How to Write a Book They’ll Want

By Sophfronia Scott

What’s the biggest fear of a self-published author? Having a garage or basement chock full of unsold books. These days, of course, print-on-demand keeps that from actually happening-there’s no reason to print up thousands of copies in advance, but the spectre still exists in the mind’s eye: “What if no one wants my book?”

If you’re writing a non-fiction book, consider yourself ahead of the game. A novelist has to appeal to his or her market on many different levels because they can’t easily plug into the “What’s in it for me?” factor for the reader. But a non-fiction author can own it-and even ride it all the way to the bank. Here’s how.

Solve Their Biggest Problem
James Roche of www.infoproductguy.com taught me a different way to think of my audience whenever I’m creating anything, whether it be an information product or a book. He told me to think of my target audience as one person driving home in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. The person gets a flat tire. They go out to try to change it but they have no idea how. Now they’re drenched and desperate to get home.

Then I (or you) come along. We declare that we know exactly how to change a tire and it’s written on this piece of paper in our hands. Of course the person is eager to either get the piece of paper or get us to change the tire for him or her. Let’s pretend your audience has a problem like this. It could be wanting to lose weight or wanting to learn how to invest in real estate or needing to know how to keep their home out of foreclosure. Your “piece of paper” is going to be your book telling them exactly how to solve the problem. Now, what’s going to be on your piece of paper?

Make Your Solution Crystal Clear
You’ll want to make your solution clear and easy to follow-systematic even. Give it a name (Like “The South Beach Diet” or “The Ultimate Marketing Plan” or “The 7 Steps of Highly Effective People”) and you’re on your way. Fabienne Fredrickson of www.ClientAttraction.com refers to this as your “proprietary system” and if you work with clients, you probably already have a systematic way that you work with them. You just never thought to write out the steps before. But writing them down will magically turn your system into a gold mine because-get this-you can teach those steps in anything from a 45-minute talk to a 3-day workshop. That means different ways of making money from the same material.

Get Your Reader to Take Action
Your reader will be more likely to want to work with you in person if you can get them to take some action, even a small one, on their own. You can do that by sprinkling your steps with calls to action that will make the reader go to your website to DO something: download a worksheet, take an assessment, use a special calculator. Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek does this brilliantly in his book-besides offering worksheets, calculators and resources at his website, www.4hourworkweek.com, he also offers missing chapters that were edited out of the manuscript. Think about this strategically: what would you most like the reader to do? And if you send them to your website, make sure the site is set up to capture names and email addresses. That way your book will do more than sell-it will be a powerful lead generation magnet for you as well.

© 2009 Sophfronia Scott

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, but you must include this complete resource box with it: Sophfronia Scott is Executive Editor of the Done For You Writing & Publishing Company. Learn what a difference being a published author can make for your business. Get your FREE audio CD, “How to Succeed in Business By Becoming a Bestselling Author” and your FREE online writing and book publishing tips at www.DoneForYouWriting.com.

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