Blogger: Rachel Zurakowski
Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey, is currently on the amazon.com best-seller list and is a #1 New York Times best-seller. While Steve Harvey is a man, he’s successfully written an advice book for women. He overcame the gender barrier. I think he can attribute some of that success to the following:
1) He has a clever title that shows that the book is for women and that the book will give the male perspective to help women learn how men think. He’s using the “tell-all” approach that entices women to want to learn how men think. His subtitle, What Men Really Think about Love, Relationships, Intimacy and Commitment, is also extremely effective. What woman doesn’t want to know what her guy thinks about those things?
2) Harvey, as a radio-host and comedian, already has a built-in audience for his book. He had collected fans because of his previous work. I assume many of these fans are women.
3) He has an interactive and engaging website that draws his radio show, book, and speaking audiences to the same place. This way he’s able to cross-promote his book, appearances, and radio broadcast to the three different audiences with the goal of bringing everyone together as one fan group.
4) Steve Harvey helps the community. This is an attractive trait to both men and women. It’s nice to see a celebrity helping others as a result of success. His website (www.steveharvey.com) is currently promoting his mentoring program.
I’m sure there are other reasons Harvey has been so successful in writing this book for women, and if you think of them, please let me know! While we aren’t all comedians and radio-show hosts, we can learn from his approach. Here’s some take-away that applies to marketing to and building an audience for any book:
Remember that it’s important to bring your audience together in one place. Always direct fans to your main website so they know where to go to find information about you.
Remember that you need to keep your website up-to-date, informative, and interesting.
Remember that titles are important. A title can not only help to sell a book in the store, but it also can help to get a book published. Think about your title and “test” it before submitting your project to agents and editors. Sometimes the title can be the difference between a “yes” and a “no.”
Remember to give back to your audience and community. We’ve all heard the phrase, “what goes around comes around.”
It’s the pink font on the cover.
Women see the pink and think, “My, this guy has pink lettering on his book. He must be sympathetic, patient, caring, loving, and completely in touch with what really matters.”
Guys see the pink and think, “Dude, this guy has pink lettering on his book. Any guy that will put his name on a book with pink lettering has to be a total stud or a total girly man.”
Both genders read the book to see if they are right.
Yea, that title was catchy. Now, I haven’t read the book, but the title alone would get me interested.
Having a fun website it also important to me. If I like an author, or am thinking of checking a book of his/hers out, I want to see their site. Old, boring ones are just that…boring.
If you’re writing to younger people, then the site has to match that, in my opinion. 🙂
Great post today.
James, I agree. The pink does add something and it seems to be working for him!
Lynn, thanks for pointing out that the website should fit the audience. Very good point.
Good point about the title being catchy. Question: What if your title of a book is the same as another title, but it’s a totally different genre and topic? Can I keep the title I have because it is a different genre or topic or should I change it?