Sixteen Words that Sell to the Sexes

Source: Dragon Slaying 101: How to Use Heroic Language to Battle Boring Copy | Copyblogger.

Source: Romance 101: How to Use Feminine Words That Sell | Copyblogger.

The Masculine, Heroic words:

• Battle / Fight
• Dragon
• Enemy / Nemesis
• Quest
• Treasure
• War

The Feminine, Romantic words:

• Love
• Heart
• Secret
• King, Queen, Prince, Princess, etc.
• Temptation / Forbidden
• Cloud, Moon, Stars, etc.
• Heaven / Paradise
• Kiss
• Virgin
• Magic / Enchanted / Bewitched

View the source posts for explanations. Bottom line: Know your target audience so you can write (and therefore sell) to your strengths.

Four example variations from the author:

Plain: “Solve Email Problems”
Heroic: “Battle Your Email Overload”
Romantic: “Love Your Email Inbox Again”

Plain: “Stop Procrastinating”
Heroic: “Defeat Procrastination”
Romantic: “Kiss Procrastination Goodbye”

Plain: “Advice to Help You Do Better”
Heroic: “Advice to Help You Win”
Romantic: “Advice to Make You a Star”

Plain: “Ditch Your Bad Habits”
Heroic: “Conquer Your Bad Habits”
Romantic: “Make Your Bad Habits Disappear Like Magic”

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Literary Agents Who Represent Christian Authors

Source: Literary Agents Who Represent Christian Authors.

Michael Hyatt couldn’t find a list of literary agents that represented Christian authors, so he compiled one. The last update (as of *this* post) was January 7th, 2010 and the original was posted way back in 2007, so he’s evidently keeping it up to date.

So, do you know who represents your favorite authors?

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The Teenreads.com 2009 Reader Survey answers the question: What Do Teens Want?

Source: What Do Teens Want? – 10/26/2009 – Publishers Weekly.

Fascinating. If you can read statistics without setting your head on fire, then by all means read through the source article. It is jam-packed with statistics, but there are a number of surprises inside like this one:

Not surprisingly, 83% of teens are influenced by their friends’ book recommendations. What did surprise us is that 52% were influenced by family members (perhaps their siblings), ahead of teachers (47%) and librarians (36%).

I really must read through this information again after my brain has had a chance to cool down.

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