How to Write a Non Fiction Book that Will Sell - 5 Tips for Success

Have you ever read a book that had a powerful impact on you? You ever wondered if you could write a book that would have an impact on someone else? If you're wondering those things, then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie, the book broad with book Launchers. We're your professional self publishing services team, helping you write, publish, and promote a nonfiction book that will help you grow your brand, build your business, and make you money. The best part, you. Yes, you keep all rights and royalties. All right, friends, this is a different kind of video. I'm prepping for a talk that I'm giving and I thought, you know what? I think my YouTube friends may enjoy this subject as well. So pull out a pen, pull out a piece of paper, and kick back, because I'm going to share what to do to write a book that will sell. And ultimately, this is going to set you up for success, not only connecting with your readers, but also growing your brand, building your business, and profiting from that book. So let's dive in. So have you read a book that had a powerful impact on you and your life? I have. And it was 2001 when I read that book. It was a book that a co worker recommended to me, and I had to get in my car after work and drive to the bookstore and buy it. But reading that book completely changed the trajectory of my life. At the time, I was working for Kimberly Clark Canada, selling Huggies and Kotex and Kleenex and having a blast. It was a really, really fun first job out of university. But I also realized it was going to be a long life of working for somebody else. And this book can kind of set me free. It gave me a plan that I could use to create what I called Freedom 35. And the book is one that you probably have read, you certainly have heard of. It's Rich Dad, Poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki. We're going to come back and chat about this one very briefly later on, but while we're here, take a quick look at that subtitle, what the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money that the Poor and Middle Class Do Not. That is a really, really great subtitle. We're going to talk about why later today. But this book, at the time, like I said, I was working in a job and I realized I needed to get my money working hard for me. And as a result of this book, I actually took money that I had been saving for an MBA and I put it into my first two investment properties. And from there, I Just kept going, buying a house or two every year until 2008 when I quit my job and actually went full time as a real estate investor and started a training and education company and then shortly after started buying a house every month. So this book was the reason that I started down that path. And ultimately it led to the second most impactful book of my life, which was a book I wrote. And interestingly, it's also a book that a lot of publishers and really smart mentors told me wouldn't sell because they thought it was too general of a real estate book. And I actually ended up in talks with Wiley. They had approached me and I told them about my book idea, all excited, and they said, no, we don't need another general real estate book, but you know, we have an idea. And we went back and forth on a book proposal on the idea they gave me for three months and it was all refined and ready and I thought the next step was a book deal. But instead they rejected me. So first they rejected my idea and now they rejected me, saying I didn't have a strong enough platform to sell books. So their marketing department didn't want to do a deal with me. It was pretty devastating, but I'm actually grateful. I, in many ways, I think it was one of the best things that ever happened to me because it forced me to really go down the self publishing route because I believed deeply A, that I wanted to write a book and B, that the book I wanted to write actually really needed to be written. So I self published. But because of that rejection, I didn't just self publish. I wanted to do it better than if Wiley had worked with me. And so I self published and took that book, the book by the author Wiley didn't think would sell enough books to get a deal. I took it to number one overall on Amazon. So you can see number one in books as a print book. And I outsold Dan Brown and the Game of Thrones and it was in the top 100 books sold on Amazon for 4:45 days. And ultimately, while not directly, it eventually led me to starting Book Launchers, which is the greatest experience of my life. Everything I have done to this date has brought me to the point where I really believe I'm doing the exact thing I was meant to do to help authors write great books and market and sell them. So I want to help you today in the time that we have, to really set yourself up for success when you do that. Because if you remember my story, I said Wiley didn't think I had a strong enough platform to write books, so before they even gave me a book deal, they were evaluating how they were going to market this book, how I was going to market this book, how many books they thought would sell. The challenge for a lot of self publishing authors is they write the book and then try to figure out how to sell it. Whereas traditionally published authors, they're only getting a deal if the publisher sees how it's going to sell. So if you flip that and focus on how you're going to sell it, who you're going to sell it to, and write the book that will sell, you're going to set yourself up for a lot better chance of success. And so this comes back to the three fundamentals of writing a marketable book. Who are you writing for? And we're going to go deeper into that because it's really important. What's the outcome you want for them when they read your book, and how do you uniquely help them get that? And we call this the hook of your book. So your book has to have that single sentence that compels that ideal reader to check out your book and to ultimately buy it, because they see clearly that the book is for them and that there's going to be a very clear outcome for this. The challenge with a lot of books is they write the book to inspire others. And there's a lot of inspiration out there. You need to be so much more specific than it's going to inspire. Who? Who is it going to inspire and what is it going to inspire them to do, to feel, to have, to change in their life? It's really important to take that a little bit further because you're not Tony Robbins yet. You need to develop this hook so that you can sell books and grow from there. So let's talk about who is your reader. This is my number one point for you today. And your reader is not a demographic. So one of the things I hear all the time is my reader is women between the ages of 35, 50. That's not your reader. And your reader absolutely is not everyone. I know you probably