By “juice,” I mean “emotional content.” Life is juicy, love is juicy, and you can think of negative juicy stuff on your own. Your book must be juicy if you want it to be read, and if you want your readers to take action, or at least remember what you wrote.

Thinking is dry. Concepts are lifeless. We have to tie them into some aspect of human life if they are to attract us.

What sorts of things are juicy? Sex. Pain. Conflict. Power. Transformation. Money. Fear. Overcoming.

Your use of juice must be appropriate. Open your daily newspaper (if you still get one), and you’ll see examples of appropriate and inappropriate uses. An inappropriate use: Sexy woman in an ad for dental care. Unless the dentist is that sexy woman, this is simply an attempt to get attention, and to associate what is for some readers a juicy image with the proffered service. It may get people to read the ad, but I recommend against it in your book.

If you use sex to get attention, there needs to be some kind of a payoff for the reader. Are you offering sex advice? Health counseling that covers sexual activities? If not, that’s an unkept promise, and your reader will be left frustrated at some level.

The “offer” made by your book’s title and cover, the pain it promises to abate, the desire it claims to satisfy, must be congruent with its content. When the reader reaches the end of the book, they ought to be able to flip it over to the cover and say to themselves, “Yup. She promised a way to relieve lower back pain, and she gave me one.” Or whatever the promise was.

Put juice in your book, authentically and congruently. Your readers will enjoy it and reward you with their attention.