As you all know, at the end of January I did a focus group for book 2, which I had announced last November that I was fervently working toward publishing it by early 2017. Well, early 2017 is rapidly slipping away, and therefore, I’ve decided to take as brief a break from the blog posts as possible to concentrate my efforts on finally getting book 2 published.

There are many circumstances that have changed in 2017 which have severely limited my time to do all these things that I used to be able to do. But once I get this book out, we’ll be back to our bi-weekly post chats. I hope you will stick around for the re-start.

It won’t all be radio silence either, for I will be launching the video trailer for the new book in the next few weeks, so please stay tuned for that.

So, while I will miss writing the post, it is for a good cause, and that is of course, the launch of book 2!

By now, you are probably wondering that after all these discussions in the set-up of my book for print production, if there’s ever hope in actually finishing this part of the process. I know it’s been tedious, that I may even be dwelling a little too long on these steps, but these are fundamental to your book’s future. And, once you get this part down thoughtfully, every marketing move you make will be that much more intuitive, because you’ve thought about the set-up so comprehensively.

Aside from choosing the categories into which your book can be found, is something equally important and likely what I should’ve begun with in this process: the summary description of your book. Most likely, you’ll be asked to give two types: a short form and a long form: the short form is the all-purpose, show up everywhere description, and the long form is if someone is further interested in the details of your book.

In all the things you have to think of, you’d be surprised that actually coming up with a one- to two-sentenced synopsis for your book is not as easy as it seems. I mean, what exactly do you want the book to be known for? Perhaps it’s a series on how the main character’s quirky behavior lead to hilarious escapades? Or that the story is a poem, that evokes an emotion so strong as that the need to sing it overwhelms? Or, that your story is about getting into the psychology of bullying, and as the victim what tactics to try?

So many times when I started off my summary of Centipede Dragon, I obviously started with Centipede Dragon. But with the first sentence already used up on describing the character, where would I go next? Did I really want to spend a valuable sentence describing what makes Centipede Dragon unusual? Could I not? Or did I want to talk about a shy protagonist who innately believes in community and helping others? Did I want to talk about community as a whole, and introduce Ben and Ariel’s characters in the summary? After all, playing up children in a children’s book is a valuable marketing feature. Or, did I want to focus on captivating my audience with magic?

In short (hah!), the most important aspect of the 1-2 sentence summary is that it is, well, brief. Think of that all-important elevator speech that we get taught in effective networking tactics. What is the single-most important aspect of YOU that you want to convey to the person you’ve got on that elevator for the next 20-30 seconds?

Can you come up with an elevator speech for yourself? How about my book? Please share!