5 Book Title Formulas

"Foreign."

Stuart: Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the book More Show. It's Stuart here with Betsy, Betsy Vaughan. How's it going?

Guest: Fantastic. How are you?

Stuart: Perfect. Very, very good, thank you. Middle of the week, podcast time again.

Guest: I was in the car earlier and somebody, the guy on the radio said, well, it's Thursday. It came fast. You know what that means? It's almost Friday.

Stuart: Yep.

Guest: Every week it happens that way. You just gotta chuckle. So.

Stuart: So today, follow up on an email that went out on the More Cheese, Less Whiskers stream. Anyone that's opted into that list, we refer to that podcast quite a bit. So I'm guessing that most people who are listening have listened to at least a few episodes. So Tuesday email that went to that group of people was talking about book titles and we were talking about the five most effective type of book titles. That led to a couple of calls and questions. So I think today it's going to be worthwhile to dive into those five categories and look at in a bit more detail what from our perspective is kind of the five most effective types of book titles to kind of capture that person's attention. As the, as your book titles passes their stream of consciousness, their Facebook feed or Instagram or it's on a desk somewhere. We're going to talk about the five most effective types of titles that capture their attention and really get people to say, I want that. Sound like a plan?

Guest: I think it's a great idea. I think we could have this title conversation every single day of the week. We do. We just. It's a constant conversation. It's a constant. I think probably in my email box right now in my inbox, there are probably three emails that people have circled back around. They've. They've come on board, they've done their recordings, they've reached out to Susan, hey, what do you think about this? And then Susan kind of goes, I like it, but let's ask Betsy. So there's a couple of those going around right now. So we kind of, you know, put our two cents in, or maybe we have a title. But then there's the question of subtitles. So we talk a lot about titles around here. And so, yeah, let's. Let's dig in.

Stuart: Perfect. So it's really the most important part. We talk about this in the book Blueprint Scorecard, the book Blueprint Mindsets that we've got. The title and subtitle is right up there at the top. As soon as you kind of dialed in that single target market, the title is really the thing that captures someone's attention, it's the thing that without having that dialed in or without having that, as effective as it could be, even if the content in the book's great, even if the call to action is great, even if your program that leads on from that is great, if the book passes by and doesn't really cause people to stop, say I want that, opt in for a copy or request a copy, then it's all a missed opportunity. So when we break it down, particularly in the mindsets, the book blueprint scorecard, when we break down each of those levers that can be pulled, each of those things that we can dial in, then dialing in, the most effective title is really top of that list and everything else flows from it. So with the title in mind, the group of people that we're trying to interact with, trying to capture their attention, trying to work with, ultimately, once we've got those dialed in, their most pressing question, the thing that they're trying to get answered, the thing that's on their mind, that is the reason that they would want to be talking to you in the first place, the conversation that's already going on in their mind is represented by the title. And then we know that we want to start with the end in mind. We've got a call to action in place, we're leading the people from the problem to the solution, then all of that then contributes to the rest of the content. So it's really that signposting. We know where we're starting from, we know where we want them to go. And that starting position, it's almost like the, the sign in the, in the mall, the thing that says you are here. That, that naming, that signposting, that kind of direction of I'm, I'm stood in front of this sign in the mall. The question on my mind is where am I? Then the naming of you are here is the most perfect words. We're trying to do the same in the context of the conversation that's going in their mind and what are the words that are likely to capture their attention and start that conversation, rather than which we see a few times is people coming on board and thinking about book titles which are clever or too subtle or a little bit using a bit too much inside language. The kind of open ended question, that kind of unfinished thought title which works where the book is the product and you want to sell the book. So in a bookstore where you've got a whole shelf full of books having a title that's, that's Clever or it's makes a suggestion about. Not so much to suggest about the content, but I can't think of a better way of describing it than kind of clever in air quotes. But those titles that don't necessarily indicate what the content's about or the solution, or these five things that we're going to get into in a moment, we sometimes get people coming in with that mindset. There's very much at the moment a feeling of having one word book titles, because when you look on the bookshelf in the bookstore, that's very common. It's very kind of of the moment. The issue with that is that the book isn't the product. You're not necessarily trying to sell the book. You're using pre suasion techniques and tactics to start the conversation and lead people onto the back of a copy and the next steps. So at the moment, that seems to be something that we're seeing quite a few times. People are getting very influenced by New York Times, bestsellers in biographies and book titles that don't necessarily do what we're going to talk about here. So just before we get into it, I just wanted to set that up as a kind of a comparison. What we're looking for is the most effective book titles. Knowing that this is part of a bigger funnel, not necessarily the most effective book titles. If you're looking to sell a book and have a book on. On the shelf in the bookstore. So far so good.

