You’ve seen her. The woman who stands in the bookshop for ages, not impulse buying but impulse-picking-up. She hovers in the self-help section, handles a few books from the ‘recommended by our booksellers’ table, perhaps even runs her hand along a few spines on the shelf but usually goes with the ones that are facing out. As she picks up a few to take with her to the coffee shop, she wonders what the other shoppers make of her, based on the stack of books in her hands.
You watch her, and you think, I know you. I wrote my book for you. I really hope that you’ll read it.
But what makes her decide to actually go ahead and buy one or more of those books, ideally yours? Well there are a few things:
(1) The cover, of course - If it’s not a strong cover it probably won’t even make it into the stack on her bookshop cafe coffee table. This is mostly the publisher’s job, although some do involve the author for more than just approvals.
(2) The title and sub-title - does it sound like it will help her with something she has been struggling with, or support her in making a change she is wanting to make? And does the tone of it feel right for where she is right now?
(3) Quotes from other people saying what an amazing/powerful/moving/helpful/funny/unforgettable book it is, usually written on the front cover, back cover or inside front pages. We all love social proof. It helps us be confident in advance that the book will do what it says on the cover.
So far so obvious. But there is one thing people don’t talk much about, even though it plays a key role in turning the shopper from ‘browser’ to ‘reader’ (and not just any reader, but the kind of reader you have just spent years slaving over your book in order to help or inspire). It is this:
(4) The back cover copy or ‘blurb’
Just think about it. She picks up the book, looks over the cover, and then flips it over. She reads the back. If it doesn’t capture her imagination, it’s on the ‘return to shelf’ pile within a few seconds. But if the blurb is strong, and meets her exactly where she is in her life right now, it will either help her decide there and then that she wants it, or it will be enough to draw her in to the book itself, which is when the Contents page with powerful chapter titles, and the opening of the book itself really matter.
And of course, that’s just in my fantasy world where everyone buys their books from lovely independent booksellers. In truth most of the buying happens online, where the cover needs to work at one-inch high, and the reader might only glimpse at the blurb, and then make their decision based on the ratings, or simply ignore all that and just buy it because someone they trust told them they just have to read it, which brings us to (5) Reader ratings and (6) Personal recommendations which I’ll talk about another day.
When I write it like this it sounds a bit calculating but it really isn’t. When you write a self-help book, you bring your experience, your vulnerability, your mistakes, your life learnings and your very best work to a project that you have made sacrifices for over and over.
Book marketing is about making sure that your book, which you created with blood, sweat, tears, many months or years of your life, and so much heart, reaches the people who need it most - the very people you wrote it for.
Which means it has to appeal to those people themselves, or their family and friends who will see it and want to buy it for them knowing they will love it, or else the book cannot do its work in the world.
Which is where you come in.
Friends, I have a very important deadline. By Monday I have to submit the back cover description of my next book Kokoro: Japanese wisdom for a life well-lived to my publisher. (In lots of cases the marketing departments write this, but I prefer to do it myself, seeing as I know the book better than anyone at this point). It’s only a few lines, but it is everything in terms of getting the book to the people who don’t yet know that they are waiting for it. Once this is done, we can do the cover reveal, and start the long build up to publication on April 4 next year.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU
As a token of my gratitude for your generosity in taking the time to read this, and for sharing your thoughts on which of the options below speaks most strongly to you, I am offering a giveaway.
***UPDATE Nov 14: This giveaway is now closed. Huge thanks to everyone who commented and restacked with comments. What amazing insights! The winner, chosen at random is
Congratulations Jo! Please DM me via Instagram @bethkempton or email learning@dowhatyouloveforlife.com with your email address and I will make a note to ship your prize after Kokoro comes out in April.One person who leaves a comment on this essay or restacks it with a comment sharing your thoughts on which is best *by 9pm PST / midnight EST on Sun 12 Nov / 5am UK time on Mon 13 Nov 2023* will be chosen at random to win a personalised, signed first edition of Kokoro along with a pile of lovely things from Japan (yes there will be stationery). See right at the bottom of this post for the giveaway small print.
