It’s what you LEAVE OUT of your book that makes it a bestseller. Let me explain.
After a long three-year wait, I moved into my new home a few months ago, a Nightingale Housing apartment designed by Breathe Architecture.
And you know what I love most about it? All the stuff that isn’t there! That’s right. What makes my apartment block’s design brilliant is everything they left out – just as what will make your book brilliant is what you choose not to include.
For example: the building has a central “light well” that provides almost every apartment with cross breezes in the summer and acts as a cooling tower for the whole building. No need for air con.
I don’t have a laundry or a bath in my flat; I share a laundry and a Japanese-style bathhouse with other residents on the rooftop, which also has gardens and BBQs. That leaves more room inside my home for the things that really matter.
I also have a huge balcony. The front of the building is tiered like a wedding cake, preserving light and space for us and for the street below. Another developer would have crammed in more apartments, chasing profit.
But Nightingale and Breathe understand their audience. They don’t mind who DOESN’T buy their developments – they care deeply about the people who DO. We are people who make our flats a home, not just an investment, and who build a community around us.
If you commit to your audience in the same way for your book – and don’t worry about who does not read it – you’ll know what to leave out.
And you’ll create raving fans, just as I am for Nightingale Housing and Breathe.