Guest: So far so good. All right, perfect. So the first one is

Stuart: name it and claim is. Sorry, I paused then because I wasn't sure whether you're going to jump in with it or. Yeah, I went for it.

Guest: Let's go.

Stuart: Okay, so name it and claim it. This is. We've got a field guide, a report that we wrote a while ago that I'll. As you're receiving this, if you're on our email list. So you got the email about the podcast. It'll be linked in the, in the email. Anyway, if you haven't got that email, if you're just listening to this, then head over to the five Book titles formulas. Tripping over my own words. Head over to the five booktitleformulas.com and then you can download a copy of it there. So the name it and claim it category is really one of the first that springs to mind. It's one of the easiest to think about because there's a lot of books out there already that really kind of put a stake in the ground and claim a whole genre so we were talking, I was talking a second ago about Pre Suasion. So that's Robert Cialdini's latest book, Pre Suasion as a title, although it's only one word. So I guess I'm contradicting myself a little bit from what we said before. But actually that is a good point because although we were saying one word titles are very do or go and aren't necessarily what we're looking for. Pre Suasion as a title kind of gives you all the information that you need to know and then it's supported by a strong subtitle as well, but it gives you a lot of information within that. So as with everything, it's not strictly the case all the time, but validate every step, kind of validate what you're doing and that you're doing it for the right reasons. So the name it and claim it ones are really sticking that stake in the ground and claiming that category. So another one that we talk about a lot is Financial Peace, the Dave Ramsey book, super well known because of all of Dave Ramsey's work. But that genre defining title of Financial Peace, A it does what it says on the tin, it's obvious what the book's about, and B, it really claims that that genre, it's a title out there that sits, sets a stake in the ground and immediately allows you to know what it's about and immediately kind of ring fences that area of business. It's not always necessarily clear what the solution is. It's not necessarily always an answer to the problem, but it's words in there that kind of set the scene. So another huge example is the Four Hour Work Week. So again, it's a title that names and claims that whole kind of industry to a certain degree. Our own book, the 90 Minute Book, does the same. It kind of doesn't. It gives a, an indication of what the solution is, but it really names in a specific way. And I'm kind of sat here in front of the microphone or stood here in front of the microphone doing air quotes around these particular titles because they are, they are defining in their own right. The Two Week Divorce is another book that, that we had recently. The adult like Nico is another one. All of these things are naming and claiming that particular genre. Does that make sense?

Guest: Yes, absolutely.

Stuart: So I think those ones, if you've got something that.

Guest: If.

Stuart: What's a good example? If you've got a program, if you've got something that as people start to work with you or people who are in your Terrarium filaments already would know it as your thing. So Breakthrough DNA, Dean's book talking about the eight profit activators. If you've got things that are, you can almost try and kind of think of them as trademarks, I guess they're things that are very specific to you that you're able to name and claim and they're not contradictory with something else. They give some indication of what the solution is. Those are great elements that form great book titles because it's almost self supporting. It's in an environment where both the words make sense and the words as a phrase or as a trademark or as a statement that's associated with you. All of those things help. And the book then helps support the rest of that funnel and the rest of the funnel helps support the title of the book because they're kind of self referential and they're building on. Building on themselves. I was looking through, as we're going on, I'm going to get the gallery up and try and find some more examples in the gallery. But my computer seems to be using all of its power at the moment to power this call. So the browser's been a bit slow. So we'll loop back to that in a second. Those name it and claim it ones I think are ones that spring to mind very easy for people. So often as we're talking about it with people, it's very often this category which is the first one that springs to mind, this one and I think the fourth one when we come to it, are the two that are the most obvious for people. So as you're listening to this, as you're thinking about your own book title, that bridge, it really works well whether that bridge of words that are in there that give a suggestion of the solution. So again, financial peace. Anyone that's in financial turmoil, anyone that's in financial stress, that's going to resonate with them. And it's a phrase, a kind of a term of art that then becomes claimed. Anyone that's not in financial stress or is in stress in a different way is looking for a peace in kind of like well being piece. They're not going to resonate with this. And this isn't the group of people that you're looking to, looking to interact and engage with. So it ticks a couple of boxes, highlights and identifies and allows people to self select and gives an indication of the the answer and the future and the solution all within this, this title that becomes its own kind of term of art. The next one is A little more straightforward, but it isn't necessarily one that people think of as a book title to begin with. So the second one is a category called just do it. And although it's relatively obvious when we start talking about it, these for some reason are a little bit more difficult for people to grasp and run with as we go through this. It's not entirely obvious why either, because when you, when you see titles like this and if you look through the gallery or look on the bookshelf, you'll be able to kind of categorize a number of books in this way. But it's, it's surprising how difficult it is for people as they start working with us. As we hear people talking about doing it themselves, it's not necessarily the first type of title that they think about. So just do it. It's that execution based terminology. It doesn't raise any more questions. This category is really about making a declaration of just get it done. And I think it's that dynamic element of the language that trips people up.

