{"id":761,"date":"2015-06-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/161.35.63.92\/index.php\/2015\/06\/09\/sales-tools-the-product-description\/"},"modified":"2022-06-13T17:50:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T22:50:00","slug":"sales-tools-the-product-description","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/draft2digital.com\/blog\/sales-tools-the-product-description\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales Tools – The Product Description"},"content":{"rendered":"

The back-cover-copy. The dust-jacket-flap. Promotional copy. Whatever you call it, when your potential reader bites the bait of the title and swallows the hook of the cover design, the product description is what reels them in. It\u2019s everything fascinating and wonderful about your story distilled down to a few hundred words that somehow still don\u2019t spoil the plot. But if getting across the most interesting bits of your story in 1% of the words in the full-length version sounds easy, then I\u2019m telling it wrong. This can be one of the most challenging Sales Tools to master.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been following along, then you know that every book has three basic sales tools built into it. They are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Title<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. The Cover<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. The Product Description<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We\u2019ve already spent a couple of weeks talking about how titles have to pull a change-up depending on whether they\u2019re for fiction or nonfiction works and about how you may need design assistance on a cover, especially if you\u2019re going to get clever with it. Now, finally, we arrive at the product description. Or, as I call it, Weaponized Plot.<\/p>\n

    Real Talk<\/h2>\n

    Before we get to my hyperbolic statements, though, I need to point out the obvious. The product description is where you tell your potential reader exactly what they\u2019re going to get in your story. They\u2019ve been drawn in by the tone and feel of your cover and maybe enticed by a dash of clever in your title. They want what you\u2019re selling, so now you have to give it to them.<\/p>\n

    There is no fancy dancing here. No bait-and-switch. If the reader is seeing the words of your product description, they are so close to sold that anything other than telling them exactly what your story is about could backfire on you.<\/p>\n

    How? Well, let\u2019s say you allow the product description to be clever. They buy the book, they read it, and discover the story isn\u2019t at all what they were led to believe. Friends, that\u2019s an express train to the city of broken dreams. AKA, a one-star review.<\/p>\n

    Like I used to say as a salesman, now\u2019s no time to let clever talk you out of a sale.<\/p>\n

    Now, let\u2019s talk about hyperbolic statements.<\/p>\n

    Weaponized Plot<\/h2>\n

    If you watch action movies or actiony nighttime dramas, then you\u2019ve heard the word weaponize. It usually means \u201cdistill a usually innocuous substance or item into its pure essence so we can use it to make flashy disaster scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n

    When it comes to product descriptions \u2013 whose job it is to tell your reader exactly what they\u2019re getting, remember \u2013 I can\u2019t think of a better analogy than distilling your story\u2019s plot down to its pure essence so as to blow a potential reader\u2019s face off. In other words, weaponize that plot.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019m going to own two biases right now. First, I am a marketing guy. I like powerful language with strong hooks and clear calls to action. Second, I mainly write action\/adventure fiction with gonzo plots. I don\u2019t neglect my character work by any stretch, but the plots are always pretty wild. This makes them somewhat easier to weaponize.<\/p>\n

    But my biases are not your excuses!<\/p>\n

    Filling Your Arsenal<\/h3>\n

    Sure, it\u2019s easy to weaponize plots about Viking warriors killing monsters or tween superspies infiltrating a mad ten-year-old\u2019s undersea fortress. But I\u2019m a firm believer that you can do this with just about anything.<\/p>\n