Do you want yo write a book readers love? I believe every author wants to write a book readers will appreciate and pass across to their friends.
You need your readers to fall in love with your books the moment they begin to read it. There are so many benefits to you and your book if readers of your books love them.
I will be using another post to describe benefits to you and your books if readers love them. That’s going to be a future post.
Today, I want you to enjoy this pillar post on how to write a book readers will love. Enjoy it and pass this post across to your friends on social media and everywhere.
Related: Check out our problem-solving ebooks
Introduction to how to write a book readers love
The human body when it is healthy radiates beauty and has the tendency to grow adequately. Everyone desires the beauty of a healthy person.
When a child is not growing adequately, the parents are worried and usually, they schedule a visit to see a physician. If it is found that the child lacks anything that is required for his or her normal growth, the parents go to any length to provide these required growth contents for their child.
Life materials
The human body that is not growing well and which has no outside beauty lacks what I call, “Life Materials” or growth contents that are necessary to make it grow adequately.
The same thing applies to a child that is not growing adequately; he or she lacks growth contents or life Materials.
Authors and life materials
The description above also applies to authors, their books, how readers rate their books and how their books perform in the market.
Wherever there are life materials, there will surely be normal beauty and growth. When your books have life materials or growth contents, they will surely radiate the beauty and attraction that will make them enjoy the love and patronage of readers.
Good books attract loyal readers
When readers love your book (when your book is filled with relevant life materials), they are likely to stay with you for a long time and become great fans who are ready to buy more books from you whenever you publish them.
They will also be ready to pass words around about you and your book to their friends, families, colleagues, online friends and so on.
Why I Wrote This Post on How to write a book readers love
The main reason why I wrote this post is to make you write interesting books that your readers would love and which will ultimately sell very well in the market. When readers love your books, they will be willing to promote them by using the most potent book-selling strategy which is the word of mouth publicity.
With the word of mouth publicity, the readers who enjoy your book take it upon themselves to inform others about it. If the readers they informed love your book, they will also inform others and it goes on like that.
I know that most books which broke out from the various sales channels either with traditional or independent publishing platforms as best-sellers owe their successes to this potent strategy.
Make your book an exciting read with growth content
You can make each of your non-fiction books an exciting read for your readers if you can learn how to put these life materials or growth additions or growth elements into your books.
They are life materials because they bring life into your books. They add more excitements and originality to your books in addition to the problems it is meant to solve.
What life materials add to your book
Life materials add the following to your books:
- help in authenticating the solutions you have provided to the problems your books is solving
- add more benefits and bonuses to your readers
- provide entertainment to your readers
- give a strong voice to your book and improve your author profile in the market place
- increase your book sales and success as an author.
Newspapers and Magazines Also use Life materials
I have also observed the use of life materials by newspaper and magazine editors to make readers love their publications. I am sure you have seen this application a lot of times.
The following are some of the ways Newspapers and Magazines use life materials to make readers love their publications:
- Use of fresh images or pictures on the front pages of some newspapers showing an event that happened the previous day.
- Report of fresh news as it happens with picture shots accompanying them.
- Dedicating a section of their newspapers to “Photo News” which only shows picture shots of current events that will interest their readers and most importantly, to show their readers that they are current and that they have ‘life’ running through the “veins’ of their newspapers and magazines.
Books should have life materials to make readers love them
Books should have these life materials too. Your books don’t have to be boring to your readers or uninteresting to your readers.
Placing that extra information, entertainment, gifts and bonuses will surely make your book come alive to your readers.
I have described some (5) of these life materials Or growth contents or addictions in this post.
Related: If you want to read about 25 or more of these growth content, you need to get a full book I wrote about this topic. Read more here.
Life Materials Have Always Been There to make readers love books
I have, over the years, also observed how best-selling authors have used these life materials in their books. These materials have added great quality to their books and have helped them to climb up to the top of the ladder of best-selling authors.
