3 Questions Readers Ask Before They Read Your Book

 

 

Guest Post by Morgan Lee Clasper 

Imagine that you're browsing Amazon for your next book. Chances are, before you've even opened the first page, you've already seen the cover, read the description, and formed an idea of what kind of book you're considering.
Despite the age-old adage "don't judge a book by its cover," readers inevitably use a book's cover, title, and description to form expectations before they start reading.

That may seem unfair. After all, your story is far too complex to reduce to a few pieces of marketing material. But these elements all serve an important purpose: they give prospective readers their first clues about what's inside.

For indie and self-published authors, this is especially important because you're ultimately responsible for your cover, title, and description. Even traditionally published authors can benefit from thinking about these questions when preparing a book for querying or submission.

Here are three questions that readers ask about your book before they open the first page.

1.    What kind of book is this?
Everything about your book’s packaging gives subtle (or not-so-subtle) cues about where your story belongs. If you were browsing in a library or bookstore, you’d find books divided by their genre or topic. Likewise, elements like your cover and book description work by further narrowing down what “shelf” your book belongs on.

This could include your genre, subgenre, tropes, and similar authors. Readers are looking for familiar signals to inform their buying decisions. One reader may be looking for a fae romantasy with found family. Another may want a cozy murder mystery in a small beach town.

For non-fiction, this includes your book’s subject and target audience. A reader looking for help with personal finance might want a broad guide to investing, while another may specifically be looking for a practical guide to managing money as a new entrepreneur.

If your book’s cover or description doesn’t give readers any clues as to what’s inside, they’ll probably keep scrolling. Or, worse still, these elements might give them mixed messages or the wrong idea. Readers are typically evaluating each book in a matter of seconds. Therefore, it’s important that your book makes the right first impression.

2.    What makes this book worth choosing?
There are millions of books on Amazon, and more titles are added every day. With so much competition out there, it’s important that your book stands out from the crowd by showing readers why it’s different.
For fiction, this comes in the form of a unique premise. Your story may be a romance, but there are thousands of romance novels to choose from. If, however, your book is a time travel romance set in the 16th-century Scottish Highlands, this added detail gives readers a compelling reason to pick your book over others.

For non-fiction, it’s a matter of communicating your unique selling point. What specific problem, promise, perspective, or transformation makes your book worth choosing? 
While your genre tells readers where a book belongs on the shelf, your premise is what convinces them to pick up yours.

3.    What will this book feel like to read?
A book is more than the information or events contained within its pages. It also creates a particular reading experience. To give an example, a fantasy novel might be warm and cozy, dark and bleak, fast-paced, romantic, or filled with immersive worldbuilding.

Two books can exist in the same genre, have the same fundamental premise, and yet feel completely different to read. Elements like your cover, title, and book description help communicate the tone and mood of your book, giving readers important clues as to the experience they’re in for.

This principle also holds true for non-fiction. Readers might be looking for a conversational guide, a practical workbook, an academic reference, a motivational transformation, or a beginner-friendly introduction.

Conclusion
Readers form judgements about your book before the first page. A successful book has to walk a thin line between fitting in and standing out.
On the one hand, your book should communicate its genre and tropes, fitting into a niche clearly enough that the right readers recognize it. On the other, it needs to show them what makes it worth choosing over the thousands of alternatives.

Keeping this in mind will help you make sure your book gives readers enough information to recognize where it belongs, why it’s for them, and what kind of experience they're likely to have.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Morgan Lee Clasper is a copywriter, book sales strategist, and author of The Blurb Puzzle. With over seven years of experience in the publishing industry, he’s worked with New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling authors, writing 4,000 blurbs and counting. Morgan is also the author of the YA fantasy series The Frostwing Quadrilogy and The Chronicles of Alcabaza. To read The Blurb Puzzle, visit https://morganclasperauthor.com/

 

The Book Summary – Five Must-Know Components

After your book query, the book summary or description is the most important marketing element. You can think of it as number 2 on the book marketing ladder.

Once your book query gets the reader to actually read it, the summary is what will entice the editor or agent to ask for more.

If you’re writing fiction, this means taking your novel, short story, or other fiction genre and reducing it, condensing it, to around 200 words. Many authors, especially new ones, have a difficult time with this. How do you turn a 35,000 children middle grade book into 200 words? How do you turn a 250,000 word novel into 200 words?

Impossible!

Well, as impossible as it may seem, that’s what you need to do to get your manuscript out your door and into a publishing house.

So, what’s involved in writing a ‘killer’ book summary?

According to Margaret Fortune, in an article at Writer’s Digest, the “synopsis [summary] is about one thing: Convincing an agent [or editor] to read your book.” (1)

Again, you book query made the editor/agent look, but it’s the summary that will have her wanting more.

The summary breaks the manuscript into five primary components:

1. Main characters

Once the reader gets to the point of reading your summary, you need to provide an engaging protagonist (main character). This very brief portrayal must demonstrate the protagonist’s individuality. The reader must be able to relate to the character through some trait, goal, peculiarity, or other.

In my middle grade fantasy adventure, the protagonist didn’t want to labor in the fields like his father. He wanted more. He wanted to find the Eternals, a mystical group who had extraordinary powers. In fact, he obsessed over finding them.

This gives the protagonist a particular characteristic. It sets him apart. 

2. Plot, including setting

This is one of the toughies. You want to be descriptive, but you need to make it lean. Give enough, but don’t give too much.

According to the article Shrink Tank by Grace Bello, “The key is to entice, not to reveal all.” (2)

TIP: A helpful way to condense your story is to first create 10 different elevator pitches for it. These are one or two sentences that you could convincing get out within a 30-60 second elevator ride.

Once you can narrow the manuscript down to an elevator pitch, you should find it easier to write a 200 word overview.

3. Tone

The tone is established through phrasing and even word choices, such as positive or negative words. The tone is subjective – it’s the author’s attitude toward the story or components within the story.

Write the summary in the same tone [narrative voice] as the book. If it’s humorous, make the summary humorous. If it a mystery or suspense, keep that tone in the summary.

4. Genre
The editor or agent will of course want to know the genre, so be sure to include it.

TIP: If you submit a children’s story to a romance book publisher, that editor won’t be interested in your story – no matter how well-crafted your summary is. So, be sure you research the publishing houses and/or agents you intend to submit your query and summary to. Be sure the accept submissions in your genre.

5. Comparable titles

While years ago, this wasn’t an issue, it is now. Agents and publishers want to know what they can compare your story to.

As an example, my middle grade fantasy, “Walking Through Walls,” is set in 16th century China. It has the elements of respect and honor that the time period conjures
up. If I had to compare it to something similar, I’d have to go with “A Single Shard,” by Linda Sue Park.

This is in no way stating it’s as good as “A Single Shard,” it’s saying that it has a similar tone and mood to that book.

TIP: Be careful with this component. You don’t want to puff your book up by comparing it to a great book. As with my example above, I’d be quick to mention that it’s only comparable in tone and mood.

References:

(1) http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/tips-for-queriers-the-query-the-synopsis-and-the-first-page

(2) The Writer, October 2013, Shrink Tank, page 33.

(3) http://ourenglishclass.net/class-notes/writing/the-writing-process/craft/tone-and-mood/

This article was originally published at:
http://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/2015/12/06/book-summary-five-components/

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and children’s ghostwriter as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move. She is also an author/writer online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

You can check out Karen’s e-classes through WOW! at:
http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/content-marketing-tools/




MORE ON WRITING

Writing Skills - Spread Your Wings

Writers - You Have Enough Time to Write

Writing a Book – Bait and Switch Editing