Author Marketing Experts has a very interesting newsletter that covers topics for writers and publishers. They do a good job in collating content from around the web that you might find interesting. Take a look at a recent newsletter here.
Has publishing a book been on your To-Do list for far too long? Then make 2013 the year it gets done! This webinar explains the strategy and process of taking your book idea from being just a glimmer in your eye to a real-live book on Amazon.com.
Attendees will learn:
* How to make your book work for you before it’s even written
* Publishing strategies that get your book to market fast
* How to make your book title drive website traffic and sales
* The 5-steps to writing a great book…really fast!
About your presenter: The 42Rules book series was started by long-time marketing executive, author and founder of Impact Marketing Group, Laura Lowell. Laura wanted to help experts write books and share their wisdom, while maintaining their current workload and lifestyle. Today, the 42Rules series outperforms industry standards for sales of independently published trade paperback book.
Join Laura Lowell on February 20, 2013 at 10:00 am PST. Register here!
Has publishing a book been on your To-Do list for far too long? Then make 2013 the year it gets done! This webinar explains the strategy and process of taking your book idea from being just a glimmer in your eye to a real-live book on Amazon.com.
Attendees will learn:
* How to make your book work for you before it’s even written
* Publishing strategies that get your book to market fast
* How to make your book title drive website traffic and sales
* The 5-steps to writing a great book…really fast!
Date and Time
Wed, Feb 20, 2013 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST
John Jantsch has written a great article “Does Every Consultant Need To Write A Book?” and it includes input from Guy Kawasaki. We agree with John on many points and think the article would be helpful if you’re considering writing a book to build your business.
How do you know if you’re using the correct acronym or abbreviation when you’re writing your book? You don’t know but Acronym Finder does. This nifty website has been online for years and it is very easy to use. It has more than 1,000,000 human-edited definitions and is free to visitors. Check it out!
The home of Colorado State University’s open access learning environment, the Writing Studio, is a fantastic resource for writers of all levels. Take a look at their Resource Index. It operates similar to a sitemap. Click a link to the left and on the right a list of links will appear. This is a comprehensive writing compendium of resources from A-Z!
Writer Daniel Scocco reviews The Dictionary of Worthless Words on Daily Writing Tips. As he points out that there are hundreds of books on word usage but next to none on words that are worthless! Click here to read the review.
Every writer needs a little help once in a while. It doesn’t matter if you are a new author or an experienced one you can always use the opportunity to polish your skills. Here comes the internet to your rescue.
There are many online writing workshops and we haven’t tried them but here are some of the most reputable organizations in case you want to check out their offerings.
Writer’s Digest University
Gotham Writer’s Workshop
The Writer’s Workshop
Writers.com
The other morning, I was dressing for work, feeding the dog, doing laundry, and making my daughter’s lunch. I leaned down to put on a pair of heels and felt a sharp ache in my back. The advice of my granny, who, while I was growing up, would frequently come up behind me, smack me between the shoulder blades, and issue the stern command “stand up straight!” reverberated loudly in my head.
I straightened up, put my shoulders back, and took a deep breath. I opted that day for a pair of flats. By paying attention to my posture that day, by the next, I was back in the proverbial saddle. As working moms, we carry many loads, both literally and figuratively. We lug around our babies, our toddlers, and sometimes even our school-aged kids. We carry groceries and load after load of laundry; we mop floors and scrub toilets; and cook gourmet meals. We take care of our kids when they are sick or heartsick, bored or delighted. We care for the family pets and often for a spouse or elderly parent. We keep family relations intact with our own siblings and parents, and sometimes our in-laws.
As employees, we carry a different load. We lug our laptops and other work-related items back and forth between meetings. We manage relationships with our bosses, employees, and co-workers. We carry the emotional weight of financially supporting a family. At the end of the day, after helping the kids with homework, dinner, teeth brushing, stories, kisses, excuses, and, finally, sleep, we log in again, to check e-mail and catch up on work.
As working moms, we take on multiple programs and problems, from volunteering at school and driving on field trips to running meetings and managing multi-million dollar projects. If we are lucky, we have a few hours a week to exercise, read a good book, or visit with beloved girlfriends. There is usually a sacrifice at work or at home that must be made to eke out those hours from our schedule.
If we are not careful, the physical and mental burdens that we carry every day, even though they bring us joy and satisfaction, pile up, and we find ourselves shrinking, slouching, hurting, ducking our heads, and not making eye contact with other humans.
Working moms, I am virtually smacking you between the shoulder blades! Stand Up Straight! Good posture is an important step in balancing the burdens of life!
Good posture makes us look and feel healthy, empowered, and in control. Standing tall makes us feel tall, and if we feel tall, we are tall! Straightening up and throwing back our shoulders brings about an almost instantaneous attitude adjustment and makes others perceive us as larger than life.
Good posture reduces strain on our muscles and spine, helps maximize energy and vitality, and helps prevent health issues as we age. And last, but certainly not least, another true benefit to good posture is that it makes our clothes look better and makes it more comfortable to wear killer shoes!
I find that if I take a moment, straighten up, throw my shoulders back, and take a deep breath, the burdens feel lighter, my body feels and looks better, and my attitude is transformed. Thanks, Granny.
