Hey blog readers/ soon-to-be maybe book readers,
I. If I’ve learned anything in the business school at William and Mary it’s that students love to read books that are going to boost their selling potential in the job market as well as books regarding their success in the future. I’ve gotten many recommendations from teachers since high school on books about finance and success, how to market yourself, and how to improve your spending. One case in particular stands out to me. My junior year of high school I had a business law teacher who highly recommended a book entitled How to be a Millionaire, which was essentially a book on consumer spending and how to consumer responsibly. One of the major lessons in this book was to never purchase a brand new vehicle, due to the immediate depreciation once the car has be driven off the lot. To make a long story short, yes, I believe there is definitely market potential for a book regarding wise consumption. I myself would be very interested in a reading on how to improve my consumption, whether this be tips on economic, social or environmental conscious consumption or a combination of all three. I think that there is definitely enough information here worth something to readers that it can be an entire book on its own. I also believe that it would be highly interesting and highly valuable for a lot of people moving into the 2020s very soon. I think that more and more people are trying to orient themselves around better and more sustainable consumption, and depending on the price, I think that it would be very popular. Regarding your references to books about minimalism and finance, I think that a book about wise consumption could be a very interesting combination of the two and many others. This kind of book could be marketed to a wide variety of segments, including those looking to minimize consumption and simplify their lives and ease their minds, or those looking to spend less money and those who want to simply de-clutter in order to reduce consumption overall for the environment.
II. In terms of the attributes of the book, I suggest definitely having some research in there, but I don’t think it would be wise to overwhelm readers with citations and research. I don’t want to say that this can be boring, but yes I do think it could be boring to the masses and I want people to read the book for the betterment of the planet! Have the book be interesting but substantiated so that readers know what they’re reading has evidence and truth. The psychological background of consumer spending could be very interesting but I would keep in mind as well that your readers are the consumers you’ll be discussing and I almost feel like I might be insulted to read what a ridiculously overzealous consumer I am, so just be gentle. I also find it interesting when authors give their own backgrounds in the introduction of the book, just so that I can get a feel for you and your experience. What brought you here to writing this book? What prompted you to write it?
You could definitely identify the specific cases in your academic article! I really enjoyed how that was written with quotes and interviews from identified wise consumers. As aforementioned, I think it would be easy to slip into offending consumers and the way that the article was written really avoided that, because it was other consumers talking about their experiences as opposed to just researchers. This was a great format and I think it would be a really good idea to include some of that in the book as well. Maybe going into detail on the psychology behind all of those consumers decisions in a less scholarly fashion just to simplify the major ideas for the everyday reader.
I don’t love the idea of a workbook format but that’s just me. I think that a lot of people my age and older or younger would shy away from this. It almost feels like a journal that you could do yourself so why are you paying for blank pages in a book? That’s just my opinion though. I do think that maybe providing practice exercises at the end of every chapter could be helpful though. You can definitely give people goals before they go on in the reading or just to be mindful of for a week and see how it feels. These would be very practical goals that I think readers would be much more likely to read and then be conscious of while they’re shopping as opposed to ignoring the workbook pages, which is what I think I would do. My ma took an online class through Brown this past summer on happiness and instead of assigning “work work” as homework they simply gave her some ideas and practices to think about throughout the week and try to implement a little at a time. By the end of the program the exercises were a little bit more difficult and were encouraged for a longer period of time (i.e. listen to someone of the opposite political opinion speak without you thinking badly or interrupting them, just letting them say what they’re going to say before you question it and do this for the month).
I think that beneficial visuals like aesthetically pleasing charts could be good, otherwise I wouldn’t include pictures. I think people know what consumption is, they know how to shop etc. Unless the visual is bringing something else to the table, I wouldn’t include anything. It seems almost redundant unless its a product that people can’t imagine, then maybe provide a visual example.
III. Names are hard! I think that I would go with something more fun though that consumers are more likely to pick up. As much as we’re not supposed to judge books by their cover we all know that we do it and we do it all the time. Something with a funky cover could be really cool and then add a subtitle so people really know what you’re writing about. The only thing I can think of would be Do Better: How to Improve Consumption Habits in the 21st Century.
Lets get reading!
xoxo Lana