Anne H. Janzer's Blog, page 25
October 10, 2018
How to Improve Your Technical Explanations [Video]
In this Femgineer video, Poornima Vijayashanker and I discuss techniques for being understood when you’re writing or speaking about abstract topics. Highlights include:
Getting over your misconceptions about using story
Balancing brevity and repetition
Dumbing down vs. being clear
The video covers topics from my book Writing to Be Understood. If you like the video, check out the book!
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October 9, 2018
Humor in Otherwise Serious Nonfiction Writing
Let’s have a serious talk about humor.
It’s tough to do well. It can be controversial. And it may land with a thud in business or nonfiction writing, particularly across cultural contexts.
And yet … the careful application of humor catches the reader’s attention, sustains their interest, and, if done well, earns their trust.
Many of my favorite nonfiction authors use humor to varying degrees, even when writing about topics that are not inherently funny. A few that come to mind include:
Michael Lewis – financial disasters
Neil deGrasse Tyson – astrophysics
Mary Roach – dead bodies, digestion, etc.
These writers aren’t comedians—they’re great communicators who use humor as one of many strategies to connect with readers.
If it works for them, it may work for you, whether you write fiction or nonfiction.
For advice on using humor in nonfiction and business writing, I turned to my friend Kathy Klotz-Guest. Kathy is an author, speaker, storytelling strategist, and improvisational comedian.
In addition, she’s a genuinely fun and funny person. She generously shared with me some of her thoughts on nonfiction writing.
The Biggest Misconception about Using Humor in Writing
It’s not all jokes and gags. In fact, you can be subtle. Kathy offers great advice:
“Many people fundamentally misunderstand humor. Everyone thinks, I have to be funny. Reframe that idea to I need a sense of fun, curiosity, and levity. Making people smile might be enough.”
Aim for fun, not funny, and see what happens. Approach a topic with a playful mindset. Kathy says, “Your audience is looking for you to connect with them. I’m convinced that most of us have a sense of fun.”
So, what’s funny? Look in the mirror.
Kathy says, “Human beings are fallible creatures. The easiest way to have fun is to speak the truth because the truth is often funny. Humor is all about the truth.”
For writers, if you speak the truth about yourself, approaching your vulnerabilities and foibles with a sense of fun, you can forge a connection with readers, earning their trust. Metaphor, similes, and honest stories can go a long way here.
Explaining with Humor
Kathy believes that humor offers an important entry into explaining and humanizing difficult or abstract topics. “You can’t explain complexity with more complexity. Humor and fun simplify and humanize topics.”
Improv and Empathy
Most often, humor fails when you don’t understand the audience.
Did I mention that Kathy is an improvisational comedian and teaches the art to others? That background contributes to her communication skills.
According to Kathy, “The core tenets of my improv faith (ha!) are saying Yes and and making my scene partner look good.”
Saying yes and in an improv scene means you accept what the partner offers and build on it. To make the scene partner look good, one refrains from grabbing the spotlight while offering something funny for the other person to work with.
Writers, too, must understand, accept, and build on what the reader brings to a topic. Says Kathy, “In improv, I anticipate what the other person needs. That applies to writing as well. What do my readers already know, and what do they need to know?”
To make the reader look good, consider their perspectives and help them arrive at the right conclusions: “You can tell people things, but they must arrive at their own aha themselves.”
Find out more about Kathy on her website, KeepingItHuman.
Check out her book Stop Boring Me.
For more on varied nonfiction writing techniques, see Writing to Be Understood: What Works and Why.
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October 3, 2018
Explaining Technical Concepts: Why It Matters [On Femgineer TV]
As a big fan of Poornima Vijayashanker and her the work she does helping techies develop their careers, I was thrilled to have the chance to chat with her on the latest episode of on her Femgineer TV channel.
The subject was the topic of my latest book, Writing to Be Understood, and how those concepts apply to people when they talk about technology with others.
These are a few of the topics covered:
Why people are bad at explaining technical concepts using simple language
Why we assume our audience knows what we’re talking about
The three questions to ask yourself about your audience before you communicate with them
Why over-explaining isn’t helpful either and being brief is better
Watch it here.
Better yet, subscribe to the Femgineer Youtube Channel to catch all of these videos. If you work in tech, they’re a gold mine.
The post Explaining Technical Concepts: Why It Matters [On Femgineer TV] appeared first on Anne Janzer.
