One of the most frequent questions we get asked is about book titles. So today on the Book More Show, we dive deep and revisit 5 of the most effective book title formulas.

If you're on the More Cheese, Less Whiskers list, you'll have seen an email earlier this week introducing them. The aim, as always, is to have a title that makes your ideal customer, stop and say "I want that".

Whether you're introducing a new idea to your audience or giving them step by step instructions to get a better outcome, your title & the words you choose, are the strongest indicator to people that they are 'in the right place'.

In the show we talk about The 5 Book Title Formulas field report. It's linked here.

Book Blueprint Scorecard

Don't forget, you can see how your book idea stacks up against the Book Blueprint by going to BookBlueprintScore.com and, if you want to be a guest on the show to plan your successful book, just head over to 90MinuteBooks.com/guest

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Extra Credit Listening: MoreCheeseLessWhiskers.com 

Transcript: Book More Show 066

Stuart: Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the book more show. It's Stuart here with Betsey. Betsey Vaughn how's it going?

Betsey: Fantastic, how are you?

Stuart: Perfect. Very, very good. Thank you. Middle of the week, podcast time again.

Betsey: Right. I was in the car earlier. The guy in the radio said, "Oh! It's Thursday it came fast. You know what that means. It's almost Friday." Every week it happens that way. You just got to juggle

Stuart: Today, follow up on an email that went out on the More Cheese Less Whiskers stream, anyone that's opted into that list we refer to that podcast quite a bit. I'm guessing that most people who listening have listened to at least a few episodes. The Tuesday email, it went to that group of people, was talking about book titles and we were talking about the five most effective type of book titles. That led to a couple of calls and questions. I think today's it's going to be worthwhile to dive into those five categories and look at it in a bit more detail. What from our perspective is kind of the five most effective types of book titles to kind of capture that person's attention as your book titles passes their stream of consciousness, their Facebook feed or Instagram or it's on a desk somewhere. We want to talk about the five most effective types of titles that capture the attention and really get people say, "I want that." Sound like a plan?

Betsey: I think it's a great idea. I think we could have this title conversation every single day of the week around here. We do, it's a constant conversation, it's a concept. I think probably in my email box right now in my inbox, there are probably three emails that people have circled back around. They've come on board, they've done their recordings, they reached out to Susan, "Hey, what do you think about this?" And then Susan kind of goes, "I like it, but let's ask Betsy." There's a couple of those going around right now. We kind of put our two cents in or maybe we have a title, but then there's the question of subtitles. We've talked a lot about titles around here. Yeah, let's dig in.

Stuart: Perfect. It's really the most important part. We talked about this in the book blueprint scorecards, the book blueprint mindsets that we've got. The title and subtitle is right up there at the top. As soon as you kind of dialed in that single target market. The title is really the thing that captures someone's attention. It's the thing that without having that dialed in and without having that as effective as it could be, even if the content and the book is great, even if the call to action is great, even if your program that leads on from that is great. If the book passes by and doesn't really cause people to stop saying, "I want that." Opting for a copy or request a copy, then it's all a missed opportunity. When we break it down, particularly in the mindsets, the booked blueprint scorecards, when we break down each of those leavers that can be pulled, each of those things that we can dial in then dialing in the most effective title is really top of that list and everything else flows from it.

With the title in mind, the group of people that were trying to interact with, trying to catch their attention, trying to work with ultimately, once we've got those dialed in their most pressing question, the thing that they're trying to get answered, the thing that's on their mind, the is the reason that they would want to be talking to you in the first place. The conversation that's already going on in their mind is represented by the title. And then we know that we want to start with their mind. We've got a call to action in place. We're leading the people from the problem to the solution. Then all of that then contributes to the rest of the content. So it's really that signposting we know where we're starting from, we know where we want them to go.

And that starting position it's almost like the sign in the mall, the thing that says, "You are here." That naming, that sign posting, that kind of direction of I'm stood in front of this sign in the mall. The question on my mind is, "Where am I?" Then the naming of you is here is the most perfect words. We're trying to do the same in the context of the conversation that's going in their mind and what are the words that are likely to capture their attention and start that conversation. Rather than, which we see a few times, is people coming on board and thinking about book titles which are clever or too subtle or using a little bit too much inside language. The kind of open ended questions, that kind of unfinished thought title which works where the book is the product and you want to sell the book.

In a bookstore where you've got a whole shelf full of books having a title that's clever or it's make a suggestion about, not so much as just about the content, but I can't think of that way of describing than kind of clever in their quotes. But those titles that don't necessarily indicate what the contents about or the solution or these five things that are going to get into in a moment. We sometimes get people coming in with that mindset there's very much at the moment a feeling of having one word book titles. Because when you look on the bookshelf in the bookstore, that's very common. It's very kind of the moment. The issue with that is that the book isn't the product, you're not necessarily trying to sell the book, you use in pre-suasion techniques and tactics to start the conversation and lead people onto the back of a copy and the next steps.