I will be mentioning instances of the use of these materials in some of these best-selling books that I have come across. I will be picking examples from both local (those which sold well in my country) and foreign best-selling books.
I have also used these materials in my books severally and I have observed readers’ positive reactions to these additions. I will also be sharing practical examples from my various books in this post.
This secret is one of the reasons why I have very good reviews and star ratings on Amazon and other online ebook sales channels.
Using the life materials in your books
You will not be able to use all of them in a single book but you can use a combination of many of them in a single book. You will need to pick relevant ones for each book you will be writing.
I am convinced that any life material you decide to use will go a long way to add lots of qualities to your books and end up exciting your readers resulting in more sales for your books.
Benefits of adding life materials to your books
Let me bring the benefits of this post to you in bulleted points:
1. You will be able to write great books
2. You will assist readers of your books to love your books by increasing their reading appetite.
3. You will be able to sell lots of your books.
4. You will be making the solutions you have provided in your books real and workable to your readers.
5. It will make readers of your books value your author brand.
6. People will fall in love with your books and pass information around about it through word of mouth.
7. You will be able to increase your fans database.
Well, I know you can’t wait to get started so I will just roll on the dice immediately.
Make readers love your book: Bring in a Practical Story
I have read many non-fiction books where the authors have failed to include their practical personal stories and that of others in their books. Most of the books written this way are always boring and lack life contents.
People love stories, especially stories which are relevant to the solutions to problems which your book is describing.
You should ensure you strategically and intelligently put these types of stories in relevant places in your book. I am not asking you to make your book a hundred – percent story book, no, you should not do that.
If you include practical stories describing how you or others you have investigated have solved problems your book is describing, you will be making your book come alive to your readers.
People remember stories more
One of the most respected clergy man in the world, E.A Adeboye, the General Oversea of The Redeemed Christian Church of God once said , during one of his sermons, ‘I have found out that people remember more the stories you tell to illustrate your point in your sermon more the sermon itself’.
I am not surprised this man has made his books and sermon very relevant to his readers by sharing his practical stories and that of others in his books. His books are sold in the millions.
Use stories the right way in your books
Stories are powerful especially when they are rightly used in a book. It is not just enough to tell them stories about yourself alone, you can include stories about others who have done things that are relevant to the solution you are describing to a problem in your book.
This is the reason why I strongly believe that one of the best non-fiction books anyone can ever write will only be the ones he or she writes as an expert. An expert in a particular field for many years will have lots of powerful stories to tell of himself or herself or about others.
The Chicken Soup Series
Do you remember the extremely successful Chicken Soup series authored by the duo of Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Each book in the series is a compilation of heartwarming stories by different contributors. It is on record that readers fell (and are still falling) in love with the books in the series.
Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill)
Celebrated author, Napoleon Hill used practical stories in relevant places in his best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich. These stories did a lot of good to this book.
The stories were well placed at relevant places. They helped the flow of the book; they added quality to the book. Mr. Hill said he spent many years investigating the stories of successful people.
I am not surprised he had lots of these stories to share with his readers in his book. In short, Think and Grow Rich is a story book of successful people.
This celebrated author also added his own practical stories at relevant places in this book. It was just a perfect blend of stories that went a long way to add life or growth contents into the book and the readers and the market reacted positively to it.
I want you to see examples below from his book, I believe you will remember these excerpts from the book if you have read it before. He picked up according to him, by permission, the first life material below from an article written by John Lowell in the New York Worldwide -Telegram.
This should show you that you should be ready to go to any extent to add a practical story to your book if you know it will add value to it. Mr. Hill did just that with this first quotation below:
“When, on the evening of December 12, 1900, some eighty of the nation’s financial mobility gathered in the banquet hall of the University Club on Fifth Avenue to do honor to a young man from out of the west, not a half a dozen of the guests realized they were to witness the most significant episode in American industrial history…”
This story was really a delight and it really imparted me. It presented Mr. Hill’s message on Faith in that chapter in graphical form. I saw the definition and application of faith and idea execution from that story alone.
