Book DIfferentiation: Part 2

BOOK DIFFERENTIATION

By Hank Quense

(C) 2009

This three-part series describes one aspect of marketing and selling books.

With the gazillions of other books available, authors need something to make their book grab the reader's attention.  Book differentiation is one way to do this.

Part one of this series introduces differentiation and discusses the process. It was published on 3/18.

Part two will talk about developing a differentiation message for an individual book.

Part three will illustrate a variety of uses for the differentiation message. It will be published on 4/1

PART TWO: DIFFERENTIATION DEVELOPMENT

Essentially, what this process entails is developing three sentences or short paragraphs that can be used to sell your book.  The pitch line is the hook to grab the readers' attention.  Its purpose is to persuade the reader to keep reading the other two statements.  It should be simple, a few short sentences at most, and it must make a clear statement about your book.

What's in it for the buyers? is a statement that explains what the reader (i.e. a book buyer) will get in exchange for money.  This must be explicit.  This statement is not the place to get cute.  Don't come across like the legendary used-car salesman.  Tell the readers what benefit they'll get from buying the book.  Think of this statement in this way: If your book is surrounded by hundreds of similar-sized books on a shelf in bookstore, what would persuade the buyer to choose your book instead of one of the others?

What's different about this book?  With all the books published every month, what makes your book stand out from the others?

These dry descriptions are difficult to grasp so I'll use examples from my published books.

Tunnel Vision is a collection of twenty humorous short stories.  Here is my differentiation statement.

Pitch Line:

Live longer.  Laughter is good for your health.  Read this book and you may live longer.

What's in it for the buyer?

Unusual characters, settings both strange and familiar, and bizarre plots are a few of the things you'll experience and enjoy.

What's different about this book?

Aren't you tired of reading scifi and fantasy stories that take themselves too seriously?  Well, you won't find any stories like that here.  It doesn't take anything serious.  Politics, Shakespeare, Lord of the Rings, the military, aliens, the undead, they all get cut down a notch or two.

Fool's Gold is a retelling of the ancient myth of the Rhinegold.  The story involves a magical horde of gold and ring of immense power.  Sound familiar?  Tolkien borrowed part of the myth to write Lord of the Rings.  My version takes place in the future and uses aliens instead of fantasy creatures.  Here is how I worded my differentiation statement.

Pitch Line:

A Ring of Power?  That is soooo yesterday. Now it's the Chip of Power and it produces laughs.

What's in it for the buyer?

Aliens, ancient gods, humor, beautiful Valkyries, heros, conniving nobles, betrayal, greed, incest, a magical gold horde; this story has something for everyone.

What's different about this book?

This is the only retelling of the ancient Rhinegold myth that is set in the future and is a humorous scifi tale.

Finally, there is my nonfiction book Build a Better Story.

Pitch Line:

Have a story that needs to be told?  Here's the best way to go about doing it.

What's in it for the buyer?

The book describes a process that eases the work involved in developing a story.  This reduces the time spent in reworking flawed and imperfect drafts. Following the process allows more time to be spent on the creative activities and shortens the time spent on less creative work.

What's different about this book?

Besides the process, this book takes a unique approach to character building and plotting.  It identifies problem areas that inexperienced writers struggle with and explains how to address those areas.  Two of them are character motivation and scene design.

Of course, when you use the statements don't use the questions, just the answers.  So my complete differentiation message for Fool's Gold looks like this:

A Ring of Power?  That is soooo yesterday. Now it's the Chip of Power and it produces laughs.

Aliens, ancient gods, humor, beautiful Valkyries, heros, conniving nobles, betrayal, greed, incest, a magical gold horde; this story has something for everyone.

This is the only retelling of the ancient Rhinegold myth that is set in the future and is a humorous scifi tale.

Do you get the idea?  How do you start?  Take a blank sheet of paper or a start a new mind map file on your computer.  Jot down every possible idea that comes to you for each of the three statements.  Don't eliminate any ideas because you think they are too dumb.  This 'dumb idea' may trigger a great thought or two later on.  Keep refining the ideas.  Add more ideas, combine others.  Eventually, suitable statements will evolve out of this exercise, but it may take more than a single session to get it.

Once you develop the complete statement, don't sit back and relax.  You need at least one, preferably two paraphrases of the message.  These are used to repeat the message — to emphasize it — without using the same words.

In Part three, I'll discuss how to use your brand new differentiation message.

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