How to Make Your Story Marketable

Why your story isn’t marketable

(and how to adjust it so that it is)

What makes a compelling book pitch?

If you’ve ever heard or read an agent describing what makes a good pitch to them, they almost always say something along the lines of, “I just know it when I see it.” They can’t articulate why one book pitch is good and another isn’t. This is super frustrating to those of us who are trying to understand the difference.

As someone with no writing street cred, who was knocking on the door of the publishing industry, I had to analyze and learn the difference for myself if I was going to stand a chance.

Be unique…but not too much

When I originally began pitching my book I just thought that a book was an author’s unique thoughts. As a result my book was all over the place. Some parts read like a memoir with personal stories, some read like a how-to where I was explaining how weight loss works and why health food products are counterproductive, and then there were some weird parts where I was pontificating my random thoughts on the food industry. It was unique to say the least. What I didn’t realize was that if my book was completely unique, then no agent would be willing to take a chance on me.

It wasn’t until I started getting some rejections and feedback that I realized books have to fit into categories.

When one agent responded to me and asked which other books mine was like, and I didn’t have a good answer, I learned a valuable lesson: The importance of molding my book to fit into the marketplace by being similar to other successful books. In other words, which bookshelf would mine sit on, and between which other books.

After plenty of research and narrowing down, this was the book I visualized mine sitting next to…

I had now established that my book would be a food industry expose. This helped me focus my pitch, and made it easier for an agent to understand what kind of book I was proposing and where it would fit into the marketplace.

And you’ll want to do the same thing with your book concept.

Look at the books that are out there, and then mold your book in a way that will allow it to sit comfortably on a bookshelf beside the others. You can use Amazon.com to search by genre, and each book you select, if you scroll down the page it will show you a bunch of other, similar books (i.e. the books that would be next to it on a bookshelf).

So as you’re researching other books that you want yours to emulate, copy and paste each one’s info—title, author, page count, and publisher—into a document and save it somewhere you won’t forget it. These will save you time later, when we go to write the Comp Books section of your book proposal.

Problem #2: your book lacks a hook

A hook is the unique element that makes a book more appealing, and therefore more commercial.

Here’s how I think about a hook: In order for an agent or publisher to take interest in my book, I’ve got to be able to answer the question: Why would a talk show host invite me on their show to discuss my book? Or, possibly an even better question: Why have talk show hosts previously invited other authors, from other genres, on their show.

And here’s how I went about answering that question.

I already had my genre selected—food industry expose—but I knew that if a show recently had the author of Food Politics, Marion Nestle, on their show, they would need a different reason to have me on. I’m trying to write a book in the same genre as her, and I’ve got a very similar message, so why would their audience need to hear from me too? I needed a unique element to make my book stand apart; something to make it pop!

And here’s what I did: I took my story and I searched for exposes in other genres for possible matches. What did I land on? The Wolf of Wall Street, which not only exposes the financial industry by someone working inside it, but it does it in an entertaining way.

Food industry book meets Wolf of Wall Street—BOOM! Mic drop.

I knew I had a winner.

Now my book was just like other books in my genre, and yet completely distinct. Hosts would definitely invite me on their show to discuss this. And that’s how I knew an agent would scoop it up.

In fact, it was such an interesting hook, I was contacted by the Vice President of Happy Madison Productions—Adam Sandler’s company—about turning my story into a TV show. Spoiler: that project never materialized, but it just goes to show how attractive a powerful hook can be.

Bonus to this approach

Another benefit that I noticed from using this approach was that it, surprisingly, helped eliminate writers block. Just by choosing a book or books that mine would be similar to, it seemed to subconsciously mold the specific topics I would write about, and even the way I would write them. The angle from which I would tell a story, the tone, and the details I would include or omit all seemed to flow more naturally. And I think you’ll notice a similar experience.

Important note: Had I searched in my genre for a hook, that would mean that hook has already been done, which makes it not a hook anymore. Had somebody who had owned a health food manufacturer already come out and exposed the industry in the tone and style of Wolf of Wall Street, I could still write my book but I would need yet another hook.

