You are a writer.
You’re working to
- Sell your articles or book manuscript
- Build a blog following (if you’re a blogger), and
- Build your platform.
That means you spend a portion of your time
- Writing queries,
- Promoting your work, and
- Promoting yourself.
To do that you need to grab the reader’s attention (be it a public reader, magazine editor, book agent, or publisher) and hold it. In this noisy world, this is not an easy task. I’ve been struggling with it for way too long.
You and I will have more success at doing that by learning how to craft strong headlines.
Why do you need to learn this skill?
Beyond the obvious, every query needs to start with a strong lede—basically, a headline. At their core, most social media posts are headlines and serve the same purpose: to grab attention.
Usually I share resources by tweeting about them or sharing links on Facebook.
Today, I’m recommending one here on my blog because when I find something that dramatically improves what I do, I want to say more about it than a social media post can handle.
I believe “Why Headlines Fail” is a resource every writer can benefit from. For me, it made everything else I’d read about writing headlines come into focus.
“Why Headlines Fail” is a quick read—only 13 pages (and that includes front and back matter). In it, Sean D’Souza teaches 3 psychological triggers behind attracting a reader’s attention.
“How can you learn psychology in 13 pages?” I hear you asking. Because D’Souza is concise, straightforward, and fun.
Why does psychology matter? Knowing your reader’s “why” enables you to craft headlines (and more) that speak directly to your reader’s struggles and pain. She or he has a problem, and you are providing an answer, a solution.
I honestly believe if we as writers keep these three triggers in mind as we construct our advertising, marketing, blogs, queries, etc. we will have greater success in attracting readers (and traffic) and providing them with the answers they are looking for.
Don’t take my word for it. Find out for yourself whether the information in “Why Headlines Fail” will help you.
It’s a FREE resource. What’s better than that? If you don’t want to subscribe to the site, contact me at Deb[at]DebraLButterfield.com and I’ll send you the pdf.
After you’ve perused it, please consider coming back here and giving your opinion.
(Help me learn too! Did the headline for this post grab your attention? Why or why not?) Leave your comments below.
Nice sum-up from someone who’s been there, Debra. I only fear we’re all up against a law of diminishing return: the number of writers tends to increase faster than that of readers (which is ultimately limited). One writer per a thousand readers makes on average a thousand readers (potentially). Two writers trying to grab attention and trying to best one another still can’t have as many readers as the first lone wolf once had. And so on.
Oona, yes, those who were blogging in the baby era of the Internet definitely had an edge. But think niche. Not every reader reads horror, or mystery, or romance. Not every blog is for writers in general. There are many blogs out there on the same topic, but they reach a specific audience. Men, women, Gen X’ers. Define your audience tightly (I aim for women over 40, beginning writers who’ve never been published) rather than broadly (unpublished writers) and focus on catching their attention. Once you are well established within that niche, you can branch out. Hope that helps.