Write Well Me

Guest Post: What happens when your ebook is passed around?

2010-02-08T08:57:00-05:00

by Stephanie Chandler

One of the questions I am most commonly asked is, “If I sell my book in ebook format, how I can prevent it from getting forwarded around?”

Here’s what happens (and the source of so much fear around this subject):
- Someone buys your ebook and downloads it in PDF.
- They like it so much, they forward to three friends who didn’t pay for the content.
- The three friends like it so much, that they forward it to three more friends each.
- And so on…

Guess what just happened? You just landed 12 new fans of your work!

True, they didn’t pay for the right to read your materials, and that stinks. But if your material was good enough to be shared, then you have just gained exposure with a new audience. And those new readers are now familiar with the quality of your work and will be far more likely to invest in other products and services that you offer.

It’s really no different than a library book. If you have authored a traditional book, anyone can go check it out from the local library for free OR purchase your book and then loan it to a friend. That friend didn’t pay for the right to read your book, but once again, you’ve just gained a new fan.

While new technologies are emerging that promise to protect your digital content, I personally feel that it is more trouble than it is worth. My digital ebooks, reports, workbooks, etc. create a nice revenue stream for my business. Do I think it’s fair that some people receive a copy from a friend, even though it wasn’t paid for? No, it’s not fair. But I don’t stay up at night worrying about all that lost revenue.

If someone feels compelled to forward my materials around, then I will gladly reap the rewards of a new audience. This is why it is so important to create more products and services the compliment your core product or book–so that you have other revenue-generators in your arsenal of products. If a reader likes one, there is a good chance that they are going to like others (and ultimately pay for them).

The music industry is currently figuring this out. While digital downloads of music are being commodotized, and thus cost far less, and songs are being swapped and shared online for free, musicians are uncovering a whole new audience that wouldn’t have otherwise become fans of their music. In turn, the market is shifting and bands are discovering that a good percentage of their income can be made from live concert tours instead of the traditional record sales model. Smart bands are turning this shift into an opportunity.

So if you can stop viewing the swapping of your content as lost revenue and instead see the opportunity, your revenue potential can be even greater!

Stephanie Chandler is an author of several business and marketing books, including LEAP! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business and From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products. She is also founder and CEO of AuthorityPublishing.com, which provides custom book publishing and internet marketing services. For hundreds of resources for entrepreneurs, visit BusinessInfoGuide.com.

What If Your Writing

2010-02-02T09:40:46-05:00

As a writer, you might find yourself stuck - at the beginning (can't even get started), in the middle (where the heck do I go now), or at the end (is this really a good ending) of whatever you're writing. There are all sorts of techniques to get past writer's block, but it's even more than that.

Writers are usually voracious readers, so you're probably pretty familiar with all the formulas and structures out there. Think about watching a horror movie nowadays. Don't you just know the bad guy, whom everyone assumes is dead, is going to pop up for one last attempt at the good guys? The first few times it was done, it was a twist; it was a shock. Now it's simply overdone. Audiences come to expect it.

You might find as you're writing that everything seems as if it's been done before. This 8-step program for success? You're sure it's already been done. This how-to guide for financial intelligence? A million books out there. This fiction story on vampires? Yeah, it's been done (a BILLION times).

But your idea is a great one. You're passionate about it. You have something to share in this area that no one else does. You've taken what's already out there and put your own spin on it.

Think of it this way. How many diet books come out each year? Just one? Nope. More like a dozen. And if there are a dozen new diet books published this year, does that mean there won't be a need for any next year? Nope again. Every diet book is a little different. They all have their own technique, strategy, or formula, and the authors want to share with you.

To make sure your own writing is fresh and new, put a what if spin on it. Come up with as many possibilities to the following questions and then see where you go. You want to try for 10. I know that sounds hard, but if you set a goal for at least 10, then your brain is going to try to meet that goal. And you never know what lovely possibilities you might find.

What if my readers were able to take this information and improve their lives? What could they do? This helps you clarify your purpose and perhaps create even more content to answer to that purpose.

What if my book became a best-seller? What would that mean to you and your life? More importantly, what do you need to do to make that happen? What resources do you need?

What if my main character ________? Fill in the blank and then answer as many as you can for each derivation of the question.

What if writing this book was easy? How would that change the whole process for you? And how hard are you actually making it on yourself?

What if I went deeper in this section? How deeply could I go? Sometimes we don't go deeply enough into our message and purpose (for nonfiction) or expand a scene enough (for fiction). Go deep. And then go deeper. You can always contract and edit out later if it's too much.

What if you extended your market to _____? Yes, I always talk about narrowing your market, but what if you came up with other industries or markets who would want your book?

What if the book ended this way? Come up with as many endings as possible and see which one tickles you - and maybe even surprises you.

