There are thousands of books around, but only a small percentage of those ever gets read, not because they aren’t good, but because many writers obliterate every possible chance the book has with readers by making these 4 book marketing mistakes:

1- A blurb that gives off the plot ENTIRELY

Imagine this: You go to a bookstore and find a book with a GREAT cover, the best cover you’ve ever seen and you think, “Ok… I dig this one here”. It has the right price too, in your favourite genre even, but the moment you turn the book around, the back cover reads:

“The villain is named Lex Lusor, who is actually the best friend of the main character, and it will be killed in page 320, the main character named “Willy” will save the world out of pure luck and will live happily forever after with his love that was banging the villain the entire book.”

Will you read it?

Yeah…. that’s the point. It might seem like I’m exaggerating, but you have NO IDEA of how many writers do that with their blurbs. Here’s a more realistic example that I see quite often:

“X is a person with this disease and is fighting against it, but will X succeed in overcoming it?”.

TOTAL FAIL! Why? Because that whole blurb comes down to a “yes/no” question. If the answer is yes, then I already know the outcome and there’s no point of reading the book. If the answer is a no, then there’s no point in reading the book as well. Fail.

NEVER give off what happens in your story on the blurb! Create LOTS of questions and answer NONE of them in the blurb.

This also serves for the first pages.

2- Weak words

Another awful thing I see when writers attempt to promote their works is this: Weak words.

Words like maybe, perhaps, probably, may, can, could, possibly, and ANYTHING that indicates doubt or possibility SHOULD NOT, SHOULD NEVER be used as promotional material. Confusing? Let me clarify:

When you are talking about your books, DON’T DOUBT IT! It can be the worst shit written in HISTORY OF MANKIND, but it’s YOUR WORK. Be proud of it! It will show, and THAT will make the difference between making a sale and total bust.

Use firm words, action words, energetic expressions, PUT IT ON FUCKING BOLD LETTERS if you have to, but NEVER be shy.

3-No emotion, challenge or reward

Make your readers laugh. If there’s ONE thing that will make readers 100% curious and willing to look fhurther into your book, it’s this: Make them laugh.

If you can’t, them make them feel something very strong. Rage, Fear, a challenge be it physical or mental, Empathy, Desire, make them question what their notions and themselves, and even feel threatened by your book. Go overdrive on that aspect, push the limits and never be bland.

As per a reward, be clear on what your reader will gain by reading your book, FAST. Here are TWO examples:

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4- Wrong intro.

The first 5k words are CRUCIAL!

You can get away with a normal title, you can get away with an unprofessional cover, you can even get away with a weak blurb, but boy you won’t survive if you mess up the first 5 thousand words.

HECK! If you get your first 200 words wrong, you are a TOTAL bust! Believe me. When it comes to books, first impressions MATTER as much as Black People’s Lives.

Just a stat here: For every book reviewed on Scribble’s Worth, this very site, a whooping 3 books are outright rejected! ON AVERAGE! The reason? The first 500 words.

Yes, the prologue ALSO COUNTS!

There was a scifi book that recently was outright rejected, because the prologue didn’t make sense. We DIDN’T even read the first chapter!

So, if you want to have a shot at your reader reading your book, make your first 2 pages as IMPRESSIVE AS POSSIBLE. Make the reader have a LOT of questions that he has to discover the answers to, and the only way to do that, is to read the rest of your book.

5- Not going “WIDE”

Here’s an extra big mistake that you are most probably doing: Focusing on a single outlet while marketing your book, specially just Amazon. Don’t limit your book’s possible reach by not going WIDE.

This choice of focusing on a single outlet, is killing more sales that you can ever think, and I thank Mark Leslie for opening my eyes on this aspect and literally saving my writing career as a Self-Published Author. And here’s why.

Thank you for reading! Please share your thoughts on the comments XD

Written by Julio Carlos

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