I've been considering writing a book about the cultural, political, and economic history of the pacific northwest. The topic intrigues me and I enjoy writing, but the idea of researching it always scares me off a bit.
It's not that I'm scared of doing research, per se, just that most history books I read have a plethora of primary and secondary sources, and I don't know how to locate what sources I would need, or how to efficiently research something.
So, how do you start researching for books you've written? Do you just sort of look around for anything that relates to your topic of study, or is there a method you use to find reliable and useful information?
Obviously not everyone on this sub has a PhD, and not everyone who has published a history book has one either, but a PhD in most humanities fields is specifically a degree that trains you to write a book. We are experts in our field of study, and have spent years gaining that status. That's how we know what's available, reliable, and useful, plus where the gaps are that make a book worthwhile.