There are a lot of things that self-publishers need to consider when it comes to self-publishing. Do self-pubishers need to learn copywriting or not? Let's find out now.
Today's article has three points and you're going to want to stick around for the third point. Because it is a secret in terms of the things that get your book to sell. Where exactly does copywriting fits into the picture?
So let's get into it. Today's topic is do self-publishers need to learn copywriting? Now, before we can answer that, we sort of have to get into what exactly copywriting or writing sales copy is all about.
It's not like copywriting isn't protecting your book from somebody stealing the content in your rights but rather writing. And so, what was discovered about 50 or 80 years ago was that people react to certain words. By putting certain words on the pages of things that you're attempting to sell.
It could be politicians, where you're selling your ideas or getting votes or whatever it might be. It impacts the behavior of people to decide whether or not they're going to buy from you or not.
This is a key issue that when I started, I didn't know anything about. But as a self-publisher, it is incredibly important that we pay attention to this. Because maybe you're an author and you're thinking you can just write books, put them onto the market, then they will either be a phenomenal success or flop.
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It's really based upon the quality of the books that you're putting out there. The problem is the wake-up call that you will get which is that "No, this is not the case". That can be very frustrating for many authors who are very talented and skilled.
They are being beaten by people who are putting lower-quality books onto the market. Because they're paying attention to copywriting. You may have been thinking this whole copywriting thing is a little confusing and say "I just want to write books".
Well, you will be making a huge mistake if you ignore it and that is what we're going to discuss in today's article. So that you can avoid the ones that I experienced and had to learn it the hard way.
But before we get into today's answers, grab a copy of my absolutely free Self-Publishing Checklist. To make sure that you are not skipping any of the important steps necessary to get your books onto the market and selling.
Now let's get into it, from my own story. When I first started, I thought "What exactly is copywriting?" I had no idea. I thought copywriting is when you put that little "c" with a circle around it to make sure that nobody steals your books.
I thought is it's all about just writing, I thought it was about writing good books. And you just simply watch them sell or flop. But I began to understand that my books not selling in the beginning, was exactly due to failure to do copywriting.
Behind-The-Scenes Trick
So I read multiple books on the topic and now understand that it is a central key to getting your books to sell. It's more important than the quality of the book itself which is completely unfair. I understand where you're coming from.
You're thinking, so a book sells or doesn't sell based upon the words on that sales page. Or maybe even the title and some of the description and things like that. That will bring about better sales than the quality of the book.
And the answer is yes. Now, if the book is garbage, your reviews will tank and then you will lose sales. But in terms of two books that are hitting the market at the same time, the one that has better sales copy is going to way outperform the other book.
Usually, in the long run, it will continue to outperform it. Even though the higher quality book should be doing better, it's just that life is not made that way. People make decisions upon sales copy, that is what causes us to be motivated to buy a book not the quality of the book.
So this is another very important one. Once I started implementing the principles of correct copywriting into my descriptions, titles, and advertisements that I'm running on Amazon, I saw the sales jump as a result of changing just the copy.
Do self-publishers need to learn copywriting? Let's get into it. The first point is yes, people won't buy your book if your copy is off. Terrible sales copy on your description will cause your sales to drastically be much lower.
I'm just going to give you a little behind-the-scenes trick here. It's that you were not trying to tell the person what the book is about. We are trying to solve a problem, we need to get into the minds of our readers to understand what their problem is.
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If their problem is boredom like for example a work of fiction, then you're going to sell it from that side. You're going to take them into an exciting scene of the book or somewhere along with those ways to get them going. As opposed to just giving some boring narrative of what the book is about.
The other thing is you're not to reveal the secrets within your book. So if it's a book on non-fiction and you're telling people how to do puppy training, well you're not going to want to tell them all the tricks to doing puppy training.
You're rather going to want to get in their mind and figure out why do they want to know how to train their puppy. Help them overcome the burdens regarding that in your sales copy so that they get curious and purchase the book.
Maybe they even want to look into the book so they can see the chapter headings which also will incorporate the sales copy that we're going to want to learn. There are a lot of great books, even books that are 60 years old on sales copy that are just as relevant today as they were 60 years ago.
So I'm not going to go through a whole lesson in copywriting. But I would just say it's about understanding the problem and pain points of our audience. Figuring out how we can sell and use words to get into their minds to show them our book is going to solve their problem.
Key To See More Sales
So we are understanding how to communicate the value of our books to our potential readers. The value of the book is how it will solve a problem, not the contents of the book. The description for your book is not going to be a list of all of the things that are all the chapter headings of your book.
Rather it's going to say, "these are the problems you have, this is the pain you're experiencing, and here's how we're going to go about solving that". This is key to seeing a lot more sales on your book.
Now we're ready to hit our third point of the day, it's the third most important thing. The absolute most important thing for getting our books to sell which is closely related is the title of the book. That also involves copywriting but not generally.
what I'm talking about is more of the keywords that you're using in the book. Because unless you're already famous, they're going to be searching for something on Google, Yahoo, and Amazon. Your book will show up or it won't show up because of the title.
So that's number one. Number two, once your book does show up, the cover is what needs to pull them in. I use Fiverr to do the covers. It is what I use to come up with amazing covers for like $18-$20 apiece which is definitely the price range you should be using.
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That's number two. So they see the cover "wow that is great". This could be tempting, you're pulling them in already and now we click on the link to the book, and up comes the description. This is where our copywriting comes into play.
So they're going to see our exact description going point by point through the problem and pains that they are experiencing and what exactly our book is promising. We may deal with some of the objections they have, to whether this book may or may not meet their needs.
We're going to get into the minds of our future readers. The prospect readers that are reading through our particular book, hose who are considering whether to buy it. We want to tip it, we want to make the pain that they're experiencing so high that they wish they're going to purchase the book to resolve that pain.
You will be able to do that by using these exact copywriting methods that I've been discussing in this specific article. So, do self-pubishers need to learn copywriting? Have you focused on copywriting for your books?
If you have, write "Yes" below in the comments. And if you've never considered it, you didn't even know what it really was, write "No" below in the comments.
I really want to hear from you so I know where you're coming from. To make sure that these articles are useful to you which is my top goal. Check out my other articles and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.