The Tip Sheet

My publisher had me create a "Tip sheet."

A tip sheet is what the publisher's sales people use to market your book.
This is before you have submitted your full manuscript to the publisher, so what they've seen so far are just bits and pieces of the work.
This can lead to all sorts of mis-interpretations and back and forth.

The trouble I have is that my characters are police-related search and rescue people. They may investigate things, but they are not "sleuths." I have already lost count of the number of times I've said: "It's not a mystery." Those that design the documents that are intended to assist sales staff are big into categories. For example: Oh, it's a female sleuth. I say: No, not really, no one is dead. So it's a cute dog story? Well, not directly. It's not intended to be cute.
It will made me a little crazy.

First thing you have to come up with is a description and from there you create a sales "hook."

The description is 200 words max that is what goes on Amazon and will resemble what eventually appears on the back cover.

It answers questions like

• Who is your character?
• What makes them unique?
• What happens to them? What is their mission/quest in this book?
• What is at stake? What could go wrong if the quest is not successful (being vague and scary is ok here).

The hook is the description condensed down to two action packed sentences.

The one for Pursuits Unknown is or was (I don't have access to it any further):

Amy, a search-and-rescue agent, and her telepathic kelpie-shepherd mix dog Lars locate a missing scientist who is reported to have an Alzheimer’s-like disease, only to discover that someone wants to steal his research for potentially ominous purposes.

Then you get to come up with selling points for your book. Mine are:

• Forty-four percent of Americans own a dog
• 43 million households own a dog
• Dog Ownership Up 29% in Past Decade
• More Millennials own pets than Baby Boomers, yet as Baby Boomers age the likelihood of their getting a pet increases, and they are spending more on their pets.
• BarkBox’s Facebook “Dog Mom Rap” has had over 58 million views
https://www.facebook.com/barkbox/videos/1373890232647024/
• There is a lack of dog-related fiction, especially science fiction

Now you get to think about who your audience it.
Mine is varied, but is basically:

• Dog-owning adults
• Science fiction fans
• Tech geeks

I had to intervene about putting mystery readers in the list. There is some cross-over, but I don't know if you can rely on them.

You have to write a short 4-5 sentence bio for yourself.

Any social media presence you're willing to share. I'm still struggling with what to do on this.

Your author website if you have one. What is hilarious is that I know how to do web design, but I'm going to pay to have a basic one done, because I'm starting a new job and won't have time.

Then the harder part. You have to come up with a list of sales comparative titles, but they can't be best sellers. This drove me crazy. With the help of a friend we finally came up with three. The big problem is later on, your publicist will want comparative titles but they can be best sellers.

 Then a list of keywords that will help someone searching for your book.
   dog, telepathy, dog behavior, dog learning, police procedural, etc, etc.

Plus "Blurbs" which are short statement of people who have read your book. Most of the time you won't have any at this point.

And lastly, you should choose a list of three BISACs.
Which means: Book Industry Standards and Communications
Which is a number associated with the subject category of your book.
I choose these but they got changed later:

FIC028010      FICTION / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure
FIC031010      FICTION / Thrillers / Crime
FIC009100      FICTION / Fantasy / Action & Adventure
FIC067000      FICTION / Animals