Following and Defying Book Category Conventions

When you look at other books like yours, can you easily determine what is unique about them? Can you tell what the experience of reading them is going to be like and what kind of information you will receive? How do the title, subtitle, cover, description, and author photo and bio accomplish this?

What if you think your message is so unconventional, so revolutionary, and so avant-garde that it cannot be conventionally categorized? No message is so new that it truly defies convention. Nothing is totally disconnected from everything else. If readers can't relate to what you're saying, they're not going to have much interest. This is easy to forget when you're focused on pushing the uniqueness of your message without grounding it in the familiar.

If you can present it in the right context, newness invites your audience to learn more. It incites their curiosity. Too much novelty without something familiar to ground it in overwhelms book buyers. The presentation of something foreign sometimes makes people feel intimidated by what they can't follow. Challenging people's conceptions is most effective when you present it in a style your audience is accustomed to receiving.

Consider the burden associated with having to convince readers to purchase and read a book on a subject they have no conscious desire to learn about. Learning doesn't work that way, and neither does buying. People must want something and know that they want it. They can't do that until they have a hole dug out for it in their minds. If your message fits no ordinary hole, you will need to bring a shovel. If you don't understand the standards your readers use, you might be very confused when reception for your book is not as positive as you'd hoped. You should be tasteful in how you both copy and defy established category practices.

Make no mistake: Whatever you write must somehow be different from what already exists. Avoid the temptation to mimic the most famous books written on your subject, even if you think you are doing so out of homage or adoration. Those authors have already done it better than you, and they hold a massive head start. Writing a book that copies the same voice or promotes the same message can easily be interpreted as lazy or dishonest. Even if you sell some books to people who crave more of that type of content, it will ultimately harm your author brand.

Besides, you almost certainly won't be the first newbie author jumping in line to rip off the heavy hitters. Sometimes a book with the right message appears at just the right time on the market. Whenever a book breaks new ground and becomes popular, it's sure to inspire copycats in its wake.

4HWW Clones

In 2007, Tim Ferriss wrote The Four-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, a guide to working from a laptop anywhere in the world and getting more done with less time. The book would go on to sell over 1.3 million copies in 35 languages. Despite its generally less-than-perfect reviews, it remains a cultural milestone for digital nomads, perpetual travelers, and efficiency-minded entrepreneurs. It accomplished this because it appeared at the right time with the right message for the right audience, backed by a tactical promotional strategy to ensure it stayed in front of the right eyes.

Since 2007, countless more "how to be a digital nomad and work fewer hours from a laptop anywhere in the world" books have been published to varying levels of success. Some are well known, while others fade into Amazon obscurity for bringing nothing noteworthy to the bookshelf. How many of these The Four-Hour Work Week copycats do you recognize?

1. The Laptop Millionaire: How Anyone Can Escape the 9 to 5 and Make Money Online (2012) by Mark Anastasi
2. The 9-to-5 Escape Artist: A Startup Guide for Aspiring Lifestyle Entrepreneurs and Digital Nomads (2015) by Christy Hovey
3. Serve No Master: How to Escape the 9-5, Start up an Online Business, Fire Your Boss and Become a Lifestyle Entrepreneur or Digital Nomad (2016) by Jonathan Green
4. The Digital Nomad Survival Guide: How to Successfully Travel the World While Working Remotely (2017) by Peter Knudson and Katherine Conaway
5. The Art of Financial Freedom: A No-BS, Step-by-Step, Newbie-Friendly Guide to Transition From Your Dead End Job And Join Others Living A Freedom-Centric Laptop Lifestyle: Simple "A-to-Z" Blueprint (2017) by Stevie Drive

It would be unfair to assume that none of these books offer anything new on the subject of location-independent entrepreneurship. However, knowing nothing else about the authors or the contents of the books, it's difficult to make that determination by what the titles promise.

Sometimes, an idea's time just comes. Many independent creators are struck with a similar form of inspiration simultaneously. If you happen to have a unique concept in mind for your book and another author beats you to publication (and therefore achieves market dominance), you will have a hard time convincing anyone your inspiration was independent of your competitor's success. Your book's unique value should be obvious.

Infinitely Multiplying Self-Publishing Guides

A quick Amazon search will bring up dozens of titles that promise to help amateur authors write and self-publish their work, often in a matter of just weeks. There is enough demand on the subject that authors can continue to pump out their own versions of the same how-to book. One of the purposes of The Influential Author is to subvert these tired conventions. Even with this goal in mind, I cannot avoid repeating some of the same information as the many others who have come before me in this domain.

The redundancy among self-publishing books is stupefying. Judging by the titles of the following 30 books, how much differentiation or uniqueness do you expect from each of them? Are you willing to pay $10 to $20 to own a paperback copy of each? Or do you think one or two of them might tell you most of what you need to know? Do you trust that those written in 2012 or 2013 will be as up-to-date and relevant as ones written more recently (or in the case of the second edition of The Influential Author, recently revised and updated)?

