When
promoting and marketing your book, the strongest weapon you have is not a great
book, an attractive cover, a low price or a catchy title. Nor is it your credentials
or the marketplace competition. It is something that’s available to everyone,
costs you nothing, and can be used anytime, anywhere. So what’s the secret
sauce?
Words.
Yes,
the very building blocks used to create your product will be the tools of
persuading the media, the consumer, and retailers and organizations to embrace
you and your book. Of course, it’s not any words that will do. It’ll be the
savvy use of certain words that will do all of the heavy lifting and invite the
interest of others.
You
are your words.
Think about it.
Others have little else to go by but the words that you expose them to. And when you supplement good word choice with a smile, conviction in your voice, sincerity in your eyes, and an energetic warmness in your body language, you will have an excellent chance to inspire others to take the action step you desire.
Think about it.
Others have little else to go by but the words that you expose them to. And when you supplement good word choice with a smile, conviction in your voice, sincerity in your eyes, and an energetic warmness in your body language, you will have an excellent chance to inspire others to take the action step you desire.
So
what are the magic words to use? It certainly depends on the circumstance of
who you are speaking with, the subject matter of your book, and other
marketplace obstacles that may include timing, location, competition, etc.
Words
that have impact and all kinds of mental attachments to them are the ones that
immediately help us visualize an instant understanding of things. There are many
of them. They are the extremes, such as life-death, rich-poor, love-hate,
hot-ugly, freedom-prison, etc. There are words and numbers that quantify,
color, shape, and size things. There are words that have deep emotional attachments --
lust, divorce, abortion, yell, tax, victim, loss, etc. There are political and religious
terms that strike up an instant polarization -- peace, democracy, capitalism,
left, right, nation, government, God, Jew, Christian, Muslim, etc. So you see,
if you present a concept, a view, a fact, or a piece of history, you can
immediately draw people in with just a few good words, because the words
already come with strongly defined characteristics.
Where
the real power of words comes into play is when you combine two of them and
point up a striking image -- gun nut, book slut, intellectually absent, God-fearing,
money-loving, dirtied soul, victory-challenged, etc.
Now
you may say that I didn’t tell you anything new, that of course writers, of all
people, should know that the words used are what stands between success and
failure. Yet, millions of writers, every day, fall short in what they hope to
accomplish, simply because they overlooked the most obvious weapon.
We
are humans interacting with humans, at least until drones and droids take over --
so we have to always be cognizant of the fact that we have weak points and
words can pierce them. We can use words to tunnel into the gold. Every person
has a need or desire -- often multiple needs and desires, short- and long-term.
Your words can attach themselves to their dreams and challenges.
Think
about what you plan to say to someone. Then revise your words to give them more
style, verve and depth. You want words that invoke something, that provoke and cause
the recipient to react, hopefully favorably.
People
buy from those they like, those they feel understand them, and those they hope
will help them. You can be the one to save them, to give them a piece of life’s
puzzle. Just choose your words carefully.
Your
book is a 60,000-word sequence that you believe represents a great story. Now you
need a 150-word pitch that carefully uses the right words. You can do it. Anyone
can. That’s the part that makes it so appealing -- and so frustrating.
DON'T MISS THESE
Sell a book like a car salesman
Can you write a book that never ends?
Who has a monopoly on ideas?
Will the media returrn to authors?
Writers and their legacy
When
books are dead on arrival to the media
Do You Believe In Book Publishing’s False Prophets?
http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/beware-false-prophets-of-book-publishing.html
A look into the future of books and language and the struggle for relevancy
http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-glimpse-into-the-future-for-your-book.htmlWorking your own book publicity miracle
Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.
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