Why Persuasive Writing Sells More Books
May 1, 2008 – 12:49 pmPersuasive writing is a perspective on your book that makes your reader more important than your topic. It is a mindset that reminds you that you are writing to persuade your reader.
This is a perspective that will keep you from falling into the “topic trap” that affects so many writers. The topic trap is the tendency to pay so much attention to the topic of your book that you don’t pay enough attention to your potential reader. The topic trap mindset fails to identify why any potential reader would be interested in buying and reading your book.
You might not realize how much a book is an interaction between the writer and the reader. In fact, a book is an interactive medium. You might not think so when you spend so many hours working by yourself to write it, facing the blank page or the empty screen.
Your objective, as you write your book, is to keep your potential reader involved every step of the way. You can easily lose sight of this objective while you are working alone on your book. The more you can remind yourself that your ultimate objective is to persuade potential readers to buy and read your book, the better your book will be.
With the topic trap mindset, writers begin with the question: What is the book about? With a persuasive writing mindset, writers begin with a different question: Who would want to read this book? An even more important question to ask is: Who would actually pay to read this book?
Consider what happens when your book is published and available in the bookstores. Typically, a bookstore browser will look at a book for a few seconds before deciding whether or not to buy it. This means that you have only a few seconds to persuade the book browser to buy your book.
Although we are living in what is called “the Information Age,” writers with a persuasive writing mindset understand that many book buyers don’t want more information. They want to find a solution to a problem.
The tried-and-true way to make sure that your book solves a problem for your readers is to write the book with a clear thesis that identifies and solves a problem for a particular type of reader.
Writing to persuade is fundamentally an effort to prove your thesis, in a way that solves your reader’s problem.
This is why a persuasive writing mindset is your best strategy to sell more books. The more successful you are at persuading potential readers that your book will solve their problem, the more readers will want to buy your book.
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