Your Reader Has a Problem—Here's Your Promise
The Bridge Between Their Problem and Your Book
Welcome to week two of this three-part series on book messaging. As a literary agent, I get really excited about the prospect of working with people who understand their audience. It tells me that they aren’t guessing, and that their book has the potential to make a huge difference to their audience.
But, once you’ve named the problem, your book must make a Promise.
In our framework, the promise is a one- or two-sentence statement that tells readers how your book delivers relief, insight, or transformation. It’s the aspiration that hooks them—and keeps them reading.
Examples of powerful promises:
- “You can be as close to God as you choose to be.”
- “You can learn to make wise choices in the midst of raw emotions.”
- “You can finally get aligned with your spouse about every major money issue.”
If you are struggling to name a promise for your own book, do it for a book you love.
I told you about how I picked up Tiny Experiments, and while I’m only a few chapters in, I can tell you that the problem for this book is productivity, and it is smothering me, the reader. What this book promises to do is help give me some margin so that I can breathe again.
Let’s do another one.
How about Jennie Allen this time? Are you familiar with her book Get Out of Your Head? In it, Allen identifies the problem as our thoughts and promises us ways to help turn them around. I don’t know about you, but my mindset is often the difference maker in my day. The felt need is the pain, and your promise is the hope. Every great book offers a transformation.
Keep working on identifying your promise and next week we’ll talk about the benefit.
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