I finally had an idea gel this last week -- one that's been rattling around in my brain for a while. An idea for a non-fiction book that I could put together inexpensively and without a huge effort. Now that I've latched on to the idea, I'm at a bit of a loss as to why it took me so long to recognize it.
Two years ago, when I started to get serious about writing, I began to blog. Why? Because that's what everyone said I should do. So I blogged about various topics, mostly things of personal interest.
When LEVERAGE started to take shape, I knew I would need to focus the blog more on areas that could help confirm my expertise in some of the darker side of business and management. Again, why? Because that's what people said I should do -- build additional "credibility" as an expert.
To do this, I started off with a white paper: "Power and Politics in the Corporation". I created a novel way (no pun intended) to view the corporate political environment, and added a couple of lists of tactics people used when they were playing politics. When I launched this website soon after, "Power and Politics in the Corporation" was one of the first things I posted.
Then came a series of thirty blog posts, expanding on the topic, and providing details about the various political tactics. These didn't come out of some reference source, but are, instead, from my personal observations and experiences during my years in the working world.
Over time, I've received many hits on the site from people looking for information on corporate politics. In fact, searches on terms related to corporate politics are my biggest source of traffic.
So what's the idea?
Turn the white paper, and blog posts into a short business book on the subject -- one I can sell at a modest price. By doing so, I'm hoping to increase traffic further, provide material that can be helpful to people, and hopefully generate a little revenue.
Over the last few days, I've assembled a first draft, which was quite easy as the source material and research already existed. I hope to have something in the market in a relatively short time. Then I can see if this was just an okay idea, or a really good one.