This is what a good life material does to your book and to your readers. I want you to look at the second life material that really appealed to me in this book:
“While Dr. Gunsalulus was going through college, he observed many defects in our educational systems, defects which he believed he would correct if he were the head of a college…”
This was another classic story from this book that helped the readers to catch, at a glance, the message he tried to pass across in that section of the book. The immediate story above was used to describe the old saying, “Where there is a will, there is a way” under the Imagination Chapter of the book.
You shall Not Be Barren (David O. Oyedepo)
In this book authored by best-selling author and President of one of the fastest growing Pentecostal churches in the world, David Oyedepo wrote a few facts on the book theme from the Bible in the first few chapters of the book and used the remaining chapters to publish practical stories of the people who have had encounters with his ministry on issues relating to the theme of the book.
I want you to read excerpts from the book. You should look at one of the ways he introduced this life material in this popular book:
“Below are some testimonies, proofs of God’s commitment to you. Just as these people got their hearts desires, so also will you! … ‘My wife and I had believed God for the fruit of the womb for over three years. At one of the breakthrough seminars held last year, the Bishop blessed our oil and said it was for quick works…”
Sometimes the stories are called testimonies as we have seen from the book above. The man of God filled that book with stories of those who have recorded victories over childlessness using God’s Word.
I’m not surprised that book sold well in my country. It was a good use of a life material that validated his qualification to write such books and also helped his readers to love the book.
Write a book readers love: Allow Natural Mention
You can also write your books and allow lots of natural mentions of testimonials of people who have had one or two relationships with you over the theme of your book. I have seen lots of best-selling authors do this; they make these testimonials flow freely into every stage of their books where they want to use them.
For example, an author in the course of writing a chapter in his book, paused to write this:
“While I was about to write this chapter, I received an email from a reader of the first edition of this book sharing how the book helped him and also mentioned an important problem area which I will be using this chapter to solve, I will just publish the content of his email below and then continue with this chapter”.
This was an excellent addition that was used naturally in the course of passing across a message in a chapter of a book. Readers of your book will usually love and enjoy these types of stories because they validate your qualification to write the book they are reading.
It also makes your book come alive to them. The readers are reading from a practitioner and not just an ordinary story teller.
I want you to look at how I intelligently added this type of life material to a chapter of my book, You Can Stop Masturbation where I discussed ‘Check Unrelated Issues”.
“A lady after reading one of my short addiction reports, 2 Quick Ways to Stop Addiction, called me on phone and narrated how the report has helped her. She said, “Thank you sir for your report, Two Quick Ways to Cure addiction. I am (her name). I am married but I am addicted to masturbation and I want to stop it. That was why I took time to read your report…
After encouraging and praying with her on the phone, I began to wonder why she is married and yet is addicted to masturbation. After exchanging a few emails with her sharing more articles and reports with her, I perceived it’s likely she was having some unresolved issues with her husband which had made her to go the way of masturbation”.
This life material showed my reader that I have written short reports on the topic of the book before. It shows them how people have benefited from these short reports before.
It shows them how I have been involved in a conversation with a satisfied reader of these past reports. It ends up introducing the main topic of discussion for that chapter of the book, how unrelated issues can cause the problem of addiction. This singular act would surely show my readers my qualification to write the book and also help them to fall in love with my book.
Just like I said, let these types of additions flow freely into your discussion in any section of your book where you want to use them.
Make readers love your books: Use ‘Parablic’ Stories
In my book, Jesus and Your Success, I started with this relevant story:
“Johnson Idiok (not real name) was trained as an agriculturalist in a city university and returned to his village to set up a modern farm. After some years of consistent hard work, his organization grew in leaps and bounds; he became very wealthy. He worked harder and amassed more wealth and properties in the community.
Johnson Idiok was contented to see his personal fortune grow on a regular basis and loved the cult-figure image the people of the village accorded him. On the other hand, Timothy Anderson (not real name) was trained as a production engineer. He left the city to set up a manufacturing firm in his village. He also worked very hard to take his business to the next level recording outstanding breakthroughs in the process. After some years, he had also amassed lots of wealth and properties.
However, Timothy Anderson felt very uncomfortable with the fact that he was the only one making significant progress in his little village. He took a decision to do something about it and approached God for what to do about the situation.
He was inspired to set up a second organization in his village that would inspire and educate the youths and other members of the village on how they can go ahead to achieve what he has achieved and even surpass his achievements. This free service also involved the award of scholarships to those who were finding it difficult financing their education”.
My simple plan for my readers
My plan was to introduce my readers to the reason why I wrote the book right from the introduction page of the book. It was also meant to be a life material – to show my readers the relevance of the book to them and also sustain their interest in the book until they have read the last word in the book.
I call these types of stories, ‘parablic’ stories because sometimes you can follow the Jesus’ story-telling strategies (parables) where you make up a story to describe a point you want to make in any part of your book.
The stories of Johnson Idiok and Timothy Anderson in the story above were made up by me to act as a life material at the beginning of this book.
Rich Dad and Poor Dad book
I want to believe the popular Rich Dad and Poor Dad story of Best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki is a ‘parablic’ story. I am sure you will agree with me that this strategy is one of the reasons why that book and the others after it are best-sellers since it was first released.
People fell in love with the wise narration of the story around his two ‘fathers’ and the provision of solutions to the problems the book was solving. It was a great life material indeed!
Look at Another Story Innovation
I want you to look at another story addition from the book, Just for Girls by Elizabeth M. Hoe and M.Beth Cutaiar. They intelligently introduced the stories of four young females who told their practical stories all through the book. Look at the intelligent introduction of this life material by these authors:
“We’d like to introduce you to four young women from whom we will be hearing throughout this book. Each is based on a real person – a young woman similar to you! Please meet Lori, Sara, Ellen, and Betsy…”
These four young women end up introducing their stories and went on to tell their stories at relevant places throughout the book.
Stories can be powerful and they can be great additions to your books that will make your readers fall in love with them and you.
Write a book readers love: Include Research Results
Have you seen these types of research results below in some books?
“The suicide rate has skyrocketed in the ’80s. For children 10 – 14 the suicide rate has tripled in the last ten years. Leadership magazines estimate that half a million people attempt suicide annually.
In 1981 more people died by suicide than by homicide” This quote was taken from Billy Graham’s best-selling book, Peace with God.
Did you observe the extra work the author did to give his readers quality content? He quoted a research result from a credible organisation that was relevant to that section of his book.
You will agree with me that this was indeed a life material for that book. That book contains many of such quotations.
The research quotations were included at the right places in the book to give more voice to the claims of the author in order to adequately educate his readers. When readers are adequately educated, they will surely fall in love with you and your book and pass information around about it.
Survey results in my book
I want you to look at how I also included such life material in my book, You Can Stop Masturbation:
“Survey results show that “86% of American high school students said that some class mates drink, use drugs and smoke during school day. 44 % of high school students knew students who sold drugs like marijuana, cocaine and their likes at their schools. 52% of high school students said that there was a place on school ground or near school where .students can go to use drugs.
Now the dangerous part of this is that 36% said that it was easy for students to use drugs, drink or smoke during the school day without getting caught”.
I brought in this quotation at a point when I was trying to educate parents on how it is dangerous to leave the moral, spiritual and even academic well-being of their children entirely in the hands of schools or educational institutions.
I wanted them to understand the relevance of getting actively involved in these areas of their children’s development. Therefore, the quoted research result was to help them understand the relevance of my claims.
George B Eager, in his exciting book, Love. Dating and Marriage, wanted to show his readers how it is possible for teenagers and tweenagers to say no to sex before marriage, he quoted a survey result:
“In a survey of over 11,000 teens in grades eight through ten, 94 percent of the girls and 76 percent of the guys said that it’s acceptable to say no to sex”. Again, the research result added at the right place for his readers.
Best-selling authors usually carry out lots of researches while in the process of writing their books. While doing this, they have always come across polls, surveys and researches that have been published by others on the topic.
Smart ones among them have always gone ahead to include these research results in appropriate places in their books quoting the sources of their quotations.
Give credible and verifiable results
You should understand that it is not enough for you to bring up research results from questionable sources. You should take the pain to look for great sources of research results.
Nowadays, you can obtain lots of these online. You can also do a search on the search engines for, “(Your topic) + polls surveys”. For example, if I am writing a book on how to stop addiction, I can search for, “Addiction+ polls surveys”.
Quoting credible research results at appropriate places in your books will show your readers that you have gone to a great extent to produce the book they have in their hands. Every reader wants to get the best of information from every book they read.
If you can share credible polls, surveys and research results that substantiate your claims in your book with them, they will be happy to read more from your book and from you.
I have always included some nice research results in my books and I have also seen how best-selling authors have also done that, in fact I learnt the use of this particular life-material strategy from them.
Good results from this life material
You saw one of the examples in my book, You Can Stop Masturbation. That research result was used at an appropriate place in that book to show parents reading the book that even our schools can’t be totally relied upon to mould our children’s character alone. These types of additions will show readers of your books that you are really worth listening to on the theme of your book.
Relevant results mention
Let me warn again that you are not expected to flood your book with copied research results from surveys, polls and scatter them throughput your book. The research results you are using must flow appropriately with any section of your book where you have decided to use them.
These results are to act as life materials in your book – to make your book come alive to your readers. When you use them carelessly, they do the opposite.
Readers will find out that you are only trying to impress them by using them at places where they are not relevant. This will surely present you as a novice and make the people lose interest in your book and your author brand.
Make readers love your books: Quote Experts
Best-selling authors are also fond of quoting experts in their books. I have also quoted experts in my books at very relevant places.
Quoting other experts in your books as you try to make a valid point to your readers will help to give a strong voice to your point in the mind of your readers. When you use other well-known experts to corroborate your argument in your book, you are giving your readers the opportunity to read the minds of two or more experts on the same topic in a single book.
Some authors have even gone ahead to quote 2 or 3 more experts on the same message and at the same part of the book in order to give more information to their readers.
10Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing (Joel Friedlander)
I want you to look at the way Joel Friedlander brought in an expert’s quote in a section of his book where he wanted to show his readers why they must not patronize Vanity publishers:
You will agree with me that this was extra information from another expert to support his claims in that section of the book. The readers did not only read his own views about the topic but they also read from another expert he had interacted with.
I want you to look at a good use of this life material in some best-selling books. This first one was taken from Robert Allen’s very successful book, Multiple Streams of Income:
“As an example, let me offer you Susan Powter, who appeared out of nowhere in the early 1990s with her bleached crew cut … This is the marketing blurb about her book: Susan tells how depression led to her 260 – pound “fat coma” and how she overcame ‘the insanity’ of the diet and fitness industry to develop her own wellness plan”
Fantastic inclusion!
Robert was teaching how anyone can turn their life stories into money. He had to include Susan’s story (using the life material I discussed in chapter 1).
He went further to include Susan’s quotes in the marketing blurb of her book. One other good way I have observed Authors’ use of this life material is from the example I am showing below. Still I will be picking a quote from Robert’s book, Multiple Streams of Income:
“Remember the old Chinese saying? Man who chases two rabbits loses both. If Confucius were alive today. He’d probably say: Man must chase ten rabbits in order to catch three”.
