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I’ve got a little secret to share. What if I told you that marketing and selling your books might be a lot easier than you think? You may not believe me, but here’s the secret. Sometimes people don’t need much convincing to buy a book. Sometimes they need only one little reason, and nothing more.

For example, how many times have you ever waited to buy a book until you could stop by a library or bookstore and read through half of the chapters first? Probably never. How many times have you ever bought a book without reading one page of it? Probably a lot. I bet you’ve even bought a book without ever holding it in your hands. That’s because you heard the author speak about it at an event or got a word-of-mouth recommendation that drove you to make the purchase online.

Many people will buy a book without ever seeing the content. They just need one convincing reason to buy. As an author, you can create these persuasive reasons that tip the buying scale in your favor. What’s the trick? Develop “built-in book marketing tools,” which are nuggets of content designed to spike reader interest that any author, including fiction, can deliberately place into a manuscript. How do you create an effective book marketing tool? Follow these three guidelines:

1. A built-in book marketing tool is a concise segment of content that provides the reader with immediate value – and I stress the word “immediate.” The user must receive direct benefit in that moment to capture his or her interest. Benefits could include learning something new, solving a problem, getting behind-the-scenes access, or enjoying humor.

2. A built-in book marketing tool must consist of specific content that the reader can appreciate as-is. The tool must be self-contained and able to provide value independent of the book itself. You don’t want your marketing tool to require another step in order for the reader to experience value, or they’ll think you’re pulling a bait-and-switch. Thus your tool won’t create the intended result to drive sales. Make sure the tool can impress people on its own.

3. A built-in book marketing tool should be written in a format that’s easy for readers to forward to others. You insert the content into your manuscript. But you will get greater response if you also turn the same tool into a separate promotional piece outside of your book, such as a handout, website quiz, free article, checklist, appendix, photo section, resource guide, etc. When you put these tools in a portable format, you enable people to spread word of mouth and drive sales.

* For a detailed list of 15 different types of book marketing tools that any author can use, check out the new resource from Writer’s Digest by Rob Eagar called Sell Your Book Like Wildfire.

One of the challenges writers face when writing a novel is balancing scene with summary. Today’s tip of the day focuses on what you should not include when summarizing a scene or event. Plus, try your hand at writing summary with a free exercise from Novel Shortcuts.

When To Write Summaries Versus Scenes

Writing summary does not mean starting at the moment the last scene ended and covering everything that happens up to the moment the next scene begins. You only need to include those things that are significant to [the story]. There is a lot the readers will assume.

5 Things You Don’t Need To Include When Writing Summaries

1. Uneventful travel. People walking out of rooms or riding, walking, or flying to a new location. Unless there’s something important about the way they got to the next place, leave it out.
2. Home-life maintenance. If you don’t say what happened the rest of the night, readers will assume that normal things took place: sleeping, reading, and watching television.
3. Workday maintenance. We know that the lawyer will probably have meetings, take phone calls, and read briefs. We’ll assume the teacher will give lessons, grade papers, and have coffee in the staff lounge. No need to even skim over that stuff unless doing so helps your story.
4. Relationship maintenance. If you skip how your hero kisses his wife and kids when he gets home, what he says to them, and the look on this face during dinner, readers will assume that his relationships are rolling along as before.
5. Ongoing emotions already stated. If you describe your protagonist being depressed and skip telling us her frame of mind between breakfast and dinner, readers will assume she continued to act depressed. No need to repeat or fortify this idea unless it helps the story.

Try This: A Summary Writing Exercise

Take a year of your life and try summarizing it into one paragraph. See if you find the most significant aspects to highlight. What changed that year? What would someone need to know in order for the next year of your life to make sense? Read it to someone else and see if they get a sense of that shortened journey through time. If you have trouble with a year of your own life, try summarizing a year of someone else’s life, a season of your favorite TV drama or comedy, a season for your favorite sports team. Repeat until ease sets in.

This excerpt comes from Laura Whitcomb’s book, Novel Shortcuts. Learn more about her book on novel writing and read an exclusive author interview. Plus, don’t miss out on these online writing workshops that focus on the novel:

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