Is Your Book Marketable?
by Rochelle Melander
The market is bursting with books. Because of self-publishing, more people are publishing books than ever before. According to Bowker, the company who issues ISBN numbers, 2.3 million books were self-published in the US in 2021, which was the third year in a row that more than 2 million books were self-published. That’s up from 2013, when just 300,000 books were published. I’ve been writing and publishing books since 1998, and I’ve never seen anything like this.
According to a report by the Department of Justice, 90 percent of books published each year sell fewer than 2,000 copies and 50 percent sold less than a dozen copies. Most books sell fewer than 1000 copies. Only 50 sell more than 500,000 copies.
So who’s making the money? Famous actors with great big platforms do well when publishing books. Keanu Reeves just teamed up with China Miéville to write the science fiction novel The Book of Elsewhere. And book maven Reese Witherspoon has put out a volume of practical advice for readers called, Whiskey in a Teacup. Publishers also earn money from celebrity work and backlist titles, like the Bible and The Lord of the Rings.
For the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about just that: how you can create a nonfiction book that’s marketable. You may never create a bestselling book, but you can create a marketable book that is good enough to compete with bestsellers. And that’s what this week and the following week’s tips are about: understanding what it takes to create a good book.
Over the next several weeks, I will talk about the features of bestselling books. They include:
+Robust market
+Multiple hooks
+Good storytelling
+Short chapters
+Interactive features
And more.
Commit to visiting this blog for the next few weeks if you want to build a book that readers will rave about.
The Competitive Title
Today, we’ll start by talking about the first feature of a marketable book: you can find a competitive title.
No doubt at some point in your life you’ve seen a bestselling book or product and said, “I wish I’d thought of that!” Or worse, you see the very book you’d hoped to write—only someone else got there first. Ouch! On those days, it’s tempting to want to give up and stop writing. After all, someone in California or New York who you don’t even know took your very best idea, wrote the definitive book on it, and is now raking in the big bucks. It sounds like the perfect conditions for a drink, a box of chocolate, and a nap (or maybe all three). Stop. Take a deep breath. Now listen: this book, the one a bit like yours, might be good news for you.
How could that be?
We want authors to write books that affirm what we already know. So if we believe that there’s a secret to productivity, and it’s keeping good habits, then we’re going to be interested in buying a book that tells us we’re right. One of the recent bestselling books is Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear (2018). But it’s not a new topic. Charles Duhigg wrote the bestselling book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (2014). B. J. Fogg wrote another bestsellerTiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (2020).
What makes your book marketable?
The first sign that your book is marketable: your topic has been written about before. That doesn’t mean you cannot improve on it. In fact, in order for your book to sell, you need to show the reader (whether that’s an agent, your editor, or the book buyer) that your take on the topic is fresh. You have new and better information. Your story is rich and moving. You have an accessible approach or a new tool to help solve the problem once and for all. Your book has what it takes to both affirm what the reader believes to be true and blow their mind by talking about it in a new and different way.
Your turn:
Review the competition. Has your book topic been covered? Make a list. For each competitive book title, consider:
+How is this book positioned to sell well?
+What about this book hooks the reader?
+How has the author missed opportunities to help the reader?
+What could I do better?
Need help? Sometimes you need an experienced publishing professional to help you figure out your book’s unique angle. Contact me for a consultation: https://writenowcoach.com/consultation/
Write Now! Coach Rochelle Melander is an ADHD-trained professional certified coach who has helped hundreds of people write and publish books. She’s available to help you create a plan for your writing project, overcome distraction and procrastination to start and finish your writing, and navigate publishing and marketing your book. Book a private consultation: https://writenowcoach.com/consultation/
