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Does it, though? I assume you mean "Billion Dollar Muslim: Why We Need Spiritually Inspired Entrepreneurs". It clearly makes mistake #3: "writing broadly abou

by kjksf 6y ago

Does it, though? I assume you mean "Billion Dollar Muslim: Why We Need Spiritually Inspired Entrepreneurs". It clearly makes mistake #3: "writing broadly about the topic instead of making a clear promise about what the reader will get out of it". What is "clear promise about what the reader will get out of it" in "Billion Dollar Muslim"? Frankly, based on the title I don't see why I should read it, even if I'm somewhat interested in entrepreneurship. "Why We Need Spiritually Inspired Entrepreneurs" never occurred to me as a question worth answering. Not the way "how to increase sales?" is a question I might be interested in knowing the answer to. BTW: you website has expired SSL certificate so the main source of promoting your book is as good as gone.

yesenadam 6y ago
> What is "clear promise about what the reader will get out of it" in "Billion Dollar Muslim"? Uh, it promises to explain Why We Need Spiritually Inspired Entrepreneurs. I don't think the book needs to appeal to you to count as a clear promise the reader will get something out of it! You could object in the same way to a book called "How to Draw in Charcoal", how "Frankly, based on the title I don't see why I should read it".
- strken 6y ago
  There isn't a book out there that doesn't promise to show its contents to the reader. If we're dividing books into those with a clear promise vs those which are broadly about an area, compare and contrast "How to Draw in Charcoal" with "Thousand Dollar Artist: Why We Need Charcoal Drawings".
  - yesenadam 6y ago
    > There isn't a book out there that doesn't promise to show its contents to the reader. I think I don't understand that, but it seems massively wrong (e.g. my favourite book is called Essays) and I have no idea what you were trying to communicate. I can't see what exactly I'm supposed to do with the second sentence either. Sorry.
krmmalik 6y ago
I gave up marketing the book two years ago after trying for nearly 3 years. SSL certificate I will check out. That must be recent as the site has been running fine for years. You might have a point about the promise of the book, but that depends on whether your muslim or not. Most muslims who come across it, understand the premise immediately, but still, you might have a point there.
- rjyoungling 6y ago
  Did you use beta readers? This is just one of our posts. We talk more about the mechanics of useful books here.¹ Unfortunately, if it's not organically growing, it's not getting word of mouth, and if it's not getting word of mouth, it's just not that useful. Either people don't have the problem you think they have, your book doesn't solve it, or the audience isn't right (in which case people don't run into people they can recommend the book to.) Notes ¹ https://writeusefulbooks.com/resources/designing-nonfiction-for-reader-recommendations/ https://writeusefulbooks.com/resources/designing-nonfiction-...
p1necone 6y ago
Just going off the title this sounds very niche. How many people take this kind of self help stuff seriously, and how many also value spirituality? The subtitle even says "for muslim engineers" (which I'm sure is a fairly large group, but still).

by kjksf 6y ago

yesenadam 6y ago

> What is "clear promise about what the reader will get out of it" in "Billion Dollar Muslim"? Uh, it promises to explain Why We Need Spiritually Inspired Entrepreneurs. I don't think the book needs to appeal to you to count as a clear promise the reader will get something out of it! You could object in the same way to a book called "How to Draw in Charcoal", how "Frankly, based on the title I don't see why I should read it".

strken 6y ago
There isn't a book out there that doesn't promise to show its contents to the reader. If we're dividing books into those with a clear promise vs those which are broadly about an area, compare and contrast "How to Draw in Charcoal" with "Thousand Dollar Artist: Why We Need Charcoal Drawings".
- yesenadam 6y ago
  > There isn't a book out there that doesn't promise to show its contents to the reader. I think I don't understand that, but it seems massively wrong (e.g. my favourite book is called Essays) and I have no idea what you were trying to communicate. I can't see what exactly I'm supposed to do with the second sentence either. Sorry.

krmmalik 6y ago

I gave up marketing the book two years ago after trying for nearly 3 years. SSL certificate I will check out. That must be recent as the site has been running fine for years. You might have a point about the promise of the book, but that depends on whether your muslim or not. Most muslims who come across it, understand the premise immediately, but still, you might have a point there.

rjyoungling 6y ago
Did you use beta readers? This is just one of our posts. We talk more about the mechanics of useful books here.¹ Unfortunately, if it's not organically growing, it's not getting word of mouth, and if it's not getting word of mouth, it's just not that useful. Either people don't have the problem you think they have, your book doesn't solve it, or the audience isn't right (in which case people don't run into people they can recommend the book to.) Notes ¹ https://writeusefulbooks.com/resources/designing-nonfiction-for-reader-recommendations/ https://writeusefulbooks.com/resources/designing-nonfiction-...

p1necone 6y ago

Just going off the title this sounds very niche. How many people take this kind of self help stuff seriously, and how many also value spirituality? The subtitle even says "for muslim engineers" (which I'm sure is a fairly large group, but still).