Guest: I think so. Because I think when people, you know, when they start, people, it's, they, they tend to, and I might, I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but people always want to say, they always want to give the, the why or the how to. I think that's what people think of first. You know, that's the first that tends to come to their mind, to their minds when we're speaking about their, their titles, you know, or maybe the name it and claim it. And I don't know why that is when you think about it, because some, some of the examples that we're using here, like the, the thinking grow rich or stop your divorce. I mean that, that's such a great title, you know, Stop your divorce. Like I'm gonna stop my divorce.

Stuart: I think you hit the nail on the head. It's the language and the intentionality, I think so much in the marketing. When you're thinking about marketing and thinking about engaging with people, we do it ourselves. We talk a lot about kind of joining people in the conversation that's already going on in their head, positioning the book. So it kind of intersects with that question that they're already having. So thinking about that coming from the position of what's the question, what is it that people want to solve? All of our thinking or a lot of our thinking is around the question and not the answer. And I think that's maybe where some of the not disconnect, but that's where it's another step of thinking it's another kind of circle of thinking to think about, okay, what's the answer and how can I position the answer? And not what's the question and how can I position the question? Because we absolutely want to be answering the questions. We absolutely want to know what the questions are. Because if the answer that we've got isn't the answer to a question that they're asking, then it's less effective. But because we talk about spending so much time on the question end, we forget about the answer end. And these just do it. Book titles are very answer orientated. So there's another list here which I'll read through in a second. And all of them are about the outcome, the solution. All of them give you a warm, fuzzy, fuzzy feeling. It's almost like the Jeopardy approach of here's the answer and then kind of backs off for the question. So yeah, yeah, like you were saying, stop your divorce. Perfect example. Dean in the field guide that's linked in the email talks quite a lot about the work that he did years ago now with Evan Pagan. So double your t, Double your Dating and Catching him and keep him, both books that, that came out I think in the early 2000s. But when you talk about double your dating and Catch him and keep him, they're both very kind of emotive and solutions driven. And you can very clearly see how this would answer the, the question that you're, you're having. It's not how to perfect your dating or the the best dating methodology or Eben's dating plan or anything that would be a name it can claim it type title or a how to title which we'll get to in a minute. But it's that answer, it's that solution. So I think this is why people don't necessarily jump to these tile options. I think it really is because we spend so much time or we spend a lot of time talking about what's the question and what's the problem. It's that, it's that thinking that gets locked in. So when picking which title to best address, I think the exercise would be to take these five categories, see if you can write one or two potential book titles in each of the five categories, assuming that they're all relevant. But make an effort for each of them and then give it a day, come back to it, let your brain percolate, let the titles kind of sink in a little bit, come back to it the following day and then assess the list again and see which one is really kind of a allowing people to raise their hand is interested because it is obvious what the book is about and it gives the promise of a solution. Although oftentimes that is amplified in the subheading, but still there's something positively emotive about it in there. And then it's less about which of the five categories is the most effective, but it's which of the options within the categories you've managed to create that are the most effective. If that makes sense.

Guest: Yeah.

Stuart: A couple of these other examples that we've got in the field guide then for the Just do it, it's Maria Foyer's has one called Make Every Man Want yout, Lisa Sasevich's Boost yout Sales, Ed Dale's make your First Dollar, and the titles that we've got from people that we've worked with. Hypnotize your Husband, drop three dress sizes, double your income. All of these ones are very. Just get it done. The. The solution, the end point is clearly stated in that. In the title.

Guest: Right? I mean, that just. I mean, look, those are. Right, those really just grab you and really you just know exactly what you're getting. You know, you know, you know at the end that I'm gonna drop three dress sizes, I'm gonna double my income, I'm gonna read those books.

Stuart: And I think it's. All of those are positive ones as well. So there is the. We don't have a book title. We don't have a category which is the negative version of it. So stop you. I'm gonna fall into the trap now. I'm not being able to think off the top of my head of what opposites would be. But the opposite of W Income. There isn't the book title called Avoid Poverty or Financial Peace, name it and claim it one. But I don't think we've got anything that is Avoid Debt. Even the ones that talk about debt that we do have, like the debt free solution and things like that. It's all the positive element, the positive side of it. So although in kind of psychological sense people will avoid pain more than go towards. They're more motivated to avoid pain and go towards potential benefits, that doesn't necessarily correlate here. Here. It's really the opportunity and the outcome and the potential that is going to capture people's attention. So I think even if the subject is. Is potentially negative, like divorce, then the positive spin on the title like Stop your Divorce is much more effective than focusing on the negative side of it because it does give that. That promise of the solution at the

Guest: end yeah, you know what I was just thinking? We have one. We have one that's not on the website. And I was thinking about stop your foreclosure. It just. It just went out. That's another one. I mean, it's a horrible subject, but, you know, if you're picking up this book, if you're. If that's something that's coming, you know, that you're dealing with in your life, hey, this is a. I'm going to figure out how to stop my foreclosure. But it says exactly what you're wanting, what you're needing. And it's a. Like, that's not. It's a. It's a. Not a good subject, but there's a positive at the end of it. You know, I'm gonna be.