1. A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers: How to Print-on-Demand with CreateSpace & Make eBooks for Kindle & Other eReaders (2012) by Chris McMullen
2. Createspace and Kindle Self-Publishing Masterclass: The Step-by-Step Author's Guide to Writing, Publishing and Marketing Your Books on Amazon (2013) by Rick Smith
3. Book Publishing Instructions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Publishing Your Book as a Paperback and eBook (2013) by Jeremy Myers
4. 30-Day Author: Develop a Daily Writing Habit and Write Your Book in 30 Days (or Less) (2015) by Kevin Tumlinson
5. How to Write: A Bestselling Book in 21 Days (2015) by Ernst Jones
6. How to Publish Books on Amazon & Sell A Million Copies Using Kindle, Print & Audio Book (2015) by Glenn Langohr
7. Self Publishing Mastery: How to Write a #1 Bestseller, Build a Brand, Dominate Your Niche & Outperform Your Competitors (2016) by Justin Chua
8. Kindle Bestseller Publishing: Write a Bestseller in 30 Days! (2016) by Gundi Gabrielle
9. Publish, Help People, Get Paid: How to Transform Your Life Experience into Ethical Income (Self Publishing, Book Marketing, Information Products, Building an Author Platform, Author Tips, and More) (2016) by Joey Lott
10. You Must Write a Book: Boost Your Brand, Get More Business, and Become the Go-To Expert (2016) by Honoree Corder
11. Published.: The Proven Path From Blank Page to Published Author (2016) by Chandler Bolt
12. The Holy Grail of Book Publishing: All Your Questions Answered - A Bestselling Author's Complete Manual to Self-Publishing and Marketing Your Book (2016) by Mimi Emmanuel
13. The Easy 9-Step System to Your First Book in 30 Days: The Complete Beginner's Guide to Become an Authority Author in Weeks! (2017) by Nuno Almeida
14. Write Your Book on the Side: How to Write and Publish Your First Nonfiction Kindle Book While Working a Full-Time Job (Even if You Don't Have a Lot of Time and Don't Know Where to Start) (2017) by Hassan Osman
15. How to Self-Publish for Under $100: The Step-by-Step Handbook to Publishing Your Book Without Breaking the Bank (2017) by Cinquanta Cox-Smith
16. 14 Steps to Self-Publishing a Book (2017) by Mike Kowis
17. Self-Publishing on Amazon 2017: No publisher? No Agent? No Problem! (2017) by Dr. Andrew Williams
18. The Author Startup: A Radical Approach To Rapidly Writing and Self-Publishing Your Book On Amazon (Self-Publishing Success Series 1) (2017) by Ray Brehm
19. Kindle Publishing: How To Build A Successful Self-Publishing Business With Amazon Kindle and Createspace. A Detailed, Step-By-Step Guide To The Entire Process (2017) by Delfim Alvaro
20. Book Launch Formula: How To Write, Publish, and Market Your First Nonfiction Book Around Your Full Time Schedule. Become an Authority, Build Your Brand & Create a Passive Income (2017) by Justin Ledford
21. Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should (2018) by David Gaughran
22. How to Publish a Book on Amazon in 2018: Real Advice from Someone Who's Doing it Well (2018) by Sam Kerns
23. Publish. Promote. Profit.: The New Rules of Writing, Marketing & Making Money with a Book (2018) by Rob Kosberg
24. Self-Publishing on KDP: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using the Kindle Direct Publishing Website (2019) by Paul Gutiérrez Covey
25. Self-Publishing Fast Track: 7 Easy Steps to Write Your First Book and Share Your Story (2019) by Jenelle Jack
26. Self Publishing Blueprints | The Epic Guide To Self-Publishing Success: Learn How to Write, Publish, and Launch a Bestselling Book (2021) by Albert Griesmayr
27. The Amazon Self Publisher: How to Sell More Books on Amazon (2021) by Dale L. Roberts
28. The Self-Publishing Blueprint: A Complete Guide to Help You Self-Publish Your Book (2021) by Daniel Willcocks
29. How To Successfully Self-Publish a Book on Amazon & Audible: How to Build a Profitable Self-Publishing Business (2022) by Richard Abbott
30. Self-Publishing Success: How to Write a Non-Fiction Book that Makes an Impact and Publish it Like a Pro (2022) by Shanda Trofe

By now, you are beginning to realize the absolute necessity of making your book stand out. If you are going to find any success in your book's market, learn to be strategically different and present your book as such.

The Familiarity Heuristic

Readers will be far more likely to purchase your book if they recognize its title or cover (or the name of its author) when they come across it while shopping. The familiarity heuristic makes us unconsciously prefer things we know to things we don't know. It's the opposite of our tendency to get captivated by things shiny and new, which is its own marketing hack. When we can't exert the cognitive effort to assess novel things, we fall back on whatever is already in our minds.

If you already have recognition in other mediums (such as a blog, podcast, or YouTube channel), it can spill over to your books, too. However, cross-medium success is not guaranteed. The half million subscribers to a comedy video channel featuring three-minute satire clips might have no interest in reading a book of the same gimmick dragged out for 250 pages in print. People who are attracted to your personality in another format might not like how you present yourself in a book. There are different opportunities and limitations for each medium. The contextual overtones of your message might be lost, leading to confusion or offense with what garnered you favor somewhere else.

Unique Value Signifiers

How do we, as shoppers, decide what we will take home from the store or add to our online shopping carts? Are you self-aware enough to notice these factors in your own buying habits? You can study the psychology behind human purchasing behavior every time you shop.

Although we are not always consciously aware of their influence, the choice of which books we purchase or leave behind often comes down to just a few dominant variables. There could even be a single, accidental quality that flips the brain into "purchase mode" that the writer or publisher of a book is unaware of. Maybe it's the author's age or appearance. Maybe it's something about how they phrased their title or arranged their cover. All these writers see is that their book is selling, and that's all they care about.

Start thinking about how to intimately engage a small audience, addressing their strongest concerns much better than books written for broad readership. Readers won't care that they don't recognize your name or know your credentials if they believe your book contains the answers they have been seeking. In finding the answers that they could not find elsewhere, your readers will grow to like and trust you. They will praise you for organic reasons without prompting. This is how you will create an impressive and lasting marketplace position.