The Differences Between Writing A Non-fiction Book And Copy Needed To Promote It

You’ve written a book! That’s amazing (and not an easy task)!!

But now comes another tricky part…marketing your book! More specifically, writing all that marketing copy to advertise your book. Because if we don’t promote it, no one will know it exists! And we want your message to get out there to the people who need it. 

So I’m here to help! Because although there are some similarities between writing a book and copywriting, there are also a lot of differences you need to be aware of if you’re writing your copy yourself.

Let’s jump in, shall we?

THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN WRITING AND MARKETING A NON-FICTION BOOK

The first and biggest similarity is that you need to start by figuring out a goal for your copy. And then, just like you would outline all of the main points/chapters of your book, you need to map out exactly what copy you need as people move through your book funnel. 

Think about what stage they’re at (have they heard of you before, bought from you before or are they only just discovering you?), what you want the copy to achieve, and what copy you need to do this! This could include sales pages, social media captions, blogs, email launch sequences or even descriptions and announcements! You choose - you can do as much or as little as you want (there’s no one way to launch your book!)

Once you’ve mapped all this out, much like you would have had to have done for your book, you need to get researching! Look into who your ideal reader would be and how best to market to them!

Then make sure you keep your reader in mind at all times! When you were writing your book, you were thinking about what the reader needed/wanted to hear, what information would be helpful and how would be the best, most digestible way for them to read it. You need to keep the same things in mind when you write the copy to advertise your book!

Another big similarity is the mindset you need to be in to write the marketing/launch copy for your book. Just like you had to commit to writing your book, you need to commit to this! Because it’ll take time and there's a lot to think about. So ensuring you’re in the right mindset is crucial! Not sure you want to commit to writing your marketing materials? It might be time to get some support and bring in a copywriter to help. 

I often find the best way to do this is to create a writing space that enables you to do your best work. For me, that is somewhere that is quiet and distraction-free (not always an easy task when you have kids!). 

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WRITING AND MARKETING A NON-FICTION BOOK

So now we’ve got the similarities out of the way, let’s look at the differences because there are quite a few you’ll need to keep in mind when writing (these are really important!!). 

It’s time to break out the bullet points for this section because there are a good few we need to talk about…

• How you use storytelling. When you write a book, you focus on storytelling and use this to pull people into the story and bond with the characters and their journey (even if that character is you and what you have to say). Now although copywriting utilizes storytelling too, the way it’s used is very different. Because it’s not entirely driven by a narrative. Instead, the purpose is to move people towards the goal (like saying yes to your offer or buying your book) and is often more about them instead of the characters (or you in this instance). 
• Clarity. This is a big one. When copywriting, less is always more! You want to use as less words as possible and generally speaking, fluff (or unnecessary background) doesn’t need to be included! But when writing a book, adding extra details and context is often needed (and appreciated by your reader).
• Calls to action. When you finish a chapter of your book, the goal is to keep the reader, reading! We want to get them to the end of the book. But when copywriting, calls to action need to be strong and motivate the reader to take action straight away. They need to be clear, concise, enticing, and easy for the reader to achieve.
• Overall goals. When you write a book, the big goal is usually to do one of three things: To entertain, to inform or to inspire.  When writing copy, the goal is predominantly one of two things: To market or to sell. And yes, you need to sell that book if you want to generate money from all the work you put in! Unfortunately, books don’t sell themselves! But don’t worry, it is possible to sell without sounding salesy, cliche or by using clickbait headlines!! 
• Energy. When it comes to copywriting versus writing a book, your internal energy is like to be very different. Book writing can be very exciting it can happen at a bit of a slower pace. Generally, feeling very fulfilling throughout the process. However, when it comes to copywriting there are deadlines you have to meet and there can be a lot of pressure for what you write to convert.  Naturally, this can cause some differences in how you feel when you write marketing copy and also how you write it.
• Knowledge. The type of knowledge you need to write a book versus writing marketing copy is also very different. When you write a book you know your story and you know a lot of the information you’re going to include. However, with copywriting you need a variety of different bits of knowledge. Such as how to write conversion copy, SEO, headline strategy, buyer personas, and so much more.

So essentially, the type of copy you need to write to market your book is veryyy different from the type of writing you had to write for your book and there’s a lot more to think about. 

Also, let’s be real, writing a book can take a long time and is generally a very lengthy process, so you don’t want all your hard work to go down the drain because you don't have the energy (or the time) to write all of your marketing copy.

So if you're done after writing that book, I get it!! Many people say that writing a book is almost like giving birth to a baby…it might be rewarding but that doesn’t make it any less exhausting!  

So if you want to leave the marketing copy to a professional copywriter then, no one’s going to judge!

And for your convenience…I’ll leave my call link here! (because in case you’re new to my world and unaware of who I am, I am a sales copywriter.)

BOOK A CONSULT

originally published at www.kristenwestcott.com/blog