Monday’s book planning tip for authors

When planning your book, look for ways to sell more books by moving beyond “information” and adopting a bigger picture approach to your book’s title and topic. Write a book that “inspires” rather than just communicates “information.” A book with competent tactical information, for example, may help readers master a set of tasks, but information–alone–won’t resonate with potential readers or appeal to their deep and powerful emotions.

Information–facts, in other words–is not enough to sell a lot of books. Information has to be “packaged” in ways that make “sell” the urgency of buying a book by appealing to the readers desire for change and improvement. The information has to excite the reader by tapping into their desire to:

• Become known and respected
• Avoid potential problems
• Protect what they’ve earned and achieved
• Earn more
• Become happier

At the same time, the title has to be memorable and unique, and the subtitle has to thoroughly explain the details of the promised benefit.  There needs to be an emotional connection; the words of the title have to resonate.

Jonathan Field’s Career Renegade, the topic of last week’s author expert interview, is a case study in aspirational title.  The book can be read on several levels.

1. On one level, Career Renegade is a guide to self-marketing and creating a brand for yourself. It’s a “guide” or “handbook.”
2. On another level, however, Career Renegade appeals to the “outlaw” in all of us. In an age of corporate grayness and corporate cutbacks, there’s an almost hypnotic appeal of a “renegade” who breaks the rules and takes control of their own destiny.

Don’t be content choosing a book title and content plan that just contains the information your readers need to accomplish a series of tasks.  Instead, choose a title that also resonates with your market’s deepest ambitions, aspirations, and goals; give your readers something to read about and identify with!