How to Write a Sell Sheet for Your Book
One Page of Info Can Help Authors Boost Their Title's Publicity
© Kat Long
Sep 4, 2009
Sell sheets are a crucial item in an author's book publicity toolkit: these one-page summaries contain all of the details about a book prior to its publication. Publicists in publishing houses typically send sell sheets to big retailers, local booksellers and book review editors to convince them to sell and publicize certain titles.
But even if you don't have a publicist – and especially if you're a self-published author – you can create a sell sheet yourself, as long as you include the standard information that retailers are looking for.
Planning a Professional Sell Sheet
The first rule of creating a sell sheet for your book is to sound professional. Authors should be upbeat about their work, but avoid being overly enthusiastic or using exclamation points to convey excitement. Use the third person voice ("The author is..."), not the first person ("I am...") and put yourself in the place of the retailer reading the sell sheet when considering how to describe the book.
There are standard elements that all sell sheets should include, and that retailers and book industry members expect. Including these pieces of information will increase the chances that your book will get noticed.
First, include the basics: the book's title, the author's name, the publisher's name (even if it's a self-published book), and a photo of the book's jacket. Using this visual cue will help retailers remember the title.
Then include the book's retailing details:
- Publication date: the date or month your book will hit the shelves.
- Format: the book's measurements and whether it's a hardcover, softcover or e-book.
- Pages: the number of pages.
- Price: include the prices for all the countries where it will be sold (for example, U.S. and Canada).
- ISBN: the unique number above the barcode that allow retailers to identify the book in their inventories.
- Availability: where the book will be sold (i.e., Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble).
Make Your Title Stand Out From the Crowd
Retailers and editors receive hundreds of sell sheets each season from publishers, so it's imperative that yours stands out from the rest. The goal is to convince retailers than the title is interesting, timely and sellable. They'll also want to be sure that there is author and/or publisher support behind the title to increase the title's publicity and, therefore, sales. Here are more elements to include:
- Book summary: one or two paragraphs to describe the book, which could answer the following questions. How is the book unique? Does the book help a reader do something? Does it reveal information found nowhere else? Keep the summary brief and concise.
- Marketing and Publicity plans: list the actions you will take to increase the book's presence in the media, such as seek reviews, conduct radio interviews, write a blog, or write op-eds for local newspapers.
- Blurbs: blurbs are the "stamps of approval" on book jackets from people in the field that the book covers. For example, a nationally-known physician could write a sentence or two recommending a book about a medical breakthrough. Blurbs tell retailers that the book is recommended by the author's peers and vouch for the book's worth.
- About the Author: a brief bio that describes your qualifications for writing about your book's subject. You may also want to include a professionally-shot author photo to give retailers another cue for remembering your title.
An author can never do too much to publicize his or her own work, and a sell sheet is a handy and extremely useful tool for doing so.
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