Voice Record Your Book Content

This week I share a quick video tip for creating content for your book. Whether you're at the beginning stages of developing your manuscript, you're stuck with writer's block somewhere in the middle, or you're trying to wrap it all up, you'll love this easy way to develop compelling content.

Get Equipped to Query

Have you finally reached a point at which all you want to achieve is one thing in your writing life? That’s to become published, either in a magazine or by a commercial publisher. 

You’ve done enough research to know it begins with one well-written letter, a query. Yet, it doesn’t seem so simple. Each draft is either too long, too weak, too boastful or too wrong to accomplish your goal. The question of how to grab the attention of an agent or editor seems like a harsh joke.  

I've developed a three-paragraph formula that works well for a query letter. Here are my tips for each paragraph. 

Paragraph One: Give an idea of how your lead will read. Show the flavor or flair of it.  Instead of saying, “I would like to write about how the economy is affecting mid-level female professionals for your publication.” A more enticing opening would be: “A woman rises from a fitful sleep, and the realization is clear – she needs to change careers.”  In short, if the opening paragraph of your article showcases suspense, include that in your letter. If the editor approves your pitch, it's a good idea to switch the lead paragraph of your article or story slightly to show that you can come up with a great pitch AND another wonderful story lead.  

Paragraph Two:  Mention the type of people you plan to interview in the book or article. For example, will you interview an accountant or a manager and include their personal insight?  Maybe you’ll add a career coach as the expert. If the person is a celebrity or household name, mention his/her name. The most important part of paragraph two is stating what makes you qualified to tell this story. Is it because you are a published writer/author, an expert on the subject or best-case scenario, both? 

Paragraph Three:  Include your contact information; specifically, the best number and email address to use to contact you.  

It sounds easy, but  the main reason that most query letters fail is because people do not include these basic elements. The secret to learning what publishers and editors are looking for from writers is to review the writer's or submission guidelines. If I do not subscribe to a magazine I am pitching, I always review the writer’s guidelines, study the content either online – if that is where I am submitting – or I actually buy the magazine. 

If it is an agent or publisher you are submitting to, they also have guidelines posted. Follow them closely. Some do not like email queries, while others do. The guidelines will mention the typical time in which you can expect a response, as well as whether the publisher or agent will consider multiple submissions, meaning you have sent your query letter, book proposal or manuscript to others simultaneously. Finally, research the authors and books that the publisher or agent represents to ensure your story is a good fit. 

Feeling equipped to query now? What has been your query letter experience? Leave your comments.

___________________

Jill Cox-Cordova is the owner of Write Avenue, which specializes in promoting positive outcomes for aspiring journalists and writers. Her niche for individuals is book proposals and resumes. Based in the Atlanta area, Jill serves clients nationwide. She is writing a book to help aspiring and veteran journalists.

http://www.writeavenue/blog

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jillcoxcordova

https://twitter.com/WriteAvenue
https://www.facebook.com/WriteAvenue1

 

Who Are You, What Do You Know and Why Should I Care?

Motivational powerhouse and speaker, Les Brown, once said in a speech that there are three questions audience members ask themselves anytime they see a speaker walk onstage: Who are you? What do you know? Why should I care? That's pretty tough stuff, considering that it's hard enough for most people to speak before an audience. Knowing that your audience is already somewhat skeptical and waiting for you to prove yourself ups the ante quite a bit for the brave soul with a message to share. So what about authors?

Most likely, the audience for your book – other than the loyal friends and family who purchased your book simply because you told them to – is asking the very same questions. If you, the author, cannot intelligently answer those three questions, you're in big trouble. Okay, maybe not trouble, but you certainly face an identity crisis to be addressed, not ignored. In particular, if you've written a self-help, tips, how-to or instructional book, readers want to know that they're getting valid, accurate, timely information from someone who has been there, done that and got the T-shirt. Honestly, the same is true if you're a memoirist. No one wants to buy the book in hopes of learning from someone who, herself, hasn't learned the lessons, lived the dream, made the mistakes or the millions, gone the extra mile, fallen and gotten back up, gone from rags to riches or risked it all and come out better for it on the other side.

