Joel's Book-Writing Blog

What is your book a piece of?

When most people say they want to write a book, what they mean is that there is a message bubbling up inside them, a bunch of stuff that they feel needs to be told.

But a little prompting usually reveals that they really have more in mind. For example, an individual professional or entrepreneur usually wants to produce a credential, something that will tell the world that they are an authority.

The book can serve several purposes. It can get your message out. It can serve as your "uniqueness credential." It can help people get to know you, and your approach to problems that concern them.

But that is only part of the picture.

Here's why:  the Internet has changed the world.  The Internet has made it possible to publish words pictures, sounds, and video -- inexpensively and instantaneously.

No doubt you plan to promulgate your book over the Internet, whatever your purpose in writing it. You can, of course, simply post where people can download it.  However the Internet gives you an unprecedented opportunity to create and maintain a relationship with people who were interested in your book. But it is up to you to make that relationship possible, by capturing their e-mail address.

Once you have you reader's e-mail address, you can communicate with her. If you communicate respectfully, and send her information that is likely to be of use to her,  format that is not annoying -- you can create a relationship with her. She can come to know you, like you, and trust you. Then, if you have something to offer her, it will be given the consideration it deserves.

This does not happen by itself. You need to create a framework for the continuing communication. It must include a way to capture the visitor's e-mail address, a presentation that will induce the visitor to leave their e-mail address, a mechanism for follow up communication -- like an auto responder -- perhaps a store or a shopping cart for selling things, and all the attendant scaffolding that makes it all work together.

Your vision for your book may have brought you down this path, and it may even be the centerpiece of your new business, but you must recognize that it is only part of the story.

Create a cluster or a mind map of your overall vision. Make lists of the actions you will have to take to bring it all to fruition. Prioritize the actions.  Create a business plan.

Now -- execute.

How to pick the right title for your (non-fiction) book: Tips

The name of your book will cause it to be picked up -- or not given a second glance. It includes a title and a subtitle. Here are some suggestions for picking good ones:

• Pick a title that's a grabber: "1001 Ways to Market Your Books - For Authors and Publishers"
  
• Don't let the lack of a title keep you from writing the book; you may need to finish the book before you find the title
• If appropriate, name it, "How to (solve a particular problem) in only x (days, hours, whatever)"
• Make an outrageous claim: "How to Write a Book in 14 Days!"
• Invent a word: "Publishize"
  
• The subtitle should explain the benefits: "The ABCs of Handwriting Analysis" has "Techniques and Interpretations" as subtitle. "Publishize" has "How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book That Promotes Your Expertise"
• Make a promise: "Lose 13 lbs. This Week!"
  
• Brainstorm with friends or mastermind groups
• Run a naming contest on your blog
• Ask for feedback on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• Browse Amazon.com, your local bookstore, your local library
• Keep a notebook with you to write down ideas

What are your ideas about book naming?

Roy Blount, Jr.'s latest book

"Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, ... With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory" was discussed this evening on NPR's "City Arts and Lectures," as its author, amazingly sharp and deceptively down-home Roy Blount, Jr., was interviewed therein.

If the title and author do not capture you, click on the title to visit Amazon.com, and read the Washington Post review on the site. Although it inexplicably lacks paragraphs, it is worth reading and savoring on its own.

This is a book I want in my library. The relationship between the form of words and their function is treated lovingly, passionately, and intelligently.

A delight, I am certain.

Book as mirror

Many people feel a need to write a book. They feel in their hearts they have something to say, something to tell, something to teach. In my coaching of many first-time authors, I've noticed something that has happened to each of them -- and to me, to.

The book becomes a mirror, an externalization of thoughts and feelings. The author learns things about herself that she did not know. Feelings that were vague become clear. Perceptions become sharpened: "Now I understand!" is a frequent comment.

So the book becomes an important part of the author's journey. It takes shape as the author provides meaning, and the shape is often surprising, unanticipated.

Even my BookProgram™ approach, which emphasizes the creation of a structural framework before doing the actual writing, works this way. In fact, my experience is that its discoveries are even more potent than those of the usual writing process. Somehow, focusing on structure requires us to confront the need for meaning and consistency more directly.

Have you written a book? Are you writing one? Does this resonate with your experience?

Books beat brochures for finding new clients

As a business coach, I have explored the process of finding new coaching clients extensively. I think what I've learned probably also applies to other professionals, such as financial advisors, doctors, accountants, etc.

There are lots of ways to become known, including:

• Networking groups, such as BNI and your chamber of commerce
• Writing articles
• Maintaining a blog
• Giving presentations for local and national groups that match your desired client demographics
• Advertising - print and Web

Many coaches and other professionals I know have had beautiful brochures designed and printed, and hand them out to prospects in many contexts. I'd like to suggest replacing your brochure with a book.