THE BACK STORY
As I explained in this post, when I finished my earlier book Wabi Sabi: Japanese wisdom for a perfectly imperfect life, I felt that something was not quite finished, and that led me the original idea for this book. When I pitched the idea to my publisher four years ago, the book proposal they bought was very different to the book I ended up submitting last week, which is called Kokoro: Japanese wisdom for a life well lived.
Kokoro was supposed to be a book about slow living with inspiration from rural Japan, and it was supposed to be book #3, but then the pandemic happened and Japan shut its borders for two years, and I wrote three other books while I was waiting (each of them changing me in some way), and my life was upended as I experienced the hardest year I have ever known, so it became a different, deeper and more profound book (which my editor is fine with, thank goodness).
Now Kokoro is done we have realised that the blurb we developed ages ago is all wrong, so we are rewriting it. Actually, I am rewriting it, and I have just heard they need it by Monday, eek. Rather than sitting around in my writing room alone wondering which one of the three I have come up with would be the best, I thought I’d ask you. Thank you in advance for your time and help with this.
THINGS TO NOTE
Kokoro specifically tracks my own midlife transition but supports life transitions of any kind.
Grief is a major theme, but ultimately it is intended to be an uplifting book to inspire the reader to make the most of their precious life.
I am a Japanologist by training have spent many years living and working in Japan. However I am super conscious of it not being the culture I was born into, so I take care to share ‘Japanese wisdom’ through my encounters with a host of Japanese people and applying the lessons to my own life and offering this to the reader, rather than trying to teach it as if it is my culture.
If you know the kind of self-help books that say ‘My life was a mess and then I did these three steps and it’s perfect now so read this book, follow these three steps and your life will be perfect too’ please know that this is not one of them! It’s much more subtle, exploratory, with memoir-style personal stories, dialogue, and journaling questions to help the reader reflect on their own life, but without one prescriptive answer or set of steps to follow. This is important to know for the blurb!
THE BLURBS TO VOTE ON
Please read the three blurbs below and then vote on which one you think is most compelling, and most makes you want to read Kokoro. (Don’t forget to also leave a comment with a sentence explaining why, or else restack with a comment, if you want to be entered into the giveaway). Note: The final blurb might end up being a mixture of these. I am just curious to see which one you think is strongest, and why. If there is a particular sentence that you find intriguing or which stands out, please let me know.
Option 1: The Mirror
Note: This is a mirror of the blurb used on my book Wabi Sabi, which has sold more than 300,000 copies. While Kokoro is a stand alone book, it is also (loosely) a follow up to Wabi Sabi so it makes sense to consider going with something like this.
心 kokoro [n.] intelligent heart, feeling mind
Kokoro presents a radical way of navigating the world and making the most of life inspired by a thousand years of Japanese wisdom. It offers a whole new way to think about time, which will help you let go of the past, worry less about the future, and live fully every single day.
The profound ancient Japanese term kokoro represents the intelligent heart, feeling mind and embodied spirit of every human being. Its timeless wisdom is more relevant than ever, as we search for our own true path amongst the chaos and pressures of modern life.
Join Japanologist Beth Kempton on this life-changing pilgrimage, as she carries the grief of losing her mother deep into the Japanese countryside, to one of the world’s strictest Zen temples and on to a remote trio of sacred mountains, encountering a host of wise teachers from all walks of life along the way.
This book is an invitation to cultivate stillness and contentment in an ever-changing, uncertain world. Drawing on Japanese literature, traditional and contemporary culture and philosophical ideas to explore the true nature of time and what it means to be human, Kokoro is a meditation on living well.
This deeply moving and transformative book will lead you to the heart of what really matters. A new awareness of impermanence to help you live fully each and every day, guided by the light in your own kokoro. Then, when the time comes to look back on it all, you will know that yours was a life well lived.
Option 2: The Mystery
One thread of the book is about me exploring the true nature of time and it opens with a kind of experiential koan, so I thought I’d try a more mysterious version to see if it works.
Kokoro is the story of discovering the heart’s wisdom. A tale of unravelling time.
One year. Two devastating losses. Three sacred Japanese mountains. A major life transition, a heart full of grief and an earthshattering revelation that changes everything.
