How to Sell your Work I

In the previous chapter, I told you to put on the Business Hat (and take off the Writer’s Hat). In doing so, you need to turn your carefully written book into something fit for marketing or selling.

You can do this afterwards, of course. But I’ve learned to do a bit of this beforehand, and to refine it while writing.

Why? In the end, most stories are hard to sell if you purely focus on the story. When I wrote my first book and crafted a synopsis for it … I was stumped for days. I had no idea how to sell the actual story I wrote. It had elements from different genres, it had a bit too many storylines, and I didn’t even know my own target audience or why they’d be interested.

In order to get a good one-page synopsis, I basically had to ignore half the book and lie about the other half. Not surprisingly, this first book of mine was never accepted by a literary agent or publisher. I had written a story near impossible to sell. At the same time, when I read the synopsis, I thought “huh, this is the story I wish I wrote, it sounds way more streamlined”.

See it as an interaction between your story and its marketing. Whenever you want to make a major change to a story, think about how that would work in marketing. Conversely, try to come up with strong marketing ideas, then work those into the actual story.

Condensing your story into one or two paragraphs that sound interesting and sellable is a great test for your story’s commercial potential. If you write the whole story first and only then think about how to sell it to others, you’ll probably have a very hard time and need to change large parts.

This chapter and the next contain key points I try to pin down before I start, and refine as I go.

The Credits System

This is the best (and most gamified) way I’ve found for looking at your book as a product to sell.

People looking for a book to buy have one credit to spend. Just the tiniest sliver of attention and energy to put into learning about your book.

What’s the first thing people see about your book? The cover, then perhaps title or author.

They spend their one credit studying the cover. If they like it, you’ve now earned yourself three credits. If they don’t, you’re done, that’s it.

With those three credits, they’ll read the first few sentences of your marketing blurb. If they like it, you’ve now earned yourself five credits. If they don’t, too bad, that’s it.

With those five credits, they read the full blurb, and perhaps some reviews or other details.

You get the idea. They like it? More credits for you. They don’t? End of the road.

In the same way,

A good opening line earns you enough credits for the first paragraph
A good first paragraph earns you the first page
A good first page earns you the first chapter
A good first chapter earns you the first half of the book
If somebody liked the first half “well enough”, they’ll usually finish the book.

Your book constantly has to gain trust and attention from a reader. And it must do so from start to finish. A great second chapter of the book is useless if a reader never gives you enough credits to reach it.

So yes, front load all the good stuff. Put your best foot forward. Make sure you earn the interest and respect of a reader in the first couple of steps, otherwise nobody will end up reading the whole thing.

Target Audience

Who is your target audience? You should know this.

Yes, there are a handful examples of books being written for one audience, then becoming a bestseller with another. But that’s all they are: rare exceptions.

Most books are denied or ignored because people look at them and they just don’t know if this book is for them.

No book is for everyone

Another mistake I made with my first books. People would ask about the target audience, and I’d answer: “You know, everyone can enjoy this story!”

Yeah, no. If you use simple language, people who want more compelling prose won’t like the book. If you include elements that kids enjoy, adults are likely to find that off-putting.

No book is for “everyone”. If you try to reach everybody, you will reach nobody.

What to check?

What comprises a target audience? People usually imagine their “perfect reader” based on some general characteristics.

Age
Gender
(Cultural) Background
Genre
Reading Preferences

Yes, discrimination

Some books are clearly labeled as a “girls book” or a “boys book”. Similarly, I have entered several writing competitions that clearly stated “we write books for women”. (Not a single one that said “we write books for men”, but then again, the statistics on book readers heavily lean towards female.)

I don’t like adding such labels at the front, publicly, as it basically excludes a large part of readers. But for marketing? Yes, this is definitely a thing. Men and women are attracted to different types of books or stories. Some things will sell great when you specifically target a gender, while they would not sell at all if you target both.

It’s the same with any other “property” of your potential reader. I’ve read tons of books as an adult that were for kids—just like I’ve read books as a kid that were far above my age. Nothing is stopping you from reading a book not marketed towards you specifically.

But a book written for little kids will clearly have a different cover, tone, writing style, content and marketing than one for another age group. Similarly, a book might be clearly for girls, or clearly for people from a specific cultural background.

This isn’t bad. This is just knowing for whom you’re writing the story and how to reach them.

Example

With my Wildebyte Arcades, I purposely decided not to target teenage boys. Unlike almost all other books about characters being sucked into video games, which clearly copied a popular game with teenage boys at the time of publication. That’s the unique thing about my books in this genre: they don’t perform this niche targeting.

In fact, Wildebyte changes into a character from the game into which they fall, so you never even learn the original age or gender of the protagonist. That’s a way to make the books appeal more broadly.

Reading preferences

Reading preferences is the hardest one to pin down. Different people like different kinds of stories and different ways of telling them.

Some people like books to be fast-paced and full of action. Others like to really dig into the main character’s thoughts, or to have a calm book filled with description.
Some people love experimental books (that play with time, formatting, structure). Others really hate that.
Some people like long chapters. Some despise that or need the short chapters (because they don’t have the time for long ones).

