You shouldn’t sell your book like a book. People aren’t looking for books. If a person really was just looking for a book they’re probably using it to balance a table or kill a spider.

Besides, you didn’t write a book. You wrote a story. A book is bound pages or a file transfer. A story is a world of wonder and excitement and crafted ascension of tension and relief. It’s that part where the hero failed, the lovers were forced to part, and that part where the antagonist gets what they had coming.

It’s amazing places so vivid we feel like we were there even if they never existed. It’s scenes that play over and over in our minds as if they really happened to us. It’s characters that find a home in our imaginations and hearts. A story is so much more than a book.

But, still, we promote them like a book: “A great read” “A heart warming romance” “A spicy thriller.” We tell people it’s a science fiction book. We tell them it’s a fantasy, or a romance, or a historical thriller and we end up telling them, not why they will love it, but, where to put it on their bookshelf.

We need to stop selling books. We need to start selling the stories inside.

See some examples of how we’re selling stories. Not books.