Stuart: And you can imagine that. Exactly. And you can imagine. So I'm guessing that's Penny's. Bought her own Penny for a good few years. That's a lot of her. She's a real estate agent, but that's a lot of her businesses around the foreclosure side of things and helping people in that situation to begin with. If you are that person who's dealing with it, who's facing potential foreclosure, then the answer's in the title. The promise of the outcome is there. If you're in a. If you're on your Facebook page, you've got all of these Facebook ads scrolling by. There's the offer of a book there called Foreclosure, and that resonates with you. That's a very clear indicator. It's not ambiguous. The subtitle amplifies it even further by giving a little bit more information. But again, it just allows someone to identify themselves and say, I want that immediately. And then immediately they've got the opportunity to click through and get a copy of it. Okay, so the next one, and we've briefly touched on this already, is going into kind of the how to side of things. So this is straightforward because the words how to are pretty much in every one of these. These titles. This, as a. This is a subject as a title rather category is interesting because the majority of these tiles could actually be reworded and fall into one of the other categories as well.

Guest: So

Stuart: why you would choose how to rather than so how to stop your divorce rather than stop your divorce, or how to double your dating rather than double your dating, I think the how to ones are where are best served, where it's a little more specific, and there's more actionable steps in the content. So this requires a little bit of, we say as you're writing it, to start with the title, know what the back cover copy is, and then the content goes from there. This one is a little bit circular in that respect because knowing a little bit what the anticipated content is might help influence the title. And of course, titles can always be changed before they're published. But knowing more specifically what the nature of the content is might help you to identify the type of title. And if you've gone through the exercise that I just suggested of taking these five title types, these five title formulas, and then writing a couple of titles in each of the categories, then having that list as working titles as potentials, and then circling back to afterwards you have dialed in what the book's about, you already know kind of what the subject is. You know who the group is that you're trying to associate with. You know what the question is you're trying to answer. It's just the specifics on the words that you're trying to dial in. So don't kind of hold everything up from moving ahead with the content just because the, the specifics on the title words aren't there yet. But definitely know what the title is in its subject before you move forward. So let's give a couple of examples and it'll, it will make more sense. So once that we've worked with in the past, how to be the best barefooter on your lake, how to get high paying consulting clients, even if no one's ever heard of you, that's Frank. So it's not one that we've worked with specifically, but Dean's talked to Frank about that book in the past. How to sell your house for top dollar, which is one of our own books, how to get all the listings you want in any area you want without making a single cold call. All of these things have specific steps tied with them. So another example is the financial management financial advisor type books. The nature of those books could be generic advice around specific topics. So the broad steps of retirement planning of what to do at 62 is a great example. As you're approaching that retirement date, some of the things that you need to put in place, but not necessarily specific steps of now do this, now do this, now do this. The different the how to books are great on the financial planning side where there is specific steps. So if for example, you were to write a book on cleaning up your credit score or the steps you need to do before applying for a mortgage, these things where there are Call to actions like the five steps to this or the seven steps of this or in this main chapter where we've got the body of the thing that I'm telling you about in the earlier chapters I've kind of described it, but here's the chapter where we're actually doing it. There might a list of bullets or steps where you can actually action it. The immigration book, how to bring your spouse here. There are specific action steps included in that that could well have a the title. There is just bring your spouse here, but that would be a good how to candidate because there are specific things that can be included.

Guest: So I'm looking at our website at the gallery right now and just trying to. Because I made that statement earlier about how people always they I have that conversation a lot about the how to seems to be the big conversation that we have that I have in the beginning. And when I look at our wet our website it kind of makes a liar out of me because I look at it, that's really not the case. I mean when I scroll down to some of the older titles, there's more of that as a subtitle like the how tos, you know. So I don't. I wonder what it is that people get into and go oh wait, I don't want to do that after all.

