The Importance of Taglines

When you release a book, you often have to advertise on sites that have word limits, e.g. Thunderclap, Hootsuite and Twitter.

How do you do that, while adding everything you want to say?

The easiest way is to use tags and a dedicated tagline for your novel. The key is to keep it simple.

How do you do this?

So you want the tagline to represent the main focus of the story, ask a question or hint at a mystery. If your story is a hot, sexy 'Will they or won't they?' then you want your tagline to reflect that.

Here are some examples from the Simply Sexy Reads Catalogue:

Courage in the Kiss - All she needs is the courage...and one kiss.

Touched by a Vampire - Would you sacrifice everything for an eternity of love?

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How important are taglines? Well, turn on the TV and watch any advert. For every company, there is a short slogan - their version of a tagline.

Now, be honest. Is you hear "I'm Lovin' It" you think of McDonald's. If you hear "Every Little Helps" you think of Tesco. For Loreal, "You're Worth It".

Imagine if you could do that with your book. Imagine if you were able to add your tagline or slogan to a poster and instantly have people recognise that it meant your book.

Recognise these?

"May the odds be ever in your favour?"

"After all this time...Always."

Just because your tagline is a quote, like these are, doesn't make it ineffective. It makes it magical. These two quotes have marked an era of explosive YA novels being turned into movies. People have tattoos of these quotes, jewellery, cushions, iPad cases, posters and more, because these quotes are so iconic.

Now, the original books didn't have a set tagline, but they don't need them. Everyone in the world and their mother knows Harry Potter. They don't need a slogan or tagline to sell, but we can't all be that lucky. And, honestly, taglines and slogans make you stick out. They give you an edge.

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Look at these. Image a buy link at the end and tell me which one makes you want to know more about the book.

1

Courage in the Kiss

Coming Soon to Simply Sexy Reads

2015

2

Courage in the Kiss

All she needs is the courage...and one kiss.

Coming Soon to Simply Sexy Reads

2015

And, sure, you can say that adding a poster with a quote or teaser or your slogan would make a difference. True! Posters and pictures grab people's attentions, better than a paragraph of text. BUT!!! Sometimes, all you have is a space for text or you're on your phone and can't access your posters. This is the perfect time to use the slogan/tagline to your advantage.

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Don't underestimate the power of advertising. Everything that can be sold needs to be advertised. Everything that can be sold needs to have a marketing strategy and a "grab" for the audience. Your tagline and the image you want to portray of yourself will be your grab.

For more tips on how to advertise yourself, check out our previous post "How to Affectively Advertise Your Book".