Writers often get cold feet when presented with the idea of using social media to help them determine what their next eBook topic should be. If you want to write a eBook, you shouldn’t overlook the options that social media can provide. Before you publish a eBook, you should take the opportunity that social media presents as a chance to get down in the trenches with the people who will one day be your readers.

Most social media appears, on the surface, to be repeated lists of poorly photo shopped pictures and people making odd statements about their personal lives that probably don’t need to be shared with the world. The place where you will find the topics to help you publish a eBook are just below this surface. For the persistent author though, this snooping will quickly pay off.

Instead of paying attention to the poorly photo shopped pictures of water skiing squirrels, look instead at the names of the groups that are posting these pictures for people to see. What you will find is that the vast majority of these pictures and comical situations are being reposted by someone who subscribes to someone else’s social media network. It is in these networks that people’s true concerns lie.

Look at the names of these groups. Usually they make no attempt to hide affiliations from the reader. Groups will have convenient names such as “mothers against so-and-so for councilman” or “students against this activity”. When you notice these group names, click on them and see where they take you.

Where you will usually end up is at a social media site that is run by said group. Among the silly pictures that people like to repost, you will discover the group’s actual agenda. Embedded in this usually rather unprofessionally presented argument, you will discover ideas that are just begging for you to write a eBook about. Whether this idea turns out to be a lifestyle eBook or a business eBook, the opportunity is the same. You will have stumbled onto an opportunity to publish a eBook about something that is an ongoing concern of the everyday person.

If John Q. Public is capable of telling a writer anything, it is to be found in the gutters between the social media junk that is thrown at us everyday. When you wish to write a eBook about these topics, you should begin with an overall broad category that you are looking for.

If you are looking for a common concern about giving speeches, then the “college students against required speech giving” group will probably have an idea or two for you to focus on. Take these opportunities to publish a eBook seriously, and make sure you mention your eBook to this group and others like it once you have it published. Not only will the group provide you with an eBook idea, but they will provide you with your first customers, too.