Stuart: So I think it's that people think about the how to as the answer to the question. And two things happen. One is that very often less is more generally speaking. So how to win friends and influence people as a book title, taking that down to win friends and influence people is not terrible, but it's maybe not quite as specific. So I think there's a little bit of people trying to cut down the title as much as possible. Fewer words. We're probably guilty of this ourselves a little bit. We don't necessarily always think about including the how to because quite often, quite often or I guess it's not that common that people of the books that we've written people have got those very actionable steps in the book which maybe is. I'm not sure that's strictly true. I guess now I'm thinking about in a bit more detail anyway. One of the things I do think is a. Is a victim of it is this thing of people wanting shorter and shorter book titles. So over the last two years we've got a lot more one word book titles than we did in the two years prior. And that's very much this kind of of the moment. I see a lot of books out there on the shelf with one word titles. I want a one word title as well. And although we might suggest or kind of softly kind of trying to influence people in one direction, at the end of the day people can pick the book title that they want and if they resonate more with a one word title and that encourages them to get it completed and get it out there, that's better than being coerced into a longer book title that people aren't necessarily that happy with. So I really think in the last couple of years that's the biggest difference. But I think it's a great reminder that how to winfence and influence people. How to sell your house for top dollar. Those titles related to those books that are very specifically saying now do this, now do this are much more powerful than if it was just win friends, influence people or sell your house for top dollar. Including the how to and actually for others. Well, in part we include the how to a lot in the subheadings. So we do have on the front covers, we've got a lot of hows on there. They're just on the next line down. So it is. And again, as we started, this is more art than science and some other things come into it. But I think how tos get overlooked quite a lot. But it's definitely valuable for people to think about as an option. Particularly again, if you go through the exercise of writing a couple of titles under each formula, under each type, and then just see which ones resonate with you and which ones you think will do best in the marketplace.

Guest: Yeah, that's. That's the way to do it.

Stuart: I was just having a quick scroll through actually. Now you come to. Now that we're talking about it and seeing which ones, I don't want to say which ones might be better with a how to in there, but which ones are potentials that could have had a how to in there. So there are ones like your first dollar. The example that we gave a minute ago in the name it and claim it category of that could be how to get your first dollar. But your first dollar resonates enough just as it is. There was another one which I've now scrolled past trying to get back to it. Okay, this is making for great audio. Listening to me scrolling right, I know. Okay, as we're talking, I'll see if I can get back to it. But there was a great example of one that would have been a great how to. Although the current title is fine as well. But because the content was more specifically, it was more Specifically instruction based or there were very specific action steps. So I think that's the key thing to take away, including the how to on it. Where there are action steps is more. Is more specific and it might be where it appears in your funnel as well. So if you're looking to use the book with people that are absolutely cold leads that you don't know at all and you're introducing a subject that is not so specific, it's slightly more conceptual. The book is more of a manifesto about a subject then that's less of a candidate for how to. Because it's not A, the people don't know you so much. B, kind of just at the stage of you introducing the subject. It's not that your relationship with them or their understanding with the subject is good enough to just say, okay, here's some action steps and execute. They're a little bit further up in the funnel. So what to do at 62 versus how to. How to. How to secure all the money you need for your retirement. They're two separate things. What to do at 62 people are earlier in the funnel. They're thinking about the. Thinking about retirement. They're not yet, not there yet. How to secure the best annuity. Annuity might be UK term, not in America. How to secure the best retirement plan, the actual funding of it when it comes out, that's more execution. When people are closer to being 65, they're closer to being actually retiring. They're at the point where they're making decisions that will affect them. So that's more of a checklist type scenario. Yeah. Does that make sense?

Guest: Yeah, absolutely.

Stuart: Okay, so let's jump on with the next one again. I mentioned as we were getting into this that if you're on the mortise less whiskers list, then you probably saw a link to this report already. If you're listening to this because you receive our emails, I'll link to this report directly in the email. So grab a copy from there. If you're listening to this just through the audio, you're not on any of the lists, then head over to the 5bookformula, sorry, the 5booktitleformulas.com and you can download a copy of the field guide as well, which gives a little bit more explanation groups, all of the example titles that we've got in one place. So rather than try and don't worry too much about following along here, grab a copy of the field report and you can see it all on the page at the same time. Okay, so the next one is information gold mines. Now, this is a super interesting one, and I think this is very powerful and very underrated if it's applicable for you. Information gold mines are where you have access to data that the consumer, your ideal customer, the people that you can help and work with. The best you have access to information that they don't necessarily have access to or don't have easy access to, or don't have an easy way of interpreting it. So some of the examples, and hopefully you'll quickly see what I'm talking about, are things like the 2018 Social Security Benefits Guide, or the 2018 Lakefront Homes Pricing Guidelines, or the 2018 US Hockey Scholarship Guide. All of these things where you can get access to data, analyze that data, add commentary to data, add some of your expertise, your help, your guidance for people to take the next step and really bring that together in one thing, one book, one piece of information that someone can request. And it will help them move further down their understanding or their decision tree because it's providing or correlating and collating data that they don't necessarily get access to through another channel. Now, that's either because you've got access to data that they don't. It might be proprietary data within your business that you can see and no one else can see because it is your business. It might be data that's provided through a professional organization that the public don't get access to. MLS data is a good example of that. It's the type of stuff that as a real estate, you've got access to a broad swathe of information that the general public doesn't get to see.

