Knowing approximately how many people would buy your book before you write it, is a good idea. You can get a good feel on how your book will be received by doing a little bit of research. You do not have to spend copious hours doing surveys, looking up statistics, and other tedious tasks. You do need to spend time talking to people to find out what they like.

If you are interested in writing a book on a particular topic, say eMarketing, how would you find out if there is any interest in what you are about to write? Some people will go ahead and write the book anyway but if you really want to sell your books, you will need to do the research.

Here are some ideas that may help get the information you need:

• Go to www.Amazon.com or www.BandN.com then look for what books are best sellers in the category in which you have interest in writing a book. Look at the titles, how many copies are sold, the book ranking, how many other books the author has written and any other fact you can dig up. This is the best starting point.

• Go to Google and type in keywords that relate to your topic. Look at the top 10 sites that pop up and find their page ranking. Use GoodKeyWords.com to find out how many hits your keyword has for the previous month. This will give you a good idea if your topic is one of the hot topics in the search engines.

• Use a survey site such as www.SurveyMonkey.com Develop a survey to ask key questions about your topic to find out if there is interest. Send the survey to everyone and anyone you know. All input is good and you can sort through the vertical that is most interested.

• Ask everyone you meet if they think they would read a book on your topic. Keep a tally of how many people would and also how many would not read such a book. If you can try and find out their current reading habits and genre of books they are reading.

These four simple ideas will give you a head start on your marketing even before your book is written. If you are ready, do your research then write that book.