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There are a number of components that can help market your book successfully, no matter what its subject. Some features are absolutely necessary if you want to sell enough books to make it a bestseller. For instance, it is common knowledge that you need to have an ISBN number and an EAN barcode, plus certain bindings and features, so that retail bookstores can sell your books for you.
However, if you add certain less well known features to your book, you will hugely expand your book's marketability. For instance, almost every New York Times Bestseller has certain features and it would be wise to incorporate them into your book so that you improve your chances of being one of them too.
Below are 7 of the top book features that will make your book much easier to market and promote to bestseller status. When you design these features into your book (right from the beginning), you will market your book faster and better than other authors who fail to do so.
Feature 1 – Choose a powerful theme and build it out. Give your book a zesty title that grabs attention. Write your book outline to be specific about what will attract the right people to your book. Just gathering a list of your best ideas and putting a cover on it is not enough. You may get a book written quickly, but it probably won't sell very well. You need a book that you and others will be excited to market.
Feature 2 – Become known as the top expert by collecting stories from others. Ask people in your field to share a personal story with a self-help element relating to something in your outline. You'll reach a bigger audience if each story provides benefits and helps the reader to see how they could apply the lesson to their own situation. Tips, strategies, insider secrets, specific examples, and important resources are things you should add to every story, whether it be yours or others.
Feature 3 – Quote lots of experts and you'll build in promotional value. Each quote should be selected to fit in the topic and message of that chapter. Consider using quotes from "live" people who might be flattered enough so that they tell others to buy it and help with promoting your book to their customer list. They may even purchase books directly for their special clients and colleagues.
Feature 4 – Be proactive in asking for interviews and testimonials, and selecting a great person to write the Foreword of your book. Use interviews with experts to get topical examples for your chapters of the book, and get audio or video clips to use for promoting. Your book will have greater credibility by including interviews and endorsements from experts.
Feature 5 – Give credit to the individuals and groups who helped create the book. You might also seek a corporate sponsor who might fund some of the expenses in exchange for a prominent mention in the book. And it is often very helpful to seek out a sponsor to partner with in your promotion.
Feature 6 – Your book will be much easier to read and reference if you include an index. This feature will make your book much easier to sell to libraries which will enlarge your readership and help you draw more customers to your website. Yet this feature is often forgotten in the book writing process.
Feature 7 – Make a list of associations, organizations, services, agencies, and other professionsals in fields around the subject of your book, and include it in your book as a topical rolodex in the resource section of your book. This will broaden your audience and it might even cause some of the leaders/owners to actually purchase quantities of your book for distribution.
Bonus Feature – Include a bibliography. Many people want to buy copies of books that reference their own book in a bibliography. Also, it makes your book more attractive those doing research. Be sure to include the books from any experts who contributed stories, interviews, or examples.
ACTION STEP: Add in as many of the above features as possible to your book. Especially focus on the features that get other people involved in your book, because the more that you involve others and promote them, the more likely they will help you in promoting your book... it is called the Law of Reciprocity and it works like a charm.
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