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No matter what subject your book is about, there are several ingredients that are helpful when marketing your book. 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.
Listed below are the top 7 features that will make it much easier to promote and market your book into becoming a bestseller. 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 – Start with a powerful theme and grow it. Find a flavorful title that makes people demand to know more. Outline your book and be specific with what you want in it so you attract the right people. Just gathering a list of your best ideas and putting a cover on it is not enough. That will get you a book, but it won't be a bestseller. 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 to share a personal story in such a way that it has a self-help element. You'll reach many more people with stories that teach the reader how to apply a lesson to their own problem than just a dry list of instructions. 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 – You can build in marketing value by quoting the top people in your field. 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. And, they might even buy some for themselves to give away to colleagues and special clients.
Feature 4 – Proactively seek out interviews and testimonials, and find the right person to do the Foreword. Use interviews with experts to get topical examples for your chapters of the book, and get audio or video clips to use for promoting. These interviews and testimonials will add authority to your book.
Feature 5 – Give credit to the individuals and groups who helped create the book. You can also try to find a company to cover the costs in return for notable attention in your book. Finding a partner to sponsor you in your book promotion is often very beneficial.
Feature 6 – Add an index so that your book is easier to read and use. 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 – 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. This is not only helpful to the reader who uses your book for research, but there are many people who like to own copies of the books that include theirs in the bibliography. 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. 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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