This pyramid of attention determines the success of your book

We think in linear stories: first this, then that, then that. It’s logical. But it’s not how your book will succeed.

A potential reader hearing about your book will give you a tiny sliver of attention. Your job is to expand that to the point where they are open to your ideas. That takes pyramidal thinking.

The pyramid of attention

Consider the pyramid of attention, shown here. This is how you take an instant of attention and turn it into a conduit to get your ideas into the brain of your reader.

Let’s examine the elements of the pyramid in order. I’ll use my book Writing Without Bullshit as an example, but the same applies to every successful nonfiction book you’ve ever heard of.

Title

The job of the title is to intrigue you. It rarely carries much in the way of meaning until people know more.

Writing Without Bullshit has proven to be a good title from that perspective. It never fails to get a wry smile from people. They’d like to know what’s in the book: that’s all a title can accomplish.

Brainstorming book titles can be an endless task. Just ask yourself three questions.

1. Is it memorable and intriguing?
2. Does it connect to the ideas in the book?
3. Is it unique, or is somebody else already using it?

If it makes you pause long enough to read the subtitle, it’s done its job.

Subtitle

The subtitle explains the content of the book in more detail than the title. It should get people to think, “Hey, maybe that’s a book I should read.”

The subtitle of Writing Without Bullshit is “Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean.” That tells you it’s a book of business advice (as opposed to a manual for writing novels) and that it will be direct. That’s sufficient. It doesn’t talk about passive voice or creativity or brevity or any of the other topics in the book. There’s no space for that.

If it makes you think “I want to learn more about this book,” it’s done its job.

Marketing copy

The marketing copy appears on the bookflap, if your book has a dust jacket, or on the back of the book. It also appears in the description in online bookstores like Amazon. It has to grab you in the first few sentences and then make promises about what the book will do.

Here is the marketing copy for Writing Without Bullshit:

Every day at work, you write. Are you writing to stand out, or writing to fit in?

Writing Without Bullshit is the first comprehensive guide to writing for today’s world: a noisy environment where everyone reads what you write on a screen. The average news story now gets only 36 seconds of attention. Unless you change how you write, your emails, reports, and web copy don’t stand a chance.

In this practical and witty little book, you’ll learn to front-load your writing with pithy titles, subject lines, and opening sentences. You’ll acquire the courage and skill to purge weak and meaningless jargon, wimpy passive voice, and cowardly weasel words. And you’ll get used to writing directly to the reader to make every word count.

At the center of it all is the Iron Imperative: treat the reader’s time as more valuable than your own. Embrace that, and your customers, your boss, and your colleagues will recognize the power and boldness of your thinking.

Transcend the fear that makes your writing weak. Plan and execute writing projects with confidence. Manage edits and reviews flawlessly. And master every modern format, from emails and social media to reports and press releases.

Writing Without Bullshit is The Elements of Style for the Internet era, an essential tonic for the career of every serious businessperson.

Marketing copy does a lot in a small space. It tells what the book is (“the first comprehensive guide to writing for today’s world”), promises useful content (“front-load your writing,” “purge weak and meaningless jargon,” and so on), and teases an idea (“The Iron Imperative”).

If it makes you want to read the book, it’s done its job.

Opening paragraphs of the book

If you’ve succeeded in getting a reader interested, they’ll start reading the book. In a physical bookstore, they might read the first few paragraphs. In an online bookstore, they might “look inside the book.”

Here are the first few paragraphs of Writing Without Bullshit:

Chapter 1. Transcend bullshit

The tide of bullshit is rising.

Your email inbox is full of irrelevant, poorly written crap. Your boss talks in jargon and clichés. The Web sites you read are impenetrable and incomprehensible.

Bullshit is a burden on all of us, keeping us from getting useful work done.

Technology has made it breathtakingly easy for anybody to create content and distribute it to thousands of people. Unfortunately, nobody told those creators what it takes to create good content, so we’re stuck wading through a deluge of drivel.

You know this is a problem. I’m here to tell you that it’s also an opportunity.

Imagine for a moment that you could write boldly, clearly, and powerfully every time you sat down at the keyboard. When your email showed up in your colleagues’ inboxes, it would pop. Reports you wrote would get people to sit up and take notice. Customers would respond to your marketing copy. You’d earn a reputation as a straight-talker.

Why aren’t you doing this yet? I know why. I’ve worked with thousands of people just like you, people who work in an office and need to communicate in their jobs. Here’s what’s stopping them — and you — from clearing away the bullshit and writing clearly.

Your book might start with a story, or a call to action like this. What matters is that it starts with something compelling. That’s why I don’t like books that start with “Introduction.” Your haven’t won the reader over yet, and Introductions tend to be about you, not about their problems.

The job of the the start of the book is to get you to read chapter 1. If it gets you to buy the book and read Chapter 1, it’s done its job.

Chapter 1

We’re used to starting stories at the beginning. That’s too slow.

Chapter 1 of a business book needs to be the “scare the crap out of you” chapter. It has to make the case that the book is a compelling read, identify the problem, explain why it’s a crucial issue, outline the solution, and promise a lot more useful information. That’s a lot to cram into one chapter, but you don’t have the luxury of assuming the reader will read on. You have to lay out the premise of the whole book in that first chapter.

The job of Chapter 1 is to get you to read the rest of the book. If it does that, it has succeeded.

Whew!

So the title teases the subtitle which gets you to read the marketing copy which compels you to look at the opening which gets you to read Chapter 1 which gets you hooked on the rest of the book.

Why not just write a book so great everyone wants to read it? Why all the attention-mongering?

Because people are busy. They don’t know about your book. And their default is to give up and move on.

Unless you use the pyramid of attention, you lose. They don’t read what you wrote. They won’t learn what you’re teaching. And they won’t tell anyone else about the book, because they never got the compelling invitation to read it.

Everything has to be front-loaded.

It’s not how people usually think of telling a story. But it’s essential if you want your book to succeed.