How can persuasive selling help you sell more books?
If we are book authors and want to sell more books, and who doesn’t, we need to use all the wisdom of traditional and internet marketers to help sell our books.
In my opinion, one of the most overlooked book promotion strategies is what I call “persuasive selling.” It is putting yourself in the mind of the potential buyer.
In other words, instead of saying what you want to say about your book, you say what the potential buyer needs to hear to be motivated to buy your book.
Let’s imagine this scenario:
I have written a complete fantasy novel with fairies and goblins. And I find you in the supermarket and I tell you that a fantasy novel has just been published. You say, “What is it about?”
And I’m like, “This is a whole invisible village of fairies and goblins. They have an overpopulation problem, so the village elder calls them into a meeting and they…”
And suddenly you remember that you forgot the sugar four aisles back and you’re out of there.
Now let’s go back and try this conversation again.
You say, “What is it about?”
And I say, “A 12-year-old boy suddenly learns that he has 48 hours to save his village from fairies and goblins, and he must do it even though the evil overlord is shooting at him.”
And you say: “Do you have a card with the website of the book?”
Looking at these two scenarios, what is the difference?
In the first, I, the author, want to tell you all about my story, even if you don’t care about the town’s problems, etc. In the second, I, the author, tell you what you’re probably interested in: a David and Goliath story of good versus evil.
If you want to motivate people in person or on your website to buy your book, practice engaging them in your book’s story with a very short, pointy hookâsomething that interests them.
Of course, the same recommendation applies to a nonfiction book. You don’t want to start by describing how many people you interviewed to find the secret to living longer. It simply means that the book offers seven secrets to living longer, secrets that are easy to do if you only know how to do it. And his book reveals how.
With a little practice, you should be able to use persuasive selling to help sell more of your books.