Making Your Book Different

Dec 1, 2011 | Writing A Book

Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten, authors of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, that more than 10,000 business books are published in the US every year. And that’s just books with pages. Since Amazon says that e-books are outselling paper books, that number is probably well north of 20,000.

If you want to write a book, that’s a problem, because your book needs to be different to be noticed. So how do you do that? That’s the question a potential client asked me yesterday during an Options Review Session. Here are three proven ways we discussed to increase the odds that people will buy, read, and benefit from your book.

A Unique or Intriguing Perspective

Everyone has a unique life story, and your life story may not be interesting to others. But if you’re Keni Thomas, an Army Ranger veteran of the Blackhawk Down incident and you can connect that compelling story with the everyday challenges of leadership, people will check out the book. In this case, the book is Get It On: What It Means to Lead the Way.

Question: Do you have unique life story or perspective that others want to know about?

Original Research

Susan Finerty was an expert in the ways that people survive and thrive in matrix organizations before she wrote Master the Matrix:  7 Essentials for Getting Things Done in Complex Organizations. Even so, she did some original research that gave her data, stories, and quotes to share.

Question: What would you like to know about your topic? The odds are your readers would want to know, too.

A Self-Identifying Niche

People read books that are written for them. Rod Santomassimo aimed his book, Brokers Who Dominate, at commercial real estate brokers. Commercial brokers know the book is for them from a brief glance at the cover or supporting copy.

Question: Is there a group of people you know exceptionally well? Can you help them solve a pressing problem or overcome a daunting challenge?