Those three questions should haunt you the entire time you're writing your book. This is what inquiring readers want to know, and it's what you'd better be willing to bear (as in your soul) through the pages of your book. Consider your favorite non-fiction book. Did the author expose a little piece of himself to let you know that you were reading the words of "The Real McCoy?" Were the examples, case studies and recollections of the author so true to life that you absolutely knew she had learned everything you always wanted to know, but were afraid to ask? Yes, that's the reaction you want your readers to have from your book. So how do you get there?

Ask and honestly answer these three questions:

Who are you? As a non-fiction author, you have to be transparent. People want to know your story, where you came from, what your background is, where and how you started and what obstacles you've overcome. 

What do you know? Do your readers a favor and tell them of your expertise. You had better know something if you're going to write a book to teach others. You have to value your knowledge, experiences and expertise in order to instruct someone else. If you don't see yourself as the expert that someone is seeking, your message will likely become lost. Even worse – or perhaps better, in this case – you won't even bother to write the book because you know good and well that what you have to share isn't worth a hill of beans. But really, that isn't true. Of course you know stuff. Get clear on what you know before penning your book. Your expertise is valuable to others who want to be where you are, know what you know and do better in their own lives.

Why should I (your readers) care? Your book needs to clearly describe what readers are expected to get out of the content. So what if you climbed Mount Kilamanjaro ... why should I care? What did you learn about yourself, about life, about taking risks, about failing and succeeding against the odds? So what if you've started five successful businesses ... why should I care? What about the 20 businesses that you started and failed? What have you learned along the way from which I can benefit? So what if you're a phenomenal speaker ... why should I care? How can I learn from your awesomeness? How can I command the attention of large audiences and demand a big, fat paycheck for standing up there knowing full well that everyone in the audience is asking ... who are you, what do you know and why should I care?

Do you get my point? To be effective as a non-fiction author you, in essence, have to spill your guts on the pages of your book. You've got to tell it all and teach it in a way that allows readers to feel your pain and celebrate your victories. You must tell your story in a way that makes readers believe they can do it now ... whatever it is you're teaching. They can only learn that from an author who has answered those three crucial questions. 

So ... who are you, what do you know and why should I care?

__________________________

Anita Paul, known as The Author's Midwife, coaches aspiring authors to write a phenomenal book and helps current authors use their existing books to leverage their business. She is the author of Write Your Life: Create Your Ideal Life and the Book You've Been Wanting to Write, and is the creator of the Write Your Life program, through which she has created a dynamic system to Write Your Book in 90 Days or Less. She has owned The Write Image for 15 years, and has had her freelance articles featured in over 25 publications in the U.S. and Canada. Anita is also the host of "Book Your Success".

The Finish Line

The kitchen has become my best friend and my enemy. I’ve been baking desserts for the next Easy Weekly Meals cookbook Moms on the Go. And I’ve found that making something for your personal use is a bit different than doing something for a published book.

When you’re on your own, you may not care if your cookies get a little burned on the edges, if the chocolate cake doesn’t rise as high as you’d like, or the granola bars just will not stick together. As long as it tastes good, right?

But when you photograph something for a cookbook, you want it to look great. “A picture is worth a thousand words” is terrific if you have a beautiful picture. If the subject matter looks like last week’s garbage, that’s not so good.

Part of the problem is being creative. Changing flavors, adding ingredients, substituting something healthier. When I experiment with a recipe, I’m just mixing ingredients together. It’s fun to see how butter and sugar get creamy, how adding eggs makes a batter silky, how the flour makes it thicker. I love the textures of fruit and nuts, the soft slide of butter on my hands when I grease a cookie sheet, the molten goodness of melted chocolate. I see the end result in my head when these ingredients come together – chocolate chip cookies, buttery pound cake, cheesecake with caramel swirls. I can see the colors and textures, smell the chocolate and vanilla and melted butter, taste the cream or the crunch or the sweet.

But sometimes I put in too much flour or not enough sugar. Sometimes I fail. Irritation sprawls on my right shoulder and hisses in my ear while I’m baking. “You don’t know what you’re doing. You can’t put that in. It won’t work.” Confidence sits on the left and calmly whispers, “You’re fine. Go ahead.” Sadly, Irritation wins a lot. And did I mention their friends Frustration, Disappointment and Defeat?

Baking and writing share important elements – they’re both a journey with an intended result. My goal in baking is a tasty, beautiful end product. Writing is the same. Making thoughts into ideas, shaping words into description, giving life to vision. You want to end up with a good story; characters people care about; a goal or purpose that matters.

