Information, inspiration and interviews on writing, self-publishing, book marketing and making a living with your writing. If you need help with writing your book, or you want to learn how to navigate the new world of publishing and book marketing, then join Joanna Penn and her guests every Monday. Also covers the business of being a writer and how to make money with your books.
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How To Write Your Book Sales Description With Bryan Cohen
It's hard enough to write thousands of words for a book … But then you have to turn that into a few hundred words to sell it to readers.
In today's show, Bryan Cohen and I deconstruct book sales descriptions in detail.
In the introduction, I mention the expansion of indie authors into the print book market with Jamie McGuire getting her Createspace book into Walmart. I also talk about the beginning of my co-authoring experience with J Thorn, as well as my lessons learned from 4 years as a full-time author entrepreneur.
This podcast episode is sponsored by 99 Designs, where you can get all kinds of designs for your author business including book covers, merchandising, branding and business cards, illustrations and artwork and much more. You can get a Powerpack upgrade which gives your project more chance of getting noticed by going to: 99Designs.com/joanna
Bryan Cohen is the author of How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step system for enticing new readers, selling more fiction and making your books sound good. He also writes YA novels and non-fiction, and is a stand-up comedian and entrepreneur. He's the co-host of the Sell More Books Show with Jim Kukral and also runs Best Page Forward, a copywriting service for authors.
You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher, watch the video or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.
* How Bryan got started in writing, including his start as a blogger and then becoming a student of successful writing habits
* On Bryan's outlining process and what works for him
* Best Page Forward for authors and the challenges of writing good copy, which are very different from writing good fiction
* Why a book's Amazon description is actually a sales description and not a summary of the book's narrative
* What writers get wrong in their book sales descriptions
* The most important aspects of fiction and non-fiction book descriptions, including the importance of tag-lines, adjectives and other descriptive words, and quotes
* Why author's shouldn't ‘set it and forget it' with their book descriptions
* The importance of using a tag line that is appropriate for your book's genre and when naming your character and/or setting in your description matters
* Using other authors' names in descriptions and why calls-to-action matter
* Bryan and Joanna's thoughts on the benefits and draw-backs of podcasting for both fiction and non-fiction authors
You can find Bryan at BryanCohen.com and at Best Page Forward. You can also get How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step system for enticing new readers,