think everyone needs inspiration, but again, if you really dive in and figure out what are you inspiring in their lives, what are you inspiring them to do, then you're going to see that there's actually a subset of the population. And one of the examples I always give to illustrate this is we all need doctors at some point in our lives, but we all pursue that care in different ways. We're looking for different approaches. Some people want naturopaths Some people want specialists, some people want someone who has great bedside manner. Some people want the best. So you have to narrow it down and figure out who your person is. And ultimately the way I often position this for people is what problem do they have and how have they already tried to solve it? That hasn't worked. You can also look at it from another perspective, which is how I looked at my book when I was looking at who would help me market it because I didn't have, you know, I had 10,000 people on my newsletter list, but I didn't have a platform that would take me to number one on Amazon. But I wrote a book that mortgage brokers would want their clients to have, that Realtors would want their clients to have real estate clubs that focus on real estate investors. They would want their audience to have this and know about this book. And so if you can figure out where are the people hanging out to try to get answers, to try to get support right now, then you can start to visualize what they're already trying to do and how you're going to be a little different in helping them. Here's two examples of clear, clear audiences and the power of that. So Pat Watson this book Tactical Lock picking. A systemized approach for responding to locked obstacles during emergencies. This is for first responders, a lot of fire in particular, because they tend to be first on scene and they might have to bust down a door normally. But if they know how to pick a lock fast, they cannot damage a property and still save lives. This book has a very specific audience and let me tell you, it may not still be, but at the time when it launched, it held our record for the highest percentage of pitch to wins. And so one of the things with our company is we not only have writers and writing coaches, a production team, we have marketers. And so we have people who will pitch you for live appearances, engagements, bulk buys, bulk opportunities, partnerships with corporations and of course Amazon ads and media and things like that. Podcast, interviews and our team, I think it was a 65% win rate in the first round of pitches. Normally it takes us a little while. We're 25%, 30% win rate on most clients. It takes us a little while to figure out the angles that work. But this had such a clear audience and need match that it was such an easy pitch, an easy sell. People were saying yes, he even got a paid gig right out of the hop. So it was pretty awesome. Protecting the how stock market trends revealed a way to grow and preserve your wealth that subtitle tells you exactly who this is for. This is not beginners. This is people who have wealth. They want to grow and preserve it. Very strong subtitle. That is the hook of this book and it really clearly tells you who the reader is. It's not anybody with money that needs to invest. It is the people that have money and they want to grow and preserve it. The other thing to look at is your unique solution. And everybody has a unique approach. There probably is already a book that's been written on your subject, but you've got your story, your lens, so you have a unique way of looking at this. Now what you want to do is focus on your reader when you tell your story. You want to focus on your reader when you give answers and solutions and tips. And it's really your reader is the center and your outcome for the reader. Your perspective, how they achieve that outcome in your stories, what get you there. Now if you're struggling to figure out what you may think that is think or say or offer, that is different. One thing I often offer people is to think about something in their industry that is kind of a commonly held belief that you don't agree with. One example from my real estate days is that a lot of people thought more properties was better. And in fact there was groups and associations that gave pins out when you hit a certain number of properties. Celebrating the number. In fact, my perspective is you're better off to have two or three high quality properties than 20 mediocre to crappy ones because those 20 are really going to cost you more, cause you more stress, and they won't grow in value as much as those three or four. So that was my perspective. I also took a few more kind of swings at the industry in talking about passive income and some of the other commonly held beliefs of real estate. So. So what is something in your industry that makes you mad, that you think is wrong, that you've seen go wrong, and how can you bring that into your book? That can really develop your hook and your positioning for your marketing too. Here's some questions. If you're still kind of struggling with that. You can take a screenshot quickly write them down. I recommend a screenshot because I'm going to move past this screen pretty fast. But these are questions that will help you figure out what you have to offer that's a little unique and that you really ultimately need to share with with the audience for your book to be interesting. We're all about no boringbooks at Book Launchers, so we Definitely want you to write an interesting book, but it's really trying to find that interesting hook angle for you. I brought up Martha's book partly because I absolutely adore this cover, but also her approach is different. This is not another keto book and this is not just another cancer book. In fact, she's not telling you how to, you know, how to beat cancer. She's really telling you how to get through chemo. And she's doing that from a nutritionist registered dietitian's perspective and really teaching you what worked for her and her husband and, you know, many other people that she's worked with. So it's using a ketogenic diet, therapeutic fasting, and a kick ass attitude to power through cancer. So that really tells you her unique spin on two topics that are already covered quite widely. But her book takes a very specific approach for a very specific outcome. Alright, so this one, when it comes to defining your hook, every book needs. It doesn't matter if your book is a memoir or a business book, a, you know, prescriptive kind of how to. Your book needs a hook. And so this was, this was one of our favorites and it was one of the more challenging ones to find a hook because we had SA Bradley come to us, who is essentially a horror historian. He knows everything there is to know about horror. And there also is an author spotlight, which I'll link to at the end with, with Sa Bradley because it's pretty awesome. So