How to answer the question 'What's your book about?'

(upbeat music) - Grimer girl here, I'm in Yonfoggedy. Today we're looking at how to answer the question every author dreads. So what's your book about? Joel Schwartzburg and I ended up chatting about this after his recent interview and he had such good advice that I asked him to write it up. I hope you find it as useful as I did. And if you're not an author, it will also help you tell your friends why they should read that book you loved. There is no shortage of book marketing advice, but despite volumes of recommendations about everything from websites and social media to newsletters and events, one author dilemma is almost never addressed. Even though it comes up all the time. When another person like a relative colleague, journalist, book blogger, or just the person sitting next to you on an airplane looks you in the eye and asks, "So what's your book about?" It seems like a softball at first. How can you not know what your book is about? You wrote it, but authors struggle with this question because of the multiple answers that come to mind, most of which are wrong. Authors commit the biggest unforeseen error when they think the goal is to describe their book rather than sell it. The difference, describing says what? Selling says why? Describing makes you sound objective. Selling makes you sound committed. Describing is like the table of contents and selling is like the blurbs on the back. Let's look at the best and easiest ways to answer this question for both nonfiction and fiction authors. When nonfiction authors answer basic questions about their books, they often respond with broad themes or categories instead of the book's unique assertion. For example, if your book proposes a radical change to the way young students are taught civics, the answers below are weak because they're topics, not points, and it could be used to describe hundreds of books. It's about citizenship and American education. It's a new approach to teaching civics. It discusses the importance of civics education. A stronger point driven response would be, my book argues that teaching children to think critically about real world issues helps them become responsible citizens. Now, if I were a book loving educator, you'd have my attention because that statement gives me a reason to care, a mechanism for change and a meaningful impact. To make sure you're selling and not merely describing your book, finish this sentence. My book argues that dot, dot, dot. Describing would be, "My cookbook has kale recipes." Selling would be, "My cookbook argues that kale, if prepared well, can be as delicious as it is nutritious." Describing would be, "My book is a biography of Millard Fillmore." Selling would be, "My biography argues that Millard Fillmore was one of our most influential presidents." Describing would be, "My book is about how listening affects leadership." Selling would be, "My book argues that being an active listener is among the most important qualities in a great leader." Remember, you don't sell a toaster by describing the timer, the crumb tray or the digital display. You sell its superior ability to toast bread. That's the point of a toaster. The same principle applies when discussing your book. Too many authors take detours into 10 gentle issues. Imagine the author of the book on reinventing civics education, discussing it at an education convention. But instead of championing his vision, he's talking at length about modern school funding challenges. Teachers he had in high school or Department of Education bureaucracy. It's fine to establish relevant context, but don't linger there. Move quickly to your proposed solution or primary assertion. And now we have some help for the novelists out there. People asking about your novel don't want a tour of your world. They want the story's driving force. So get started by filling in the blanks in this sentence. My story is about a fill in the blank person who overcomes some kind of adversity to attain blank the most valuable thing to them. With a bit of tweaking, this standard formula should apply to your book, assuming your story is like most stories about a protagonist driven by a personal objective. For example, Stephen King's Christine isn't about a man in a haunted car, but a teenager who contends with the empowerment he feels after becoming possessed by a car's evil spirit. Victor Hugo's lay Miserable, isn't about a man who steals a loaf of bread and evades the law, but a convict struggling to define his purpose when he gets a second chance at life. Madeline Langles, a wrinkle in time, isn't a YA science fiction story about a family and three wishes. It's about a girl who must traverse time and space to save her family. Like nonfiction authors, fiction writers also fall into rabbit holes, but by over-explaining their world building, making comparisons to other books or oversharing the backstory. Imagine a book about a time traveling TikTok influencer trying to save the man she loves and the world from a path of self-destruction. This is a strong point. As a reader or listener, you're engaged. But instead of making this point, the author starts with the action on page one and keeps rolling. First this happens, then this happens, then that happens. Or the author discusses the science of time travel, internet celebrities, the likelihood of environmental catastrophe, and how this story is unlike back to the future. Stay on the road, your protagonists need, the obstacles ahead and the goal that drives them. Now, it may surprise you to hear that these next sentences aren't great at getting people to want to read your book. The story is great. The characters are amazing. The action is excellent. Broad generic adjectives like great and excellent, or what I call "badjectives," are weak because they could describe almost any book. Ask yourself, why are these elements great, amazing and excellent? Then swap the adjectives with the answer to that question. The story is adventurous. The characters are quirky. The story is a non-stop thrill ride. For both non-fiction and fiction writers, you can make your answer even more compelling when you connect it to your lived experience by weaving in anecdotes. Here's a fiction example. I've been fascinated by time travel since childhood, and I'm obsessed with social media culture. So combining those worlds felt like the perfect way to tell a modern love story. And here's a non-fiction example. My mom, a lifelong social studies teacher, helped me understand how my life is affected by current events, and that the more I understand about them, the more I can affect them. That brief personal story usually coming before the point you want to sell to grab people's attention before you deliver the goods, that story enhances your authenticity and credibility. When discussing your book, you're not just its author, your expert and its advocate. You wrote it and like it or not, now it's also part of your job to get people to read it. The good news is that if you know your book's point well enough to communicate it confidently, and efficiently, you're not just sharing the book, you're selling it. That statement was written by Joel Schwartzberg, a workplace communications coach, speaker, and speech writer. Here's the author of Get to the Point. Simplify, sharpen, and sell your message. And you can find him at jolshortsberg.net. Next, I have a family story. So this is a family that myself and my wife use years ago when I was learning to drive, and I learned using manual transmission. And I used to find it kind of stressful to operate the gears. And any time we would pull up to a red light, or stop the car, the driving instructor would turn to me and say, "And rest your feet." Which I used to find very comforting. So years later, we still use this. So we've been for a very long drive, and we'd pull into the hotel, we'll say, "And rest your feet." Or if the kids have been particularly challenging, and it's been hard to get them to bed, we finally get them to bed, we close the door, we look at each other, and rest your feet. Or if there's a major cleanup operation, and we sit down after doing all the cleanup, and we'll say, "And rest your feet." And we find that we say this an awful lot. Thanks Johnny, I can see how that is a very helpful phrase. Thanks for the call. Grammar Girl is a quick-inter及 tips podcast. Thanks to Morgan Christensen, Rebecca Sebastian, Maramell McEybe, Dan Fire, up-and-nate hoops, Stephen Chepansky, and Holly Hutchings, who used to work in public radio. And I'm Minyon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl. That's all. Thanks for listening!