The Power of Telling Stories

The September issue of Wired magazine featured the work of psychologist Paul Slovic which reveals that we as humans will rush to help a single stranger in dire straits while ignoring the masses who are suffering the same plight.



In one study, Slovic showed a group a photo of a starving child in Mali named Rokia and asked the members of the group how much they would give to help feed her. He then showed another group a photo of two starving children (Rokia and Moussa) and asked them how much they would give. He found that those shown a group of children (two or more) were willing to give 15% LESS that those who were shown only one child.

In another study, he found that people asked to donate money to help a group of dying children gave 50% less than people who were asked to donate to help one child.

How does this apply to marketing books? Simple. If you want people to respond to your the causes in your book, tell stories. But focus the stories on one person. Don't generalize. We do not respond to generalizations the way we respond to the plight of one person.

If you want people to be worried about global warming, don't talk about global warming. Too big. Too hard to grasp. Too hard to figure out how to help. Tell the story of one lone polar bear cub who is losing its home as it melts around him. We will respond to that.

Don't exhort people to be good to their neighbors or, God forbid, to strangers. If you want them to act better, tell them the story of the Good Samaritan. Be specific.

Less Money, More Story

Seth Godin always has interesting points to make. In a recent blog post, he made the following point, one that I've been trying to get through to people for a very long time:

"The art of marketing is not finding more money to do more marketing. It's figuring out how to tell a story that spreads with the resources you've got."

So many self-publishers and new authors want to throw money at marketing or hire someone else to do the marketing for them when they should be spending the time creating great stories. By great stories, I mean, marketing messages that move people, get people talking, get people telling others about your story, etc.

Before you do anything else to market your book, decide what your story is -- what message will move people to act.

Book Marketing by Telling Stories

Here’s some copy from the Territory Ahead catalog that sells their crisscross cord shirt. It combines a great description with a user’s story, imagination, romance, and humor. A nice combination for any sales copy. Can you do the same for your news releases — in as few words?

If you’re shy, this isn’t the shirt for you. The fabric — a richly colored, cross-hatched cotton corduroy — is so supremely soft and texturey it has a tendency to attract unsolicited attention from complete strangers.

In fact, when our Director of Human Resources wore it on a recent trip to Denver, an otherwise well-mannered young woman with a French accent had to be gently dissuaded from stroking his sleeve long enough for him to board his plane home. The aforementioned gentleman, who is not shy, has requested we carry it in additional colors next season.

Now, why is it that so many authors and publishers require two pages or more for their news releases when the Territory Ahead can sell a shirt in only four sentences?

Not only did the copywriters describe the shirt in good enough detail for you to picture it, but they set a qualifier: If you're shy, this isn't the shirt for you. And then they told a short story — in two sentences! — that closed the deal. What man wouldn't want a young woman with a French accent to stroke his arm? And have to be pulled off him so he could make a plane? I know I'd want at least five of those shirts, in a rainbow of colors. I'd wear them just around the house so my wife wouldn't get jealous.

It still amazes me how many authors have no idea how to sell their books with words. So many don't know how to tell a succinct story that hones in on the benefit to the reader.

Your assignment for today: Read that Territory Ahead shirt description at least ten times. No, let's make it even more involving. I want you to copy that description by hand (remember pens and pencils?) ten times. If you no longer have any pens or pencils, you can write it on the blackboard. Just ten times.

That's not much. My teachers used to make me write things 50 times or more whenever I was bad. And you've been bad. So get to work.

Why write it by hand? Because it involves more of you in reading and writing the description again and again. By writing it, you incorporate the ideas and storytelling skill into your very bones. That's good.

If you'd like to get some bonus points, read the description aloud to at least five friends. Or strangers. On the bus ride home from work. Or stand up during lunch at a busy restaurant and do a dramatic reading. Call your mother and read it to her. You will be amazed how much you'd learn by doing this little exercise.

It's your choice: Do this homework exercise and sell more books, or continue to write long boring news releases and sell no books.