Never Publish a Book Without Checking This (I’m an Editor)

If you have finished your book, or you

are close to it, then this video is for

you. And if you're in the earlier stages

of writing, then this video is also for

you because you're going to be here

eventually, right? So, you should watch

and save this video so you know what's

coming up. This is a checklist of seven

things you absolutely need to do before

publication. Because if you miss one of

these things, or God forbid two or three

of these things, it really, really ruins

your book. So, let's get started right

away by looking at number one, genre

clarity. So, here's what people think is

most important about their book cover.

They're worried whether it's beautiful,

right? Does it look good? And they're

also worried about whether it like

captures the essence of how they picture

their character in their brain. I got a

little secret for you. Neither of those

things matters in the slightest, okay?

What really matters for your book club,

I mean, really, really, really, truly

matters is whether it tells the reader

in half a second or less what the genre

is. It's not just like the number one

thing, it's literally the most important

thing if you actually want, you know,

your book to sell some copies. So, H.M.

Ward released her book Scandalous and

sold almost zero copies. Now, what genre

do you think this is? Seriously, take a

second and like make your best guess.

Because when she showed this to readers,

like a lot of readers just didn't know

what it was. Like some of them guessed

thriller, others were like, "Uh, I don't

know." Then she revised the cover,

right? And this time the only thing she

cared about was like, "Does this cover

tell them what's inside the book? Does

it tell them the actual genre?" So, this

new cover, you can obviously tell,

"Okay, this is adult romance, right?

Maybe some like 50 Shades of Grey

vibes." And so now, with the new cover,

oh, her book hit the New York Times

bestseller list. That's the difference

that a cover makes, right? And it's not

about whether the cover looks good or

not. The first one like looked cool,

it's about communicating the genre. Now,

after you promise the readers a certain

genre with a cover, then you have to

fulfill that promise in the first

chapter of your book by really

delivering on the pleasures of the

genre. So, if you're writing a crime

novel, give the readers a crime in that

first chapter. I'm not talking about

chapter two, I'm not talking about

chapter five, right? Like right at the

very beginning. Hey,

this is what you're looking for. If

you're writing a horror novel, then the

very first chapter needs to deliver some

of the horrifying stuff. It's also a

really good idea if both the cover and

your first chapter clarify not just the

genre, but the subgenre because readers

tend to buy within lanes, right? They're

not just looking for a mystery, oh

they're looking for a cozy mystery.

They're not just looking for straight

romance, they're looking for romantasy.

And they're not looking for the broad

category of sci-fi, no they're looking

specifically for space opera. The more

you can drill down your genre, the

easier it is to find your readers. Hey,

if you want to make your book as great

as it possibly can be,

I can help you with that. BookFox Labs

starts in just a couple of days, very

very very soon. And our mentors have

guided authors just like you to wild

success with a lot of different

publishers. People who have been through

our program say stuff like before this,

I felt like I'd been faking it. Now, I

actually feel like a writer. All you got

to do is click the link in the

description to reach out and let's start

a conversation. Second thing you

absolutely have to do before moving on

to publishing your book is

title searchability. So, I got a

question for you. Can someone easily

find your book by just searching for the

title on Google? Tabitha Barrett's novel

Fallen Angels was not easily searchable.

I mean, just Google this, right? It's a

really really crowded field. It brings

up a movie, a Broadway show, a Wikipedia

page, a music video, a Bible commentary.

So, her book would probably come after

all of those. So, what did she do? She

renamed it. She renamed it to The Third

Throne. And now if you Google The Third

Throne, guess what? It's the very first

search result. So, I want you to think

about can you win the Google war with

your title? I mean, if your book title's

coming up seventh or God forbid like

15th, like that's really going to crimp

your sales. And just remember you're not

just competing up against other books,

right? You're competing against all

media. You're competing against plays,

you're competing against musicals,

you're competing against song titles.

Now, a really easy way to help your book

to stand out is not to title it a single

word. Author Kelly DeVos originally

titled her book 2020 and it would just

get lost in a sea of other search

results. So, her publisher said Nope.

Nope, we're not doing that. Publisher

suggested Day Zero and much more

memorable title, much more searchable

title. This next step is probably the

most difficult one for authors to do

well. It is number three.

Comp title honesty. If I had a dollar

for every single time an author told me

that their book was entirely original

and had absolutely no peers, I would be

richer than Jeff Bezos. When you were

telling someone that your book isn't

like any other book out there, what

you're really communicating is not

something about the book, you're really

communicating something about yourself.

You're saying, "I'm not particularly

well-read." I know that might be a

little bit harsh. Sorry, I'm just out

here dropping truth bombs today, but I

mean, you're saying I don't know what

else is out there. Look, your job after

publishing a book is to convince lots of

people to buy the book. And the best way

you have of doing that is comparing your

book to two things that they already

know and that they already like. So, I'm

going to give you five different ways

that you can sort of pitch comp titles

as a way to convince people to buy the

book. The first one's the most common

and you probably thought of it right

away. My book is like X meets Y. The

Girl on the Train meets HBO Girls. Okay,

all right, now we got like a sense of

this crossover, this mixing. Another

good way to say it is, "I see my novel

on the shelves alongside" and then you

list a whole bunch of books that like

are in the ballpark or the genre of your

book. Another good way to say it, "This

novel will appeal to fans of" and then

list several titles that you think your

ideal reader would have already read.

