So everyone I meet these days has been asking me how my book writing’s been going. So I’d just like to let everyone know right now that it’s been friggin’ awesome.
I blame peer pressure. It started out as a spur-of-the-moment declaration at an Awesome Anonymous meeting to write a small, simple ebook. It has since grown into plans for a full-fledged, analogy packed, complete guide that aims to change people’s lives (or at the very least, get their finances sorted out so they can focus on changing their own lives and the lives of others).
I’m so psyched that I’ve spent at least 3 nights a week working on the book for the past 3 months or so. I’ll blog more on my progress in the weeks/months to come, but first, I’ll need your help to help me decide on 3 things: The title, the subtitle, and the pitch.
I came up with these after going through the results from the recent survey, but I would love to hear your thoughts. Do they stand out for you and make you want to read more? Do they sound as scammy as “How to Get Rich By Becoming Wealthy Making Big Money in Real Estate”? If you saw the title in a bookstore, would you pick it up and/or buy it?
I’ve been blogging free financial advice for close to a year now, and I hope that I’ve helped you out at least a tiny bit in your personal finances. So I’d be super duper grateful if you could take 5 minutes to help me out too. 🙂
This is really important to me, so be brutally honest. Let me know if this is awesome, or if you have a totally different idea on how I should approach this. Leave a comment, or you can email me at cheerfulegg@gmail.com.
Ok, Let’s do this:
The Title
I’d like the title to be something eye-catching and different from the other sleazy investment books out there. I couldn’t really think of a better title other than the subcaption of my blog: Hatch a Rich Life. The word “hatch” is meant to speak to people who’re just starting out in their personal finances, while “rich life” is the eventual goal.
The Subtitle
I’ve got three options for the stuff that’s supposed to go with the main title. I.e:
“Hatch a Rich Life: _____;________”
Deciding on the subtitle might help if you take a look at the pitch first to get an idea of what the book is about (scroll down). And yes, I know that I use the word “sexy” and “awesome” a lot. I just wanted to convey that the book is targeted at an audience who’s a little cooler than crabby 50-year old men who spend all their time quibbling about “call options” and “stock warrants”. Not that I have anything against 50-year old men..
Subtitle 1. Build A Simple, Sexy, Self-Run Personal Finance System in 5 Weeks
Subtitle 2. A Personal Finance System For Young Sexy Singaporeans
Subtitle 3. A Simple, Sexy, Self-Run Personal Finance System for Young Singaporeans
Pitch
Think of this as what you’d read on the inside flap of the book. I’ll be using this to tell people what the book is about, and why it’ll be awesome for them.
Imagine waking up on a sunny Saturday morning to find that your robot slaves have been working hard for you while you slept. They’ve built up your savings account, paid off your credit card bills, saved you money in taxes, and invested your money into your early retirement portfolio, all without you lifting a finger. With your system taking care of all that boring “financey” stuff, you can now focus on taking over the world, cooking breakfast for mum and dad or… going back to sleep. Life is good.
Forget arbitrary financial advice and random stock tips. Hatch a Rich Life is a 5-week program to master your money and turn your financial life into a system – a simple, low-maintenance system that will put you way ahead of your friends on the path to a rich life.
I’ll cover the surprising truth on why most young Singaporeans are getting poorer every day. I’ll reveal exactly what you should save for and the most effective way to do it. You’ll discover the freedom of spending on the things you love without feeling guilty. You’ll learn how to dominate Wall Street professionals when it comes to investing. And finally, you’ll learn how to integrate everything into a set of autopilot systems that won’t take more than 15 minutes a year to maintain – leaving you time to focus on living an awesome, rich, life.
That’s It For Now!
Okay, that’s pretty much it for now. Again, please be brutally honest and let me know if this is something that speaks to you. Is this what you’d like to read about? Leave me a comment / email me. I’d love to hear from you 🙂
I LOVE it the blurb makes me want to buy it right now~ Extremely catchy. Draws me in, then confirms I’ll buy the book by the end. For the title, always been randomly confused by the ‘hatch a rich life’ line actually! But now you’ve explained the hatch bit oohh i get it. 😀 Also, I highly agree with the use of ‘sexy’. i like all subtitles! is there a quicker way to say them though? there’s a chance that ‘hatch’ and ‘sexy’ contrast a bit, cos hatch sounds very awww, baby chikins!! and sexy sounds raunchy. haha could just be me though.
I SO HARPY YOU WRITE BOOK
YAY thank you lyn 🙂 I’ll try to see if I can make the subtitles a little more concise. As to ‘hatch’ vs ‘sexy’ – i might need some help coming up with a different title then 🙂
Reading that. I want it now. As for titles, I’m useless. The subtitles are too long for me, and not really liking the hatch and sexy thing. But I’m one person. I’m useless at titles too, so sorry.
Thanks Jen for the tip! I’m trying to see if I can make the subtitles snappier. Let me know if anything crosses your mind!
Hi there, I like the title – clear and simple to understand, but has layers! Like an onion egg. 🙂
As per the prior posts, I’m not as keen on the subtitles as they seemed a bit wordy. Also not sure if you want to limit to Singapore? For e.g., I’m from Canada and have been following your blog for a bit. Overall I prefer the first subtitle.
I like your pitch! Creative, engaging, it’s great. Again, you may want to consider young people overall though, not just Singaporeans. My $0.02.
Hey! Thanks for the comment! Got you on making the book international. It’s just that some of the systems I’ve developed are highly localized and use processes that are unique to Singapore. It’s hard to talk about personal finance without going local to some extent (eg 401ks vs SRS accounts, etc).
Still, it’s a valid point. I might do an international version of the book, minus all the localized details if that works well 🙂
And got you on making the subtitles and posts less wordy – I’m working on the latter and trying not to get carried away when I write 🙂 any ideas on a snappier subtitle?
Makes sense! Re: wordiness, I think your blog posts are great as they are, to clarify, by previous posts I meant the previous comments on this particular post!! Sorry about that. The only thing I thought was wordy was the subtitle. As to ideas for that… I think you are onto something with the first one, maybe something like: A Sexy and Simple Personal Finance System in 5 Weeks?? You are a better wordsmith than I though!
I like it! Thanks for the suggestion – I might go with it actually! 🙂
🙂
Title: not sure (I have to admit that I never even noticed it on your blog, I was sold at cheerful egg :-)). I associate hatching more with a spiritual journey, not with cold-hard cash.
Subtitle: To long and do not use the word sexy! I totally belong to the group you want to appeal to, except that I don’t live in Singapore :-)(why do you limit it?) I would love an automated financial system where I would hardly have to lift a finger, but no way I would EVER consider that to be sexy. And it doesn’t have to be sexy, it has to be easy, practical and it has to work.
Therefore, I would strongly advice against the word sexy, it puts me off immediately. Finances may be sexy to you, but that is why you do it all day. Us non-financials don’t like it and never really will, and *if* I do like your system, I will be the one to determine whether it’s sexy or not…
Pitch: LOVED IT! I would really buy it based on that (although I might never have gotten to the blurb after reading the subtitle haha. (but I would remove the ‘I’ in the last paragraph and replace it either by your name or by this book, or this system or something other suitable but not I)
Hope this helps 🙂 Good luck with the writing!
Thanks a lot! I’ll keep that in mind 🙂