What Do You Want? Giving That Same Thing to Your Readers

"The most basic of all marketing principles is to give the customer what we would want" (Elder Lynn G. Robbins).

Do you believe that?

I do.

And it strikes me that for many (including myself at times), our first priority is selling books to make lots of money, when what selling our books is really about is giving our readers what we would want.

And what is that?

The candle flame © Adrian van Leen

 

For me, it's a great book at a fair price.

The book must have a positive take-away value. The contents have to be exceptional.

The reviews need to be honest.

The book needs to be easily available. I don't want it to be too hard to order.

What about you?

What do you want?

When you know the answers, make sure you deliver up the 'goods' to your own readers.

You've probably heard of the Golden Rule. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Do you do more than merely 'hear' it. Do you 'live it'?

Living life (unlike "making a living") isn't a sales tactic. It's sharing what we'd like to receive.

What Books Are Made Of

I have been thinking this morning about books. No surprise there, but what may surprise you is what I've been thinking about books.

We all know that books are made from paper and that paper comes from trees.

Photo by: brody4, courtesy of Flickr

What we may not know, or even have the courage to ask, is "Why do some books fail, while others succeed?"

But before I answer that question, it may be important to define success.

Is success making it to the top five in your category on Amazon?
Is success being at your book signing and having a line waiting for you to autograph your book?
Is it getting frequent calls to speak?
Is it becoming popular, so popular others know you when they see you walking down the street?

Books are made of many things. Bark. Sap. Greenery. And it takes great skill (and other things previously mentioned in my posts) to become successful at writing.

 

Photo by: John-Morgan, courtesy of Flickr

So, why aren't you a success?

You've seen the movie stars write books and sell plenty, but they may or may not be a good writer. You've seen television personalities write books and sell tons, (just think of Dr. Phil). And you've more than likely seen writers who have worked their way up to stardom, and others, who, frankly, just got lucky. Their book "theme" was just the right one that people needed at just the right time.

Who knew?

I realize that most of us out there don't fall into any of these categories, but I think that's okay.

When I sell a book I hope the reader gains what they need from it. I hope they learn something. I hope they're a better person because they've read one of my books. Obviously, the Christian books I write fall in to that category, but I hope that (even if the book shelves out nothing more than a good read) I hope they feel it.

It's what we all want.

Books. They're hopefully filled with captivating characters, a setting that breaks the ice, and even, a plot that is so striking, so powerfully maneuvered, that frankly, we just can't put the book down.

Will we sell millions and millions of copies if we do that?

Maybe.

If we add marketing to the mix?

Probably.

But we'll never know unless when get those words on paper and shuffle them out.