Write a How to Book First to Sell Way More

Did you know Americans alone spend $8.5 billion a year on how-to and self-help information products, programs, and services? A recent Google search on the phrase "how to" yielded 2.37 billion results.

Why do people buy self help and how to books? Most readers buy books to solve problems or help with filling a need. For example, when I started speaking for a fee I needed help with jumpstarting my speaking abilities.

Browsing in the bookstore, I was attracted to Lilyan Wilder's book "7 Steps to Fearless Speaking" I read her back cover. I noticed she could help with 7 easy steps. I skimmed the table of contents, read a few lines and immediately liked her easy to read style. I decided to purchase the book.

Because I wanted to hear from several authorities on the subject, I picked up another book by Nido R. Qubein, "How to Be a Great Communicator: In Person on Paper, and on the Podium."

His cover design was white with clean lines and a personable picture of him on the front. His style of writing was not an easy read but I still decided buy his book as well. Which brings us back to my original point; people buy self help books to solve problems. To identify your targeted market, pinpoint a problem they have and the solution of course.

Problems come in all shapes and sizes. Usually a general category problem applies to all types of markets.

Hobbies and Games. Is your golf game, bridge game or tennis as good as you'd like? Are you considering taking up gardening? Want to improve your computer game skills? What ever the case may be, your desire to improve or change your level of performance is considered the problem.

Health Education. The first thing you do when your doctor diagnoses you as a diabetic and you need to lose 20 pounds. You go look for a book that will walk you through step by step to control diabetes. You look to someone that has solved the problem to learn from their experience.

State of Mind. Are you feeling stressful about gas prices, the economy or banking system? Are you noticing unexplained physical symptoms possibly related to stress? Once again, you have a problem and you are looking for a solution in book form. Someone who has outlined easy steps to de-stress in our society.

Careers and Finance. Worried about lay-offs, down-sizing, retirement? Self help books that offer financial solutions to economic problems during shaky times are guaranteed to succeed.

Advertising and Marketing. We live in a competitive society. Small business owners and managers everywhere need a growing database of customers and clients. Therefore, they seek out how to books with solutions on improving their advertising copy, improving their business image, improving their sales copy, growing their bottom line or improving their website.

Each of the categories above describes a problem and a need for a solution. The main goal of your marketing plan is to identify the problem your book solves and then present the solution. The more intense the problem and the easier you can make your solution, the more readers will seek out your book.

Your task becomes to reorganize your knowledge into bite-size reader solutions. Appeal to the masses, by letting them know what's in it for them and how easy the solution is inside your book. For example, let's consider the book title I mentioned earlier about speaking. The title could have been: "How to Overcome the Fear of Speaking" instead of "7 Steps to Fearless Speaking" The latter is more appealing because it alludes to only 7 steps to the solution.

Don't wait any longer. If you put it off, you can be this time next year without fulfilling your dream of writing a successful book. You have the solution to your audience's problem. Now write it down. While you're at use the tips above and write a book that sells well. Make it different. Make it count. Make it yours.

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