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Top Nine Essential "Hot-Selling Points" To Pre-Market your Book for Big Sales Every part of your book can be a sales tool. When you include the below tips, you will have a roadmap to follow to keep your writing organized and compelling, and you'll sell more books than you ever dreamed of! 1. Write for your one preferred audience. Not everyone wants your book. Find out what audience wants/needs your book? What problems does your book solve for them? Create an audience profile and keep your audience's picture in front of you as you write. Ask yourself, is my topic narrow enough? The Chicken Soup For The Teenager, For The Prisoner, and other specific groups sold far more copies than the original Chicken Soup. To start, write a short letter to your audience telling them why you wrote the book and what it will do for them. This letter becomes part of your book's introduction. 2. Write a sizzling book title. Make it short and clever to sell best. Long titles are hard to remember. Your title must compel your audience to buy. You want your book's title on everyone's lips. Those people become your 24/7 sales team because they are so impressed. Today people want short titles, short chapters because they don't have a lot of time to read. This is the number one "Essential Hot-Selling Point" as laid out in Chapter Three of the Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast book. 3. Write your book's thesis if it is non-fiction. Write your book's theme if it is fiction. Your thesis usually makes a judgment and tells your book's number one benefit. Or answers the number one question or solves the number one problem your readers have about your topic. Sometimes your title is your thesis--the best of all worlds. If fiction, you need to know your theme before you finish your book. It also is expressed in a sentence and makes a judgment. Perhaps your message is one of a general human condition. . For example, "Women who persist and stay open to adventure and opportunity can create a happy, satisfying life." 4. Make your front cover fit your book content. You have 5-10 seconds to hook your potential buyer. The cover and the title sell more books than any other part. Bookstore buyers buy mainly by cover designs. If you want an agent or publisher your title and subtitle are vital. Use four-color and get professional design help. For business, use colors like red, blue and maroon. For softer subjects, use softer colors. Women like aqua, red, yellow, so include those for their books. 5. Write a thirty-second "tell and sell." You only have a few seconds to impress the media, the agent, the bookseller, and the individual buyer. Include your title, a few benefits, and the audience. Include a few sound bites that grab attention. You may also want to compare your book to a successful one. "Passion at Any Age" is the "Artist's Way" for seniors. 6. Write your back cover before you write your book. This is the second most important sales tool your book has to offer. Here you put compelling ad copy, benefits, testimonials, and a small blurb about you, the author. If your potential buyer likes it, they will buy on the spot. If they want more information, they will look inside at the introduction and table of contents. Reach out to opinion molders. After an initial contact of asking for feedback, resend them the same chapter, the "tell and sell," and the table of contents of your book. Ask for a testimonial then. These influential contacts' testimonials will make your back cover an important sales tool. Your back cover becomes a precursor of your Web site sales letter. . 7. Write your book's introduction. Include the problem your audience has, why you wrote the book, and its purpose. In a few paragraphs include more specific benefits, and how you will present it (format). Keep it under a page. The biggest mistake authors make is to tell their story in the introduction. Your readers want to know how you can help them. 8. Create a table of contents. Each chapter should have a name, preferably a catchy one. If your reader can't understand the chapter title, then annotate it. Add some benefits or a sub title. In Passion at Any Age, the author put the word "passion" in each title to help brand the "Passion" title. Which attracts you more? "Open Your Mind?" or "Attracting Passion?" Often fiction doesn't name chapter titles, but for the reader, it helps a lot. 9. Know your book's benefits. That's what sells your book. After you create a list of 5-10 of them, keep them handy for the outside sales copy--the stuff that gives people enough information to make an intelligent decision to buy. Omitting these words and phrases costs new authors book sales. Remember that features such as the tips, quotes, side bars, and stories help explain what's in the book, but they aren't strong sellers like benefits are. After you know your benefits, you can quickly write your back cover, your "tell and sell," and your web site or email sales letter. Designing every part of your book to be a sales tool and a beacon to writing a focused, compelling, understandable, and enjoyable book is a must, before you write a single chapter. If your book is already done, be sure to rethink these hot selling points for the promotion you need to sell your book. Judy Cullins ©2005 All Rights Reserved.
This article was posted on December 05, 2005
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