October 2, 2018
Pay What You Want Pricing – A Book Review
Short Version
The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing: How You Can Share Your Work and Still Make a Profit by Tom Morkes has inspired me to experiment with this pricing model in my own business. It’s filled with solid, practical advice. Check it out.
The Long Version
There’s an old (really old) joke about the perils of pricing:
Seller: “I’m selling this for less than it cost me.”
Customer: “But how can you afford to do that?”
Seller: “I’ll make it up on volume.”
Pricing challenges every business. For people starting out on consulting, coaching, or online businesses, pricing is a tremendous hurdle.
In The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing, Tom Morkes offers another pricing option: let customers pay what they feel the service is worth – and what they can afford.
(Let’s save time and call it PWYW for Pay What You Want.)
Although the strategy sounds simple, getting it right takes some thought. This book lays out the psychology and method behind this pricing strategy.
Because I blog for both subscription businesses and authors, let’s look at the book from both angles.
The Subscription Angle
Loss leaders (products sold below cost) work in retail settings if you can cross-sell the customer once they’re in the store. But for subscription businesses in long-term relationships with customers, pricing failures can be fatal.
Charge too little, and you gradually bleed to death. Or, you have to course correct, either raising prices or stripping value (or both). And subscribers leave. I refer you to the tale of MoviePass.
Charge too much, and the subscribers leave or never subscribe.
A successful subscription business sets prices that match (or fall below) the customer’s experienced value.
But people are different. We value the same products or services differently.
Richard Reisman advocates for a more sophisticated pricing model, FairPay, in which the buyer and seller negotiate for perceived value of a solution. I love this idea. Read about it in his book FairPay: Adaptively Win-Win Customer Relationships. (See my review here.)
For individual consultants, solopreneurs, and small businesses, implementing this negotiated online pricing is a technical challenge to pull off, at least while we’re all using the same standard payment systems. Morkes offers a simpler approach.
It may not make sense to use PWYW pricing for your core subscription offering, but you could could try variations on it:
Offer bonus material to existing subscribers using this model
Try it to test the market for a new offering, for a limited time
For Authors
Many authors I know are really authorpreneurs – people building businesses around their writing. Like all small businesses, we struggle to figure out how to price our offerings. We want to share our ideas and escape the dark cloud of obscurity that surrounds us, yet also need to make a living.
Implementing a PWYW strategy isn’t just about monetizing your products. It’s about building and sustaining relationships with loyal followers, and getting exposure. It’s a marketing strategy, if you already have or are building a loyal audience.
The book includes plenty of examples from authors, bloggers, artists and more to spark your imagination.
What I Love About the Book
The book is grounded in the psychology of this pricing model. For example, it stresses the importance of anchoring the potential price range with suggested prices.
Generosity is another important factor in this equation. Morkes writes of using the PWYW pricing model for something that he had previously given away for free. He realized that by giving the work away, he wasn’t allowing his most loyal fans to support him.
“The most generous thing we can do as human beings is give OTHERS the chance to be generous. Simply by asking for help, accepting a donation, or letting people contribute to our work, we give them the gift of letting others be generous.”
PWYW is powerful marketing strategy if you have a loyal audience.
This pricing strategy won’t apply equally well to every product. The book suggests the five requirements of a successful offering. For example, it works best in situations in which you already have a strong relationship with the buyer. (I’m looking at you, subscription providers.)
The book also offers six steps for successfully pitching the model, including being very clear about the offer and anchoring the price. Examples from businesses as varied as video games, authors, musicians, and consultants show how this works in real life.
It’s not for every solution or every situation. Yet the book has inspired me to implement a pay-what-you-want pricing model for a new online course I’m considering.
Read it and see if if inspires you as well.
This book and online course are part of the Side Hustle Toolbox – a collection of online resources that can help you build a second, dream business. It’s only available through October 8, so if this looks good to you, get it now.
Check out the entire toolbox here.
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September 25, 2018
Revising for Cognitive Ease
Every writer faces similar questions when revising their words:
How much revision does this need?
How much time am I willing to put into it?
When is the piece “good enough”?
Can I hand it off to someone else to edit, clean up, and take care of?
You only know when you’ve done enough if have a clear objective for the revision process. Focus on what you’re trying to achieve in the revision: the reader’s fluency and comprehension.
