I’m going to be adding marketing ideas to the blog on a regular basis to help others who are interested in selling copies of their own books (don’t forget to buy mine while you’re at it.) Most of these tips are discussed at more length in Intent to Sell.

Here’s one idea:

One of the first and most important pieces of information you’ll need in order to market your book is a quick two-to-three sentence spiel about your book. While this seems like an easy thing to do, it’s not as easy as it seems. I liken the process to Hollywood. Everyone there wants to hear the synopsis of the next blockbuster in as few words as possible.

For my latest novel, my spiel is “The manager of a department store cosmetics department gets mixed up in murder when her ex-husband’s fiancée is found dead at her desk. The book is set in Cincinnati where I live.” That’s it. Two sentences and roughly 30 words. I belong to a group that insists on a 25 word maximum for the spiel.

That may sound harsh, but there are reasons for such brevity, beyond being the soul of wit. First, many advertising opportunities have strict word limits. Malice Domestic, an annual mystery conference, has advertising available with a strict 25-word limit on it. Sisters-in-Crime’s Books In Print catalog has word counts on their book descriptions as well. They aren’t too forgiving if you go over that.

The other reason for the succinctness of the description is that you’re going to be using this description when you telling people about your book. Everyone will ask what your book is about, but no one wants to hear a detailed plot synopsis. This is the marketing version of telling people “you’re fine” when they ask how you are. 25 words is a good limit to tell people when they ask. I once sat at a conference while a lady spent over an hour telling the plot lines of her entire series of planned novels. Get the idea? I tell people that it should be short enough to tell a person you meet on the elevator before they get off on their floor.

This will come in handy when you’re talking to people at a booksigning as well. You won’t have all day to impress the person who is shopping. You’ll have 15 seconds at best to make the potential reader stop and pick up your book. That’s it. So a 2-page synopsis on your work isn’t going to work.