Try combining some of those what-if possibilities together. Think outside the margin. Create something amazing and new, even if it's a diet book. Or, heaven forbid, yet another vampire book.

Guest Post: Build Your Marketing Platform

2010-01-25T06:22:00-05:00

By Gail Martin

Whether you're an author or a speaker or the owner of a small business, you have something to say. That means you need a platform-a niche that showcases your expertise.

No one is born with a platform-but great ones can be built. Here are some tips to get you started.

Define your target audience in detail. You can't hit a target if you don't know what it is. No product/service is perfect for everyone.

Define your specific platform goals. Do you want to: 1) Drive traffic to a consulting business; 2) Drive sales of information products; 3) Create more lucrative speaking opportunities; 4) Establish yourself as a recognized expert/thought leader; 5) Be asked to create joint ventures and/or serve on advisory boards or leadership roles?

Find places your audience is already congregating and go there first. It's easier to go where they're already meeting than to woo them to your new location. Start locally, grow to regional and Internet venues, and expand to national opportunities.

Understand the need your presentation fills for your target audience. Go beyond the immediate problem to the pain and fear.

Create a proprietary system to get repeatable results based on your body of knowledge. People want a system, not a general understanding.

Look at logical spin-offs for greater revenue potential, such as information products, live or virtual classes, workshops and retreats, special coaching packages, product/service bundles and collaborations.

Establish your voice. Think about how you want to be perceived and the impression you want to leave, then make sure that every form of communication reinforces that perception.

Add value. How can you make it easier for your prospects/clients to succeed? What extras can you provide to create the perception of providing a great value?

Remain visible. Commit to the time it takes to build and nurture a following. Go for qualified followers, not just numbers.

Create a web presence that matches and reinforces your voice and platform. This includes your web site, blog, Twitter, social media sites and online forum participation.

Reach out by offering yourself to speak and for media interviews. Compile your own list, and connect via Help Out A Reporter, National Speakers Association, eSpeaker.com, etc.

Pioneer your own success with booking speaking engagements, then engage a booking agent or virtual assistant to help you go further.

Put these tips to work and start building a platform to make your voice heard!

Gail Z. Martin owns DreamSpinner Communications and helps companies and solo professionals in the U.S. and Canada save money and get results through exceptional writing and marketing. Gail hosts the Shared Dreams Marketing Podcast and the Shared Dreams Become Reality group on Facebook. She is also the author of The Summoner, The Blood King and Dark Haven fantasy adventure novels in the Chronicles of the Necromancer series. Her newest book is The Thrifty Author’s Guide to Launching Your Book Without Losing Your Mind. Find Gail online at http://www.DreamSpinnerCommunications.com and on Twitter at GailMartinPR.

Gail is also the author of the Solopreneur Survival Guide home study course and suite of products for start-up and small businesses, coaches, consultants and speaker/authors.

I Don't Want to Write, and You Can't Make Me

2010-01-18T08:39:00-05:00

The statistic that writing coaches, book marketing coaches, and write-a-book-in-a-weekend programs love to shout to the world is that 80% of people say they want to write a book.

What do you think the key word is in that statistic?

"Want." They want to write a book. The number of people who actually start - and finish - a book is much, much lower. Why is that? If so many people want to write a book and that's on most people's list of what they want to accomplish in their lifetime, why doesn't it happen?

Because the fantasy is much more lovely than the actual doing.

It sounds so wonderful to say, "I would love to write a book some day." You put it out there in that wishful, far-away timeframe, and that's where it stays. No pressure. No one screaming at you to get it done. No quota of pages or words per day. A lovely daydream to turn to when work gets boring or your mother-in-law/mother/pick-a-relative drones on and on about her latest cough/cold/itch.

The truth is that writing a book is hard work. I don't mean the actual putting on paper words and sentences. What's hard is taking consistent action, even when you don't feel like it.

And there will be those days, maybe many of them, where you - just - don't - want - to - write.

I'm a big believer in following your energy, as in you'd rather write now than clean the cat litter box, so do it. Or your soul is crying out for a walk around the lake. Do that.

But following your energy doesn't mean giving into that "I don't wanna write" whine. Sure, there may be times where your creative and productive energy isn't there. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about when you establish that you're going to write four times a week, and morning #1 comes, and you're just not feeling inspired.

That whole "I can't write if I'm not inspired" is just part of the writing a book fantasy, too, by the way. It's something all writers face, and it's the successful ones who write anyway.

If you find yourself not wanting to write, try something new.

Open a book on writing. Anywhere. Read. You can't help but get ideas.
Apply those ideas concretely. Create a worksheet, timeline, storyboard, or a mind map.
Read a book in your genre or category. Pay attention to how it's structured. Think about how you can apply that to your own work-in-progress.
Rearrange your office. Change things around.
Declutter, clear out, organize, and throw away. You'll be surprised at what comes into the space you've just made.
Go somewhere (mountains, lake, park, Starbucks). It all feels fresh and exciting and makes you WANT to write.

