write anything and everything that comes to mind.  You can sift through your ideas later, weed out the bad ideas and pick out the good ones.

You may find that it is a good idea to make yourself get in the habit of coming up with a certain number of book ideas per day or per week.  Once you get in this habit it trains your mind to stay constantly tuned in to book possibilities that you otherwise might have missed out on.

Start this habit now.  Start today.  Set a small goal at first, and then increase it later if you like.  Soon your idea notebook will be full of ideas.  Some ideas may spawn other ideas.  Some will be bad, some will be good.  Again, you only need one good idea to make a fortune.  Start small.  Starting today, for the next thirty days, try coming up with one book idea per day.

We all have areas in life we would like to learn more about.  Some of us have goals to learn a foreign language, play piano or learn how to juggle.  There could be more obscure subjects you want to find information about but can’t.  Or, you can find some information, but it is really out of date.  It is time for you to write about what you need or want to learn.

Can’t find a book on a subject you’re interested in?  Write one!  You’re not an expert?  Who cares!  Write from research and by the time you finish your book you will then be an expert on that subject.  What book would you like to exist?  If it doesn’t exist and you would buy it – write it!  Sure it is better to already be an expert, but the plus side of writing from a beginner’s point of view is you are offering a fresh outlook on the subject.

Experts might skip over areas that a beginner won’t.  You are writing from the beginner’s point of view and it is likely you will both have the same types of questions.  What do you want to know?  What do you want to know more about but can’t find information on it?  Choose a subject you know little about but are very interested in.

Use random ideas to stimulate your thinking.  Pick a random word out of the dictionary.  How does it relate to your current idea?  Flip through a magazine and pick a random article.  Does this article interest you? Is there an aspect to this article that you could apply to your current idea?  Walk down the street and find the first object that is yellow.  Does this have any significance to your idea?

You might say to yourself there is no way a yellow sign has significance to your idea, but try to make a connection anyway.  Purchase a deck of creativity cards called the Creative Whack Pack by Roger Von Oech.  With it you can pick a card at random and try to make a connection to how it relates to your current idea you are working on.  Try to come up with random pieces of information and force yourself to make a connection to that and your current problem.

Computers and the Internet have created a new kind of software – Creativity software.  Use computers to generate ideas for you.  One such company is IdeaFisher at http://store.ideafishing.com/index.html. Use their software to help brainstorm for ideas.  There are hundreds of potential uses for creativity software ranging from problem solving to name development.

For your concern the main use will be helping stimulate your mind to come up with and enhance your book ideas.  Also see http://www.innovationtools.com and do a search on Google.com for “creativity software” or “brainstorming software”.  Check www.download.com and search for the same.

Creativity software and tools are like catalysts that boost your brain’s creative energy and in turn allow you to generate more ideas.  These programs also help you judge and enhance your existing good ideas.  See the appendix in the back of this book for a list of creativity software resources.