At the moment that seems to be something that we're seeing quite a few times. People are getting very influenced by New York Times bestsellers and biographies and book titles that don't necessarily do what we're going to talk about here. Just before we get into it, I just want us to set that up as a kind of a comparison, but we're looking for the most effective book titles knowing that this is part of a bigger funnel. Not necessarily the most effective book titles if you're looking to sell a book and have a book on the shelf in the bookstore. So far so good.

Betsey: So far so good. Alright.

Stuart: Perfect.

Betsey: The first one is name it and find it.

Stuart: It is. Because I wasn't sure whether you're going to jump in with there.

Betsey: Let’s go. Go ahead.

Stuart: Okay. Name it and claim it, we've got a field guide or a report that we wrote a while ago that as you're receiving this, if you're on our email lists, you got the email about the podcast, it will be linked in the email anyway. If you haven't got that email, if you're just listening to this, then head over to the five book titles formulas, chipping on my own words. Head over to thefivebooktitleformulas.com and then you can download a copy of it there. The name it and claim category is really one of the first that springs to mind. It's one of the easiest to think about because there's a lot of books out there already that really kind of put a stake in the ground and claim a whole genre.

We were talking, I was talking a second about pre-suasion. That's Robert Cialdini latest book, Pre-suasion as a Title, although there's only one word, I guess I'm contradicting myself a little bit from what we said before. But actually that is a good point because although we were saying one word titles aren't necessarily what we're looking for. Pre-suasion as the title kind of gives you all the information that you need to know and then it's supported by a strong subtitle as well. But it gives you a lot of information within that. As with everything, it's not strictly the case all the time, but validate every step, kind of validate what you're doing and that you're doing it for the right reasons. The name it and claim it ones are really sticking that stake in the ground and claiming that category.

Another one that we talked about a lot is Financial Peace, the Dave Ramsey book, super well known because of all of Dave Ramsey's work. But that genre defining title of Financial Peace A, it does what it says on the title, it's obvious what the book's about. And B, it really claims that that genre, it's a title out there that sets a stake in the ground and immediately allows you to know what it's about and immediately kind of ring fences that area of business. It's not always necessarily clear what the solution is. It's not necessarily always an answer to the problem, but it's words in there that kind of set the scene. Another huge example is the 4-Hour WorkWeek.

Again, it's a title that names and claims, that whole kind of industry to a certain degree. Our own book, The 90-Minute Book, does the same. It gives an indication of what the solution is, but it really names in a specific way. And I'm kind of sighing in front of the microphone or stood here in front of my microphone doing air quotes around these particular titles because they aren't defining in their own light. The Two Week Divorces is another book that we had recently, The Adult Acne Cure is another one. All of these things are naming and claiming that particular genre. Does that make sense?

Betsey: Yes, absolutely.

Stuart: I think those ones if you've got something that if ... that's a good example. If you've got a program, if you've got something that as people start to work with you or people who are in your area of influence already would know it as your thing. Breakthrough DNA, Dean's book talking about the eight profit activators. If you've got things that are, you almost kind of think of them as trademarks, I guess. They're things that are very specific to you that you're able to name and claim and they're not contradictory with something else. They give some indication of what the solution is. Those are great. Those are great elements that follow great book titles because it's almost self-supporting. It's in an environment where both the words make sense and the words as a phrase or as a trademark or as a statement that's associated with you.

All of those things help and the book then help support the rest of that funnel and the rest of the funnel help support the title of the book because they're kind of self-referential and they're building on themselves. I was looking through ... as we're going on I'm going to get the gallery up in and try to find some more examples in the gallery. But my computer seems to be using all of its power at the moment to power this call. The Bria has been a bit slow, we'll lead back to that in a second. I think are ones that spring to mind very easy for people. Often as we're talking about it with people, it's very often this category which is the first one that springs to mind. This one and I think the fourth one when we come to it, the two are the most obvious for people.

As you're listening to this, as you thinking about your own book title, that bridge, it really works well. Whether it's that bridge of words that in there that give a suggestion of the solution. Again, Financial Peace, anyone that's in financial turmoil, anyone that's in financial stress, that's going to resonate with them and it's a phrase a kind of a term of art that is then becomes claimed. Anyone that's not in financial stress or is in stress in a different way is looking for a peace in kind of like wellbeing peace. They're not going to resonate with this and this isn't the group of people that you're looking to interact and engage with. It ticks a couple of boxes. It highlights and identifies unless people say self-select and gives an indication of the answer in the future and the solution all within this title that becomes its own kind of term of art.