And lastly, use this phrase, "My book is

in the vein of" and then list a couple

of books that you think are at least in

the ballpark. Now, here's some things

that you should never do when comp

titling. One is listing dead authors. I

mean, Hemingway is not going to get you

that far. It's much, much better if you

can list modern authors. Second, you

shouldn't be comping things that are

like way too popular. Like, if you're

saying, "Oh, my book is like Harry

Potter meets Hunger Games." I mean, it

just feels a little cliché. Lastly,

don't be afraid to include other media

for comp titles. You can include

musicals or plays or TV shows or movies

if it's right for your book. This fourth

step is probably the most uncomfortable

one to do, but one of the most

necessary. So, it is number four,

giving your one-line pitch to a

stranger. Now, first, you got to create

a one-line pitch for your book that

really works. And by works, I mean the

listener immediately wants to go out and

buy your book. The most common mistake

authors make is that they think, "Oh,

I'm going to tell this listener, this

poor soul, what my book is about."

That's not what you should be doing.

Instead, I want you to think about this

one-line pitch as a storytelling advice.

You're trying to create surprise and

mystery and intrigue enough that, you

know, the listener wants to go out and

buy your book. For instance, look at The

Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns. A

meek, abused girl in suburban London

discovers that she can levitate. And the

adults around her immediately seek a way

to profit from it. First of all, we have

surprise, right? Ooh, levitation. All

right, my interest is piqued. Two, we

have mystery. How exactly are the adults

going to profit? Like, what are they

going to do to her? And three, we have

conflict. Obviously, what the adults

want is very different than what this

girl wants. Now, after you have your

one-line pitch, you just need to

practice it again and again so you can

trot it out when drunk at a party and it

just rolls off the tongue. And then use

this line on your back cover and use it

really whenever you talk about the book.

Now, if you can't make someone want to

read your book in a single sentence,

then maybe the appeal of your book isn't

quite clear in your own brain. So, you

need to spend some time thinking about

like, why would a someone want to read

this book? Like, what sort of pleasures

are they looking for? What's interesting

about my book? And be able to condense

that down into a single memorable

sentence. Hey, if you're enjoying this

video and you want your book to succeed,

please subscribe to the channel and

please like this video. It's basically

like a pledge you're making to yourself

and to your book that you want to invest

more in your book success. Now, the

fifth thing that you absolutely should

do before publishing your novel is

checking your chapter lengths. So, you

really should audit your chapter lengths

before you go to print. And I would just

really recommend making a list of every

single chapter and then the word count

for that chapter. And just get a really

big overview of your book. If every

single chapter is 3,000 words and then

you have one 15,000 word chapter, you

got to ask yourself like, should I break

that up? Like, are people going to be

flummoxed by that? Flummoxed. Flummoxed

is such a word like flabbergasted. Like,

those are just great words. Now, this is

a very complex topic and I do have a

whole video about chapter lengths where

I go into various reasons why you would

might want to have one chapter that's

like much, much longer than all the

rest. But, if you just like accidentally

have a much longer chapter, that's not a

good sign. Now, the sixth point you've

probably heard before, but it's still an

essential step you absolutely cannot

skip. And it is number six,

read it out loud. The ear catches all

the dropped words and skipped words and

wonky rhythms that the eye just sort of

skims right over. Your ear is really

smart and that's what makes this

probably the single most high-yielding

thing that you can do before

publication. One thing that you never

notice when reading silently, but you do

notice when reading out loud is rhyme.

So, if you have a line like, he tried to

hide the pride he felt inside, you might

read over that and be like, I don't

know, you know, it's a sentence, right?

It works. You read that aloud and you're

like, "Ooh, like, am I writing a

children's book? Like, I should probably

change some of those words." Another

example would be something that reads at

first like a noun, but then you realize

it's actually a verb. The complex houses

married and single soldiers. So, you

initially read it as a noun like, "Oh,

it's the complex houses, right?" But no,

it's the complex houses. It's a verb. It

houses the married and single soldiers.

See, little things like that that can

really trip up a reader and make them

like feel confused about your sentence,

you can catch them if you read your book

out loud. There's two really important

things you want to look for when you're

reading out loud. One is places where

you're stumbling, right? Where you

misread is often a signal to you that

like, you know, maybe I should adjust

that phrasing or adjust that sentence.

Like, there's a reason why you misread

it. And then two, and this one's really,

really useful, where do you get bored,

right? Cuz you can get bored reading

your own work, especially if you're

reading like a whole novel out loud or

reading a novel like in a single sitting

for more than an hour. I think boredom

tells you something about pacing. Do you

need to cut a couple of paragraphs?

Should you start that chapter a little

bit earlier or a little bit later? Now,

if you're like, "John, I'm a busy

person. I don't have time to read my

entire book out loud." then I would

suggest making software read it to you,

right? And you can listen to it when

you're at the gym or when you're on a

walk or something. And even hearing that

out loud will also help you to realize

some mistakes. Okay, we're going to end

on the most surprising point, the one I

don't think any of you saw coming. It is

number seven,

the chapter two check. Look, everybody

knows that you focused a lot on chapter

one, right? I mean, all writers do. They

like nail that first chapter cuz they

know like, you know, that's got to draw

readers into the story. But here's the

thing, like, readers, if they buy a

book, they're almost always going to

read the first chapter. That's sort of

like the gimme chapter. However, things

come down to brass tacks when it comes

to chapter two cuz now they're like, you

know, maybe this book wasn't for me.

Chapter two is the place where you

really have to convince them to keep

reading. So, just ask yourself some

questions. How does chapter two build on

and accelerate and escalate the events

that happened inside chapter one? Is it

continuing what chapter one set up? Is

it continuing to advance the plot? Does

chapter two start with a bang, hook the

reader, and then end on some sort of

question or mystery that intrigues your

reader? Hey, just a reminder to check

out Bookfox Lab cuz I would love to work

with you on your book. And I hope this

video has really helped you with the

things that you really need to do before

going to publication.

Happy writing.