Tuesday’s Writing Tip for Authors

If you’re interested in writing a successful business book, start by studying 1-800-CEO Read’s Top 25 Business Books. The Top 25 Business Books list is updated monthly, and appears on the home page and many additional pages.

Most important, you can search the the Top 25 Business Book archives going back several years. You can search by year and by month.

Each book contains links with descriptions, blog posts, and further information about each book.

3 ways to profit from the Top 25 Business Books lists

There is a wealth of information you can harvest by studying 1-800-CEO Read’s monthly lists of Top 15 Business Books. For example:

1. Titles and subtitles. The lists provide an excellent resource for studying the elements found in best-selling business book titles and subtitles. Studying the list can help you answer questions like these: For example, What are the most popular reader benefits found in best-selling business books? and How often do titles target specific reader segments?
2. Categories. What types of business books appear most often in the Top 25 best-selling lists? Fables? Corporate histories? Entrepreneurial self-help? How-to’s? Inspiration? Biographies? It would be useful to survey the relative popularity of different genres of business writing by studying which categories consistently do well.
3. Author background. Another exercise I often perform is to do a search on the author’s name on the site, exploring books and topics the author covered in s previous books. How often do new authors appear in the Top 25 lists? or Have most best-selling business book authors written previous books?

How to put this idea to work

If you’re interested in writing a business book, and haven’t yet visited 1-800-CEO Read, you’re overlooking a valuable resource. Of course, similar resources are available elsewhere. But, it’s important to bear in mind 1-800-CEO Read’s focus on sales to CEOs and top management, plus quantity sales to corporations. This focus on corporate sales gives the site special value. Visit 1-800-CEO Read, study the Top 25 Business Books lists, and share your initial conclusions as comments, below. Share the ideas and lessons you learned, and how they influenced your choice of business book topic, market, and title.