The next one is a little more straightforward, but it isn't necessarily one that people think of as a book title to begin with. The second one is a category called just do it. And although it's relatively obvious when we start talking about it, these for some reason are a little bit more difficult for people to grasp and run with. As we go through the list, it's not entirely obvious why either because when you see titles like this and if you look through the gallery or look from the bookshelf, you'll be able to kind of categorize a number of books in this way. But it's surprising how difficult it is for people as they start working with us. As we heard people talking about doing it themselves. It's not necessarily the first type of title that they think about it, just do it. It's that execution based terminology. It doesn't raise any more questions. This category is really about making a declaration of just get it done and I think it's that dynamic element of the language that trips people up.

Betsey: I think so. Because I think when people always want to say, they've always want to give that the why or the how to. I think that's what people think of first. That's the first thing that tends to come to their mind when we're speaking about their titles. Or maybe the name it and claim it. And I don't know why that is when you think about it because some of the examples that we're using here, like The Think and Grow Rich or Stop Your Divorce. That's such a great title, Stop Your Divorce. Like, "wow! I'm going to stop my divorce."

Stuart: I think I hit the nail on the head is the language and the intentionality. I think so much in the marketing when you're thinking about marketing and thinking about engaging with people we do ourselves. We talked a lot about kind of joining people in the conversation that's already going on in their heads. Positioning the book so it kind of intersects with that question that they were already having. Thinking about that, coming from the position of what's the question? What is it that people want to solve? All of our thinking or a lot of our thinking is around the question and not the answer. And I think that's maybe where some of the, not disconnect, but that's where it's another step of thinking. It's another kind of circle of thinking to think about, "Okay, what's the answer and how can I position the answer." And not, "What's the question and how can I position the question." Because we absolutely want to be answering the questions.

We absolutely want to know what the questions are because if the answer we've got isn't the answer to a question that they're asking, then it's less effective. But because we talked about spending so much time on the question and we forget about the answer and these just do it. Book titles are very answer orientated. There's another list here which I'll read through in a second, and all of them are about the outcome, the solution. All of them give you a warm fuzzy feeling. It's almost like the jeopardy approach of here's the answer and then kind of backs off the question. Like you were saying, Stop Your Divorced, perfect example. Diem in The Field Guide, that's linked in the Email, talks quite a lot about the work that theater's years ago now with Eben Pagan.

Double Your Dating and Catching Him and keep Him, both books that came out I think in the early two thousands. But when you talk about Double Your Dating and Catching Him and keep Him, they're both very kind of emotive and solutions driven and you can very clearly see how this would answer the question you’re having. It's not how to perfect your dating or the best dating methodology or dating plan or anything that would be a naming and claiming type title or how to title, which we'll get to in a minute. But it's that answer. It's that solution. I think this is why people don't necessarily jump to these title options.

I think it really is because we spend so much time, we spend a lot of time talking about, "What's the question and what's the problem." It's that thinking that gets locked in. When picking which title to best address, I think the exercise would be to take these five categories. See if you can write one or two potential book titles in each of the five categories assuming they are all relevant. But make an effort for each of them and then give it a day. Come back to it. Let your brain percolate. Let the title's kind of sink in a little bit and come back it the following day and then assess the list again and see which one is really kind of A, allowing people to raise their hand as interested because it is obvious what the book is about and it gives the promise of a solution, although often times that is amplified in the subheading.

But still something positively motive about it in there and then it's less about which of the five categories is the most effective, but it's which of the options within the categories you've managed to create that are the most effective. If that makes sense. A couple of these other examples that we've got in The Field Guide and for the just do it. It's Marie Forleo's has one called Make Every Man Want You. Lisa Sasevich is Boost Your Sales, Ed Dale's Make your First Dollar. And the titles that we've gotten from people that we've worked with, Hypnotize Your Husband's, Drop Three Dress Sizes, Double Your income. All of these ones are very, just get it done. The solution, the end point is clearly stated in the title.

Betsey: Right. Those really just grab you and really just know exactly what you're getting. You know at the end that I'm going to drop three dress sizes, I'm going to double my income. You are like, "I'm going to read those books."

Stuart: I think it's all of those are positive ones as well, we don't have a category which is the negative version of it. Stop using ... going to fall into this trap now not being able to think off the top of my head of opposites would be. But they do the opposite of double your income. The reason the book title called Avoid Poverty or Financial Peace, name it and claim it one. But I don't think we've got anything that is Avoid Debt. Even the ones that talk about debt that we do have like the Debt Free Solution and things like that.