He quoted a Chinese proverb. Some other authors have quoted African proverbs or whichever that will add more value to their claims at any part of their books. Your readers don’t have to be natives of the countries you are picking your sayings or proverbs from; it even gives them an additional, free opportunity to learn about the cultures and sayings of other tribes and nations.
Quote from Times News Magazine
I want you to look at the way I used a quotation from the Times News Magazine in my book, Bible Secrets for Effective School Teaching.
I wanted my readers to understand why the teachers of the infamous Adolf Hitler, who wickedly ruined a certain percentage of the population of Jews, will not be exempted from blame and punishment due to their negative influence over this dictator right from his childhood days. To buttress this fact, I found and used the quote below from this respected News organisation:
” …he (Adolph Hitler) was raised a spoiled child by a doting mother, Klara… he grew up a half – educated young man , untrained for any trade or profession, seemingly doomed to failure… Soon Hitler’s researches revealed to him that the Jews is the enemy of all mankind…”
I used this quote to show why the teachers who had taught and negatively influenced him wrongly since his childhood days through books, journals and reports should also come up for mention and blame. This life material has really helped lots of people to agree with my claim even at the various teachers’ seminars that we have organized. It has also helped the readers of that book to agree with my submission on this topic.
How Do You Obtain Great Quotes
You can pick up great quotes from the following sources:
- From the books and teachings of experts in an industry where your book is solving a problem.
- From sermons (if the expert is a clergy).
- During seminars. I look out for these types of quotes when I attend seminars of my mentors.
- From the newsletters of experts. I am subscribed to newsletters (ezines) of experts in my industry.
- From their blogs. Most experts now have blogs and online presence where they post and share their thoughts on a regular basis.
Other strategies to get quotes
Usually, these quotes are short statements of these experts. I always underline great quotes from books whenever I read them.
If I am writing a book on a particular theme, I usually consult a book I have which have a similar theme with the book that I want to write.
I have also written out some of these quotes on a plain sheet of paper and then try to plug in quotes from this list at relevant places as I write my book. I believe every author should have this type of quote document.
There are also books on this that you can purchase online. You should do a search on any of the search engines.
This life material has been in use for years now; it’s about one of the oldest life materials that are still in use today. Let me inform you that it will always be a relevant material if it is used appropriately.
Write a book readers love : Attach a CD or DVD
While in High School, I noticed authors of the popular New Engineering Mathematics added a free CD to the book. Then, as students, we were excited about this free and quality addition.
We were always ready to buy a copy of this book because of this extra gift. Other smart authors have also sold their books with a CD/Dvd attached.
The practice has really improved the perceived values of their works. Prospective customers will go for these types of works because they believe they are getting something extra for their money.
Most times, the extra gift can just be a cd containing the content of the book in Microsoft Word or PDF format. It can also be an audio CD containing an important message that is closely related to the message of the book.
Sometimes, it can even be a Dvd containing video shots of one of the trainings or workshops of the author of the book. This extra gift can also be a CD containing free e-book on topics that are closely related to the topic of the book.
Extra gifts on websites for book readers
Whatever they are, they are life materials that will help to move your book into the heart of your readers. I have also seen authors that have placed these extra gifts on their websites.
For example, Robert Kiyosaki had an audio that can be downloaded free on his website by readers of his best-selling book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I want you to look at the way he used it in several places in his book:
“For a Free Audio Report, What My Rich Dad Taught About Money all you have to do is visit our special website at … and the report is yours for free”
Some authors have also included a coupon in their books for readers to detach, fill and send to them to receive these extra gifts.
The covers of these types of books usually look like what I have below:
How to Overcome Disappointment
…report reveal step by step guide on how you can overcome disappointment
BONUS
A Training DVD Attached.
Author Name.
All of these practices by authors are meant to add life to their books. It makes the readers have the feeling that they are reading the book of an author who is real and cares for them even before they bought the book.
