- Use a surprising image: Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time (more than 450,000 copies sold and translated into 23 languages).
- Imply the impossible: IttyBiz’s How to Make $12,246 In A Day
- Be Tweetable: A recent post on Skelliewag.org: Productivity in 11 words: One thing at a time. / Most important thing first. / Start now. (Retweeted a gajillion times – unofficial count.)
- Juxtapose concepts: How To Blog Like Shakespeare
- Create an unusual metaphor: “Love is like racing across the frozen tundra on a snowmobile which flips over, trapping you underneath. At night, the ice-weasels come.” — Matt Groening
- Controversial premise: How the Beatles Destroyed Rock and Roll
- Jargonize: Make up your own term or nickname for something.
- Be Seth Godin: Write cool manifestos
- Be funny: See #5
- Swear a little: Batshit Crazy: Creative Ways To Meet Your Goals
- Evoke a feeling: Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur
- Go negative: I Do Everything Wrong by Johnny B. Truant
- Be Free Free Free: Dave Navarro’s time management manifesto requires no sign up and is under a Creative Commons license to allow free sharing, remixing and reuse of his content.
- Never underestimate the power of story: Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Yeah, they’re corny. There are also 105 different titles at last count (and a brand of pet food) all built on simple uplifting stories.
- Make it concrete: This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?






Wow– Those WAYS are so enticing, it MAKES me want to write an e-book.
Thanks for the tips and the great examples!
Tatyana
Great post! I’m working on my first ebook right now. So I’ll incorporate these tips.