How to Craft Memorable 1-Liners About Your Book

In a marketing group I'm part of someone asked us all to share memorable one-liners about our products. In my case, that's books.

So, I shared a 1-liner from my second book that has been:

1) turned into countless memes shared by both consumers and prestigious organizations

2) quoted by experts in their books

3) often reposted today -- even though the book is 10 years old this year.

Here's the line (forget about punctuation, it's all one thought):

"Trauma creates change you don't choose. Healing creates change you do choose."

Truthfully, the line was not marketing-engineered.

I just naturally wrote it and then started saying it in my speeches and interviews because in a very short, compact way it told the whole fundamental transformation my book offered.

After that conversation someone messaged me asking how I'd developed such a powerfully resonant and long-lasting line.

Which got me to thinking...

What is it about that line that has given it such a long life?

When we reverse engineer things we can develop forumulas.

So... I studied the line, and if I had to sum up what works about it, it's this 2-part framework:

1) How prospective clients/readers feel about who they are [in my case, POWERLESS] -->

2) How they want to feel about who they are [in my case, POWERFUL]

The line targets their deepest emotional experience + desire.

All of us here write books that offer transformations.

Whether that's

@Julie Broad

in her leadership to help self-published authors succeed,

@Heather Lyn

in her quest to help children, or

@Johan Olwage

in his book about shopping center management.

As NF authors we have the opportunity to directly impact how people and communities transform from one thing to another. What a gift!

I hope this little formula is useful in helping others write 1-liners that last. If it is, definitely share them with me. We're all in this together. 💪🙏🤩

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