If you're like most authors, you like writing books more than promoting them. Yet, as many will tell you, books don't sell themselves.
But what if you could set your book up so that it actually does sell itself? Yes, first a potential reader has to find your book, but the Internet has made it easier for people to find your book beyond traditional book promotion routes--through keyword searches, Amazon algorithms, and other aspects of online life you have no control over other than making sure that you set up your book's metadata (title, subtitle, book description, series name, subject, and more) with relevant keywords. Whether your book comes to someone's attention through one of your promotions or they simply stumble across it online, once they find your book not only can it sell itself, it has to sell itself.
To that end, a nonfiction book has FIVE essential sales tools built right into the book. However, to make the most of these sales tools, you have to treat them as sales tools. They each have to be carefully crafted with the potential book buyer in mind, using copywriting techniques as well as common sense.
How Your Nonfiction Book’s Five Essential Sales Tools Work Together
Whether your book's cover or title catches a reader's attention first, ultimately your title carries the most weight in keeping someone's attention. After your (1) Title and Subtitle lets them know you’re offering a solution to a problem that they're grappling with and your (2) Book Cover sets the mood and its professional polish gives them confidence that the content will be treated just as professionally, potential book buyers will check out your (3) Back Cover’s book description and author bio to get a better idea of what your book is about and why they should trust you to give them advice (if they discover your book online, this information will be on the book's sales page). Then, if they like what they’ve seen so far, they’ll check out your (4) Table of Contents for more details about the specific topics you’ve covered in the book. And finally, after all of that, if your book still has their interest, they’ll likely skim through your book’s (5) Introduction to get a better sense of your writing, your tone, what to expect in your book, and how it will benefit them (especially if it’s an expensive book or if they’re choosing between several books that address the same topic).
Here are some tips and tactics to keep in mind to get the most out of your book's 5 essential sales tools.
Title & Subtitle:
Your title has to be unique. When someone searches for your book title on Amazon and 10 books with that name come up, your potential book buyer will become frustrated if they can't remember your name. And even if they do... they're going to check out the other books to see if they'd prefer someone else's book with that title, especially if it's a keyword phrase that reflects something they're interested in.
Your subtitle sells the benefits. Once the title grabs someone's attention, the subtitle gets them excited about what they're going going to know how to do or who they're going to be after learning and applying what's in your book. The subtitle can state the problem the reader is dealing with or embody the journey the reader will take, but ultimately it's the benefits listed that are the real selling points.
Here are some examples of effective titles and subtitles:
- Declutter Your Mind: How to Stop Worrying, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Thinking, by S. J. Scott and Barrie Davenport.
- Copywriting Secrets: How Everyone Can Use the Power of Words to Get More Clicks, Sales, and Profits... No Matter What You Sell or Who You Sell It To, by Jim Edwards.
- The Brain Fog Fix: Reclaim Your Focus, Memory, and Joy in Just 3 Weeks, by Dr. Mike Dow.
Book Cover:
You need a professional looking cover. While it's true that you can't judge a book by its cover, when you're deciding whether or not to spend money on a book, especially when it's by an unfamiliar author, judging the cover is part of the purchasing decision. Nothing makes a potential buyer more nervous than a cover that looks unprofessional or whose images seem completely unrelated to the topic of the book. If you're just starting out and don't want to spend a lot of money on a cover, you can go to fiverr.com or 100covers.com and get a professional looking cover for a reasonable price.
The title font needs to be readable when the cover is a thumbnail image. When you're browsing through books on Amazon.com, how often do you look at the book covers in the "Customers who viewed this item also viewed" or the "Sponsored products related to this item" sections? That's why the title and the cover are so important. As fun as fancy fonts are, you need to choose a font and size that can be clearly read even on a very small image. The subtitle doesn't have to be readable, but the title does. This is why you can't rely on the subtitle to do all of the heavy lifting. If the title alone doesn't get someone to click on the book, you've just lost the sale. Even when the title and subtitle are printed right underneath the thumbnail, if it's a long subtitle you'll only see the first few words. Next time you're on Amazon, or another book seller's website, pay attention to what makes you click on one book and not another.
Personally, I love to make mock-up covers of every project I work on. They look fine to me, but I can't create something as polished as a professional designer can . Here are several nonfiction book covers made by 100covers.com. I'm not associated with them in any way, I just wanted to give you an idea of the quality ebook covers you can get for $100 (plus another $100 if you add a KDP full print cover).
Back Cover:
The book description is your sales pitch and needs to be reader centric. Think of your book description as a mini-sales page. It introduces the problem and the solution, why you're qualified to help the reader with this problem, and what benefits the reader will get from reading and applying what's in your book. You don't have to recite all of the main points you're going to cover, you just need to convince a prospective reader that your book can help them.
Put your best book endorsements on the back cover: All things being equal, put the endorsement from the most recognizable person in your subject area on the front cover and the endorsements that best describe your book or that feel the most enticing on the back cover. You may need to shorten your book description a little but that's okay because the endorsements often make points about the book that you then don't have to put in the description. And, as an extra bonus, they add some social proof, too.
Focus your bio on the subject of your book. You can talk about your pet and your hobbies in the longer bio inside the book if you want, but the short bio on the back cover or on your book's online sales page should be focused on the experience or expertise you bring to the subject of your book. If you want a clever line in there that shows your personality or that you think will connect with a potential reader, that's fine. But your book cover bio primarily needs to be about why you're qualified to write this book. You're asking a potential reader to trust you with their problem. You wouldn't go to a auto mechanic to cure your chronic heartburn, and the main thing your reader wants to know is that you're the right doctor for what ails them.
Table of Contents:
The table of contents is not an outline. While the table of contents is an organizational tool, it’s not an outline. An outline is a deep dive into a subject with each item carefully listed so nothing gets left out. A table of contents, on the other hand, is simply meant to give a potential reader a taste of the journey you're going to take them on. You want it to be tantalizing and to pique people’s curiosity, yet not give away all of the secrets you’ll be sharing in the book.
Think of the chapter titles as mini headlines. Chapter titles are a delicate balancing act. You don't want to give too much information, but you also don't want give too little. And you want it to act like a sales tool (because it is) without it being too salesy. So, while it's helpful to write your chapter titles wearing your copywriter hat--keeping in mind the elements of copywriting: illustrating the problem and the solution, letting people know you understand their desires and fears, highlighting benefits as well as features--you don't want to come on too strong. I remember looking at a table of contents once where every chapter title was a fully drawn out headline. It was overwhelming and a big turn off. So, craft chapter titles with care, but with a light touch.
Introduction:
Make the first paragraph about your reader. The beginning of an introduction is as important as the beginning of a novel. It needs to grab the reader and make them want to read more. In a nonfiction book, you often do that by making the first paragraph about the reader's problem. Once they know you understand what they're going through, then you can let them know there's a solution to their problem and it's in your book, and that your book is going to take them from where they are to where they want to be.
Don't make the introduction mostly about you. Yes, the introduction is where you talk about why you're writing this book and how your experiences have made you the perfect person to help the reader. But the introduction should not be one long "about me" section (I've seen new authors do this too many times). Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to share your story in the rest of the book. In fact, it's helpful to sprinkle personal stories throughout the book to illustrate points you want to make.
When addressing these 5 essential sales elements of your book, you need to think like a marketer and craft each element to appeal to the hearts and minds of your potential readers. Yet, at the same time, you need to be mindful of standard publishing industry practices around these parts of a book. While it's true that anyone can write a book, and with today's technology anyone can publish a book, to be a successful author you've got to be willing to learn and apply some basic best practices regarding not only writing your book, but marketing it, as well.