There are several reasons why brochures don't work well for coaches and other professionals:

• Few people keep brochures; they glance at them and toss them (isn't this what you do?)
• A brochure doesn't contain much information; emphasis is usually placed on a pleasing design and good materials
• Brochures are either expensive or look too cheap (even if they're not) to reflect well on you

A book, on the other hand,

• Automatically establishes you as an authority
• Gives you room enough to define your uniqueness
• Is unlikely to get thrown away
• Can actually be less expensive to produce than a moderately-priced brochure (a 48-page perfect-bound book with a color cover is just over $1 in quantities of 500)

I've created a template-based kit for coaches to produce a 48-page book without difficulty, and I have additional kits planned for other professions. But whether you use my kit or not, I recommend you consider producing a book to replace your brochure.
 

"I do have a book inside me -- but I don't know where to start!"

I hear this statement frequently. The single most powerful tool you can learn to get you unstuck, in my opinion, is clustering.

I learned clustering from Gabriele Rico’s “Writing the Natural Way,” which I highly recommend. On her website, she describes the clustering process:

"A non-linear brainstorming process, clustering makes the Design mind’s interior, invisible associations visible on a page. Clustering becomes a self-organizing process as words and phrases are spilled onto the page around a center. The Sign mind begins to see pattern and meaning, and the writing flows naturally into a vignette."

Rico uses “Sign mind” for the “left brain” and “Design mind” for the right brain.

Here’s a more instructive description, from the blog of writer Dustin Wa.

Here’s the basic idea:
1.    Write a word in the middle of a sheet of paper.

2.    Circle it.

3.    Write down the first word or phrase that comes to mind and circle it.

4.    Draw a line connecting the second circle to the first.

5.    Repeat. As you write and circle new words and phrases, draw lines back to the last word, the central word, or other words that seem connected. Don’t worry about how they’re connected — the goal is to let your right-brain do its thing, which is to see patterns; later, the left-brain will take over and put the nature of those relationships into words.

6.    When you’ve filled the page, or just feel like you’ve done enough (a sign of what Rico calls a “felt-shift”), go back through what you’ve written down. Cross out words and phrases that seem irrelevant, and begin to impose some order by numbering individual bubbles or clusters. Here is where your right-brain is working in tandem with your left-brain, producing what is essentially an outline. At this point, you can either transfer your numbered clusters to a proper outline or simply begin writing in the order you’ve numbered the clusters.

By the time you’ve started reviewing your clusters, your brain has done much of the work of fleshing out your ideas; all that remains is to put these relationships into words, which is what your left-brain excels at.

Rico’s clustering technique gives you access to all that is in the various conscious and unconscious or subconscious parts of your mind on a subject. When you’re done—and you get that thing mentioned above as a “felt-shift,” or a “kerchunk,” after 15-20 minutes, to signal that you’re done—you will have a sort of map of what you know about a subject. That implicitly gives you, also, a map of what you don’t know, and need to research.

I cluster everything—my plan for the day; a phone call; a book (cluster the book, then cluster the chapters); a business plan; a talk…. It not only works, it feels good.
 

Book-cover creation software

I've been trying out the free version of Book Cover Pro, which lets you create book covers of any size. The simple version is $97 and comes with a single template; the fancy version comes with a library of templates for $187 and with software for creating all kinds of collateral materials for marketing your book -- and for creating ebook covers, too. Pretty impressive.

Video from "Program for the Future"

I was co-chair of the Program for the Future, held 12/8-9 at The Tech Museum in San Jose, at the MediaX Center at Stanford, and in Second Life. Here's a video of a wonderful conversation between Alan Kay (inventor of Smalltalk; Dynabook; Object-Oriented Programming) and Andy van Dam (teacher of more computer industry leaders than I can count.

It was an honor to work with the team who did all the work!

Doug Engelbart and the future of books

Together with Hiroshi Ishii of MIT’s Media Lab, I helped organize the Program for the Future , a conference held to honor Doug Engelbart on the 40th anniversary of “The Mother of All Demos”

Engelbart is known as the inventor of the mouse, but that innovation--as he frequently points out--was incidental to the much larger vision of collective intelligence. (Google for more details.)

Take a look at the video of the demo, and you will be amazed. Remember, the year was 1968!

Even though the current manifestations of that vision seem to be retarded relative to the foresight it showed 40 years ago, it is not difficult to make the leap to Amazon's Kindle and all the on-line reading and writing options available to us today.

Book publishing as it has been practiced is in the midst of big changes.

Beckwith on book publicity

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.

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