You know how football coaches talk about “the basics”? This is the most powerful and succinct diagram and explanation of “the basics” for marketing that I have ever seen, and in keeping with Perry’s policy of simply giving away good stuff to build relationships, there is no sales pitch here. Well worth checking out. Go here.

If you are a coach, consider entering Milana’s “Coaching Entrepreneur of the Year” contest. It’s free. (I’m a judge.) http://bit.ly/1w2UH1

The prizes are impressive! Hope to see you in Dallas in October!

There are many careers that involve writing, but none that offers as clear a path to good income as copywriting Six-figure annual incomes are not uncommon in this profession.

But note: It is a profession, not a job. You learn a set of skills, and are forever improving them. You (generally) must find your own work, keeping your own “pipeline” full. And many gigs are one-time affairs.

So learning copywriting is not only a matter of learning the special kinds of wordsmithing used in the profession. You must also learn where to find engagements, how to price your services, what your contracts should contain and exclude, and how to run an independent business.

The “copy” referred to is advertising copy, writing to support sales. Now, before you curl your lip and sneer, let me point out a few facts about ad copy:

• Many famous writers, including Mark Twain and Joseph Heller, wrote ad copy.
• Almost nothing is sold today without the use of ad copy.
• The Web has opened up vast new markets, all needing good copy.
• You can learn to write ad copy through relatively brief courses from organizations that have substantial track records.
• The best copy is respectful of readers, authentic, and honest.
• People commonly pay tens to hundreds of dollars for brief ads, and hundreds to thousands for longer copy. Copy writing masters often receive thousands of dollars plus a percentage of sales for their work.
• Many copywriters expand their business by promoting their own products or those of others, using their skills to benefit their own sales.

Happily, there’s a lot of excellent free information about learning to write good copy on the Web. Some of my favorites are Copywriting-101 and its CopyBlogger.com site; AWAIonline (Michael Masterson’s company site, with excellent articles by leading copywriters); and Michel Fortin‘s blog. Through these, you’ll find many more links of interest.

Brian from CopyBlogger lists both his own course and a couple from competitors here. (Michael Masterson’s course, noted there, seems to be the most popular one around–and has the graduate testimonials to back it

You are invited to check out my new blog and site, JoelCoachesCoaches.com. As the name implies, it is aimed at coaches. What is not clear from the name is that its focus is the business aspects of coaching.

Thanks, Dana Lynn Smith.

5 tips for writing a book announcement news release that will get used by the press
By Sandra Beckwith

A book announcement press release helps us tell the world our new book is available for purchase. It’s often sent to the media with a copy of the book or a note asking if the journalist would like to receive a complimentary review copy. It’s also included in the book’s press kit. It’s not the only media relations tool you’ll want to use to generate book buzz, but it’s an essential resource when your goal is to tell the media outlets read, watched, or listened to by your book’s target audience that there’s a new book they’ll want to know about.

An effective a book announcement press release is written in a journalistic format that mimics how a magazine or newspaper would write about your new book. It uses the traditional news release format that journalists are accustomed to receiving.

Because this is such an important tool – and because there is a trend among inexperienced publicists to turn the announcement into an advertisement that journalists will reject, not embrace – it’s important to understand how to write a release that will get read and used.

Here are tips designed to help you avoid common and costly errors with your important announcement release.

1. Use the traditional news release format. This includes your contact information, a headline, and your announcement written in a journalistic style. Study the press releases at www.prweb.com and www.prnewswire.com for examples. Don’t use graphics, multiple columns, or different fonts, sizes, and colors.

2. Remember that you are not the news. Your book is the news. Unless your name is recognizable, don’t put it in the headline. “New book details secret World War II plot” is more compelling than, “John Brown’s first book is about World War II.”

3. Avoid using superlatives. A news release announces news in a factual way, so limit your descriptive text to the facts. This isn’t a book review expressing an opinion – it’s an announcement that a journalist would like to copy and paste into a publication. That’s why you want to avoid language – “fabulous,” “best-ever,” “fascinating” – that you won’t see in a news story.

4. Distribute your announcement release in text format, not as a PDF file. It is easy to copy and paste text from an e-mail or from a Web site; it is hard to copy text from a PDF file. The more you make somebody work to use your information, the less likely they are to do so.

5. Tell us where to buy the book. This is the key chunk of information most often omitted in the homework assignments submitted by students in my book publicity e-course. Remember to include the title, publisher name, publication date, price, and information about where it can be purchased.

In addition to distributing your release to your targeted media outlets – including online options such as blogs – post the release on your Web site so it can be found by search engine users. Your goal is to get your news in front of the people who are most likely to buy your book.

Sign up for Sandra Beckwith’s free book promotion e-zine, “Build Book Buzz,” at www.buildbookbuzz.com.