Guest: All right, so very specific organization information like that's obviously Winter Haven Lake Home Front Price Guide, the Tampa Copywriters Association Guide.

Stuart: Yeah. So the. Depending on what business you're in. So the real estate, the real estate example, the pricing analysis of what's sold and what's. What's the price that places are selling for, how much off asking price above or below the time to sell, the number of properties on the market, all of that type of data that over time you can collate yourself or immediately just from the mls, you can get, do it and export and analyze that data and add some commentary to it. I mean, the, the key thing really is your opportunity to add commentary to data that's out there. The data that's out there is less important in one way, although obviously it's the key thing that people are interested in. So it is important. But maybe what it is is less important than your, your opinion, your perspective that you put around it. If you're a financial advisor, it might be around again. Use the UK example of annuity rates, which is the interest rates that a pension fund will buy and then you get depending on what the annuity rate is that determines how much income you'll get from your annuity over the lifetime. Of might be mortgage rates. So if you're looking to refinance how mortgage rates are moving over time, it might be if you've got access to bank lending data and how many loans are being made and banks lending criteria, if you've got insights into that because that's the business that you're in, the Tampa copywriting thing, it might be if that organization is relatively big and they collect data themselves, then you might be able to do some analysis on open rates on certain email headlines. If you're a florist, it might be going back to that old example that we keep coming back to. It might be the price of different types of flowers over different times of the year. So if people are looking for choosing wedding flowers then knowing that roses in February, around Valentine's Day are 10 times more expensive than they are other times in the year. All of these things where there's. There's data that is not secret but is difficult to come by. And then you've got the opportunity to use that data, combine it in a way that's useful, add more value to it by adding commentary to it. Then that type of book, the category that kind of brings it all together under the heading of information Goldmines allows you to create something that people are going to resonate and want because it's difficult for them to get elsewhere or impossible for them to get elsewhere. So it doesn't have to be kind of bespoke, private kind of industry only data either. It could be something that's publicly available. Just maybe you're correlating a couple of different sources together. So I mean this is a stupid example, but it doesn't make any sense. But you could correlate the seasonal temperatures with the average selling price of lakefront homes in Windhaven and write a book about how the average temperature affects affects the selling price and therefore you might want to look to buy or sell depending on certain climate change projections. I mean that as an example isn't particularly useful or realistic, but it gives you the indication of different sets of data that you can get hold of. You might be able to combine it or you might know of a way people might always be Asking. I can't think of an example to back it up off the top of my head. But people might always be asking for data that you know, combines in a certain way. And if you can write something that supports that, you know that it resonates with people because it's often a question that data is perfectly publicly available. It's not secret data in any way anyone could do it. It's just no one else has. So it doesn't have to be secret data. It's just bringing it together in a way that no one else has and then adding your opinion to it and adding some useful suggestions, advice, guidance and giving people very clear steps. A call to action in the next step that allows you to identify them because it gets them to raise their hand and it starts the conversation in a way that you can then lead on away from the book and towards that kind of conversion to being a customer or not even a customer, but just helping them in a way that started by creating this information goldmine book. All right, that's an interesting one because I think that is one that isn't, isn't so much thought about. The other reason that or the other way that comes up is around kind of field guides and reports and annual assessments from other industry bodies. So if you are thinking that oh, that might be a good idea in my industry, but I can't necessarily think of what is it would be, then look at what industry bodies are doing around certain times of the year. Retail times of the year might be around Black Friday and things like that. Florist industries might have spikes around spring. Home real estate agents might have spikes around spring. All of the industry bodies will have their own cycles as well as the annual cycle. Everyone releases reports annual cycle annually. But there might be publications that are being put out there already that you've got access to. Not that you want to reuse that data, but just be inspired by that and think about what else is out there. I mean look on blog posts as well. I mean the amount of link baity type blog things that people put out there, listicles or industry trends. There's no shortage of ideas. It's then just going through the steps of collecting the data so you've actually got something useful to back it up. And the main thing is having an opinion about this and a reason why it's important and a question in the customer's mind that it intersects with about why they would even care in the first place. But I think this subject, this category is one that's overlooked compared with Some of the other ones that spring to mind a little bit more regularly.

Guest: All right. Yeah, okay.

Stuart: Okay.

Guest: The last one is.

Stuart: We've got one more.

Guest: All right. The question Magnets.