It's all the positive elements, that’s the positive side of it. To come to the psychological sense, people will avoid pain more than go towards ... they're more motivated to avoid pain than go towards potential benefits. That doesn't necessarily correlate here. Here it's really the opportunity and the outcome and the potential that is going to capture people's attention. I think even if the subject is potentially negative, like divorce, then the positive spin on the title, like Stop Your Divorce, is much more effective than focusing on the negative side of it. Because it does give that promise of the solution at the end.

Betsey: Yeah. You know what I was just thinking we have one that's not on the website and I was thinking about it. Stop Your Foreclosure. It just went out. That's another one. I mean, it's a horrible subject. But as you're picking up this book, if that's something that's coming, that you're dealing with in your life, "Hey, I'm going to figure out how to stop my foreclosure." But it says exactly what you're wanting, what you're needing. And it's a not a good subject, but there's a positive at the end of it.

Stuart: Exactly. And you can imagine. I'm guessing that's Penny's book.

Betsey: It is, yeah.

Stuart: That's a lot of her. She's a real estate agent, but that's a lot of her business is around the foreclosure side of things and helping people in that situation to begin with. If you are that person who's dealing with it, who's facing potential foreclosure. Then the answers in the tail, the promise of the outcome is that if you're on your Facebook page, you've got all of these Facebook ads scrolling by, there's the author of a book called Stop Your Foreclosure and that resonates with you. That's a very clear indicator. It's not ambiguous. The subtitle amplifies it even further by giving a little bit more information. But again, it just allows someone to identify themselves and say, "I want that immediately." And then immediately they've got the opportunity to click through and get a copy of it.

Okay. The next one, and we've briefly touched on this already, is going into kind of the how to side of things. This is straightforward because the words how to are pretty much in every one of these titles. This is a subject, as a title rather, category is interesting because the majority of these tiles could actually be reworded and fall into one of the other categories as well. Why you would choose how to rather than, How To Stop Your Divorce, rather than Stop Your Divorce. Or How To Double Your Dating rather than Double Your Dating. I think the how to on this are best served, where it's a little more specific and there's more actionable steps in the content. This requires a little bit of, we say as you're writing it, to start with the title, know what the back cover copy is.

And then the content goes from there. This one is a little bit circular in that respect because knowing a little bit what the anticipated content is, might help influence the title and of course titles can always be changed before they're published. But knowing more specifically what the nature of the content is might help you to identify the type of title. And if you've gone through the exercise that I just suggested have taken these five title types, these five title formulas, and then writing a couple of titles in each of the categories. Then having that list as working titles as potentials, and then circling back to afterwards, you have dialed in what the book's about. You already know kind of what the subject is. You know who the group is that you're trying to associate with. You know what the question is trying to answer. It's just the specifics on the words that you're trying to dial in.

Don't kind of hold everything up from moving ahead with the content just because the specifics on the title words aren't there yet. But definitely know what the title is in its subjects before you move forward. Let's give a couple of examples and it'll make more sense. Ones we've worked with in the past How To Be the Best Barefooter On Your Lake, How To Get High Paying Consulting Clients Even If No One's Ever Heard Of You, that's Frank it's not one that we've written specifically but Dean's talked to Frank about that book in the past. How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar, which is one of our own books. How To Get All The Listings You Want In Any Area once When I Make A Single Cold Call. All of these things have specific steps tied with them.

Another example is the financial management, financial advisor type books. The nature of those books could be generic advice around specific topics. The broad steps of retirement planning, What To Do At 62 is a great example as you were approaching that retirement date. Some of the things that you need to put in place. But not necessarily specific steps of, now do this now, do this, now do this. The different the how to books are great on their financial planning side where there is specific steps. If, for example, you were to write a book on cleaning up your credit score or the steps that you need to do before applying for a mortgage.

These things, whether they are cultivation site for five steps to this or the seven steps of this or in this main chapter where we've got the body of the thing that I'm telling you about. In the earlier chapters, I've kind of described it, but here's the chapter where we're actually doing it. There might be a list of bullets or steps where you can actually action it. The Immigration Book Hashmi Spicier, there is specific action steps included in that. That could well have ... the title live is just bring your spicy. But that would be a good how to calculate because there were specific things that can be included.

Betsey: I'm looking at our website at the gallery right now and I'm just trying to even, because I made that statement earlier about how people always ... I have heard that conversation a lot about that. How to seems to be the big conversation that we have, that I have, in the beginning. And when I look at website, it kind of makes a liar out of me to be honest with you. Because when I look at it that's really not the case. When I scroll down to some of the older titles, there's more of that as a subtitle, like the how to.  I don't want to be that girl.

