It's the title that first attracts attention, online or in a bookstore.
To find new readers and increase your book's sales, begins by selecting a title that clearly describes the promise--or benefits--your book offers.
No matter how good your ideas or how well you write, your ability to get profitably published is ultimately based on your ability to choose a title that increases sales of your book by attracting the attention of prospective readers and convinces them that your book is uniquely qualified to help them.
In this article, I want to describe the two types of change that motivates buyers of nonfiction books, and provide analyze the titles of several successful published nonfiction books that have enjoyed long-term sales success and have helped launch profitable careers for their authors.
The Promise of Change Change lies at the root of nonfiction publishing success.
Unlike fiction books, that are purchased for pleasure reading, nonfiction books are purchased to achieve change.
Change comes in two flavors:
- Solving a pressing problem.
The prospective book buyer has a problem that they want to cure, or solve.
They may have lost their job, they may have just gotten divorced, or their expenses may be more than their income.
They have a problem, they need to solve it, and they want to solve it now! - Achieving a desired goal.
Goals can be stated in relative terms, i.
e.
, losing weight, earning more, getting into the right college, attracting a younger spouse, a newer (or larger) home.
Examples of titles that sell by promising change You can often identify a change-oriented book title because it begins with "how.
" For example, Michael Larsen's classic How to Write a Book Proposal.
For years, authors who don't know how to write a book proposal buy this book so that they will change, they will gain the knowledge needed to write a book proposal.
Another example is How to Make Big Money in Your Small Business by Jeffrey Fox.
Readers will learn how to change the amount of money they take home from their business.
A final example is How to Prevent and Treat Cancer with Natural Medicine by Michael Murray.
Other change structures The titles of many successful change books are based on an "if/then" structure.
If you follow the instructions in the book, then you'll enjoy the desired change.
Perhaps the best example is Napoleon Hill's Think & Grow Rich, which has been a best seller for over 50 years.
Napoleon Hill's if/then title format has been adapted by numerous other authors, such as Dottie Walter's and Lilly Walter's Speak and Grow Rich.
Sometimes the change is as obvious as describing the reader's desired change in terms of the symptom that it addresses, such as Doug Stevenson's Never Be Boring Again which describes how uncomfortable presenters can become confident and effective presenters.
Titles can promise change by describing the goal the book can help readers achieve.
One of my favorite examples is Brent Sampson's Sell Your Book on Amazon.
If you're an author, and you want to increase your book's sales online, this title will speak to you with startling urgency.
Conclusion The easiest way to increase book sales is to choose a book title that reaches out and finds new readers by describing the change they will enjoy.
Change is the common denominator in the success of the nonfiction books described above.
Titles based on change increase sales by helping prospective readers justify the cost of buying your book.
Readers desire change.
They either have a problem they want to solve, or a goal they want to achieve.
To the extent that your book's title addresses your prospective reader's desire for change, the higher the probability that your book will find new readers, increasing book sales as well as post-sale opportunities for your business.
Take a fresh look at your book's proposed title and ask yourself, How effectively does my book title address my reader's desire for change?