he came to us with really wanting to share the passion and knowledge of horror with people. That's a tough one to find a hook for. But in speaking with our story expert on our team one day, he just kind of said, you know, I love horror because it allows me to explore emotions that really are kind of taboo to feel and express in everyday life. And he said, you know, I think that makes me happier and healthier. Turns out there was research to back that up. And screaming for pleasure how horror makes you happy and healthy was born. So you really have to dive in and find that unique hook. But it's there. Even with your memoir, there is a unique hook that you can offer to that audience. You get this right and your hook and your book will also set your business apart. Mean People Suck by Michael Brenner. He, he wanted this color and he was right. It stands out. And he has used it in swag. That's him on a television interview. He's wearing it. It stands out. So if you get the hook right, you'll actually be able to use it. For positioning your business. Eric Brotman was another great example of someone who has done this. His book is Retire, Sorry, Graduate, Don't Retire. And his hook is really all about how retirement isn't the end. It's the graduation into a new, new kind of in your life. And that has. Has positioned his entire financial business. So it can be a very powerful thing for you to get right. Number four is something not enough people spend time on or think about, and yet it sells books and gets you speaking engagements and media appearances. If you get it right, you want to spend time, almost as much time on your table of contents as you do your chapter title and subtitle. And so here's my new book. It's coming out February 23rd. Self publish and succeed. The no Boring Books way to write a nonfiction book that sells. And I put up my table of contents, not because I think it's perfect, but I want to highlight what a good table of contents should do. It should, number one, make you curious. And there should absolutely be chapters that sell you a benefit. They promise you something. There has to be value coming through this. So you can't look at a table of contents and go, oh, yeah, I've read. I've read a book already like this. You know, you have to look at it and go, whoa. Like, what is. How can I save 14, 18 hours writing my next book? I gotta buy this book so I can find out. And you know the unexpected problem with book editors? Like, whoa, I thought I needed a book editor. Now you've created curiosity, you're offering a benefit, and now people will want to check out the book. My previous book, it was called the New Brand You'd. I had a chapter called you'd Are who Google says yous Are. I got two paid speaking engagements from that, from people just seeing that chapter title and going, hey, can you do a talk on this? And they bought books and I got paid and it was great. So a great title. Oh, and by the way, media often don't read your book, but they'll look at your table of contents and ask you questions based on that. So. So it's a really, really powerful tool. Title subtitle, your cover, your title, your subtitle are going to or not going to sell your book. So set it up for success. And if you have done a good job of developing your hook and you know your reader, then you're in a much better position. This is kind of my checklist of what I recommend for titles and subtitles. This is not the rule. There's always exceptions. And as soon as I tell you three words or less, you're going to say, well what about how to win friends and influence people? The subtle art of not giving an F. You know, those are examples of course of books that have sold incredibly well and have longer titles. But generally speaking, you need a short three word or less title that is memorable, easy to say, speaks to your reader. And I say works with search engines because I would like you to have the dominance in that title. You can have another. A book title can have the same title as another book. You can't copyright them. Some titles can be trademarked, like Freakonomics. That's trademarked. So you can't have another book named Freakonomics. But most of the time you can't trademark it and they're not copyright protected. So you can have the same title. But do you want it? So check out search engines. Can you get the URL? Can you. Are you the only one with that title? And if you're not, are you going to be able to dominate over the other titles that have that title? So here's the three examples that we'll go through really fast to showcase what I think makes a great title and subtitle. So Harness yous Butterflies by Benjamin Preston. The young professional's metamorphosis to an exciting career. Who's that for? The young professional and it's all about creating an exciting career. It's got the promise, you know who it's for. It's got a little bit of a hook because like butterflies, like yeah, I want to feel butterflies when I'm thinking about my career. We talked about protecting the pig already and that title subtitle, I just wanted to put it up here again because Protecting the Pig is a powerful. It's got that alliteration which is really strong. It's memorable. It's easy to say you can spell it and then of course the subtitle speaks to who it's for. One more Killers Keep Secrets. So this book, we also do keyword research by the way, for Google as well as for Amazon and we want your subtitle to have keywords in it. Killers Keep Secrets doesn't have the keyword in it that we wanted, but the book is about the brother in law's life with the Golden State Killer. Basically having a really famous serial killer in his family. What was that like? He didn't know. How could you not know that kind of a story? So it's not about the Golden State Killer, it's about the brother in law. So we didn't want the Golden State Killer to be front and center. However, Golden State Killer was the keyword we absolutely had to hit. So killers keep secrets. The Golden State Killer's other life was born all right, not enough time to cover everything you need to know. This workbook will help you. So go to book launchers.com number seven steps and download this workbook to help you write that book. Get a plan in place. It's a lot of steps before you even start writing a single chapter. Great books change lives. Who will you impact with yours? I can't wait to see. Please, let's chat about this in the comments below. I'm going to post to the video with Sabradley right here and then of course over here we'll do the latest and greatest from the channel. All right, if this is your first time watching one of my YouTube videos, this is totally different. All my YouTube besties know I have not done this before. So what do you think? Should I do a few more of these when I'm giving talks over the next year? All right, go ahead, post about it in the comments below and I will see you next Tuesday or Friday.