Stuart: I think it's that people think about the how to as the answer to the question. And two things happen. One is that very often less is more generally speaking. How To Win Friends And Influence People as a book title. Taking that down to Win Friends And Influence People is not terrible. But it's maybe not quite as specific. I think there's a little bit of people trying to cut down on the title as much as possible. Fewer words, we probably guilty of this ourselves a little bit. We don't necessarily always think about inclusion the how to because quite often, or I guess it's not that common that people of the books that we've written, people who've got those very actionable steps in the book. Which maybe is, I'm not sure that strictly true I guess now I'm thinking about it in a bit more detail.

Anyway. One of the things I do think is a victim of it is this thing of people wanting shorter and shorter book titles. Over the last two years we've got a lot more one word book titles than we did in the two years prior. And that's very much this kind of the moment. I see a lot of books out there on the shelf with one word titles. I want one with a one word title as well and although we might suggest or kind of softly kind of trying to influence people in one direction. At the end of the day, people can pick the book title that they want and if they resonate more with a one word title and that encourages them to get it completed and get it. That's better than being kind of coerced into a longer book title that people aren't necessarily that happy with.

I really think in the last couple of years that's the biggest difference. But I think it's a great reminder that How To Win Friends And Influence People, How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar. Those titles related to those books that are very specifically saying, "Now do this, now do this." Are much more powerful than if it was just Win Friends And Influence People or Sell Your House For Top Dollar. Including the how to and actually furthers well in part we include the how to a lot in the subheadings. We do have wonderful covers.

We've got a lot of hows on there. They're just on the next line down often. And again, as we started, this is more art than science and some of the things come into it. But I think how to use get overlooked quite a lot, but it's definitely valuable for people to think about as an option. Particularly again, if you go through the exercise of writing a couple of titles under each formula and which type and then just see which ones resonate with you and which ones you think will do best in the marketplace.

Betsey: Yeah. That's what it does.

Stuart: I just want to make a quick scroll through so I  know that we're talking about it and seeing which ones might be better with a how to in there, but which ones are potentials that could have had a how to in there. There were ones like Your First Dollar, the example that we gave a minute ago in the name it and claim it category of that could be How To Get Your First Dollar. But Your First Dollar is resonates enough. Just stands as it is. There was another one which I've now scrolled past, trying to get back to it.

Okay. This is making for great audio listening to me scrolling. Okay as we're talking I'll see if I can get back to. But it was a great example of one that would have been a great how to. Although the current title is fine as well, but it because the content was more specifically in instruction based or there were very specific action steps. Same. I think that's the key thing to take away including the how to on it, whether our action steps is more specific. And it might be where it appears in your funnel as well. If you're looking to use the book with people that are absolutely cold leads that you don't know at all, and you're introducing a subject that is not so specific, slightly more conceptual, the book is more of a manifesto about a subject. Then that's less of a candidate of how to because it's not A, the people don't know you so much.

B, kind of just at the stage of your introducing the subject. It's not that your relationship with them or them understanding what the subject is good enough to just say, "Okay, here's some action steps." And execute them a little bit further up in the funnel. What To Do At 62 versus How To Secure All The Money You Need For Your Retirement, they're two separate things. What's to do at 62 people are earlier in the funnel. They're thinking about the things about retirement, there not there yet. How To Secure The Best Annuity, How To Secure The Best Retirement Plan, the actual funding of it when it comes out. That's more execution when people are closer to being 65 they're actually retiring. They are at the point when they're making decisions that will affect them. That's more of a checklist type scenario. Does that make sense?

Betsey: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Stuart: Okay. So let's jump on with the next one. Again I mentioned as we were getting into this that if you're on the More Cheese Less Whiskers List then you probably saw a link to this report already. If you’re listening to this because you receive our emails I'll link to this report directly in the email. Grab a copy from there. If you're listening to this just through the audio, you're not on any of the lists, then head over to the five book formula. I'm sorry, thefivebooktitleformulas.com. And you can download a copy of the field guide as well, which gives a little bit more explanation, groups all of the example titles that we've gone in one place. Don't worry too much about following on here. Grab a copy of the field report and you can see it on the page at the same time.

Okay. The next one is information goldmines. Now this is a super interesting one and I think this is very powerful and very underrated if it's applicable for you. Information goldmines are where you have access to data that the consumer, your ideal customer, the people that you can help and work with the best. You have access to information they don't necessarily have access to or don't have easy access to or they have an easy way of interpreting it. Some of the examples, and hopefully you'll quickly see what I'm talking about are things like The 2018 Social Security Benefits Guide or The 2018 Lakefront Homes Pricing Guide.

Or The 2018 US Hockey Scholarship Guide. All of these things where you can get access to data, analyze that data, add commentary to data. And to move your expertise, your help, your guidance for people to take the next step and really bring that together in one thing, one book, one piece of information that someone can request. And it will help them move further down their understanding or their the decision tree. Because it's providing goal, correlating, and collating data that they don't necessarily get access to through another channel. Now that either because you've got access to data that they don't.

