Steve Scott

“You don’t necessarily have to find your exact idea on Amazon.  It’s good to have something unique to offer the marketplace.  But it’s important to know if similar ideas sell well.   For instance, let’s say you’re in the fitness and nutrition tips for women market.  You’re not sure if this topic has a readership in the digital platform.  So you’ll hop over to Amazon.com to see what sells.   What you find is a variety of titles that sell (at least) 10+ copies each day: ** 1 Day Diet (#8,598) ** Running Sucks (#4,626) ** Flat Belly Diet (#10,823) ** The New Abs Diet for Women (#8,910) ** Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy (#9,973) All these ideas are geared towards the fitness/nutrition for women market.  So this is good evidence that people are buying this kind of information.  Step #4: Find a Hook for Your Book Right now, you might have a single great idea or you might have a bunch of different topics.  What you need to do next is to take each idea and find an angle that will help it sell. It’s not enough to write about a benefit (i.e.: lose weight, get a girl, start a business).  Instead you want a compelling title that grabs people’s attention.  What you want is a “hook.” A hook is the desired outcome the reader receives when he or she applies what you teach.  Done correctly, the hook is an elevator pitch that explains your core concept in a punchy sentence.  Personally, I think it’s important to find your hook before you write your book.  That way you’ll have a rough idea of what information to include.  A hook can include a number of factors: ** An attention grabber (Running Sucks, Super Brain, Why Men Love Bitches) ** A benefit-driven title (Getting Things Done, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It) ** A time-specific result (4-Hour Work Week, The 17-Day Diet, 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life) ** A numbered list of content (21 Prayers of Gratitude, How to Make Him Beg to Be Your Boyfriend in 6 Simple Steps, 52 Small Changes) ** A keyword-specific title (Make Money Online, How to Lose Weight Fast, Get a Girlfriend) You can use more than one hook. Some people combine a few to come up with an interesting title. EXAMPLE: Last month I published an eBook titled: My Blog Traffic Sucks!  8 Simple Steps to Get 100,000 Visitors without Working 8 Days a Week. This was a unique hook because it had multiple factors in the title: ** An attention grabber (My Blog Traffic Sucks!)”
― Steve Scott, How to Write a Non-fiction Ebook in 21 Days