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Friday
Jun182010

Why I Wouldn't Read Your Book!

DateFriday, June 18, 2010

Guest Post by Irene Watson

Simple answer: You haven't given me enough reason to choose your book over others.

With near 400,000 titles published yearly, we have a lot of choices. Brick and mortar stores are stacked with books, online stores with hundreds of thousands of books are being established daily (Google produced 39,200,000,) and the internet is inundated with author sites. And, with tabbed browsing to rank, evaluate, and distinguish you from other authors it will only take seconds for me to decide if I want to read your book. (I Googled "Read Mystery Books" and ended up with 107,000,000 hits! I got 119,000,000 for "Read Self-Help Books.")

So, again, why wouldn't I buy your book? Answer: Because you failed to position your uniqueness relative to all the other books in your genre. You have failed to move the dial on my who-gives-a-crap meter.

What do you do about changing that?

First, position yourself with your website. A typical reader looking for a book will evaluate your website by comparing to three to five others. Second, position yourself on the landing page of your book website as well as every other page on your site. Potential book buyers rarely only stay on the landing page. Give them reason t to find out more about your book and you.

Don't use flabby or sugar-coated content. No, your book isn't amazing, innovative, original, wonderful, incredible, breathtaking, blah, blah, blah. At least it isn't unless credible readers say it is. And, no it doesn't mean Mom or Uncle John. I said "credible" which means someone that is known in the industry of your genre and/or a known reviewer or review service. And, no it doesn't mean you can use a blurb and give credit to "a reader" or "D.K." or a blog site that has no credibility.

Remember I told you we typically see 5000 ads/buy-me messages per day? (See my article on establishing a first mental image.) If you can't cut through the clutter of blah blah blah immediately and offer your potential readers something that is of interest, relevant, and credible, (see my article on relevancy and credibility) then they will move on to another site still looking for the book that will hook them. We have short attention spans, and even shorter memories than we did 20 years ago therefore it is extremely important to hook the potential reader right away - within the first 15 seconds, or less - on the landing page of your website. (And, that's even stretching it.) Do an experiment right now - get a clock/watch with a second hand and see how long 15 seconds is. It seems like a long time, doesn't it? Personally, if the landing page of a site I visit doesn't hook me within about 3 seconds I move on and I will bet my oldest child on it that I'm not the only one.

Okay, so I've given you all this and now you are wondering how to position yourself. Right?

Do this now:

1. Write down every possible reason anyone would want to read your book. (At least 10 and no less!!)

DO NOT GO TO THE NEXT STEP UNTIL YOU'VE WRITTEN AT LEAST 10 REASONS.

2. Review the list and remove everything that is true of other books in your genre. (I mean everything that can be claimed by another author.)

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNTIL YOU'VE DONE THE ABOVE EXERCISE!

(No cheating! If you cheat you aren't going to fully understand what changes you have to make on your landing page.)

Now that you've done the exercise and probably eliminated all your 10+ reasons you can continue reading.

Start a new list using these suggestions:

1. Why is your book unique compared to others in your genre?
2. How is the uniqueness/content relevant to current social issues, interests, and times?
3. What uniqueness of your book (content, relevancy) is most difficult for other authors to imitate?
4. Which unique aspect of your book can the potential reader relate to?

Difficult? Yep, I thought so. However, now that you have your unique qualities listed, create a memorable and relevant message about your book. And, make sure the message speaks with relevancy and to the need of your potential reader. (No, that doesn't mean some self-centered stuff about yourself, it means the focus is on your potential reader and their needs/wants.) Now go to your website landing page and evaluate it. Does it need to be changed?

I want to hear your comments.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Comment20 Comments | | Print ArticlePrint Article | |

Reader Comments (20)

Actually it's 550,000 titles published last year. The industry is showing a growth rate of 20% per year so we're on track for 660,000 this year and I think that's a bit low of an estimate

June 21, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterVictor R. Volkman

It follows that your book should be unique enugh for the readers to pick and your website must represent it so. What about free excerpts? Must an author, a not so famous author, include a free exceprt from his/her book to show the visitors a glimpse of his book's content and quality?

June 21, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterErnest Dempsey

Aaahhh! I thought school was out for the summer.
It looks like a great test. I will print it out a take it.

June 21, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterJohn Philip McCarthy

Ernest, to answer your question. No point putting an excerpt of the book on the site if you can't hook the potential buyers on the landing page with relevancy and uniqueness. Once you've given them a reason to stay and check the rest of your content, then yes, an excerpt would be advisable.

June 21, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterIrene Watson

Excellent advice, Irene. I can't tell you how many books I see whose covers don't even tell me what the book is about. They may have blurbs from other authors that the book is great or just a bio of the author but nothing about the book. I quickly set those books down and go on looking for something else.

June 21, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterTyler Tichelaar

Another great article! I could not believe I crossed out my ten great reasons. Now I see the uniqueness of my son's book through your four questions. Your article last week also helped me identify the relevance to specific markets. I am in the process of revamping our website. Thank you Irene!

June 21, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterSandra Tinlin

Thanks for coming up with some concrete solutions to the fundamental problems of marketing. It's one of the drawbacks of the publishing glut that writers must divide their time between writing and marketing. The truth is that nobody cares about an author's book more than he/she does; so the trick is to get people to care enough to buy it and hopefully read it. Most writers can use help with their marketing skills, and your suggestions are excellent. I'm heading for my website for some renovations!

June 21, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterStephen V. Masse

Great blog, Irene! Lots of ideas to ponder! To piggy back onto your thoughts, friend who is a literary agent recently told me, today, it's not necessarily about the writing style, but it's about the book idea and how to captivate the audience, so you are right on with your ideas! Our time has definitely become a commodity and we have the right to be selective.

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