It might be pre-propriety data within your business that you can see and no one else can see because it is your business. It might be data that's provided through a professional organization that the public don't get access to. MLS data is a good example of that. It's the type of stuff that as a real estate, you've got access to a broad swathe of information that the general public doesn't get to see.

Betsey: Alright, very specific organization information. And that's obviously when I had  come from price guide. The Tampa Copywriters Association Guide.

Stuart: Yeah. Depending on what business you're into. The real estate example, the pricing analysis of what's sold and what's the price at places there selling for. How much off asking price or above or below. The time to sell the number of properties on the market. All of that type of data that over time you can correlate yourself. Or immediately just from the MLS, you can get and do an export and analyze that data and add some commentary to it. The key thing really is your opportunity to add commentary to data that's out there. The data is out there is less important in one way, although obviously it says the key thing that people are interested in. It is important, but maybe what it is less important than your opinion, your perspective that you put around it.

If you're a financial advisor, it might be around, again, use the UK example of annuity rates, which is the interest rates the pension fund will buy and then you get, depending on what the annuity rate is, that determines how much income you'll get from your annuity over the lifetime of it. It might be mortgage rates. If you look into refine and say, "Mortgage rates are moving over time." It might be, if you have access to bank lending data and how many loans have been made and bank's lending criteria. If you've got insights into that because that's the business that you're in.

The Tampa Copywriting thing, it might be if that organization is relatively big and they collect data themselves. Then you might be able to do some analysis on open rates, on certain email headlines. If you're a florist, it might be going back to that old example that we keep coming back to, it might be the price of different types of flowers over different times of the year. If people are looking for choosing wedding flowers, then knowing that roses in February around Valentine's Day are 10 times more expensive than they are other times in the year.

All of these things where there's data that is not secret, but it's difficult to come to buy. And then you've got the opportunity to use that data, combine it in a way that's useful add more value to it by adding commentary to it. Then that type of book, the category that kind of brings it all together under the heading of information goldmines allows you to create something that people are going to resonate and want because it's difficult for them to get elsewhere or impossible for them to get elsewhere.

It doesn't have to be kind of bespoke private, kind of industry only data either. It could be something that's publicly available. Just maybe you’re correlating a couple of different sources together. This is a stupid example, but it did, it doesn't make any sense. But you could correlate the seasonal temperatures with the average selling price of lakefront homes in Winter Haven and write a book about how the average temperature affects the selling price and therefore you might want to look to buy or sell depending on certain climate change projections.

That as an example isn't particularly useful or realistic, but it gives you the indication of different sets of data that you can get hold of. You might be able to combine it or you might know of a way people might always be asking. I can't think of an example back it up of the let. But people might always be asking for data that you know combined in a certain way. And if you can write something that supports that. You know that it resonates with people because it's often a question, that data is perfectly publicly available. It's not secret data in anyway. Anyone could do it. It's just no one else has.

It doesn't have to be secret data. It's just bringing it together in a way that no one else has, and then adding your opinion to it. Adding some useful suggestions, advice, guidance, and giving people very clear steps or calls for action in the next step that allows you to identify them, gets them to raise their hand and it starts the conversation in a way that you can then lead on away from the book and towards that kind of conversion to being a customer or not even a customer, but just helping them in a way that started by creating this information goldmine book.

Betsey: Alright.

Stuart: That's an interesting one, I think that is one that's isn't so much thought about. Due to the reason that's or the other way that's comes up is around kind of field guides and reports and annual assessments from under the industry bodies. If you are thinking that, "That might be a good idea in my industry, but I can't necessarily think of what it would be." Then look at what industry bodies are doing around certain times of the year. Retail times of the year might be around black Friday and things like that. Florist industries might have spikes around spring. Real estate agents might have spikes around spring. All of the industry bodies will have their own cycles as well as the annual cycle. Everyone releases reports annual annually. But there might be publications that have been put out there already that you've got access to.

Not that you want to reuse that data, but just be inspired by that and think about what else is out there. look on blog posts as well. The amount of linked beauty type blog things that people put out their listicles or industry trends. There's no shortage of ideas. It's then just going through the steps of collecting the data. You've actually got something useful to back it up. And the main thing is having an opinion about this and the reason why it's important and a question in the customer's minds that intersects with about why they would even come in the first place. But I think this subject, this category is one that's overlooked compared with some of the other ones that spring to mind a little bit more regularly.

Betsey: Alright, yeah. Okay.

Stuart: Okay.

Betsey: The last one is.

Stuart: We've got one more.

Betsey: Alright. The question magnets.

