“My topic has been done to death!”
Well, most topics have been. Health, Wellness, Faith, all have been covered extensively. That doesn’t mean you’re in trouble.
Take Christianity, for example. Holy bananas, there are a lot of books out there. Volumes and libraries of nothing but books about Jesus. Fortunately, it’s a vast topic. Your non-fiction books don’t have to cover every aspect of a subject, you just have to tackle a corner of it.
Further, while Christology doesn’t change, interpretation does. Some of that interpretation is wrong, or heavy-handed, or off just a bit.
In Aron Osborne’s book, So Many Mountains; Which Ones to Climb?, Aron focus on the important stuff, and in doing so, gives a glorious picture of our loving God. If we tackle the important mountains, the rest falls into place.
My forthcoming book, Creativity Wears Boots, looks at an aspect of creativity and art that I haven’t seen written about anywhere before. What IS creativity? What IS art? What is its purpose and how do you develop it? Why is every human and artist whether they know it or not?
Plus, you have your unique take on the subject. It can be funny, anecdotal, technical, serious. If Bonnie Manning Anderson wrote a book on marriage, it would be hilarious and very different than Debi and Tom Walter’s book, Cherishing Us, a romantic look at marriage. Additionally, the Walter’s book is list-oriented, a romantic tip for each day of the year. I suspect Bonnie’s would be more essay-oriented. Yet another marriage book is by Steve and Cindy Wright, 7 Essentials to Grow Your Marriage, which is unique because Steve tackles each essential from the male perspective and Cindy from the female perspective (guys, when you read it, read both sides, it’s very eye-opening).
There’s also your audience to think about. You can direct your book to children, teens, young adults, adults, and us old folks.
Your topic may be old, but your take on it can be new a fresh. What you bring to your topic is YOU.
Prevailing Thoughts 
Thanks for sharing . I agree its all down to the individual. Many of us may want to write a version of what’s already been done but this is what I say ” no one else on this planet can do what you do in the way that you do it – there is only one of you – you are unique! Start writing!
LikeLike
This is great. Maybe I will write that marriage book someday!
LikeLike
Awww! So cool to see you mentioning people I now know. And I appreciate the encouragement. I feel that way sometimes when I write a faith post on my blog. Especially when it is focused on Bible verses. Not only do I wonder what a scholar would say about my interpretation or what it means to me, I wonder how many times that exact point has been made before by someone else. But I do it anyway, hoping someone will be helped by it, as I was.
LikeLike
The closest thing to non-fiction I’ve written was years back when social media was new and I wrote a book about how to use it to build your business. However, once you write such a book, it becomes obsolete in a hot minute because of all the changes that happen so often.
LikeLike
I love that thought. What you bring to your topic is you. Thank you for the inspiration.
LikeLike