For example, had a Wolf-style book already been done in my genre, perhaps I could have emulated the book Screen Schooled, an expose into the world of child education written by two teachers, where the authors write with the tone and style of a PTA meeting. Instead of using graphic stories, I could talk directly to the reader. Instead of showing the reader what goes on inside a manufacturing facility, I could describe the problems that are caused by the industry, and the benefits to finding solutions. Instead of humor and colloquial language, I could be more to-the-point, or even dire—“If we don’t do something quick, here’s what’s going to happen!”

Borrow ideas from other successful books

And I should point out that I didn’t just make this approach up. During my research I noticed that many other successful authors appeared to be doing a similar thing (whether it was a conscious effort or not).

I’m sure you’re familiar with at least some of these books and their authors:

But here’s something I bet you never thought about before: Every one of these authors was a nobody when they sold their books.

Anthony Bourdain wasn’t some exalted culinary wizard prior to his book, in fact he was the opposite of famous. It was only after his first book was published that he started gaining notoriety and was then offered his first TV show.

Sure, Chris Gardner was a millionaire by the time he sold his book, but nobody knew who he was publicly. And Jordan Belfort had been hunted by the FBI, and was living in a jail cell prior to his book being published. There may have been a local news coverage about his company’s scandal, but he wasn’t a famous person. He was in prison.

Speaking of prison, Piper Kerman was a drug smuggler, who’d spent a year in jail—not exactly the epitome of a published author, and definitely not a unique story. Nobody had a clue who she was until she wrote about her experience. You still may not know who Jeanette Walls is—even though Brie Larson played her in the movie, The Glass Castle—but nobody knew who she was until she published her first book.

None of these authors or their stories were newsworthy prior to publishing their first book.

So then, what made their stories appealing to an agent, a publisher, and eventually all of us? They took their somewhat typical personal stories, aligned them with other books in their genre, and then applied a unique hook. Again, I’m not sure whether this was done intentionally or not, but I’ll show you how I can tell they did it.

Let’s briefly dissect a few of these books so you can see how they could just as easily not have been successful pitches. And in doing so, we might just spark an idea you can use for your book.

The Wolf of Wall Street

At its core, what is Jordan Belfort’s story? He was a greedy Wall Street guy who stole from his clients in order to line his own pockets. He eventually got caught, he went to jail. What’s unique about that? Sounds just like every other financial industry corruption story to me.

Belfort didn’t have a massive public story like a Bernie Madoff, Enron, or even the Martha Stuart scandal.

It was only when he took his somewhat common story of Wall Street corruption, and tweaked it to read like… “And just as the four Quaaludes were kicking in, I did one last line of coke off the prostitutes chest, and got into my Ferrari to go meet the private investigator I was paying, in laundered money, to spy on the FBI,” …Now that’s going to grab a reader’s attention!

That was his hook.

Orange is the New Black

You’ve probably seen an episode or two of Orange is The New Black on Netflix, but have you ever read the book? It’s nothing like the show. Literally zero things happen in the book.

At the beginning of the book she gets busted for drugs and is sentenced to a year in prison, she does her time and at the end she gets out. Big whoop. Happens every day.

So then how did she make her story appealing to an agent?

Her hook was that she told her story through the eyes and tone of a shy, soft-spoken, middle-class young woman. She wasn’t from the streets. She wasn’t used to having run-ins with the law. As I read her story, she reminded me of a niece or cousin, just a young person trying find her place in the world, but who had a lapse in judgement and had to do jail time because of it.

Now that’s not something your niece or cousin experiences every day. But without that hook, Piper’s prison story wouldn’t be very interesting. And it’s a great example of what a powerful hook can do for a story.

Kitchen Confidential

What was Anthony Bourdain’s first book, Kitchen Confidential, about? It was about a no-name cook, hopping between jobs while struggling with his drug addiction and paying his bills.

So why did so many people (including me) fall in love with it, to the point a network just had to offer him a TV show?

Because he warned us: never order seafood in restaurants on a Tuesday, there’s likely cigarette ashes in your table butter, and if you order a steak well done, may god have mercy on your soul. He’s also hilarious, does cocaine, takes pride in his drinking, will eat literally anything you put in front of him, and uses curse words in the most elegant of ways.

His hook was that he’s the anti-TV chef. He was a real chef, a working chef.

He’s not interested in teaching you how to make the perfect omelet. He’s saying, “You come in to my restaurant twenty minutes before close, and you ordered a vegan dish? F*** you.”

That’s a hook.

Now this next book isn’t as well-known as the other examples, but I think you can learn a lot about creating a compelling hook from this one.

Blackout

Blackout by Sarah Hepola is a story about a young woman struggling with alcohol addiction, to the point she has regular blackouts and can’t recall the entire evening of events every time she drinks.

This isn’t a unique story. In fact, it’s what literary agents would call a “tired story”, meaning it’s been told so many times people are tired of hearing it. Subjects like recovering from addiction, cancer survivors, and dysfunctional family stories are typical examples of tired storylines. (Here’s a video from Writers Digest with a group of lit agents discussing tired storylines, to help you avoid them)

So what made Sarah’s book stand out?

Her book is funny. She enjoys her drunken adventures. When she wakes up under a strange guy, and can’t remember how she got there, her response is largely, “Meh.”

Well that’s quite a different take than what you’d expect out of a book about recovering from addiction. Most books in this space are written in a more somber tone, and detail tragic events. But this author has a humorous take on her struggles, and gives the reader permission to laugh too, which is refreshing. And that’s the hook that got her published.

Are you getting any ideas from all this?

Mixing Genres, Styles & Angles

The examples we’ve covered so far have all been memoirs, but what if you’re writing an instructional book on how to be more successful or make more money, for example? Is there a way to get your message across without listing off a bunch of how-to’s, like other books in this space?

Ever heard of a little book titled Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill?

Hill doesn’t just tell the reader how to get rich. He shares stories of how other successful people achieved their fortunes in a way that each story highlights a specific lesson.

Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad is often though of as a how-to-get-rich book. But if you’ve read it, you know that Kiyosaki sneaks the reader information by contrasting lessons that his middle-class father taught him versus what his wealthy mentor “father” taught him.

Tim Ferris’s 4-Hour books are written in a way that, instead of just telling the reader what to do, his books are like a travelogue as he shares what he’s learning in real-time—getting in shape, building a business, learning to cook. In doing so, he shows the reader how they can deconstruct their own way to success.

Hopefully your brain is just flooding with ideas of how you can apply a unique hook to your own book. And I used these well-known books as examples to show you that these authors were nobody before they came up with the unique hooks that got them published.

My point being: You’re only one unique hook away.

And don’t limit your thinking to only these books. Feel free to search for other books, with styles or messages similar to yours, that you could borrow from. Just be sure to keep in mind the golden rule of books (and movies): It has to be interesting. It has to be entertaining. That’s the key.

This doesn’t mean car chases and explosions. It can be as simple as a refreshing take on an existing theme.

Maybe you can show readers how to lose weight, or build a business, or master cooking in only three-and-a-half hours per week. Perhaps you’ve got an Adderall addiction, but you don’t have a problem with it; you get a lot more accomplished this way. Or maybe you worked on Wall Street and didn’t screw people out of their money for once (actually this hook was turned into a story, Why I Left Goldman Sachs, by Greg Smith).

See how this works?

This might require a little mental sweat, but that’s what traditionally published authors do. We do the hard work that others won’t. So before you dive into the next section and begin writing your book proposal, do your homework and come up with a unique hook.

This will save you time in the end.

Speaking of which, if you haven’t already checked out my (free) four-part video course, you can watch it here. In the videos I go into even more detail, and provide more examples of how to choose a common genre and mix it with a unique hook to make your book more marketable.

Once you’ve chosen your genre, and your hook, then in the next section we’re going to use them to build your book proposal.