Book Differentiation: Part 3

BOOK DIFFERENTIATION

By Hank Quense

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 (published on 3/18) introduces differentiation and discusses the process.

Part two (published on 3/25) talked about developing a differentiation message for an individual book.

PART THREE: USING THE MESSAGE

What do you do with these statements after you develop them?  You stick them anywhere they'll fit.  On your website, on blogs, on ads, press releases, in your trailer.  If you can't fit the entire statement someplace (such as Twitter), use the pitch line by itself.

WEBSITE USE

On your book-buying page, make the pitch line the opening statement followed by the rest of your differentiation message. Why?  Earlier, I mentioned captured audiences when I made a sales presentation.  On the internet, no one is captive and their attention span is too minuscule to measure.  When these visitors land on your web page, you have a second or two to persuade them to read beyond the first line of text they see.  That is the job of your pitch line: to get the visitors to read further.  The next statement (what's in it for the buyer) has to tell them there is something of value here, something they can use or enjoy. Finally, your page tells them what is different about your book, what is in it that they can't get elsewhere.  If this works, the visitors will read even further where they can learn how to get a copy and how much it'll cost.  If you get a sale, you have accomplished the difficult process of converting a visitor to a customer.

TRAILER USE

Make sure your differentiation statements are clearly visible and emphasized in the trailer.  Get the message in the beginning and the end of the trailer.  Innumerable people from all over the world will view the trailer and you want them to understand your message.

INTERNET ANNOUNCEMENTS

Log onto social media sites and post an announcement that your book is available.  Include the differentiation message in the announcement.

Log onto book sites like Goodreads and Librarything.  Add information about your book.  You can upload the cover and add descriptive text about it.  Make sure that text includes your differentiation messages.

PRESS RELEASES

Display your differentiation messages prominently.  Make them the opening statement in the body of the release.  Rephrase the message and place it a second time further down in the body.

EMAIL

Use the signature capability in your email program to build a unique signature using the pitch line by itself.  Link that pitch line to your book-selling website.  Now, every time you send an email, you'll also be pitching your book.

Once the differentiation statements are completed, you've taken a big step toward getting people to buy your book.  Keep going!  You can do this.

How about some comments on this three part series.  Was it useful?  Nothing new?  Whatever?

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