Excerpts, making the most of them
Project Type: N/A
I was checking out an excerpt this morning and thought perhaps a few
pointers were in order – from a readers point of view.
So I’m checking out this great excerpt – book and author shall remain
nameless – and it’s really good, so half way through, I’m wondering when
does this book come out, I can’t wait to read it!
I scroll back up….. nothing but the title there. Disappointed, I finished
reading, ready to slap down my credit card the moment the book is
available…. and find in the jumble of legal jargon at the bottom when the
book comes out.
So, my readerly advice.. 
At the very top of your excerpt page, give us
the title, your name, the ISBN, publisher/line, WHEN THE BOOK IS AVAILABLE,
a link to preorder or buy. And don’t forget the cover if you’ve got it.
Why do I want all that stuff? So I can print it out of course and take it
with me to the store! Don’t assume your readers are going to remember your
name. They might not even remember the title. They’ll remember the
excerpt, the premise of the book, but there’s no telling how much help the
local bookstore clerk will be in helping your reader find your book.
You’ve got a webpage, and true, the info may be elsewhere on the site, but
you want to think of each page as the only page your reader will print out.
That doesn’t mean to clutter it up and put tons of info on there. Respect
your reader and her time. Make it easy for her to find what she’s looking
for, print it out, and buy your book.
Luckily, the afore mentioned book comes out next month which is great for
me…. even if I did have to go digging.
Here’s another pointer. If you’ve got a ton of graphics on your site,
consider making your excerpt pages plainer. Stick with your colors, but
don’t have lots of graphical links and images on there. That’s not going to
save people ink.
Sprinkle reviews throughout your excerpt. An example of this would be Dale
Ketcham’s excerpt page (www.daleketcham.com). Think of them as pull quotes
in a magazine.
Also, post your cover again, maybe even two times. A small cover sprinkled
throughout will imprint the image in your readers brain.
And one more thing to consider on an excerpts page, Top | Bottom page links.
Make use of the anchor tags. If you’ve got a long excerpt, there’s no
telling when your reader will want to zoom to the bottom or top of the page.
Remember to sprinkle some navigation links throughout, but pick wisely.
Remember not to clutter.