Designed for Sales vs. Designed for Use
— October 20 2009
When visiting a book-shop, you’ll likely find two kinds of books:
- Visually appealing, recommended by authorities in the subject, attractive, big font sizes, sometimes hard covers. Most likely to be found by the entrance to be found easily.
- Smaller books, classified by subjects, not as costly editions and sometimes paperbacks. Look harder for these.
What’s happening here? Don’t the second kind of books’ authors want to sell?
Odds are that probably whoever is looking for them will find them. And they won’t care about fancy looks and big font sizes, because they just want to read that book. The sale has already been done.
In other terms, there are books designed to sell to people who wouldn’t otherwise buy them, and there are books designed to be used.
It’s amazing how more and more money is being put into selling better and getting noticed, rather than delivering contents. Classics managed to get sold without national ad campaigns. Can’t it be done today?
Some ideas on how to get noticed without screaming loud for it (which costs a lot of money):
- Target better to get noticed. People looking for related products will be more likely to find you if you’re focused.
- Satify those few who discover you. Make them feel as they’ve just found something special. Nothing is better than a customer with an urge to tell his friends about you!
- Disguise. In the same way many are attracted by ads and big quotes about how great your book is, a small group will be attracted if you counter-mainstream.
I found a nice example of the third idea in the Aneto soups. Soups that show how natural and healthy they are by not telling you how natural and healthy they are. Classic style:
