Your book’s promise should appear in (or at least be strongly implied by) its title and/or subtitle. My all-time favorite nonfiction title is How to Stay Alive in the Woods, by Bradford Angier. Can you guess what that book is promising? Are you able to judge its relevance to your needs and goals? Do you know which of your friends might enjoy hearing about it? Absolutely. And as a result, it has sold 800k copies across twenty years despite competing against plenty of similar books that are arguably better. In my view, that’s the direct result of making a clearer promise on its cover.