A piece is good enough when it works for the reader.
Cognitive Ease and Strain
According to the College Board, makers of Advanced Placement (AP) tests, the English Language and Composition test measures “reading comprehension of rhetorically and topically diverse texts.” Put simply, stressed-out high school students are asked to read long, complicated passages and then answer questions about them.
The tests include excerpts from famous historians, scientists, politicians, and other respected writers. The passages are chosen to induce cognitive strain. They are not inherently easy to understand.
Don’t put your readers through a similar grind. In the business context, induce a sense of cognitive ease, making it as effortless as possible for readers to understand the text.
The revision process is your best chance to eliminate cognitive strain.
Revision isn’t about making yourself look good, or landing a spot as a featured author on an AP test. Revise for the reader’s sake.
If the topic you’re writing about is complicated and dense, make sure that your words don’t make understanding more difficult. Don’t put cognitive hurdles in the reader’s path. Word choices and sentence construction can either help or hinder comprehension.
Consider the Reader’s Brain
Combining written words into coherent sentences is a difficult task for computers, in part because many words have multiple meanings.
For example, the word part in the previous sentence could be a noun (be a part of something) or a verb (as in, part the Red Sea). In this case, it functioned as a component of the expression in part. Your brain probably figured that out quickly. Usually, the correct meaning is so obvious that we do not notice possible alternatives. This processing happens in the background.
A computer may iterate through a sentence several times to derive the right meaning. In developing programs that recognize spoken language, computer scientists and linguists have been learn-ing from each other how we, as readers, decode the text that we read. Writers can benefit from these findings.
As we read, we navigate the different ways that a sentence could be assembled, and then put it all together to determine if it makes sense. We choose the most likely alternative for the sentence meaning and keep reading (or parsing, in computer terms).
If we reach a point at which the meaning isn’t working, we stop, backtrack, and try an alternative meaning for what we’ve read.
Search out those places where someone might backtrack, so your readers don’t encounter them.
Sentences that force readers to turn back are called garden path sentences. The name refers to the saying that to mislead someone is to “take them down the garden path.” A classic example is:
The old man the boats
When you reach the boats, you double back and realize that the subject is the old (as in old people) instead of the old man.
It only takes a moment. In that moment, you face unnecessary cognitive strain.
Every time we have to stop and reread, no matter how briefly, we disrupt the reading and comprehension process. We become less engaged with the meaning of the text, distracted by the effort to reassemble the sentences to make sense.
The curse of knowledge dictates that these garden path sentences will slip right past you as the writer, because you know what you were trying to say. You set out reading with the correct interpretation already in your mind.
External editors or third parties can find them more easily, but you should still search them out. By looking for problematic sentences during the revision phase, you practice getting outside your own head and into those of others.
This post is an excerpt from my business writing book, The Workplace Writer’s Process. The book is on sale for $2.99 on Kindle through October.
If you’re struggling with revision, check out my course on Revising Your Writing.
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September 20, 2018
A Subscription Marketing Manifesto
Effective marketing in the Subscription Economy requires a shift in mindset. Make the commitment to do things differently.
I have a subscription or membership component to my business, even if the subscription isn’t part of the actual revenue model. I recognize that relationships are the most important competitive differentiator my business can have.
I’m building something for the long haul. Whenever I’m tempted to pursue short-term gains at the expense of my subscribers, I resist.
Instead of focusing only on how fast I can grow, I look at whether I’m attracting the right subscribers – the ones who get the most value from my business.
I try to add value to every interaction with subscribers—even mundane interactions like shipping notices or welcome emails.
I make it easy for subscribers to leave if and when they need to. I don’t hide the Unsubscribe button, and am quick to honor their requests to leave.
I listen to existing subscribers. Although I cannot act on all of their feedback, I hear and thank them.
I spend as much time thinking about how to best serve existing customers as I do about getting new ones.
Download the manifesto as a PDF
For more of the ideas behind the manifesto, see the book Subscription Marketing: Strategies for Nurturing Customers in a World of Churn.
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September 17, 2018
The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan [A Book Review]
Short Version
The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan by Stephanie Chandler and Karl W. Palachuk is a comprehensive guide to publishing a nonfiction book, filled with great advice for indie authors. This is now my go-to book to recommend to new and aspiring nonfiction authors.
Long version
When I decided to self-publish my first book in late 2014, I read everything I could find on the subject. Some of it was helpful, some was terrible.