Ask yourself (and any readers around you) how they like to read and what they do or do not enjoy. This should get you a list of possible things people might like or hate. In general, if something can be liked by a group, it can be hated by another group ;)

Now, as you write the story, keep this in mind. Your book is supposed to be action, action, action? I’m afraid you have to remove those 5 pages with description in chapter 4, no matter how well you wrote it.

When selling, show this. In the marketing blurb, in the cover, in the first chapter, clearly show the type of reading experience this will be. It’s like a “promise” to the reader: this is the type of book you’re going to get.

Example

My writing style is very fast, practical and efficient. I personally don’t like very slow books or describing things too much. Some people are with me on that, others have called my books “like you’re out of breath the whole time”. Obviously, I still refine my style and listen to criticism.

But mostly this is just … fine? People have different tastes. My hyperactive brain writes for others with hyperactive brains. If you prefer a different writing style, find an author that matches that!

Speaking of promises …

Genre

The biggest promise is the Genre.

You should know the genre of your book. (Or, potentially, the two or three genres it tries to mix and combine.)

Moreover, you should communicate that everywhere. (This will become even clearer as you get further into the course.)

In your first chapter, reinforce the genre
On your cover, reinforce the genre
Through your biggest plot points or characters, reinforce the genre
Label your book correctly, in your query letter or when you self-publish

There’s no use lying. I’ve seen writers put genre labels on their books that are currently “hip” or they think will sell well. The only result is negative reviews from people saying the book “was not as advertised” or “not what they expected”.

The book might still be good! That’s the point here. The quality of the book doesn’t matter … if you don’t promise the right thing and thus reach the wrong audience.

Again, there’s a balance here. Partially, you want your book to copy what other books in the genre do. That’s what sold your book, so that’s what you promised the reader. On the other hand, you want your book to be different, unique and creative. Also change some genre trappings on purpose.

To summarize this,

Copy the things that work in your genre (and each successful book uses), change the things that will make your book unique.

Example

One of my oldest books tried to mix fantasy and science-fiction. (It was originally for a writing competition from a publisher who did both.) I thought this was a great idea. The issue? It wasn’t an actual mix and it wasn’t communicated enough.

The first half of the book is decidedly fantasy, while the latter half decidedly science-fiction. That’s not a mix; that’s just two books smashed into one. People who read the first chapter and liked it … were disappointed when the story slowly shifted to a different genre. Conversely, people who would’ve loved the second part, never got through the first part.

Also, the cover showed a fantasy island with fantasy lettering, which also hid the science-fiction roots.

Speaking about being unique …

Unique Selling Point

Some people like to call this the hook. It’s the one thing that makes your book unique. The one thing that makes it stand out among the crowd.

When people compare your book to others with the same target audience, yours should have something unique. More importantly, it should communicate that unique thing as clearly as possible. (No use adding a unique selling point if you’re not actually using it during the selling part!)

There is no formula here, of course. A USP is just a golden nugget you find somewhere. It’s the original creative idea that probably started the book or made it interesting to you. It’s the thing that hits you as you cycle to work (“wouldn’t it be awesome if …”). Or the thing that frustrates you as you watch a movie (“why can there never be a vampire movie that does X right?”)

But the key is that the USP should be something instantly interesting and extraordinary.

It can be interesting in a cerebral way (like posing a problem that the reader wants answered).

Example

Many fantasy books include some unique rule about their world in the description. A rule that’s clearly phrased in a way to make you think “huh, I wonder how X and Y works in that world”.

It can be interesting in a fun way (appealing to a common fantasy or dream your target audience might have).

Example

Many kids dream of going to a magic school, like Harry Potter. That’s just an instant fantasy and an instant draw. If you’re writing a book in that genre, you want to put that front and center, and really use it in the story. Silence everybody who claims you just ripped off Harry Potter by changing enough about the hook to make it unique.

If you’re stuck and do want some “formula”, it’s better to go through the “extraordinary” angle.

Find something that’s ordinary in our daily life. Something common, something most people understand, something that always works like X. This might also be a general goal or agreed-upon thing in the world.
Now add a big but to that sentence and find a way to flip it on its head.

Example

In my novel, people still go to school, but they must go there until they’re 40.
Society has found a way to get rid of fossil fuels, but it requires sacrificing animals.
Due to technology, people have stopped evolving (in the biological sense). But now one person is born with mutated genes that are clearly superior.

Hopefully you start to see why I want you thinking about marketing before you even write the book. It helps write the actual book. It streamlines the story and its main idea, while you already have the one-liner to sell it.

Additionally, conforming a story to such a simple hook after the fact is nigh impossible. You’ll most likely add all sorts of subplots, extra characters, and other themes that muddle up the marketing.

And if you don’t have a hook? If you have no unique selling point? Well … why would a reader ever pick your book over any other?

In the next chapter, I’ll talk about marketing blurbs and “loglines” (one sentence to pitch your book).

Continue with this course