"Isn't that just putting things off?" you ask. As long as you write, no. If you're planning and plotting the structure of your book, that's writing. Now, if you're rearranging your office for the third time this week, reading five books on writing, and still not writing a single word, then there might be an issue.

Not writing isn't necessarily procrastination. Think of it as energy management and helping to move your energy toward writing.

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. ~ Jack London

I can't explain inspiration. A writer is either compelled to write or not. And if I waited for inspiration I wouldn't really be a writer. ~ Toni Morrison

I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at nine o'clock every morning. ~ William Faulkner

31 Days of Self-care - 1/13/10

2010-01-13T07:07:17-05:00

Sometimes we just don't give ourselves credit. I can beat myself up and up and up over all sorts of things, and lately the beating is around how much I'm NOT writing. Of course, I wrote three times last week, including one long outing on Thursday, and I've already written twice this week - and it's only Wednesday. :)

I track the number of words I write at each sitting. I don't have a word goal for each session. Heck, just writing is goal enough. When I looked at today's number, I realized I've doubled the word content of the story I'm working on in the last two months, AND I know how the story will end. And I'm very close.

Just looking at the big picture and acknowledging how far I've come makes beating myself up look pretty stupid in retrospect (as it probably always should - but "should" is a topic for another self-care day".

I've Got the Writing Rhythm and Blues

2010-01-11T08:31:00-05:00

As I talk with my coaching clients and work with people in my programs, the self-criticisms and struggles of gotta write, "Just do it," and feeling not good enough abound.

As writers, it's what we all struggle with.

"Am I good enough?"

"I should just stop what I'm doing right now and give up this ridiculous idea."

"Now that I'm committed to this project, I'm not having any fun. When you're writing about something you're passionate about, isn't it supposed to be fun?"

Writing isn't easy. Oh, the crafting of words and putting them together isn't hard, but writing professionally isn't as easy as it looks. Especially when we create in our heads what a Real Writer looks like.

Real Writer sits down at his mahogany desk. He pulls out either a notepad with delicious paper and a calligraphy pen or an old-fashioned manual typewriter. He takes a sip of expensive French coffee, flexes his fingers, and -- writes. For two, six, eight (whatever seems right in our personal epic imagination) hours, he writes. At the end of the requisite writing time, he puts down the pen or covers his typewriter and flexes his fingers for the final time. He leans back in his high-backed leather chair, pleased with the book he's just finished, his, oh, let's just peg it at his hundredth book.

And writing never seems to come that easy to you as it does to Real Writer. Maybe that's because Real Writer is a fiction. He doesn't exist. And you should stop holding him up as the model for what writing looks like.

There is no one Real Writer. There's you, and me, and that writer over there, and the hundreds of thousands of other writers across the globe. And writing for each of us looks different. For me, writing might look like playing with creative strategies to work through a plot snag. Recently, that took the form of drawing a street map. Is that writing? Yep! Because it got me clearer in what was going on in the story and what I needed to convey.

For someone else it might look like research. If one is writing about how women, ages 25-59, are taking an independent, stronger role in their finances, then the writer probably is doing a lot of data gathering and interviewing of women in that age group. Is that writing? Yes, indeed it is.

So, if you're feeling stuck, unsure of your next step, or a lack of confidence in your writing ability, purpose, or just general low feeling (which is much more common than you might think), here are some ways to get out of those writing rhythm and blues.

Understand that writing is a process. Writing might look like staring out a window, drawing maps, researching. It might also look like going over and over your plot structure or outline until you're happy with it. Before you've even written a single paragraph.
Embrace the creativity. The minute you sit down and feel like you should emulate Real Writer above, you're in trouble. Let the creativity flow, in whatever manner it needs to.
Just do it. Unfortunately, sometimes that's what it comes down to. The thing isn't going to write itself, and you do need to devote time to your writing project.
Create a structured writing time. Don't wait for inspiration to strike or for the whole thing to magically write itself in your head so that then it's easy to transcribe from your head to paper or screen. Create a writing schedule and - write.
Adjust when necessary. Just because you create the structured writing time doesn't mean that it's written in stone. Maybe you find that you don't really have energy at 6:00 p.m. and so you have to find a different time to write. Maybe you need two or three big blocks of writing time instead of smaller blocks every day. Find what works for you and adjust as necessary.
Be kind to yourself. You are a writer. Your process works for you. You are not Real Writer. No one is. Stop holding yourself up to that as a model. Ease into your role as a writer and be gentle with yourself.

The best thing you can do is to flow with the writing rhythm and blues. Let the melody of your writing life carry you. Don't fight it and don't try to create someone else's music.