One book that guided me was Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch’s APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur – How to Publish a Book. Published in 2012, it was still useful in late 2014. The world of publishing changes pretty quickly. Even then, it didn’t answer all of my questions. I’ve been learning about being an independent publisher ever since.
Today, there’s much more information available. You might even say that there’s too much – not all helpful to the nonfiction author. Much of what you’ll find is focused on churning out genre fiction. You can find a lot of advice along the lines of: “I did it this way, so this is THE way to do it.”
That’s a red flag.
In nonfiction publishing, one size doesn’t fit all. Every author needs to figure out the right path for their own subject matter, audience, abilities, and purposes.
When I heard that Stephanie Chandler and Karl Palachuk were working on a book, I did a happy dance. Stephanie is the CEO of the Nonfiction Author’s Association, so she knows what’s she’s talking about and she’s focused on nonfiction.
Reading the book only confirmed my excitement.
There’s so much great advice here. I learned a few things myself. (Always be learning!)
The Details
The book covers the nuts and bolts of being an indie nonfiction author, from conceiving of your idea and finding your niche to writing the draft, publishing, distributing, launching, and more. The chapter on Author-Publisher business operations gives a glimpse into the realities of the gig.
Despite its thoroughness, the book is never dry. Stephanie and Karl bring the material to life with:
Personal anecdotes (each have valuable insight to share)
Interviews and profiles of other nonfiction authors
Inspiring quotes between chapters
Actionable resources, like a worksheet on how to build a revenue plan for your business and links to reputable resources and tools
Seriously, this is a gold mine of solid advice.
What I Love about this Book
The book helps you make the right decisions by thinking beyond the printed product to your business as a whole. Nonfiction authors, in particular, need to take this broader view. The independent path offers both advantages and challenges for nonfiction authors. This book covers that decision thoroughly.
If you’re thinking of writing a nonfiction book, educate yourself. The Nonfiction Book Marketing Plan is the perfect resource to do that. It will help you figure out your path, and will alert you to possibilities you hadn’t thought of.
The book will be released September 26.* Preorder it on Kindle or in print today.
Related Resources
Sandra Beckwith’s Book Marketing 101 Course [A Review]
From Page to Stage: Speaking for Writers [Review]
*I received an advance review copy of this book.
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September 12, 2018
Write-Publish-Profit Super Stack: Reviews and Recommendations
From September 10-14 only, you can pick up the Write-Publish-Profit Super Stack – a bundle of online courses, ebooks, software, memberships, and more for writers and authors.
As the name suggests, the products in this bundle cover a range from pure writing advice to self-publishing to book promotion. Don’t let the title mislead you: you don’t have to be interested in all the components of the course to find value in it.
This post compiles my mini-reviews and recommendations in several areas. In many cases, access to one of these items is enough to justify the bundle purchase price.
Disclaimer 1: I only sampled a small part of the offerings.
Disclaimer 2: My selections may be biased, as I’m a nonfiction writer.
General Writing-Related Resources
Savvy Nonfiction Writer’s Club – Bryan Collins
It’s tough to categorize this offering, because there’s so much great stuff packed into it. It includes videos and audio downloads on a wide variety of subjects, such as:
Blogging for smart writers – including advice for editing your blogs, becoming a Medium blogger, and more
Nonfiction book writing
Self-publishing
The videos are a delight, partly because of Bryan’s approach, and partly (I confess) because of the Irish accent. Plus, the members can download several of Collin’s ebooks, including:
The Art of Writing a Non-Fiction Book
The Power of Creativity
The Stack includes a membership to this site, otherwise $12 per month. Nonfiction writers can find much to cherish in this.
Writing Dynamic Story Hooks by Jackson Dean Chase
Yes, this book focuses on fiction. The subtitle is A Master Class for Fiction and Memoir. But you know what? Most nonfiction writers can benefit from learning how to grab readers with a hook. Chase does a great job of explaining effective story openings. I’m picking up a few things.
Become a Fearless Writer by Nina Harrington
Although it addresses the genre author who wants to churn out a whole series in a short time, authors of all types can find inspiration in this short book. I love Harrington’s focus on the inner process – mindset and motivation – as well as the business of writing.
Revising Your Writing by me!