Give your ideas wings. Let them take flight and grow and transform. Give them freedom to journey on a road less traveled. Rein them in when they get too chaotic. Imbue them with spirit and independence. And add caution and patience for balance.

You may have some interludes with Irritation and Frustration. When you throw in too many adverbs or get lost in exposition, they may pounce on you with glee. Your internal critic can be awfully loud sometimes. But believe in Confidence and go ahead. Chart your journey and see what obstacles lie ahead. The greater the conflict, the more interesting the story. Your first draft may be horrible, like my banana egg rolls. Great idea, but they would not work out. So you tweak, you fine tune, you edit and you rewrite. You fail a little and you try again. And you keep trying until it turns out the way you want.

The 2012 Olympics ended last month and the U.S. won more medals than any other country. Go USA! Each of those athletes trained for years to compete against the best. They all visualized what they wanted to accomplish. See that end result in your mind and the battle is half won. Just keep moving toward the finish line, one word at a time.

_______________________

Nanette Littlestone is a freelance editor, writing coach, and author who has worked with both fiction and nonfiction for 20 years. She specializes in helping authors to use their passion to achieve their own unique voice and message. For more information, please visit www.wordsofpassion.com

Your Book As A Business

Before heading off to a conference last week, I had the opportunity to teach a session at The BizLynks Center. My session, "How to Tie Your Book to Your Success," is one that I've taught several times. I enjoy sharing with aspiring authors how to leverage their book through repurposing the content, gaining visibility, upselling their expertise and viewing their book as a business; yes, a business. (If you don't believe me, read this!) 

You see, your book isn't simply a stack of bound paper with a pretty cover; it's a resource to help grow your business or brand and to leverage your platform. Whether your platform is your business, your personal image or a cause that you're passionate about, your book should be designed to leverage that. 

Producing a book, I told the audience, isn't free; it costs money. Most often, new authors consider the dollar cost of book production as an expense rather than an investment. The distinction, as I see it, is that an investment suggests an anticipated return while an expense may not. And so it should be with your book project. When you invest in producing a quality book, you should expect a return on that investment in the form of more clients/supporters/advocates, increased media coverage, greater visibility for your products/services/activities, more funds raised for your cause, greater awareness of who you are and what you stand for, and so much more. There are innumerable areas to measure with regard to the return on your investment when it comes to your book project. So what are you measuring?

During the session, I showed the audience an example of how the investment in their book could result in not only book sales, but major exposure, product development and other opportunities that could amount to much more than mere book sales alone. It's a fascinating reality to examine, and I love to see the look on people's faces when they realize that what they're embarking on as an author really is bigger than the book! 

I challenge you to take the time to consider your investment as an author. How can you leverage your book beyond sales alone to help build your platform? If you need help figuring it out, contact me for a laser coaching session and let's get clear on your goals and your expected return on investment. After all, your book is a business; build it!

__________________________

Anita Paul, known as The Author's Midwife, coaches aspiring authors to write a phenomenal book and helps current authors use their existing books to leverage their business. She is the author of Write Your Life: Create Your Ideal Life and the Book You've Been Wanting to Write, and is the creator of the Write Your Life program, through which she has created a dynamic system to Write Your Book in 90 Days or Less. She has owned The Write Image for 15 years, and has had her freelance articles featured in over 25 publications in the U.S. and Canada. Anita is also the host of "Book Your Success".

Your Perspective Matters

We are overloaded with information. A simple key word or phrase on Google can yield thousands to millions of results. So, why should you write a book and contribute to information overload?

It’s your perspective on the information that matters. Combining your experience, your knowledge and your feelings with data gathered provides a fresh point of view. No one else has the exact combination you do. And what you choose to focus on — your wounds and your wows — are different than others writing on the same topic.

I host a weekly radio show called Art as Worship. Recently my guest was sculpture artist Martin Dawe. As we sat in the recording studio, we discussed sculpture classes where 20 students all view the same model while creating their sculpture, yet each artist’s finished work looks completely different. His comment was, “In this room we’re in now, there are literally tens of thousands of things to notice. But you notice fifteen or twenty things that you care about. That's going to be different for everyone. So being creative is really a very personal process.”