How to write a book readers love: Include Tables And Graphs
Just like I shared with you under above under the section on ‘Include Research Results’, tables and graph showing the research results are also good life Materials that you can include in your books.
As usual, you should ensure the results on the tables and graphs are related to any message you are trying to pass across at any part of the book. You don’t just include them just for the sake of doing so. They must give your readers clearer information about your message at that part of the book.
I want you to look at practical examples below.
Mark Coker, Author of The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success and Founder of Smashwords.com used this life material severally in his book. I want you to look at examples below:
Did you see the way he introduced a relevant chart that is expected to give graphic illustration of the message he was trying to pass across? After the chart, he continued with his explanation using the information from the same chart.
Include tables and charts where they are useful
Smart authors usually include these tables and graphs at places where they are just necessary. Tables and graphs will add to your book what they have always added to where they are rightly used – clearer information, visual and graphic information about a message you are trying to pass across.
Your readers will be happy with this extra effort from you and will ensure they read your book with more excitement and appetite. Let me inform you that you can go online to search for these types of life materials.
You should search for ‘graphs and tables + your topic of discourse’. This should bring you any available information on the internet.
You can also go directly to the individual websites where this information is domiciled if you know them already. I want you to look again at what Mark Coker did in this same book:
He drew upon data from the Association of American Publishers. The tip here for you is that you can search online for the website of any association, agency that has relationships with your topic of discourse in your book.
Write a book readers love: Include Real-Life Pictures
Publishers of the popular New General Math Book series in Africa used pictures to illustrate some math principle in their book. These additions really added lots of life to this legendary book series.
The pictures used were not just cartoon pictures; they were real pictures of real people. I believe most of these pictures were specially taken for the purpose of the book series.
Author of 10 Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing
Joel Friedlander used these real pictures severally to illustrate important messages in his book. Look at one of them below on the right hand side of a page in his book where he was describing the necessity of having a good cover for books. He actually included real book covers to illustrate his point.
Dave Chesson (kindlepreneur.com)
Dave Chesson, author of Amazon Kindle Rankings and owner of kindlepreneur.com also used this life material severally in his book. Look at an example below:
He also used cartoons in some parts of his book. Let me also add that well-drawn cartoons can also be used in books as Life materials.
Real pictures will do a good job but cartoon can also stand in for these real pictures. You may also combine the two.
Most times, pictures tell a story more than words. It will however be to the advantage of your book and your author brand if you know how to use both life materials (pictures and stories) in your books.
I also used this life material extensively in my own book, Money Making Secrets in the Education Industry. Look at an example below:
I used this life material under a chapter where I described How to Make Great Profits as a Book Author and Publisher. I wanted the readers of my book to see a picture of my first self-published book which did very well in the local market and which qualified me to write that chapter.
In that same book, I used pictures of athletes, top society people and others at places where their pictures would help my readers to see the graphic representation of what I was describing.
Pictures on sales pages
David Stewart, owner of dogtrainer.com explained how he experienced a big turnaround in his profits when he decided to include pictures on the sales page of his dog training information product. There are also countless numbers of online marketers who have testified to the huge relevance of real-life images on sales copies.
Some have even gone to the extent of including videos describing their products or services. Real-life pictures are even important life materials on sales copies.
The real-life pictures should be relevant and must aid the readers to understand a message you want to pass across in any section of your book where they are used. If they are not going to do this, please don’t use them at all.
Get a full ebook guide
There are lots of life materials you can begin to add to your books to make then
In Your Book
I will be highlighting below some of the advantages of using a special Direct Response Page in your book.