I had to include this one – my online course about revising your own writing is part of the stack. In it you’ll find advice on
Why, when, and how to revise
Revising for the reader’s flow
Adjusting tone and style
Choosing the right words
It’s applicable to all kinds of writing. Ordinarily $40, it’s part of this collection of resources.
Publishing Resources
K-lytics 3 Genre Marketing Bundle (Alex Newton, K-lytics)
I’m a big proponent of understanding what’s going on in the market. K-lytics has contributed a detailed analysis of the Kindle market for three genres:
Mystery/thriller/suspense
Self-help, skills and self-improvement
Christmas romance
As a data geek, I definitely recommend it. If you plan to publish in any of these categories, sign up for and watch these videos for guidance about keywords, pricing, competition, trends, and more.
Book Design Templates by The Book Designer (Joel Friedlander)
The Book Designer offers design templates that work for print and ebooks. While I have not used them myself, I know many authors who do. They can save you a great deal of time and money if you want an interior layout that looks professional, without hiring someone to do the task.
Book Marketing and Promotion Resources
Sell Foreign Rights Master Class by Alinka Rutkowska
This short webinar answered several questions I had while I was figuring out a Korean rights deal. Confession – I was in a hurry and read the slides to skip straight to the sections I needed. If you’re interested in getting your indie books translated for foreign markets, you’ll find this valuable.
Book Sales Page E-Course by Angela Ford
Authors spend a lot of time and effort sending traffic to their books sales page. If the page itself doesn’t do its job, that effort can be wasted. This course dives deep into what makes an effective sales page (and how to build one). The focus is on fiction, but nonfiction authors can learn from it.
If these aren’t enough, check out the full reviews I’ve written for other offerings:
Grit for Writers by Tamar Sloan
Book Marketing 101 by Sandra Beckwith
Using ProWritingAid
All of these are available as part of the Write-Publish-Profit Super Stack only through September 14.
The post Write-Publish-Profit Super Stack: Reviews and Recommendations appeared first on Anne Janzer.
September 11, 2018
Using ProWritingAid [A Software Review]
ProWritingAid Review: Short Version
ProWritingAid bills itself as “a grammar guru, style editor, and writing mentor in one package.” Although it lacks the intelligence of a human editor, it’s darned good at finding weak spots and opportunities to strengthen your writing. It can certainly help you polish your prose.
A one-year Premium subscription to ProWritingAid is included in the Write-Publish-Profit Super Stack, available for sale September 10-14 only. Check out everything in the stack.
Long Version
Software is a mixed blessing for authors.
Spelling and grammar checkers find certain errors while missing others. They can give writers a false sense of security, but also save us from embarrassing problems. The key is figuring out how to use them, and not relying on them alone.
ProWritingAid is a solid contender in this space. I just gave it a try, and was more impressed than I expected to be. This software is now part of my revision routine.
How I Use It
PC users can embed ProWritingAid as a Word add-on, and Chrome users can use the Chrome extension. Personally, I would rather not have software arguing about using the passive voice when I’m writing in a state of flow. (I’m protective of my writing process.) I use the Web Editor in the revision phase.
Once I have a first draft ready to revise and polish, I open ProWriterAid and paste the text into its Web Editor. When I’m done revising, I can export the file or simply copy and paste it into my blog.
ProWritingAid offers an extensive menu of options:
It’s probably more than you need.
For a Quick Check
If time is short, click on the Real-time menu item at the left to see a quick summary of the most pressing issues.
This menu counts the total number of grammar, style, and spelling issues found. Use it to perform a cursory clean-up of the work.
Don’t accept all of its advice. For example, the software sometimes proposes that I remove commas I feel are necessary for readability.
The Style recommendations need careful filtering as well. For example, a recent blog post generated two different suggestions:
Suggestion: Change “as well as” to “and”
My response: Good idea, thanks!
Suggestion: Get rid of the word that in the following sentence: “The result is a book that is at once informative and inspiring.”
My response: Um, no thanks.
Still, I paid attention to the fact that it flagged the sentence. I replaced the phrase at once with the word both. This edit changed the sentence to: “The result is a book that is both informative and inspiring.”
Once I did that, the style suggestion disappeared.
As with any editor (even human ones), there’s a difference between spotting problems and solving them. The software is good at identifying potential areas of confusion. It may not offer the best suggestions for fixing them.
As the writer, you’re in charge of finding a better way to phrase something.
