When it comes to writing a book, every author has at least two goals.
The first one is obvious; they want to get their book published. The second goal is of course for that book to generate sales. This is especially true for those who write non-fiction books, as the topic is typically something which is very important to the author, and they want the key messages of the book to be read and understood by a large number of readers.
However, unless the author has a major publisher with a strong marketing team behind them, they are often led to fend for themselves. Partnering with a major publisher is usually very unlikely, as the major publishers only publish around 1% of all manuscripts which are submitted to them. On the other hand, if the author self-publishes, the effort it takes to find an audience for the book can be something which is daunting and intimidating. Unless the author knows where to start, there could be a lot of wasted efforts; the hope of this article is to show non-fiction authors a new way to increase the attention for their books, no matter if they’re self-published or not.
Write a summary and get it published it in various book summary apps
Now in the 21st century, technology tend to decrease our span of attention with every year passing. Unfortunately, this also affect authors, as they have an ever shrinking amount of time to convince a potential reader that their book is the right choice. One way to capture readers interest, which I believe many authors tend to overlook, is to summarize it. I would argue that a summary of your book is the perfect weapon against the short time span you have to convince potential readers, as it really focuses on the essentials of your book’s subject.
The benefit of summarizing your book is that you eventually can connect with various apps such as Blinkist and getAbstract, in order to get exposure towards millions of non-fiction readers. You certainly don’t have to give every detail of your book away, but you should give a solid overview of the topics the book covers. This will help entice people to want to read the full version, and this is how you can generate buzz around your book and lead people to buy your book. Actually, about 10 percent of all readers who read your summary also tend to buy your book according to getAbstract.
Publish a summary on your own
Another way to get started with book summaries is to publish it in your own channels. The best way for you to utilize this method is by publishing your summary on your own blog, or to find a couple of different blogs to be a guest writer for. There are a lot of blogs and websites about book summaries and popular non-fiction subjects where you might be able to publish your summary. If the statistics provided by getAbstract also apply in other channels, the exposure for your summary will ultimately result in purchases of your book as well.
Of course, book summaries also do very well on social media. There are various channels to choose from, and depending upon who the main audience is for the book should determine which social media platform you as the author want to promote the book on. There are too many social media outlets to effectively advertise on all of them, so ensure you choose wisely and try to cater to a specific audience.
The goal of your summary is to entice the reader to read the full version
Once you have decided you are going to write a book summary, you need to treat the summary like another chapter in your book. You can’t just flippantly put it together and expect the reader to respond in a positive manner. Readers can see thru the lack of effort pretty quickly, and you can do more damage to the reputation of the book and yourself if the summary fails to provide interesting insights.
It can be very hard as the author to write up a summary of your book, as finding the right balance between sharing too little or too much information can be hard to find. This is why, at times, it can be better to have someone else write the summary after they have read the book. They will not be as attached to the book as the author, and can offer an objective voice to the book, while also highlighting the best parts. Of course, you can edit and add to this summary yourself, but having a readers perspective on the essentials is a very good method to get started.
Conclusion
The work it takes to have a book published can be daunting, and once it is published, the work doesn’t stop there. Marketing and finding an audience for the book is vital for its success. With this in mind, and given the short time span you have to excite readers, writing a book summary is an interesting approach to get more sales. Having a book being published is one goal; having a book published which also sells well is another.
Author Bio:
Erik Nilsson is a swedish blogger at BookSummaryClub.com where he both summarize books and write about reading, personal development, and books in general. To date, he has written over 140 non-fiction book summaries in a plethora of different subjects which attracts over 25,000 readers monthly to the blog.
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