Stuart: Yeah. This is one that people resonate with quite a lot. But again, they don't necessarily think about because we think about terms of what the questions that people have. But then quite often we'll go onto, I've answered them in a particular way and then we go back to the titles before where we're kind of posing the answer to a question, not necessarily the how to but the answers of the question. But they're written in such a way or are answering the questions in a way that is pretty specific and this actually is the way that we suggest that most people do.

Pick a subject, dive deep into answering that subject. And then always give people the opportunity to find out more and take the conversation a little bit further. This one, the question magnets gives you the opportunity to do it in a slightly different way. Gives you the opportunity to answer some questions, but maybe answer more related questions to that one subject. It's not like a big Q&A book where you're just kind of listing all of the questions and just giving short answers, that's not quite so compelling.

There's a little bit more thinking through it than that. But it's starting with a main question and then answering that next sphere of questions out. A great way of creating a book like this, if you've got a support organization or if people are emailing you in with questions about your product or your service or the questions once they've onboarded. A great way of creating a book like this is to assess what all of those are and then group them together into the similar subject and then write the answers to provide the answers to all of those questions but under the banner of the one particular thing. This will create a couple of titles because it will make a bit more sense. One of the popular traditional books out there is What To Expect When You're Expecting. It's similar to an information goldmine, but it's less information based and it's similar to the kind of how to, but it's slightly more broad and not so much.

Kind of like given specific steps. What To Expect When You're Expecting it's a good way of answering questions around that subject. But it's not like you're going to give people here's a 10 point plan in order to answer all of those things. A couple of the ones that we've done internally and once that we've talked about are What To Do At 62 and there's a similar book talking about similar subjects How Much Is Enough. Both talking about retirement planning, as I bash to the desk and knock the mic. Yeah, both talking about retirement planning. You can see that this is the opposite examples through the one that we had with the how to. These books aren't how to books in terms of, okay, you've got to 64, 65. Here are the specific steps in order to sort out your retirement, it's not like the immigration one where here's the five things that you absolutely need to do and it's the same for everyone.

These books are around how much is enough, what due at 62. Is going to broadly very far, or sorry, it's going to broadly be the same for everyone, but the specific is going to be different for each individual. That kind of grouping together of the questions. The question is in the title, but the title is slightly broader or it's answering the questions that are associated kind of one level separated from that title question. If you're in the organization where you've been in business for any amount of time, really you get how to questions coming in. Maybe even if you've only been in business for a short amount of time, but you spend time in forum asking, answering other people's questions. Or you've got the opportunity to get in forums and see what questions are being asked. Some of the examples that spring to mind there are like the DIY environment.

They're huge forums. DIY questions, programming type of questions, anything technical. Even things like how to choose the best broadband. We're just working on a book at the moment who the guys that are looking at that from a small office type environment, but the questions that are on people's mind over in all of these places where people are asking the questions. There's lots of opportunities to go out there and do a bit of research in the first place to know what the problem is, what the questions are, and then come back, bring all of those together, throw away the ones that were a little bit too removed from the core question, but having the book that is that question magnet. That is the thing that answers the questions that are going on in people's minds. It's not providing the solution. It's not the how to. It's this broader. Here's a subject that's relative to constraint, but here are the answers to the questions in this particular area. That was a long sentence. Does that make sense?

Betsey: That was good though.

Stuart: I was catching my breath.

Betsey: That explains it. You explained it. Yeah.

Stuart: I think like you said, when we started, the questions about titles are one of the things that we get the most often. People have got some either questioning or are wanting to validate ideas that they've already got. This field report, as you are listening to this, grab a copy of it. It's either in the email that you got with the podcast in the first place or head over to thefivebooktitleformulas.com and download a copy of it there. Because I think if anything, deciding if you could, knowing who the group of people is you're going to target. That you want to become in a conversation with. Then thinking about, "Okay, what is it that's on their mind? What would make them stop and raise their hand to be engaged in this conversation?"

And then looking at the five title types and trying to write a title that meets each of those categories, each of those formulas. Then go away and do the back cover copy so that you know where you're going to and then write the content. Because none of that's going to be changed by the title specifically you already had that dialed in. But then in that process, somewhere in that process, you can revisit that list and see which of them is the most effective. Which one of them you think is going to resonate the most.

Don't worry too much about which category it falls into, but just look at all of those options that you've come up with and pick the one that you liked the most. Then I think as a takeaway action is really the best advice that we can give because it's the way of kind of orchestrating the words on the front cover. It's a way of thinking about a title in a little bit more of a structured way. But it is a way that still allows you to, in the most effective way, start that conversation, get people to raise their hand. Because when they see it, they're immediate thought is, "I want that."