For example, the product flags every use of the passive voice. Seriously. It’s not a crime, people. (And, amusingly, it reverts to the passive voice in messages like: “Readability may be enhanced by changing x to y.” )
Take the style recommendations with a grain of salt.
If You Have Time to Spend Polishing
If you have more time, you can explore the various menu tabs (Style, Grammar, and more) to polish your prose. These are a few of my favorites:
Readability
If you’re revising for the reader’s flow, use the readability report to look for areas that may be difficult to read.
Look at the paragraphs marked as difficult to read and see if you find anything that might confuse a human reader. (If you write for people who may have a different native language, pay attention to these scores.)
Overused words
We all have words we use too often. Find yours.
Repeats and Echoes
My Revising Your Writing course recommends eliminating word repetitions to sharpen the writing. Finding those repetitions can be onerous. The Repeat menu in ProWritingAid does it for you automatically.
Hurrah!
The Repeats menu underlines all repeated words and phrases. It may look confusing, but fear not! On the left menu, a summary identifies those words or phrases that appear multiple times.
The Echoes menu is even more useful. Rather than finding every recurrence of a word, it looks for recurring sentence patterns and phrases. Unless you’re using repetition for a specific effect, these are opportunities to vary your writing.
The Dangers of Relying on Software
If you sign up for ProWritingAid (and I do recommend it), don’t let it derail your revision process. Keep these cautions in mind:
Don’t chase metrics instead of meaning
The Summary tab displays your scores for grammar, style, spelling and more. Check it out. But don’t get caught up trying to achieve a perfect score rather than writing something that serves the reader. Remember, sometimes you need to overrule the software’s recommendations.
Don’t get lost in revising
I could spend hours and hours revising and fine-tuning everything I write. My productivity would plummet. The real challenge is finding a balance.
Overall, ProWritingAid gives me fresh eyes on the work, which is useful when time is short. If I’m disciplined, it saves me time.
Don’t abandon your favorite human editor, but consider using this software to improve your drafts before you enlist a human being.
Until September 14, pick up your one-year Premium subscription to ProWritingAid (regularly $50) as part of the Write-Publish-Profit Super Stack. Check out all of the other resources there.
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September 10, 2018
Review of Sandra Beckwith’s Book Marketing 101 Course
Short Version
Sandra Beckwith’s Book Marketing 101 for Nonfiction course is a valuable survey of marketing techniques, anchored by a strong marketing plan. Its advice applies to both traditionally published and indie authors. (Fiction writers should examine the companion course, Book Marketing 101 for Fiction.)
Sandra Beckwith’s Book Marketing 101 courses are included in the Write-Publish-Profit Super Stack, available for sale September 10-14 only. Check out everything in the stack.
Long Version
In a college curriculum, classes numbered 101 are “survey” courses designed to introduce students to a subject area and entice them to study further in the field. In that sense, Sandra Beckwith’s Book Marketing 101 fits the bill perfectly.
As a nonfiction writer, I reviewed the Nonfiction version of the course; I assume that the Fiction variety is similarly strong.
I’ve long admired Sandra Beckwith’s her practical and worthwhile book marketing advice. She’s particularly well grounded in traditional marketing and public relations techniques. That expertise is on display in this course, which has the subtitle “How to Build Book Buzz.”
The course has four main sections, each of which contains several short lessons. Aside from a welcome video, the lessons are all text-based, so you can take them at your own pace and skip around as needed.
The sections are:
Announcing your book. This section includes lessons on creating a press kit and getting book reviews.
Working with the press. These lessons offer advice for pitching your book and expertise to the media.
Promoting your book online. Multiple short lessons cover virtual book tours, Amazon, and various social media channels.
Using your voice. This section offers advice on pursuing public speaking and podcasting opportunities.
The course includes a book marketing template to create your own, customized book marketing plan. In the assignments, Beckwith encourages you to take what you’re learning and flesh out your own marketing plan. This alone is worth the price of admission for many authors.
Sandra’s expertise really shines in the advice in the sections on working with the press and speaking. And if I’m ever asked to do a television interview, you can bet that I’ll pop back to that lesson!
In short, this is a terrific survey of many traditional book publishing techniques – and specifically the practices around building “buzz” with the help of media. I’ll refer back to it in the future.
Until September 14, pick up either of Sandra’s courses in the Write-Publish-Profit Super Stack. Check out all of the other resources there.
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