How to Stand Out
Like many first-time authors preparing to launch their book into the world, I’ve been studying potential ways to make my book stand out from the crowd. After all, there are thousands upon thousands of books that are released each year. If you’re not a celebrity or promoting your book on your show every day, do you stand a chance?
Complicating my goal is the fact that my book is in a rare class of books that is difficult to categorize. It’s a self-help and a success book for you personally or your business, but it’s also written as fiction. I wanted to write a book that you would read on a plane, and I know that most professionals want an escape from the typical business book—not to mention that the research shows we remember a story much more than we do a list of facts.
Violate the Imagination Rule
Brainstorming promotion ideas with a small team, we landed on one that is somewhat controversial: the book trailer. Many authors will tell you that a book should allow the reader to start from a mental blank slate. A book trailer goes against that rule, pushing images into your thoughts before you’ve had the chance to create and connect characters and settings. Business book authors also tend to have trailers that are more explanatory or even a mini-lecture.
I’ve decided to do both, violating what I call the imagination rule.
First, I allowed leeway in the making of the trailer. It isn’t a replica of the script, much like a movie isn’t always duplicative of the book. In this way, you can watch the trailer but, because of the difference in the words, create your own version. I hope you watch and enjoy the trailer above to The Book of Mistakes: 9 Secrets to Creating a Successful Future.
Second, I am releasing videos that explain the book in a more non-fiction way. These will be more descriptive of the benefits of reading the book. They will include reasons: we more naturally learn from others’ mistakes instead of their successes. We often are frustrated with not achieving our goals.
(Compare the two videos above and below and see how each targets a different audience.)