Stuart: Yeah. So this is, this is one that people resonate with quite a lot, but again, they don't necessarily think about because we think about terms of what the questions that people have. But then quite often we'll go on to either answer them in a particular way and then we go back to the titles before where we're kind of posing the answer to a question. Not necessarily the how to, but the answer to the question, but they're written in such a way, or we're answering the questions in a way that is pretty specific. And this actually is the way that we suggest that most people do it. Pick a subject, dive deep into answering that subject, and then always give people the opportunity to find out more and take the conversation a little bit further. This one, the Question Magnets gives the opportunity to do it in a slightly different way. Gives you the opportunity to answer some questions, but maybe answer more related questions to that one subject. So it's not like a big Q and a book where you're just kind of listing a whole load of questions and just giving short answers that's not quite so compelling. There's a little bit more thinking to it than that, but it's starting with a main question and then answering that next sphere of questions out. So a great way of creating a book like this if you've got a support organization or if people are emailing you in with questions about your product or your service, or there's questions once they've onboarded. A great way of creating a book like this is to assess what all of those are and then group them together into the similar subject and then write the answers to provide the answers to all of those questions, but under the banner of the one particular thing. So let's look at a couple of titles because it'll make a bit more sense. So one of the popular traditional books out there is what to expect when you're expecting. So it's similar to an information gold mine, but it's less information based. And it's similar to the kind of how to, but it's slightly more broad and not so much kind of like given specific steps. So what to expect when you're expecting. It's a good way of answering questions around that subject, but it's not like you're going to give people. Here's a 10 point plan. In order to answer all of Those things, a couple of the ones that we've done internally and ones that we've talked about are what to do at 62. And there's a similar book talking about similar subjects. How Much is Enough? Both talking about retirement planning as I back to the desk and knock the mic. So yeah, both talking about retirement planning. So you can see there, this is the opposite example through the one that we had with the how to. This isn't. These books aren't how to books in terms of okay, you've got to 64, 65. Here are the specific steps in order to sort out your retirement. It's not like the immigration one where here's the five things that you absolutely need to do and it's the same for everyone. These books are around how much is enough what to do at 62. It's going to broadly vary for or. Sorry, it's going to broadly be the same for everyone, but the specifics are going to be different for each individual. So that kind of grouping together of the questions. The question is in the title, but the title is slightly broader or it's answering the questions that are associated kind of one level separated from that title question. If you're in the organisation where you've been in business for any amount of time, really you get how to questions coming in. Maybe even if you've only been in business for a short amount of time, but you spend time in forum asking, answering other people's questions or you've got the opportunity to get in forums and spend see what questions are being asked. Some of the examples that spring to mind there are like the DIY environment, there are huge forums out there, DIY questions, programming type questions, anything technical, even things like how to choose the best broadband. We're just working on a book at the moment who the guys are looking at that from a small office type environment. But the questions that are on people's minds are in all of these places where people are asking the questions. So there's lots of opportunities to go out there, do a bit of research in the first place to know what the problem is, what the questions are and then come back, bring all of those together, throw away the ones that are a little bit too removed from the core question. But having the book that is that question magnet, that is the thing that answers the question that are going on in people's minds. It's not providing the solution, it's not the how to, it's this broader. Here's a subject that's relatively constrained, but here are the Answers to the questions in this particular area. That was a long sentence. Does that make sense?

Guest: That was good, though.

Stuart: I need to catch my breath.

Guest: Yeah, I think these were. Yeah, that, that explains it. You explained it.

Stuart: Yeah, I think like you said when we started, questions about titles are one of the things that we get the most Often people have got either questioning or wanting to validate ideas that they've already got this field report, as you're listening to this, grab a copy of it. It's either in the email that you got with the, with the podcast in the first place, or head over to the five book titleformulas.com and download a copy of it there. Because I think if anything, deciding if you could, knowing who the group of people is you're going to target that you want to become in a conversation with, then thinking about, okay, what is, what is it that's on their mind, what would make them stop and raise their hand to be engaged in this conversation. And then looking at the five title types and trying to write a title that meets each of those, those categories, each of those formulas, then go away and, and do the back cover copy so that you know where you're going to, and then write the content. Because none of that's going to be changed by the title specifically. You already have dialed it in. But then in that process, somewhere in that process, you can revisit that list and see which of them is the most effective. Which one of them you think is going to resonate the most. Don't worry too much about which category it falls into, but just look at all of those options that you've come up with and pick the one that you like the most. Then that thing as a takeaway action is really the best advice that we can give because it's the way of kind of orchestrating the words that are on the front cover. It's a way of thinking about a title in a little bit more of a structured way. But it is a way that still allows you to, in the most effective way, start that conversation. Get people to raise their hand, because when they see it, their immediate thought is, I want that.

