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May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A “magic pocket”

The tools of the author’s trade used to be simple and few–something to write with, something to write on. Today we have a lot more help–or distraction, depending on your proclivities.

The computer, with its keyboard, spell-checker, dictation software, gorgeous printing, great organizing abilities, has become indispensable for me. I love to type, and have always hated to write. Typing is liberating for me.

I don’t use spelling and grammar checking features, usually–although I am grateful for it catching my rare spelling mistakes. But I love being able to move things around, to search-and-replace, to change typefaces–like a carpenter who loves her hammer and saw, I love the computer-based tools of my trade.

And then there’s the Internet. Wikipedia. Google. I have to force myself to get up and move around, to focus my eyes on objects at different distances, because I get so engrossed with the almost-infinite wealth of information at my fingertips.

So when I come across a truly useful innovation, I get excited. Dropbox.com is one such.

At first it seems like another “hard drive in the cloud”–a site that lets you store your stuff and access it at your convenience.  They’ve been around for years.

What makes Dropbox special? Like so many other amazingly popular developments–think iPod, Facebook, iPad–it’s not the originality of the functionality that makes the wonderfulness. It’s the overall feeling that gears, buttons, levers, and waiting time are out of the way. It bring me back to something Nicholas Negroponte said years ago, when asked what’s the next step beyond personal computing: “Intimacy” was his response.

I think a lot of Apple’s magic, a lot of why the simple Google search screen instantly became more popular than AltaVista, Yahoo!, and others, can be explained by that word, “intimacy.” These engaging experiences feel disintermediated. We feel as if we are in direct contact with what we’re trying to do, with nothing in the way.

That’s how Dropbox feels. You download a program to your Mac, PC, or Linux box. It sets up a special folder on your computer. Anything you put in that folder is automatically, invisibly synced with a secure storage location in the cloud. Any other computer from which you access your Dropbox account–and even your iPhone, with some limitations–can then access the same information. Dropbox makes sure everything is all in sync, all the time.

It’s free for up to 2 gigs. (You can get additional increments of 250 megs for each person you refer, up to 8 gigs; that’s why the link above is my affiliate link.) For 50 gigs, it’s $9.99/month or $99.99/year.

What would you use it for? Well, backups, for one–painless, unattended backups. Sharing large files, for another.

Dropbox says it’s like a magic pocket–put stuff in it from any computer, retrieve it from any other. I like that image.

Filed Under: book love, book writing, inspiration, tech, write a book Tagged With: , , , , , ,
May 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Lots of ways to write a book

You may think there’s only one way to write a book, even if you’ve read my free book on the subject. You name it, plan it, structure it down to the sub-chapter level, then write it.

That’s the way I teach, and it works very well. But it isn’t the only way to produce a book. Here are several others that may suit your needs:

  • Interviews. Find leaders in your niche and interview them. Tell them you’re going to transcribe the interviews and include them in a book. (Don’t forget to ask how many they want to order.)

    The interviews don’t have to  be very long. An ideal length will result in just a few pages of material.

    Pick a unifying subject for the book: “What’s the Biggest Problem in (your niche), and What Do the Experts Say about It?”

    You can conduct the interviews over the phone and record them. You can also package and market the recordings; don’t forget to get the interviewees permission. And ask them for a link to their website or a sales page for you to publicize; that’s their motivation for participating in the project.

  • Quotations. Collect a bunch of quotations (that are out of copyright) relevant to your niche. Put each on its own page. Beneath it, or on the opposite page, write your interpretation of Socrates’ wise saying to people in your field. (You can also leave room for the reader to add their own reflections.)
  • Blog. You may have already written your book: Your blog entries might be its content. In fact, FastPencil.com will let you import your blog, then rearrange and edit the entries into a book. That’s fast.
  • Photo-journal. You can use the special book-layout tools of Blurb.com to create a gorgeous book of your photos. The price per book is fairly high, depending on various factors, but might be still worth it for, say, a construction project proposal or an investment offering, a commemorative book or gift.
  • “The 47 best tips on…” Elicit tips, opinions, whatever from your readers, your Twitter followers, your Facebook friends, whatever, and compile them into a handbook. Jokes. Toasts. 6-word short stories (Hemingway’s famous one: “For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.”) Collect ‘em. Publish ‘em, with your intro, and a link to your website. You are now an opinion leader in your field.

A stroll through a bookstore or your library will inspire you with even more ideas.

