How to write your book's promise

What a promise is, and what it is not

The Scribe Method's chapter on book positioning defines positioning as the place your book holds in the reader's mind, and boils it down to the question every reader asks: "Why should I read this book?" The chapter's core point is that readers care about what the book can do for them, not about the book itself. It also says that poor positioning cannot be rescued by strong writing or marketing.

The promise is your answer to that question. It is not:

• The topic. "A book about leadership" tells the reader the shelf, not the benefit.
• Your credentials. "Lessons from 30 years in retail" is about you. It can support the promise but cannot be it.
• Your method's name. "The Seven Pillars Framework" means nothing to someone who has not read the book yet.

A promise is a change in the reader. Everything else is evidence that you can deliver it.

Write the before and the after

The simplest way to find your promise is to describe the reader at two moments.

Before: what do they believe, feel, struggle with or get wrong when they pick up the book? Use your reader profile, especially the problem in their own words and what they have already tried.

After: what can they do, decide, stop doing or understand when they finish? This is the half that needs the most work, because it is where vague words creep in.

The gap between the two is the book. If the gap is tiny, you have an article. If it is enormous ("from broke to financially free"), you will struggle to deliver it, and readers will notice.

The printable promise worksheet has space for both halves and the statement below.

Make the after concrete

Most first drafts of a promise sound like this: "Readers will be happier, more confident and more successful." Every self-help book could say that. A reader cannot tell from it whether this book is for them.

A concrete after has at least one thing a reader could check. Compare:

A few tests for your after:

• Could a reader tell whether it happened? "Confident" is hard to check. "Asks for the sale on the first call" is not.
• Does it use the reader's words? If your reader would never say "optimize their operational cadence", neither should your promise.
• Is it within the reader's control? Promise what they can do, not outcomes that depend on markets, bosses or luck.
• Can your book deliver it? If the after needs a year of coaching, the book can promise the first step, not the finish line.

The book idea starter flags an after that leans on two or more stock words such as "better", "happier", "successful", "transform" or "potential" without anything specific alongside them.

Turn it into a positioning statement

Once you have the before and after, combine them with your reader and your reason for writing. The Scribe Method's North Star check uses one sentence: I will use my book to target [primary audience] by teaching them [book idea], which leads to my goal of more [objectives]. It asks whether the sentence is clear and specific, aligned with your expertise, and actionable enough to guide writing and marketing.

We find it useful to write a second, reader-facing version that leaves out your goal:

The first version keeps you honest about why you are writing. The second is the raw material for your subtitle, your back cover and the first page of your introduction.

Keeping the promise inside the book

A promise is not only marketing. It is a structural rule: every chapter should move the reader from before toward after. When you outline, write the promise at the top of the page and check each chapter against it. A chapter that does not serve it either needs a new job or belongs in a different book.

Some authors build the promise into the reader's actions. Timothy Arrigo drew on the work behind his company, which his story on scribemedia.com puts at 5,000+ "Clients behind the method at Beyond Driven", and built daily "Practices built into the book" so readers work through it in sequence rather than only reading it. That is one author's approach, not a rule, but it shows the idea: if the promise is a change in behavior, the book should give the reader something to do.

What most people get wrong

• Promising everything. Wealth, health and happiness in one book reads as no promise at all. Pick the one change your reader wants most.
• Hiding the promise. If the reader has to get to chapter three to learn what the book will do for them, many will not get there.
• Overpromising. A promise the book cannot keep turns into one-star reviews. Promise the change most readers can get by doing the work.
• Making the promise about the author. "My journey from X to Y" is a promise only if the reader wants to make the same journey. In a memoir the promise is different: an experience and an insight, not a skill. See choosing the kind of book.
• Writing it once and forgetting it. Revisit the promise after you have talked to real readers. Their words usually make it sharper.

When the promise is clear, the next step is to check it with readers: see how to test a book idea before you write it. If you would like a coach to work on positioning with you, Scribe Media, which makes this site, sells Scribe Compass for $5,000 (scribemedia.com/pricing).