Barbara McNichol Editorial Services

Add power and persuasion to your books, articles, and one-sheets

  • Home
  • Editing
  • WordShops™
  • Word Trippers
  • Products
  • Praise
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • About

Make Your Book One-Sheet Work Hard for You

October 8, 2011 by Barbara McNichol Leave a Comment

By Patrice Rhoades-Baum

On the surface, a book/author one-sheet appears simple. After all, it’s one page of sales copy that promotes your book. Toss in a graphic of the book cover, your bio, and photo, and you’re done, right? Wrong!

Your book/author one-sheet is a hardworking marketing and sales tool. As such, it must—

  • help you meet your business objectives to promote and sell your book
  • clearly state the top benefit message for your target audience
  • be professional, both in content and design.

Transforming your one-sheet from a shallow list of information into a strategic tool requires putting on your marketing hat. Use the following 7 steps to guide you.

Take these 7 steps

1. Write down the business objectives for your one-sheet. What do you want this marketing tool to accomplish? Here are some example objectives:

  • “Create a professional-quality one-sheet that makes me shine as a professional.”
  • “Use as a talking guide (like a script) to support my sales calls and visits with buyers.”
  • “Leave with (or mail to) prospective book buyers as a reference sheet, so they have all the information to make a purchase decision, contact me, and buy my book.”
  • “Give to bookstore managers, so they have all info to promote book-signing events.”
  • “Give to media reps, so they have all info when deciding to schedule an interview.”
  • “Position myself as a subject-matter expert who is available for speaking opportunities.”

2. Write down a description of your target audience:

  • Clarify their demographics, needs/wants, and challenges/frustrations.

3. Identify and write down the top benefit your book delivers to your target audience:

  • The buyer must clearly understand how your book will help or educate someone.

4. Identify the target audience who will be using your one-sheet (e.g., owners/managers at local bookstores, buyers at national chain bookstores, buyers for library districts, media reps, etc.).

5. Clarify the call-to-action for your one-sheet recipients. What action do you want them to take?

6. Write professional copy for your one-sheet:

  • Select and hire an experienced copywriter.
  • If you decide to write the one-sheet copy yourself, then hire a marketing copywriter to edit and finalize the copy.
  • Start with writing the copy first, then meet with your designer to give it a professional design.

7. Select and hire a professional designer with one-sheet experience:

  • Book buyers are professionals who expect to see professional-quality materials – both in design and content.

 Write or gather the following content

1. Brief introductory paragraph introducing the book topic and delivering a strong benefit message for the target audience (be clear, concise, and compelling!)

2. Your brief bio, written specifically for this marketing tool

3. Snippets of 2 to 3 book reviews

4. Contact information

  • Publishing company, contact name, and title
  • Phone number
  • Website address (you should have a landing page, at minimum)
  • Email address that corresponds with website address (not gmail or yahoo)

5. Specific book information

  • Retail price for hard cover, soft cover, e-book
  • Bulk discounts, if available
  • ISBN number
  • Book description (example: Business)
  • Page count

6. Include a bold, compelling call-to-action that encourages the buyer to purchase your book!

Graphic elements to create or gather

  • High-resolution image of book cover
  • Thumbnail images of other books you have written, if applicable
  • Your logo, if you have one
  • Your brand colors, if you have them
  • Your professional photo

Don’t cut corners with your one-sheet.  Make it a hardworking marketing and sales tool that shows you off as a pro!

Patrice Rhoades-Baum specializes in branding and copywriting for websites and one-sheets. Backed by 30 years of strategic marketing communications, Patrice teams with authors, speakers, and consultants to clarify their brand, write copy for their websites and one-sheets, and facilitate their logo, website, and one-sheet design/development. Learn more at www.BrandingAndWebsites.com.

 

Filed Under: Writing Tips Tagged With: book biography, book editing services, book one-sheets, branding and websites, Patrice Rhoades-Baum

Contact an Editing Pro

Add Power to Your Pen and Authorship to Your Name

Email Barbara »

Call 520-615-7910

Book editing info »

Word Trippers Tips

American English language resource

Find the perfect word every time—a new Word Tripper every week!

Get Word Trippers Tips »

Blog Categories

  • Article Writing
  • BME in the News
  • Book Reading
  • Book Writing
  • Business Writing
  • Compelling Special
  • Editors and Authors
  • Grammar Tips
  • Speed Reading
  • Uncategorized
  • Word Tripper
  • Writing Tips
  • Writing Workshops

From Our Blog

No More Boring Expressions!

Source: www.grammarcheck.net … Read more »

View all blog posts »

Quick Links

  • Editing Services
  • WordShops™
  • Testimonials
  • Portfolio
  • About
  • Word Trippers

Barbara McNichol Editorial
5090 N. Camino de la Cumbre
Tucson, AZ 85750

Phone: 520-615-7910

Email us »

Copyright © 2022 · Barbara McNichol Editorial · Website by Connexins