Filed Under: book writing, inspiration, people & ideas, planning, steps to write a book, write a book Tagged With: , , , , ,
May 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Pain

If you want your book to be read, and to do good for people, an excellent approach is to focus on a particular pain that your audience is experiencing. Of course, this means you must have a specific audience in mind when you are writing. And that’s worth at least a paragraph or two right here.

You want to write a book. You have things to say, things you want people to know. Things you want people to know about you. Who are these people? Before you answer, let me give you a hint: It’s not “everybody.”

There are very few things that are truly of interest to everybody. And if you write so as to offer something for every conceivable reader, you’ll find that nobody wants to read what you’ve written–because too little of it pertains to them, to their life, to their interests.

You must have an audience in mind when you are writing–and you must characterize them to yourself, so that you are writing to a single person who represents you audience. Without that model, it will be very hard for you to write in a way that is meaningful and interesting. “Meaning” is a very local matter; shared meaning is usually confined to groups with shared interests.

Once you’ve identified your audience, you want to address issues of immediate concern; in other words, pain points. When you write things that are generally interesting or funny, you’ll capture readers who have a bit of time on their hands, and are looking for something with which to occupy themselves. But when you write about someone’s pain, you have your reader’s full attention. They are looking for ways to abate their pain, and if you have a product, a service, or an approach that will help them, they are yours. “The Fun I had Driving Coast to Coast”–maybe dentist waiting-room reading. “How to Stop Lower Back Pain in 24 Hours or Less”–”Gimme!” says any sufferer.

So ask yourself: What’s the purpose of your book? Do you want to entertain your reader, or move them to action? If the latter, get very clear on who your ideal reader is, and address a point of pain for them.

Filed Under: book love, book writing, humor, inspiration, marketing, write a book Tagged With: , , , , , ,
May 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Another plug for FastPencil

I’ve written before about FastPencil.com, an online collaborative portal for authors. But “online collaborative portal” doesn’t really convey the whole juicy picture.

Here’s more of the story: When you decide you seriously want to write a book, you may just start writing. Or perhaps you start thinking things through and realizing there are lots of details standing between you and a published book. This may add to your stress, or cause you to put off the whole idea once more.

Or maybe you find out about free publishing sites, like Lulu.com. You go there, find out you have to produce a PDF for the whole thing to work right. You enter into the operational labyrinth–and find out there is no phone support, and email support is leisurely. You make it through the process, somehow; the book looks good on-line, so you order a proof copy, as they recommend. The book arrives a few days later….and it’s full of garbage, because the PDF conversion didn’t work. The on-line version Lulu.com showed you looked fine; it just didn’t come out that way in the book.

Now try to find out what went wrong. And by the way, the book and shipping were at your expense.

I worked with an author who went through 5 cycles like that until getting it right.

FastPencil is different. For one thing, it lets you write on-line; no need to worry about conversion. For another, when you’re ready to convert to different formats, FP worries about that for you.

The FastPencil Marketplace gives you access to cover designers, editors, promoters, and a variety of publishing and distribution options. All inexpensive. (You’ll soon see courses there by me and Dr. Bill Quain that offer you some extra assistance in writing and promoting your book; watch for them.)

Membership in FastPencil is free.

Filed Under: book love, book printing, book writing, marketing, publishing, steps to write a book Tagged With: , , , ,
May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Don’t write a book

Let’s face it, writing a book is a non-trivial undertaking. I mean, you’ve been thinking about it for–how long now? A year? Five? Surely if it were important or could make a significant difference in your business, you’d have realized it and just gotten it done.

Think about all the things you have to do to write a book:

  • Define your audience
  • Find something that is a “pain point” for them
  • Be able to articulate what you can do to resolve their pain
  • Let your readers know know a bit about what your approach has done for others who used to have their pain
  • Write the book
  • Get a cover designed
  • Get the book printed
  • Start handing it out or selling it

That sounds like a lot of work–at least 30 days’ worth, at 1 hour a day. Do you really want to spend your time that way? Wouldn’t you be better off:

  • Attending referral clubs and networking groups
  • Handing out business cards
  • Making cold calls
  • Handing out more business cards
  • Trying to explain how you help people, while
  • handing out still more business cards
  • Designing and printing a $5/each color brochure
  • Investing in a $5000 website

Don’t these things make so much more sense than writing a book that will cost you $1.10 (quantity 500) and will credentialize you, establish your authority (author=authority), differentiate you from your competition, and actually give you something to sell AND a basis for creating additional products?

Of course they do. I knew you’d see it my way.

Filed Under: book love, book printing, book writing, steps to write a book, write a book Tagged With: , , ,
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