Writing a book is a draining process—certainly mentally, but possibly also emotionally and even physically. As soon as the finishing touches are complete, it might be tempting to take a break to catch your breath; and as long as the material isn’t time-sensitive, there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.
But once a book author has had the chance to recharge, it’s time to dive into the next step: getting your work out there, for as many eyes as possible to see. And that means a whole other writing project.
Specifically, it means getting to work on copywriting—that is, writing material for the specific purpose of marketing and advertising your book and its content. Ad copy can take numerous forms, such as emotional, informative, humorous, or persuasive. Regardless, though, the main objective is the same: To effectively influence the target audience.
Of course, most book authors aren’t necessarily advertising experts, nor are they necessarily professionals in creating marketing copy or advertising content. But with a few basic strategies, the process should become much less daunting—and set up any author, regardless of marketing experience, for the best possible success in their book’s performance!
Focus on verbs instead of adjectives in your advertising copy. Let’s say your book is about how the Industrial Revolution continues to impact today’s trends in technology—meaning, it’s designed to appeal to both historians and IT professionals. Rather than, “Historians and IT professionals will likely find this book interesting,” consider, “By reading this nonfiction work, IT professionals will carve out an effective route for new inventions, and historians will draw meaningful connections between past technological developments and future ones.”
Going the latter route creates more room for words and phrases that will pop and set your book apart from everything else that might be out there. Still, when using those verb phrases, keep wordiness to a minimum for the purposes of staying succinct and concise.
Less is more: Keeping things short and to the point doesn’t just apply to verb phrases: It applies to copywriting content and marketing copy in general. The key is to make your content memorable, and that usually means creating marketing copy that’s brief. Try to use as many simple phrases as possible—this is not the time for flowery language. Hyperbole and jargon should also be avoided.
Be specific. Because you only have a limited amount of text to work with, avoid generalities that likely won’t mean much. Get to the heart of the matter early on.
Take the example of the book on the Industrial Revolution. Instead of being vague, the marketing copy is focused on targeting the specific audience of the material and how it is likely to benefit them, making members of that audience more likely to notice.
Know your audience. The ins and outs of your audience will have a powerful influence on how well your work will be received—and your marketing copy must be adjusted accordingly.
For the book on the Industrial Revolution, you’ll need to find out how much material already exists on that topic. If the market is already jam-packed with similar material, it might make sense to tweak your content—and maybe even tweak your book—to focus on other aspects of the work that have less market saturation. Using digital marketing programs, such as Google Analytics, can also be extremely helpful in honing in on the best possible target audience.
Once a book author has mastered the general premise behind copywriting and marketing content, it’s time to fine-tune those skills by looking at specific elements of that process. The second installment of this two-part series will focus on one critical component in the copywriting journey: search engine optimization, or SEO.
By Anne Brenner
Anne is a Managing Editor at Technica Editorial