1. It brings life into your book. 2. It shows the readers they are actually reading the book of someone who is real and who is ready to give more benefits to them. They are reading from a ‘real author’ who has a lively book. 3. With your gifts, it shows the readers that you actually appreciate them for buying your books in the first place. 4. It allows your gift to make room for you. Your readers go into the body of your book with a positive mind towards you. 5. You will have the opportunity of building a database of phone numbers or email addresses of readers or customers of your book over time. 6. You can sell your books directly to this database in the future by sending emails or text messages to them. 7. You will have the opportunity of having a database of readers that can be of good use to you and your book-selling business anytime you want to research a new book title or do a simple market research. 8. You can use it to know how far your book has gone. In my book sample above, I asked for the location of the reader.
These are just some of the many advantages of using a special direct response page in your book. Out of all these, I have come to love the number five advantage the most. A good business must have a means of building a database of customers so that it can sell to them over and over again. It is always very easy to sell to a customer who has bought from you (and is satisfied about your service) than a new person who has not had any business relationship with you in the past.
Tools That You Will Need To Create A Direct Response Page
The following tools will help you to create a direct response page.
1. Your phone number: Just like the way I used one above in my book (shown in the image above). There are also now phone numbers which have auto response messages set up with them. A subscriber receives an auto response from you when he or she subscribes as requested. There are also voicemail services that you can use for this purpose. The voice mail services make it possible for people to instantly pass detailed information from one party to another without directly speaking to them.
2. Your email address: I believe everyone should have an email address now. You may decide to ask your readers to send the information to an email address instead of a phone number. I showed an example from Fred Gleeck’s book earlier. Just like the case with a phone number, this email address can have an autoresponder set up for it where pre-written reply messages can be sent to readers who subscribe as requested.
3. A website (optional): This is optional but you can have a web page set up for this purpose where you can direct your readers to supply their contact information to receive their gifts. The use of website adds more professionalism to the whole thing. It adds more life to it and gain you more respect from your readers.
Your autoresponse phone number and email address can also be a good tool to you. You should also extract the email addresses and phone numbers and keep them in a record. You can also use auto responder services for this purpose for convenience sake. This will give an instant response to the request of your readers and also store their email address for your future use. This way you will not have to manually respond to every request for your gifts. There are many of these free services online today. You can also ask a webmaster to create a special autoresponse email for you from the Cpanel of your website if you own one. For example, when I launched the free report of my book, You Can Stop Masturbation several years ago, I created and autoresponse email, stopmasturbation@rocktech.biz for it (it is disabled now). I asked anyone who desire to receive the free version of the book to send a blank email to this email address. Many did and they received a link to download the free version, a little sales message and a link to buy the full version. I must also add that I also received lots of relevant email messages from users of this free report which has helped me to improve the product on the three occasions I have done so.
Can you see how this life material helped to kick start a relationship between me and my readers and also led to tips which helped me to improve the product on three occasions? Life materials are indeed good materials!
Google Form to the Rescue
You can create a form from the free Google form services available on the internet. You will give the link to your form in your direct response page and when visitors have filled this form, you will be able to retrieve their submitted information in your account. This is a valuable service from the guys at Google. You can visit https://www.google.com/forms/about/ to use this form. It will only cost you a free registration for a goolge account and I bet you have that already. In case you don’t have one, you should register for one and then create your direct response form using the link above.
I want you to look at how Sam Adeyemi used it in his book, What I Would Have Done Differently. Though this message appeared on the third page, it still serves the same purpose.
The form at that page was created using Google form. He showed his readers how lives have been touched positively through his coaching programme and offered them the opportunity to subscribe to the coaching programme. I believe the readers did not bargain for this when they picked up the book to read. This is what life materials add to your book and to your readers. Your readers are won over by the surprise gift and extra information they did not bargain for.
I believe this type of life material should appear very early in your book so that you can catch the attention of your readers very early. Some readers don’t read books up to the last page. Though, if well used and crafted out, direct response pages can appear anywhere in a book and still achieve the same purpose.
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I believe you loved these beautiful writing tips for authors. Life materials make your books look beautiful and it helps you and your books get the right reviews and star ratings on online stores.
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