Let the Dummies Show You How to Write What SellsPublishers John Wiley & Sons release 200 new Dummies titles per year. By now the list is so extensive that it includes Alzheimer s for Dummies, Beekeeping for Dummies, and Napoleon for Dummies. Since the series started, it has sold more than 150 million copies. Obviously this publisher is no dummy, and you can learn from them how to write articles and books that sell. In an essay for the New York Times, Rachel Donadio pointed out some of the characteristics all the Dummies books have in common: goofy chapter headings lots of bullet points tips and lists corny humor Diane Steele, the publisher of the Dummies series, revealed, We address the reader as you you can, next you do this we don t talk about we. She also noted, We don t use future tense, we don t use passive voice, we don t have long chapters. As you ll see if you look at several books in the series, they also feature cartoons, lots of sidebars, and graphics or icons that identify items of particular importance. Reading these books is a lot more like reading a series of magazine feature articles than an academic tome. The result is a very reader-friendly approach that sells and sells, and that shows you how many of today s readers want to process information. If you write in the self-help arena, or about hobbies, or even about history, education, or science, you will increase the appeal of your articles and books by learning from dummies. ACTION: The next time you write an article or a book proposal, consider how dummifying it could make it more appealing to the reader and the editor or publisher.
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