It is, I suspect, a combination of vanity and fatigue. Once we finish our book, we believe it speaks for itself. Hell, we put all that work in: it had better.
Our book can only speak for itself, though, once someone reads it. And reading it requires buying it. You see where this is going.
Elsewhere I've provided some other valuable tips about how to optimize the author tools for self publishing on Amazon, toward this end. As important as are all those tips, the most important and most challenging is doing a good job on your book description.
Once they've invested in your book, most readers - unless they just hate it - will give you at least 20 pages or so to win them over. In your book description you literally have about 20-30 seconds to win them over.
If you're unable to spark their interest in that time that's a book sale you won't be making. This leads us to the big questions: what does your book description need to accomplish and by what means is that done? Here's the hard nut to crack: you have about two to three sentences to impress the prospective reader in three ways.
First: Tell them what the book is about. Don't confuse this with rehearsing a plot line. It's about given the genre details as concisely as you can. Is the book fiction or non-fiction? Let's say the latter. Then, is it mystery, romance or thriller? Is it set in the present the past or some speculative future? For the more discerning reader, you might want to inform if it's a first or third person narrator. Some kind of evocative comparison could be helpful: e.g., in the tradition of John Grisham; Tolkienesque; Toni Morrison-like.
2. Entice them. Why should they read it? For non-fiction this is easier, which is not to say that all self-published authors of non-fiction leverage this advantage. All non-fiction is filling some kind of need - even if only an increase of knowledge (though it's usually more than that). Have the benefit to your reader right up front. What will they be able to do easier or better thanks to reading your book?
Enticement may be trickier for fiction books. That only means achieving it makes you stand out from the crowd all the more. One approach to consider is highlighting the character of your protagonists' conflicts. Fiction readers are usually looking for some kind of experience. What conflict will your book enable them to understand, recall or experience vicariously?
3. Show them. The third thing is to give the potential reader a flavor of what you do as a writer. In a sense, you're giving your reader a test drive. If your book promises to explain something to them (e.g. how to day trade or brew your own beer) your ability to explain in detailed, but clear, easy to follow language, is important to the value of the book. Be sure your book description gives the reader the sense that you can make it all easy to understand.
If you are publishing an atmospheric novel, use the kind of evocative language in your book description that you use in the book. If you have a moody, cloak and dagger spy novel, open with a description of the anxiety of sheltering in a doorway on a rain drenched cobblestone street, awaiting a dubious contact who, for all you know, may have sold you out already. Or, if it's a teen love story, open with your best two sentence description of that moment of stomach turning wonder, when your protagonist suddenly sees "the one."
Here then is the challenge of writing a great book description for self publishing on Amazon: tell what the book is, entice with the benefits it provides, and illustrate the style and tone found between the covers. Make no doubt: a tall task lies before you. It is though precisely because of how difficult it is that authors who do it well harvest great rewards.
Don't be surprised or discouraged if you find yourself doing three to five times more drafts of your book description than you did of the book. Getting it right is taxing work. And, after you've done all that, you still haven't any guarantee of an Amazon bestseller. The truth is that, despite the self-serving claims of marketing type, none of us can be induced to purchase a product that we don't actually want.
That thought doesn't mean that, should prospective readers be open to what you're offering, you can't convince them that what you're offering is their best chance of getting what they're after. It's there, with that prospective reader, that you have the opportunity to close a sale and potential for a return reader, who will trust you all the more next time.
It all starts, though, with not having them pass you over as inadequately interesting from the start. So, sorry, but finishing the book wasn't the completion of your writing requirements. Sharpen up that pencil.
Our book can only speak for itself, though, once someone reads it. And reading it requires buying it. You see where this is going.
Elsewhere I've provided some other valuable tips about how to optimize the author tools for self publishing on Amazon, toward this end. As important as are all those tips, the most important and most challenging is doing a good job on your book description.
Once they've invested in your book, most readers - unless they just hate it - will give you at least 20 pages or so to win them over. In your book description you literally have about 20-30 seconds to win them over.
If you're unable to spark their interest in that time that's a book sale you won't be making. This leads us to the big questions: what does your book description need to accomplish and by what means is that done? Here's the hard nut to crack: you have about two to three sentences to impress the prospective reader in three ways.
First: Tell them what the book is about. Don't confuse this with rehearsing a plot line. It's about given the genre details as concisely as you can. Is the book fiction or non-fiction? Let's say the latter. Then, is it mystery, romance or thriller? Is it set in the present the past or some speculative future? For the more discerning reader, you might want to inform if it's a first or third person narrator. Some kind of evocative comparison could be helpful: e.g., in the tradition of John Grisham; Tolkienesque; Toni Morrison-like.
2. Entice them. Why should they read it? For non-fiction this is easier, which is not to say that all self-published authors of non-fiction leverage this advantage. All non-fiction is filling some kind of need - even if only an increase of knowledge (though it's usually more than that). Have the benefit to your reader right up front. What will they be able to do easier or better thanks to reading your book?
Enticement may be trickier for fiction books. That only means achieving it makes you stand out from the crowd all the more. One approach to consider is highlighting the character of your protagonists' conflicts. Fiction readers are usually looking for some kind of experience. What conflict will your book enable them to understand, recall or experience vicariously?
3. Show them. The third thing is to give the potential reader a flavor of what you do as a writer. In a sense, you're giving your reader a test drive. If your book promises to explain something to them (e.g. how to day trade or brew your own beer) your ability to explain in detailed, but clear, easy to follow language, is important to the value of the book. Be sure your book description gives the reader the sense that you can make it all easy to understand.
If you are publishing an atmospheric novel, use the kind of evocative language in your book description that you use in the book. If you have a moody, cloak and dagger spy novel, open with a description of the anxiety of sheltering in a doorway on a rain drenched cobblestone street, awaiting a dubious contact who, for all you know, may have sold you out already. Or, if it's a teen love story, open with your best two sentence description of that moment of stomach turning wonder, when your protagonist suddenly sees "the one."
Here then is the challenge of writing a great book description for self publishing on Amazon: tell what the book is, entice with the benefits it provides, and illustrate the style and tone found between the covers. Make no doubt: a tall task lies before you. It is though precisely because of how difficult it is that authors who do it well harvest great rewards.
Don't be surprised or discouraged if you find yourself doing three to five times more drafts of your book description than you did of the book. Getting it right is taxing work. And, after you've done all that, you still haven't any guarantee of an Amazon bestseller. The truth is that, despite the self-serving claims of marketing type, none of us can be induced to purchase a product that we don't actually want.
That thought doesn't mean that, should prospective readers be open to what you're offering, you can't convince them that what you're offering is their best chance of getting what they're after. It's there, with that prospective reader, that you have the opportunity to close a sale and potential for a return reader, who will trust you all the more next time.
It all starts, though, with not having them pass you over as inadequately interesting from the start. So, sorry, but finishing the book wasn't the completion of your writing requirements. Sharpen up that pencil.
About the Author:
Self publishing authors who have to keep up on the hottest news and tips need to follow the Self Publishing on Amazon site. Lance Fallbrook is a frequent commentator on writers and writing. See his provocative piece on famous American authors -- the dead list!
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