Betsey: Exactly. And I also think sometimes that one thing when we're talking about the and people coming on board and we're talking about titles. People are like, "Look, I don't have a title." and they get caught up and I say, "It's okay. You don't have to have, you don't have to have that title. You don't have to know what category is going to fall into it. You don't have to have that title just yet." I can't tell you how many people come on board and they don't have that title yet. We won't go to print without one, so take that in mind. Once you get into it and you really get into your content, it'll come to you, it will come to you. Don't let that stop you.

Stuart: Yeah, exactly. It shouldn't hold up the whole process.

Betsey: No, absolutely.

Stuart: I think it's sort of a nuance and maybe it's the way that we talked about it. Maybe we can talk around it in a slightly different way. Although I think, to be honest, it's just part of the natural conversation that comes up anyway. But numbing we say to people the title is the most important thing, it is the number two in terms of the mindsets. It's the thing that you need to have dialed in before you get started. Whilst that's true, just as you're saying it's not the case that you have to have the final words and once it's decided, it can never be changed.

We're not going to go to print without the final title. The final title can change. It can get dialed in, but in this exercise that we're talking about of writing down options under each of the five banners. It's still in the same ballpark. You still know what the subject is. You still know the question that you're trying to answer in the reader's mind. You still know what it is it's going to get them to raise their hand. It's just whether you pick words A or words B on title A or title B on specifically how you position it. Don't let that hang you up. The main thing that we're trying to get people to think about is don't just randomly start writing words in the hope to start building it and they will come to I thing.

Know where you're starting and then where you want to go. But leaping back to the you are here type billboard in a mall. It's not that we would never suggest not putting the sign up with just a push pin in it saying indicating that you are here. But whether the words on there is you are here or who you are or you or a little smiley face or just 10 big arrows pointing to the position. The specifics of what the indicator is, what the title can be dialed in or decided on later. It's the fact that you know where on that map the pin is broadly. It's here, it's not there. It's just the words associated with here can be dialed in over time.

Betsey: Exactly.

Stuart: That analogy made perfect sense in my head, but I'm not sure whether I lost it again. Okay.

Betsey: Like we said, we can do this whole title thing hours and hours of titles.

Stuart: Yeah, I think so. And you know what, as we've been talking about, I've kind of flicked away on the screens to various different ones and I've just gone back to the call timing and I thought we were half an hour in, but we're actually almost an hour and in. I mean that's just an indication of how much variation in nuance and there really are a million different options, but they are five broad categories of options that make the most sense. Don't worry too much about specifically which one is, you know what the subject is. Write some examples, come back to it at a later date and then pick the one that you liked the most and run ahead with that. Let's draw hand onto and do it there. I'm sure we'll be revisiting titles again in a month or two. But let's talk about next steps.

We'd said that the most effective thing that people can do as you're listening to this, if you're at the stage of picking that title, is really use those five headings of formulas, write an example two on the beach, set it to the side, come back to it the next day, and they look at it again and see what really resonates. As I mentioned, if you've got the email about the podcast, there's a link to the field guide below. If you don't, if you're just listening to this through iTunes or one of the other podcast players and you haven't got the email, then head over to the five, the number five, thefivebooktitleformulas.com.  And then you can grab a copy of that field report and the words that were spoken here will be laid out in a bit more of a refined way.

Help you go through. I mentioned the book blueprint scorecard a couple of times now in the eight mindsets that we have around creating the perfect lead generation tool. If you haven't yet, one of the great things you can do is head over to bookblueprintscore.com and then fill out the questions to get a personalized scorecard back yourself and across those eight mindsets you can see where there's opportunities to dial things in a little bit or pull the levers is a little harder to really make a difference and kind of get the most bang for your book once you've got it written and out there. The other thing that I mentioned in the last couple of shows is the opportunity to be a guest on the show.

We want to get these Q&A type shows up running a little bit more. We've got a couple in a pipe ready to come through. But if you want to be a guest and then we can talk through plotting the ideas specifically for your book. Whether it's the title or whether it's the content or the call to action or how are you going to use it. The funnels in which you can use it just had overseen 90-Minutebooks.com/guest fill out the little form on there and we'll be in touch. You'll get a call scheduled and be on the show. And then lastly, the easiest way as we've said before, is for us to do it for you. If you're ready to get started then just head over to 90-Minutebooks.com. Follow the get started links and then we'll be on hand to walk you through all of this and get your book created for you with Just being able to concentrate on the content and all the other necessary bits and pieces that go along with it.

Betsey: Very good.

Stuart: I think that's it. Anything that we've missed?

Betsey: No. I think we go it and if we didn't we'll catch it next time. Okay.

Stuart: Okay. Well thanks Betsy. Thanks everyone and we'll catch you in the next one.

Betsey: Always a pleasure. Take care.

Stuart: Thanks guys. Bye.

Betsey: Bye.