What Do You Say When Asked What Your Book is About?

Hi everyone!

  Pamela S. Meyers here with my monthly post about marketing your books.

I feel like I’ve been in the school of hard knocks for most of the summer as I’ve worked steadily on marketing my book “in the field.” I’ve seen some really great results and some not-so-great. But that’s okay. I’m learning.

Earlier this summer a marketing book by Rob Eager called Sell Your Book like Wildfire was recommended to me. It’s been sitting on my shelf for at least four months now. High time I opened it!

Last week I read the first chapter and already I’ve been saturated with new knowledge!

How many times are we asked when we meet someone new, “What’s your book about?” I don’t know about you, but when I’m asked the question, I give them what amounts to the back-of-the-book blurb, seasoned with additional information like I was raised in my hometown where the story is set and I’ve had really great reviews.

I learned  from Mr. Eager that I should approach this question differently. He suggests that when a potential reader asks that question, they are really asking, “What’s in your book for me? What am I going to get out of it if I buy it?”

My first thought was that for a non-fiction author that’s an easy question to answer, but what about fiction? He doesn’t leave novelists out and says we can tell them how seeing the book’s characters overcome difficult problems in the story, the reader will be helped when facing life’s similar challenges. (See page 12 if you have the book).

My next task is to take my book and analyze what takeaways I can bring to the conversation to create an emotional desire to buy the book and read it. Most fiction writers are familiar with the Goal-Motivation-Conflict plotting device in developing characterizations and that’s what I’m going to use as a catalyst to come up with my answer to that question, “What’s your book about?”

What about you? How do you answer the question? Or more importantly, how will you answer that question in the future?

Author note: I wrote this last week and in reviewing the post this morning before publishing it to the blog, I was struck that I didn’t practice what I wrote. Over the weekend I was in a situation where I had to say more than once what my book was about, and I forgot all about what I learned last week. What good is any writing craft or marketing book if you don’t apply it? I learned two lessons.

1. Address a need for the reader that will be satisfied when they read your book.
2. Apply all the tips and lessons you learn about marketing and promotion. Don’t just read them and file them away in the recesses of your brain!

You can purchase Sell Your Book Like Wildfire at your favorite bookstore or your favorite online store such as Amazon http://tinyurl.com/lpefy3l or B&N http://tinyurl.com/n328ybk

I was not given this book by the publisher for review. After one chapter I know that I’m going to read it from cover to cover!