Now that you know the type of product you are offering,
let’s focus on differentiation of that product. Differentiation is a fancy word
meaning how can the customer tell the difference between your product and
someone else’s product. Let’s be honest: there are a TON of books out there.
The good news is it’s never been easier to get your work into the hands of
customer. The bad news: all the other authors know this too.
So why buy your book? Three reasons: quality, features
style
QUALITY
I’m not talking about whether or not you’ll win a Giller
or Hugo Award. Quality means ability to satisfy a customer’s expectations. Now if you’ve done your homework you already
know what your customer expects. I believe story always trumps style (which is
probably why I’ll never win a Giller); however, you still have to make sure the
book looks professional. Watch formatting, page layout, and (for the sake of
all that is holy) punctuation, spelling and grammar.
FEATURES
Again, if you’ve done your research you know what
customers want to happen in the novel. Horror needs to be scary, romance needs
to be romantic (which is not the same thing as erotic – that’s a different
genre).
STYLE
Always judge a book by its cover. Appearance matters, no
matter what the self-help gurus tell you. Right or wrong, in business we learn
that image = reality. If people believe something about you and your work it
might as well be true. Bite the bullet and hire someone to design a
professional looking cover for you. If the cover looks like crap people will
assume the book is crap. If the author
hasn’t taken the time and effort to make sure the cover art is good the
customer will assume they do not care about the fine details. Right or wrong,
in business we learn that image = reality.
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