A good book, in my definition: A book that keeps its promise.

What is the book’s promise? That it will answer the question implicit in its title.

Let’s look at some examples I’ve randomly chosen from current non-fiction best-seller lists:

  • CHANGE YOUR BRAIN, CHANGE YOUR BODY, by Daniel G. Amen. The promise is clear: Read this book, and you will learn how to change your body by changing your brain.
  • The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis. How the US economy was driven over a cliff; here’s what happened. You have to go below the title to learn what the “Doomsday machine” is, but there is a promise: Read this, and you’ll learn what happened.
  • HOW TO NEVER LOOK FAT AGAIN, by Charla Krupp. “How-to” books have obvious promises.
  • Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell. Why some succeed and others don’t. “How to succeed” is not implied here; the promise is that you will understand the “why.”
  • Have a Little Faith, by Mitch Albom. A true story, surprising in many ways, answers questions evoked by the title: How? Why?

You get the idea. By virtue of these books having made it onto best-seller lists, you can rest assured that they kept their respective promises to their readers.

Your book is an offer, in the sense of a deal: “Read me, and you will get what the title promises.” Sounds obvious. But if you examine books that didn’t make any best-seller lists, you’ll find many among them that disappoint.

People who don’t keep promises are not respected in our society, and with reason. You can’t trust them.

If you write a book to enhance your professional stature, to “credentialize” yourself, to serve as a “trojan horse” in your prospects’ offices and homes, pay attention to this point. You cannot afford to let down your readers; they will not easily forgive you.

Filed under: book writing • marketing • write a book

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