The Book Blueprint Scorecard is a way of positioning where you are across the eight mindsets that lead to a fantastic book. In previous posts, we have spoken about the first 2 mindsets:
”A specific target market” and
”a title that resonates”
The 3rd mindset on the scorecard revolves around creating and amplifying subheadings.
It is often the case that people look at the subheading as a chance to stuff keywords in as an SEO tactic in hopes of attracting more leads. The 3rd mindset shies away from this tactic; instead of keyword stuffing, it endeavors to build upon the title organically.
For example, we produced a book titled ‘The Listing Agent Lifestyle.’ The subheading that accompanied it was ‘The Future of Real Estate is Better Than You Think.’ Those words amplify the title instead of choosing a subheading along the lines of ‘the Listing Agent Lifestyle and How You can Find all of the Sells and Buys You Need.’ which feels like we are trying to sell something extra on top of what the heading is saying.
There are exceptions to this when the title might be a standalone word or short phrase that will make no sense unless the context is given. having an amplifying subheading in a way that doesn’t add more words to the title. It just makes the title resonate even more. That’s fine, up until the point that your title doesn’t work when it stands alone by itself. It needs a subtitle to support it.
Stages Of The Mindset
score 1-3
At the low end of the spectrum, this score is for someone who has not yet considered a subheading for their book or may opt not to have one.
score 4-6
In the middle spectrum(4-6), the subheading will talk more about you than the problem the book is solving. Sometimes, the title will be right on the money and resonates extremely well with the reader. Still, the author may use the subheading to reinforce themselves and establish themselves as experts. This approach often doesn’t succeed and is too on the nose.
score 7-9
The upper-level spectrum(7-9) includes a quite descriptive subheading but doesn’t amplify the challenge or the problem in the title. As mentioned above, it adds words without substantial weight to the title.
score 10
The last element of the spectrum of this mindset is when you have a strong subtitle that builds on the promise in the title and amplifies the benefits and outcomes they’ll experience.
key Takeaway
As with all the Book Blueprint mindsets, you’ll find you are more advanced in some than others, but the main thing we’re trying to achieve here is helping you make the most of each element that makes up your book. if you haven’t, check out our previous posts on the mindsets. click here to listen to the podcast this post stems from.
