So, I am taking this teleseminar called Selling Books By The Truckload which will ostensibly teach me just that. It is a different approach to selling mass quantities of books. When it comes to creating a best seller, the first thing most authors think of is publicity—as in how do I get on Oprah? But there is another way to sell even more books than a best seller which has nothing to do with publicity. If you read my post Where do all the books go, then you know that the other approach to selling large quantities of books is about forming partnerships with corporations and non-profit organizations. That is what the teleseminar is about.
My first assignment is to come up with a one liner and an elevator speech. What are they? A one liner is a single sentence about my book designed to intrigue a listener sufficiently to want to say, “tell me more.” The elevator speech is just a longer version of the one liner. It is a 20-30 second speech (short enough to give on a elevator ride) designed to intrigue a listener enough to want to hear more about the book.
While working on this exercise two things occurred to me. First, I do not have a great title for my book yet. And coming up with a great title is probably the single most important thing you do when writing a book. Here is the basic formula as I understand it: Great book + lousy title = no sales.
The other thing I discovered is how difficult it is to come up with a single sentence (or two or three), that creates enough curiosity and intrigue, to get the casual passer by to want to hear more. Here is what I have so far. Keep in mind they are a work in progress and no, I do not have a title yet.
One liner: My Book (insert title here), shows people how to avoid marrying the wrong person at the wrong time for the wrong reasons by learning to trust their inner voice.
Elevator speech: My Book will lower the divorce rate. One of the leading causes of divorce is people getting married, who know before hand, their marriage will end in divorce. My Book shows how to avoid that fate by making better decisions about who, when and why people should marry.
Do you have a one liner or elevator speech for your book? Let me hear from you.
