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No matter what subject your book is about, there are several ingredients that are helpful when marketing your book. If you want to sell lots of copies and make it a bestseller, then some features are essential. Everyone knows that in order for your book to be sold in retail stores, it must have an EAN barcode, an ISBN number, and certain bindings and features.
However, if you add certain less well known features to your book, you will hugely expand your book's marketability. Did you know that there are a few common features in almost every New York Times bestseller&63; You can take advantage of the marketing research of the giant publishing houses to help your own book sell more copies.
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 – Find 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. Don't just grab a bunch of your best ideas and slap a cover on it. 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 – Get stories from people other than yourself and you will be viewed as the expert of experts. 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. In every story, you should mix in Tips, strategies, insider secrets, specific examples, and important resources, whether they be from you or someone else.
Feature 3 – Quote lots of experts and you'll build in promotional value. Choose the quotes wisely so that they match the theme of each of your sections. 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 endorsements, and selecting a great person to write the Foreword of your book. Interview other experts if you can and use the opportunity to get relevant examples for your section of the book and audio clips for promotion. Your book will have greater credibility by including interviews and testimonials from experts.
Feature 5 – List all of the people and organizations who helped in creating the book. You can also try to find a company to cover the costs in return for notable attention in your 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 is often an overlooked feature, however it makes your book more saleable to libraries, which of course is a huge buyer of books and will increase your reading audience..
Feature 7 – Create a resource section with a topical rolodex. List numerous agencies, organizations, associations, services, and other professionals related to your book's subject. 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. You can list the books of all the authors who were interviewed, quoted, or who gave stories and examples.
ACTION STEP: The more features above you can add to your book, the easier it will be to market and promote. Put emphasis on the features that cause other people to want to help promote the book for their own sake. This makes the Law of Reciprocity work for your benefit because as they are helping themselves, they are also helping you, and vice versa.
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