Monday’s planning tip to help you write a book

Choosing the right title for your book is one of an author’s most important planning tasks. Curiosity can be one of the most powerful techniques for choosing book a title that will find new readers and increase book sales. One of the best examples of a successful curiosity title is Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers. Because Outliers is a new term to most readers, it immediately engages the reader’s attention, compelling them to ask themselves, “What’s this all about?”

Curiosity is an especially powerful technique when the author has an established following and track record, like Malcolm Gladwell has. When a new book title appears that engages the prospective reader’s curiosity, the inevitable reaction is that the reader will turn the book over and try to find out more by seeing what’s on the back cover.

In the case of Outliers, the headline on the back cover simply states, “Two of the most influential books of the past decade.” The remainder of the back cover is occupied by the titles of Gladwell’s previous books (The Tipping Point and Blink), supported by brief quotes from Fortune, the New York Times, Salon.com, and Time.

Even if the title remains unexplained, the back cover quotes resonate with the prospective readers, selling the new title by tapping into the good will and proven value generated by the author’s previous books.

But wait, there’s more…
But, there’s more to a curiosity title than its ability to immediately attract the reader’s attention.

By basing the title of his new book on a term that will be “new” to most readers, Gladwell is also positioning his title to sell more books by finding new readers. Although outliers is an existing term, because it is an unfamiliar one, Gladwell has–in effect–created a new category for his book. This is classic positioning, as defined in numerous books over the past 25 years by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

Now that the term has been popularized, everytime the term is used, it is “advertising” Gladwell’s book!

The payoff
The success of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers proves the power of a curiosity title backed-up by the proven value delivered by the author’s previous books. As this is written, out of the 400,000+ books available on Amazon.com, for example, Outliers is the 7th best-selling book–less than two weeks after it’s publication.

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Choosing the right title for your book is one of an author’s most important planning tasks. Without a strong title, your book is destined for obscurity, no matter how good your information or how well you write. Book publishing success requires analyzing the various types of book titles and making the right choice. Published & Profitable members enjoy immediate access to numerous title planning tools, including an example-filled 1-hour video.

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