What makes your book or article interesting from multiple authors writing on the same topic is what you choose to focus on combined with your point of view — your humor, your excitement, your emotion and your inspiration gets infused into your writing.

Depending on the type of book you’re writing, you may need a certain amount of data. Gather information until your creative ideas start to flow, then start writing. Your perspective shows your readers why this particular data matters.

Writing about a topic helps you clarify your point of view, so you may need to write to determine or distill your personal perspective first. Then write from this clarified perspective for your readers.

Over the last few years, as I planned – and this year as I launched – the Art as Worship radio show, I noticed an increase in books that address creativity and/or spirituality. I don’t feel discouraged by the number of books available on these topics. Instead, I’m energized by the growing interest from readers who could potentially buy my book when it’s published. As I interview artists, I notice themes and ahas that will be focal points for writing my Art as Worship book.

The coolest part of my research through the radio show is that I’m making more time for my own art, which impacts my work as a graphic designer and consultant and expands my experience as an author and a radio host. My perspective creates a conversation with others and that’s when things really get interesting!

______________________________

Vanessa Lowry is a marketing consultant, graphic designer, author, radio host and speaker. She leverages nearly 30 years of design and marketing expertise to support book authors who are self publishing.
http://www.connect4leverage.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessalowry
http://www.facebook.com/vanessa.lowry
http://www.facebook.com/artasworship
Twitter @vanessalowry

Journaling as a Framework for Your Book

Journaling has been in existence since ancient times. Perhaps the ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Chinese scribes didn’t call it journaling, but that’s what they were doing. They were recording the thoughts, emotions, and events of the time and reporting on how those things affected individuals and the group as a whole. Those talented "journalers" wrote what has become the history of their civilizations. They told of the episodes of their daily lives. Sometimes, they even jotted down the ramblings of a prophet or two who foretold the future of their societies.

Fast forward to the present, and here you are, pen in hand, journal at your fingertips, mind completely blank. You live life every day, so why would you need to write down the experiences you have, the thoughts you think, the emotions you feel? It’s all up to you. People journal for a variety of reasons.

Journaling is more than just writing down words. It is a way to express yourself, to connect with your thoughts, to discover your desires, to dream. And for those who have the courage to take it one step further, it is a framework for your book. You have a story that needs to be told, and you should be the one to tell it. Perhaps you don’t consider yourself a writer, but that doesn’t mean your story should be kept on the shelf of your mind, never to be shared with the world. Your memoir, autobiography, or how-to book is a gift to the world.

You know things that others need to know. You’ve experienced things, learned lessons, developed wisdom, and enhanced your knowledge. You’ve gained expertise and implemented ideas. There are millions of people who want and need to know what you know. Use your journal to find your voice, develop your story, and practice the skill of writing.

My first advice to you is to journal with a purpose. Decide what you want to accomplish with your journal and what it will represent to you. Here are some objectives for starting a journal and keeping it going as you evolve, grow, and discover yourself:

• Self-examine, self-reflect, self-project, self-discover
• Identify your strengths
• Address your past and your present and how they impact your future
• Examine your fears, joys, and dreams
• Discover your expertise
• Heal from hurts, abuse, shame, guilt, missed opportunities, mistakes, and embarrassments
• Reveal your loves, desires, and what brings you joy
• Release negative thoughts and feelings
• List your accomplishments
• Affirm yourself
• Get in touch with your feelings
• Realize your daily thoughts
• Describe and create your future
• Create a framework for your memoir, autobiography, or how-to book

Let your journaling flow, but always journal with a purpose ... and most of all, journal with the goal of producing the book of your life that you’ll be proud of.

When was the last time you journaled as an adult?

Excerpted from the book, Write Your Life: Create Your Ideal Life and the Book You've Been Wanting to Write, by Anita Rochelle.

__________________________

Anita Paul, known as The Author's Midwife, coaches aspiring authors to write a phenomenal book and helps current authors use their existing books to leverage their business. She is the author of Write Your Life: Create Your Ideal Life and the Book You've Been Wanting to Write, and is the creator of the Write Your Life program, through which she has created a dynamic system to Write Your Book in 90 Days or Less. She has owned The Write Image for 15 years, and has had her freelance articles featured in over 25 publications in the U.S. and Canada. Anita is also the host of "Book Your Success".