Welcome back! Today, I'm going to finish up the discussion about Ad Copy by giving you some tips about your Bio and your Book Description or Product Description as Amazon calls it.
Ebook Success: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Selling Ebooks by Joan Reeves
This series and many more blog posts I've written on this blog and my other one will be compiled into an ebook and published in a few weeks. Then you can have all the information in one place. It will be my second nonfiction book.
In the meantime, here's my book list for those of you who are new to the blog. If you've seen it before, just scroll down.
Just One Look
Still The One
JANE (I'm-Still-Single) JONES
The Trouble With Love
Romeo and Judy Anne
Written Wisdom
Parts Of This Series Previously Published
Ebook Success: Get Educated
Ebook Success: Write Business Plan
Ebook Success: Cover Art, Part 1
Ebook Success: Cover Art, Part 2
Ebook Success: Cover Art, Part 3
Ebook Success: Cover Art, Part 4
Ebook Success: Working With Cover Artists (addendum published the next day)
Ebook Success: Ad Copy, Part 1, Keywords
Ebook Success: Ad Copy, Part 2, Categories
Reminder: Joan's Golden Rules
Here's my list of golden rules--called golden because I hope they will help you earn heaps of gold from your ebook sales.
1. Get educated.
2. Write a business plan.
3. Choose cover art wisely.
4. Write professional ad copy.
5. Choose price wisely.
6. Give a smart sample.
7. Write a good book.
8. Customize Marketing and Promotion.
Ad Copy Components
1. Keywords or Tags
2. Categories
3. Author's Bio
4. Product Description
We'll close out this discussion about ad copy by talking about what you can do with your Bio or Profile and your Product or Book Description.
The 2 most important elements to remember when writing your author's profile and your book description are: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Entertainment Value.
SEO
Believe it or not, you need to think like an SEO expert when you write both your profile and your product description. By this I mean, use the keywords you've created that drive traffic to your specific book. It's not enough to write compelling copy. You must also utilize keywords in that copy.
To give a simplistic example, if you have tagged your book as mystery + thriller + Texas + revenge + female private investigator, and you consistently explore the same underlying themes in your books, then your first few sentences should read something like this:
Texas author Jane Doe writes mystery thrillers featuring a female private investigator. Each book explores the themes of revenge, retribution, and justice. And so on. . . .
All my profiles pretty much say the same thing:
Joan Reeves writes sexy, funny romantic comedy with a chick lit attitude.
Be Smart: Plan
Carefully plan what you want to say in your profile. Make every word count. Include long-tail and short-tail keywords or tags while still making the copy read well. Don't stuff in keywords just to get them in there if it doesn't read well. You don't sacrifice entertainment value for keyword quantity. You're all writers so work on this kind of copy.
Do the same when you write your product description except you lead with your marketing hooks that should be tags you've used.
With these book tags: comedy of errors + courtship + set in Regency times + poor scullery maid + marries a prince, your product description should read something like this:
This delightful romance retells the Cinderella story with a Regency England setting. In this comedy of errors courtship though, instead of a glass slipper that fits a scullery maid, there's a waistcoat that must fit a prince.
Marketing hooks from the above example: Cinderella story, Regency, romance, comedy of errors, courtship, Prince. They are also keywords. The best marketing hooks are keywords, and the best keywords are marketing hooks.
Examples of other marketing hooks: marriage of convenience, woman in jeopardy, secret baby, amnesia story, debt of honor, runaway bride, etc. There are a gazillion of them, and most popular books continue to incorporate the most popular marketing hooks.
Look at any popular book (or movie) and read the description. Pick out the words or ideas presented that you think are the hooks. Chances are those are the keywords used in search engines--like Amazon--to describe the book.
Example from one of my biggest sellers, Just One Look: which has sold about 40,000 copies.
Payback isn't a bitch -- it's smokin' hot and sexy in the romantic comedy!
See the hooks? Payback, hot, sexy, romantic comedy. Those are also keywords I used to tag the book. And that's just my first sentence.
The best keyword ad copy for your profile and your book description also has. . .
Entertainment Value: Bio
I cannot tell you how many times I've read this as a profile:
Mary Smith was born in Missouri but now makes her home in Texas. She is a mother, a teacher, and a full-time writer with 20 books published. She has won writing awards multiple times. . . .
Are you still awake? One word to describe this kind of profile: boring. Does it make you think this author is someone who writes exciting books? Do you care enough about her after reading this that you want to explore further?
Make your profile exciting. Make it personal and personable. Put some keywords in it. If you write science fiction, say something like this:
Though his neighbors may think Jack Bradbury grows mutant zucchini behind the garage, this NASA astrophysicist is too busy writing his next near-future tale of man's first mission to Jupiter to bother with horticulture. Once he figures out where to display his trio of Nebula awards though, he may think about mutant vegetables as a hobby.
Get the picture?
Entertainment Value: Book Description
Have you read a book description like this:
This book is about . . . This mystery is about . . . This romance is about . . .
Or, how about this:
This is the scariest book I've ever read, etc. etc Some Review Quote.
Then the rest of the paragraph is more of the same: just review quotes that say how great the book is but never says anything specific that makes you want to read further.
Or, BOOK TITLE is the second book in the BOOK TITLE trilogy and is the sequel to FIRST BOOK. In this installment, the mystery exposed in FIRST BOOK is examined and explained further and will conclude in the last book of the trilogy.
Or, how about book descriptions where words are misspelled and there are egregious grammatical errors?
Seriously? And writers wonder why their books don't sell!
You are writers so write captivating copy! Practice. Read hundreds of book descriptions on ebooks and print books. Make every single word count. You want your book description to force the reader to immediately click BUY. At the very least, you want the buyer compelled to download a Sample. After reading that first brilliant chapter, the reader must be compelled to click BUY.
Every piece of content you put in front of the public must be designed--planned--carefully chosen. You should work on these small pieces of text until they are perfect!
This is the yellow brick road you create for the reader to follow.
Road 1: Cover Art pulls the reader in and leads to the reader perusing your book description. The book description results in 1 of 3 actions: buy immediately, download sample then buy, move on.
Road 2: Keywords in search engine pull the reader to your book and reader peruses book description then 1 of 3 actions result, just as above.
Rest stop on the yellow brick road: the reader is thinking about buying and wants to, but maybe the price of the book or the reader's individual economic situation makes him cautious so he needs further encouragement to buy. So maybe he clicks the author's name to find out more about the author. What he reads there either convinces him this book might be worth the purchase or he decides it's not.
The easiest action for the reader is always to just move on. Don't give readers a reason to do that.
Why I'm Sharing
I keep getting emails wondering why I'm sharing all of my secrets--essentially everything I've had to work hard to learn. That's just the way I'm made. I know how hard it is to make a living as a writer. Like I've said, I'm not an expert. I'm just a working writer who has had some success.
I hope this will help shortcut the process for you. I hope you can achieve your own brand of success and have fun doing it.
Takeaway Truth
A rising tide floats all boats. I wish you magnificent ebook sales. If my advice helps, please let me know.
Note: If SlingWords helps you get ahead, please consider buying one of my books or making a donation by clicking the button below or, perhaps subscribe, for only $.99 per month to the Kindle Edition of SlingWords.
Thank you for your moral support and any monetary support you see fit to contribute.
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