You may have only written print books. You may already have written an eBook or two. And you may not have known these hot-selling tips and therefore, made your book less successful.
Book Tip 1. Write a short ebook first. Your online audience on blogs, Linkedin, Twitter and other social media wants concise information to solve their problems. Gone are the days of the 260-page book to show you as the expert. Business people don’t want to read long books. Think 50-100 pages if you want to sell it. People will gladly print up to 100 pages. Think 20 pages if you want to give it away as a bonus for your site or newsletter subscription.
Your specific audience is busy like you and wants tips and how to’s that help them overcome their problem or challenge. They don’t need long stories or analogies.
Book Tip 2. Know that you really can make money from your eBook. They will sell over 2.5 billion copies in 2010. And you can use your eBook as a lead into your more expensive programs. Something to think about, yes?
Book Tip 3. Write a non-fiction, how to book first. Use its profits to finance your fiction book. Why? Because your audience is out there online ready, hungry for your unique information.
Book Tip 4. Know your preferred audience before you write your book. You’ll sell far more and get your business bigger visibility and credibility. . When you write a for a general audience, how do you satisfy each audience? These books are far harder to market too, unless you’re a Mark Victor Hansen marketing machine.
Book Tip 5. Write your book for your audience, not yourself. Get your ego out of the way. Stop telling and start engaging! Many clients have come to me after they thought they were finished. They forgot to include in each chapter’s beginning a hook and the introduction, followed by a few benefits. In the middle of the chapter, they didn’t make use of headings to motivate the reader to keep reading. And, their chapter’s endings lacked conclusion that motivates the reader to go happily to the next chapter.
Book Tip 6. Write a short title that sizzles. Your title should please Google to get ranked higher in search engines, and it should motivate your readers to read the rest. Put your eBook’s promise in the subtitle. Think benefits! Remember you have just 5-10 seconds to impress. Your title is the #1 hot selling point of your book. With an engaging one, you’ll sell 15% more books.
Book Tip 7. Make your eBook a top priority if you want it to succeed, to brand you and to make individual sales. Let go of distractions and resistances. Too many potential profitable authors let “life” get in the way. Make sure you have your book’s promotion platform in order before you release it. When you set yourself up to win, your income streams will be full.
Book Tip 8. Know your audience’s challenges. Then, write the book to solve them. Before you even think of writing a chapter, write your Dear Audience letter and say in your own words why you are writing this book— its benefits and how it will change your audience’s life to the better. When you know your audience before you write, you will write more compelling, concise copy that engages on every page, because it’s written for only that audience. Post a picture of your audience near your workstation while you write the book to keep it real.
The list could go on, but for this post, these 8 tips should raise your awareness enough to take a second look at your eBook project.
I wonder if you have any other tips to add to this small number? Or, do you have a question or comment on any of these tips?
Let’s get a good discussion going here.
P.S. These how to tips are taken from my book that started it all and is available at my site or Amazon. Just click here for “Write your eBook or Other Book Fast”