Join Japanologist and bestselling author Beth Kempton on a pilgrimage through rural Japan in search of answers to some of life’s biggest questions, including what encountering death can teach us about living well. Along the way you will encounter contemporary pioneers and philosophers, the ghosts of ancestral thinkers and the spirits that inhabit the land.
In Kokoro you will discover why a trio of mountains in a remote and beautiful part of northern Japan hold the key to choosing a new path anytime we like, and what a thirteenth-century Zen Master can teach us about the nature of time. You will also learn how to tune in to and take care of your kokoro, and let it guide you daily as you cultivate a life well lived.
The kokoro – an ancient Japanese term which mysteriously translates as ‘heart-mind’ or ‘the intelligent heart’ - can help us sensitively navigate relationships and choose a life path of ease and freedom through the moment-to-moment decisions we make each and every day.
To explore the kokoro is to explore the very essence of what it means to be human in this tough yet devastatingly beautiful world. Inspired by a new awareness of impermanence, you will learn how to navigate any major life transition and live fully whatever comes your way.
Take care on this journey of a lifetime, as you discover how the light of your kokoro can guide you through anything, on a path to a life well lived.
Option 3: The (Mid)life transformation
This version focuses on what the book will do for the reader - the change they may see in their own life if they allow themselves to be inspired by the lessons in the book.
Could the key to living fully have been hiding in plain sight for a thousand years?
What if there was a different way to navigate life, one where you no longer waste time ruminating about the past or worrying so much about the future? One where you feel free to reinvent yourself anytime, released from the chains of expectation and the fear of judgement? One that allows you to weather the storm of any life transition and live fully every single day?
Well there is, and it all begins with the kokoro, an ancient and mysterious Japanese term which represents the intelligent heart, the feeling mind and the embodied spirit of every human being.
In this book, Japanologist Beth Kempton presents a radical way of navigating the world and making the most of your life inspired by a thousand years of Japanese wisdom. Kokoro is an invitation to cultivate stillness and contentment in an ever-changing, uncertain world.
The path of this book traces a devastating year in the author’s life, as a series of unexpected events unfolded just as she passed the threshold of statistical midlife. The experiences taught her vital lessons about the fragility of our existence, while reminding her to treasure what is precious and to trust in her own heart’s wisdom. It will inspire you to do the same, whatever life stage you are in.
Through a series of rich encounters in ancient cities and rural villages, with people from all walks of life – from Noh theatre actors to mountain ascetics, Zen monks to coffee shop owners - Kokoro is a meditation on impermanence and offers twelve inspiring principles for a life well lived.
When you learn to live guided by the light in your kokoro, everything changes, and anything is possible.
Thank you so much! I’ll let you know what ends up as the final version, and announce the giveaway winner on an updated version of this post soon after the deadline.
So grateful to you,
Beth Xx
UPDATE! In no small part thanks to your help, the blurb is now finalised and you can check it out here: KOKORO: Japanese wisdom for a life well lived. Kokoro will be out on April 4. If you pre-order your copy you can get free access to a beautiful seasonal writing sanctuary with me, called Spring Light. All the details are here.
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Giveaway small print:
Anyone over the age of 18 from anywhere in the world can enter this giveaway.
No purchase is necessary.
The winner will be chosen at random from amongst the comments left on this post and the comments attached to restacks of this post by the deadline given above. No correspondence will be entered into. Any individual can enter up to twice (by leaving a comment and by restacking with a comment).
The prize will be shipped after Kokoro is published on April 4, 2024.
There is no cash alternative.
Photo: Holly Bobbins Photography
They are all very good, but I voted for version 2 as that is what would get me to buy the book, but I think the best blurb is going to be a mixture of all three. I think the definition from version one should be there too! It sets the tone immediately, I think
I voted for number one as it spoke clearly to me and communicated what the book is about without unnecessary hype. It made me interested in buying it. The second sounded to me like a film promotion, while the third took more of a traditional self help line. Maybe the most straightforward version appeals to me because I live in Scotland where we flinch at anything that sounds too pretentious.