(c) 2012. Regan MacPherson
Regan MacPherson is a single mom of a wonderful daughter, a pug and a cat, and is a full-time corporate attorney for a storage technology company in Silicon Valley.
Patricia Fry offers a frequently updated blog about publishing and writing that is a great resource for writers of all genres. You’ll find lots of great tips on how to sell more books. Take a look and let us know what you think!
After 12 years online, Writing.com has nearly 975,000 members and is still going strong. If you are looking for a community of writers, tools, advice and inspiration then you’ll want to take a look at Writing.com.
Love writing fiction? Register to write a novel in a month during National Novel Writing Month in November. November will be here before you know it and if you want the support to finish your novel fast sign up now to get ready!
If you need help with grammar we have the resource for you. The Guide to Grammar and Writing is sponsored by the Capital Community College Foundation, a nonprofit 501 c-3 organization that supports scholarships, faculty development, and curriculum innovation. There are dozens of guides that you would normally get when you go to college.
American Copy Editors Society has a great blog by Pam Nelson with lots of grammar rules explained and tips given. Take a look for yourself and sign up for the RSS feed.
Article marketing also known as “Article Syndication” is the marketing technique of submitting an article about the topic of your book or a chapter of your book to topic related sites on the internet. The types of sites you want to submit to are blogs, article newsgroups, article directories, forums and topic specific sites. You do not need to spin your article or chapter as search engines do not penalize articles that are syndicated to more than one site.
In return for using the article publishers allow you to add a biography and at least one link to your site to the end of your article. The best use of the link would be to create an opt-in form on that page to capture reader information. In return, you can provide them with another chapter of your book, a tipsheet or another article.
Once your article has been published tell people about it. Tell potential clients about it, link to it from your site and post the article link to your social networking sites. Published articles add to your credibility as a book author.
We have a love/hate relationship with acronyms. Doesn’t everyone? Common advice for writers is to avoid acronyms but you can use them if you have written out the full name first and put the acronym in parenthesis next to it. What if you don’t know the full name for the acronym? Look it up at Acronym Finder. They have over 1 million human edited definitions. This is a great resource every writer should bookmark.
There are so many grammatical rules to remember when writing your book but one that is often overlooked is when to use capitals. Thanks to the Grammar Book site we have 17 important capitalization rules. Read it for yourself at Grammar Book.
Thanks to Melissa Donovan of Writing Forward we have a list of tips to help writers improve their craft. This list covers many of the issues we discuss with our authors in the 42Rules writing program so we thought it would be helpful to share with you! You can read it at Writing Forward.
One of the best ways to promote your book is to get it reviewed by readers. It’s important to get feedback not only from experts in your field but also general readers who like the topic of the book. If part of your marketing plan is getting reviews then you should read “5 Mistakes To Avoid When Requesting A Book Review” at Publishing A Book Is An Adventure. The article offers some great advice to guide you to getting the most reviews possible.
“My consulting revenue has grown by 6 figures after my book was published. I was able to get more leads, close more business and increase my fees because I am an author.”
—Michael Griego author of “42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness”
If you are an entrepreneur, consultant, professional speaker or coach you spend a great deal of time marketing your products and services. Your goal is to get your message to as many potential customers as possible. But each year it becomes more difficult to differentiate yourself when so many of your competitors are trying to do the same thing.
You can become the recognized expert in your field and build a thriving business by writing a non-fiction book. A book isn’t just a book… it’s probably the most effective marketing tool out there for independent professionals. Your book is the platform from which you build your brand and your business. Here is a list of just a few of the ways our authors use their books to build their business:
Build a brand. Use your book as a branding tool. Create paid products and services on the same topic as the book. For example, your book could become an e-course, an audio book, a series of podcasts or radio shows, special reports, part of a book series, a teleclass, webinar or DVD.
Get more clients. There’s nothing like giving a book you wrote to a prospective client. In the “old days” we created expensive printed proposals with all sorts of graphics but a printed book is far more impressive and shows your potential client that you are an expert in your field. Close more deals by including a free book for every team member you will work with on the project.
Get free media coverage. Media outlets like newspapers, magazines, television, radio shows and blogs need a constant stream of new stories to keep readers engaged. Pitch your book to journalists for review and offer yourself as an interview subject. Chances are you, as an author, will receive much more coverage than someone without a book.
Make money. Sell your books on your website, bookstores and online book retailers. Take them to speaking engagements and sell them at the back of the room. Package your book with other products. Build an affiliate program and have your affiliates sell your book for you.
Increase your search engine rankings. The number one way to increase your search engine rankings is to have incoming links from a variety of reputable websites. Get these links by offering your book for free to online book reviewers and ask them to include a link to your website in the review.
The possibilities are endless when it comes to using a book to build your business. A good book can be used as a marketing tool for many years as long as it is relevant. Now that you know a book is the best marketing tool you can have what’s stopping you from writing one?
©2012, 42Rules, a Division of Impact Marketing Group. Reprints welcomed so long as the article is reprinted intact and all links are made live.
Author Laura Lowell is the creator and Executive Editor of the 42Rules™ book series. The 42Rules™ book series is founded on the belief that most subjects can be summarized into 42 distinct areas that capture a topic’s essence. Learn more about how you can become a 42Rules™ author by visiting http://42rules.com/write/ and follow our publishing blog for writers at http://42rules.com/blog/.