Guest: Exactly. And I also think, you know, sometimes that one of the things when we're talking about the people coming on board, we're talking about titles, I don't have a title. And they get caught up. And I said, it's okay. You know that it's okay. You don't have to have, you don't have to have that title. So you don't, you don't have to know what category it's going to fall into. And you don't have to have that title just yet. So I can't tell you how many people come on board and they don't have that title yet. We won't go to print without one, so keep that in mind. And so once you, once you get into it and you really get into your, your content, it'll come to you. You know it will. It will come to you. So I think it's.

Stuart: Yeah, exactly. It shouldn't hold up the whole process. I think it's a subtle nuance and maybe it's the way that we talk about it. Maybe we can talk about it in a slightly different way. Although I think to be honest, it's just part of the natural conversation that comes up anyway. But knowing we say to people that the title is the most important thing, that it's the number two in terms of the mindsets, it's the thing that you need to have dialed in before you get started. Whilst that's true, just as you're saying it's not the case that you have to have the final words. And once it's decided, it can never be changed. We're not going to go to print without the final title. The final title can change, it can get dialed in. But in this exercise that we're talking about of writing down options under each of the five banners, it's still all in the same ballpark. You still know what the subject is, you still know the question that you're trying to answer. In the realm reader's mind, you still know what it is that's going to get them to raise their hand. It's just whether you pick words A or words B on title A or title B on specifically how you position it, don't let that hang you up. The main thing that we're trying to get people to think about is don't just randomly start writing words and hope that a book will come out. It's not a build it and they will come type thing. Know where you're starting from and know where you want to go. But looping back to the to the you are here type billboarding in mall. It's not that we would ever suggest not putting the sign up with just a push pin in it saying indicating that you are here. But whether the words on there is you are here or here you are or you or a little smiley face or just 10 big arrows pointing to the position, the specifics of what the indicator is, what the title is can be dialed in or decided on later. It's the fact that you know where on that map the pin is. Broadly, it's here, it's not there. It's just the words associated with here can be dialed in over time.

Guest: Exactly.

Stuart: That analogy made perfect sense in my head, but I'm not sure whether that got lost as it came out of my mouth.

Guest: It's all good. Okay, so like we said, we could do this whole title thing. Hours and hours of titles.

Stuart: Yeah, I think so. And you know what, as we've been talking, I've kind of flicked away on the screen to various different ones and I've just gone back to the call timing and I thought we were half an hour in, but we're actually almost an hour in. So I mean, that's just an indication of how, how much variation and nuance. And there are. There really are a million different options, but there are five broad categories of options that make the most sense. Don't worry too much about specifically which one it is, but you know what the subject is. Write some examples, come back to it at a later date, and then pick the one that you like the most and run ahead with that. So let's draw a hand under it there. I'm sure we'll be revisiting titles again in month or two, but let's talk about next step. So we'd said that the most effective thing that people can do as you're listening to this, if you're at the stage of picking that title, is really use those five headings of formulas, write an example or two under each, set it to the side, come back to it the next day, and then look at it again and see what, what really resonates. So as I mentioned, if you've got the email about the podcast, there's a link to the field guide below. If you don't, if you're just listening to this through itunes or one of the other podcast players and you haven't got the email, then head over to the five. The number five. The five booktitleformulas.com and then you can grab a copy of that failed report and the words that we've spoken here will be laid out in a bit more of a refined way. Help you go through. I mentioned the BookBlueprint scorecard a couple of times there in the eight mindsets that we have around creating the perfect lead generation tool. So if you haven't yet, one of the great things you can do is head over to bookblueprintscore.com and then fill out the questions to get a personalized scorecard back yourself. And across those eight mindsets sets, you can see where there's opportunities to dial things in a little bit or pull the levers a little harder to really make a difference and kind of get the most bang for your book once you've got it written and out there. The other thing that I mentioned in the last couple of shows is the opportunity to be a guest on the show. So we want to get these Q and A type shows up running a little bit more. We've got a couple in the pipes ready to come through. But if you want to be a guest and then we can talk through plotting the ideas for you specifically for your book. Whether it's the title or whether it's the content or the call to action or how are you going to use it, the funnels in which you can use it, just head over to 90minutebooks.com guest and fill out the little form on there and we'll be in touch to get a call scheduled and be on the show. And then lastly, the easiest way, as we've said before, is for us to do it for you. So if you are ready to get started, then just head over to 90minutebooks.com, follow the get started links and then we'll be on hand to walk you through all of this and get your book created for you with. With you just being able to concentrate on the, on the content and all of the other necessary bits and pieces that go along with it.

Guest: Very good.

Stuart: I think that's it. Anything that, anything that we've missed?

Guest: No, I think we got it. And if we didn't, we'll catch it next time.

Stuart: Okay, well, thanks, Betsy. Thanks everyone. And we'll catch you in the next one.

Guest: Always a pleasure. Take care.

Stuart: Thanks, guys. Bye Bye.