I've been reading "Free Prize Inside," a book by marketing guru Seth Godin. It's about how to make your product or service so remarkable that people will want it for whatever makes it so special--he calls this "the prize inside," referring to the fact that as kids we were more interested in the little prize in a box of cereal than we were in the cereal itself.
Generally, he says, this feature is about what we want, not what we need. As he points out, nobody buys a Rolex because they just want to know the time.
What I like about the book is that it doesn't just say 'be remarkable,' it also gives a long list of strategies that you can use. Naturally you have to do some thinking about how these principles might apply to whatever you're doing--for example, to how they could make a book stand out in the marketplace. Here are a few of the ideas:
* use a network to connect the users of your project (for a book, you could build a website with a forum on which readers can continue the conversation)
* treat different customers differently (you could do two editions of your book--a "cheapskate's version" and a "living large" version--would be interesting to see which sells better)
* unbundle the project (for an e-book, you could allow people to select only the chapters they really want, and pay by the chapter)
In the book, you'll find dozens more to explore, and you'll find more information at www.sethgodin.com.
