Seth posted a few weeks ago about buffets and choosing whether to go deeper or wider.

Going deeper or wider is about the only way to compete in a crowded market, even for books.

• Deeper -- find some aspect of the topic that some readers are obsessed with, and focus entirely on that
• Wider -- figure out what puts people off the existing choices, and create a book that will appeal to more people
  

In computer book publishing, Dummies is the most successful "Wider" play. They knock down the main factors that put people off buying computer books. In any category they are usually the cheapest and easiest and most fun-looking option. So anybody who's thinking "these books are too expensive" or "this looks hard" or "this looks boring" will go for Dummies.

And Dummies is the leader in just about every category they enter. The flip side is that revenue per title is low, and the up front investment is high. So if they don't win in the category, they don't win as a business.

"Wider" does not mean expanding the scope of the book -- it means expanding the scope of the audience.

Deeper means getting obsessive about a few key aspects of the topic and being the ONLY book that zooms in on those. When you see Packt books on "Joomla! Templates" or "Drupal Extensions" you know we're playing that game. These will never sell as many copies as "Joomla! for Dummies" -- but they don't have to, because everybody who needs them will buy them.

"Better" is not an option. It's rare that a book wins by being "better" or more comprehensive or more complete. So if you're pitching a book to a publisher -- any publisher -- focus on a clear "depth" or "breadth" way of competing. That's the sort of thinking publishers will understand.