How are clients accessing your company information? Mitch Joel talks about the idea of passive and active media. (Passive = watching a television show) (Active = Facebook or Twitter where participation in sharing is occurring

I am starting to see why people like both forms of media. Brochures, documents, fee schedules and publications in hard copy create a nice deliverable from a passive standpoint.

Blogs with a variety of images, text and video help create a more active approach, especially when shared on social media platforms like Linkedin, Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook.

In addition, videos are helping to also bring this information directly to clients through professionally recorded segments and live segments using streaming video like USTREAM.

Finding a balance between active and passive is the key. It’s about weaving your story through all of these mediums.

“Great stories are created, nurtured and shared over time” Mitch Joel – Ctrl, Alt, Delete, page 67; 2013

Overall, the goal that stands out for me is that I need to reach out and start making sure to reach my clients through a mix of passive and active media. I have to stay away from thinking that one form of media is better than another. I just need to make sure I am active in both areas and I look for ways to capture and be available for different clients to find and connect with us on their time. This can occur with either medium. In addition, I need to get more in tuned with the different mediums and make sure I come across as someone who knows how to use these mediums effectively to reach people on their terms and not mine.

Active media and Passive Media – each one has the ability to reach out to the masses. The masses may not be embracing it quite yet, but I want to make sure I am in the digital space when they are ready to make that connection.

Image courtesy of emptyglass / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Why should communicators care about a book on Big Data? It could be argued that communicators cannot keep up with every single business trend, but I believe we need to pay attention to the major ones that will affect our work in the long run, such as social networking, mobile computing and now, Big Data. (Hey, I’ve even awarded it initial caps!)

Simon describes three dimensions of Big Data:

• Volume – the increasing amount of a data
• Variety – the increasing range of data types and sources
• Velocity – the increasing speed of data

Right now, Big Data consists mostly of unstructured bits and bytes found in blog posts, reviews, tweets, podcasts, emails and other varied sources. As our ability to harness this mountain of information grows, more and more business decisions will be based on Big Data.

In your own organization, you’ve probably heard complaints about the “information deluge.” If so, Simon offers some advice:

“If, like most learned folks, you believe that information is a business asset, then by definition Big Data inheres potentially enormous value. If you believe that data is a problem to be minimized, good luck surviving.”

Strong words.

But the book doesn’t focus on warnings; the tone is positive. Simon shares examples, case studies and his own considerable insights to help make sense of a topic that could easily overwhelm us. For most of the book, I was impressed by the readability of the prose; Simon’s use of storytelling helps to humanize what could have been a daunting tome.

This is not a technical, how-to manual about Big Data. Rather, it’s an accessible book that can help to increase your comfort level with the topic and broaden your understanding of Big Data’s possibilities in your own organization.

Who should read this book? According to the author – and I think he’s right – this volume would appeal to CEOs, CIOs and other senior leaders who want to understand the fuss about Big Data; employees at consulting firms and software vendors who need to educate clients about Big Data; and academics who want to prepare students to enter the Big Data world. I would add to the list: Communicators who don’t want to appear clueless when senior leaders bring Big Data to the table.

Too Big to Ignore: The Business Case for Big Data
by Phil Simon
John Wiley & Sons, 2013
231 pages
$50 in the United States, $60 in Canada

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book.

For now, though, I’m going to share a book that is definitely up there in the “best of” category, Mitch Joel’s book, Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

Why Ctrl-Alt-Delete Is a Must-Read Book

One of the things you should know before ever reading this book is that Mitch Joel is smart. He doesn’t just think about the now; he thinks about where things are going and where disparate concepts and ideas and movements will converge. In fact, that’s what Ctrl-Alt-Delete talks about, at least in part.

And that’s why Ctrl-Alt-Delete is a must-read. Whether you’re in business for yourself or work for a company, this book has information you need to know to remain relevant and indispensable in the current and future economy. And when you’re looking around you, seeing businesses closing their doors and people losing jobs, that’s crazy powerful data that can make all the difference to your future.

Section One: Reboot: Business

In this section, Joel covers five key movements:

1. Building direct relationships with “nonlinear,” and “squiggly” customers
2. Utilitarianism marketing
3. The convergence of passive and active media
4. The shift from analytics and data to “brand-consumer marriage”
5. The evolution from multiple screens down to one screen

Joel not only explains each movement and what it means for business, how we think about our clienteles, and how we market, but he also includes several lessons that are very practical and applicable to business at any scale.

This section is superbly useful for entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking to continue to be relevant and to serve clientele more effectively in the future. It’s not precisely that Joel tells you what to do in this section (or any other), so much as he enlightens you and opens the door to how you should think. And that, my friends, is how you figure out what to do.

Section Two: Reboot: You

In this section, Joel starts with a reboot of your thinking by recommending a “digital-first posture.” Meaning, of course, that you understand that “the first place consumers go when making a business decision is to their computers, smartphones, and/or tablets.”

But it’s not just about being digital, it’s also about simplicity, kindness, and our very humanity. That’s the thing that makes this book great. Joel successfully merges life lessons with good business in a way that makes it clear that being a good human being who’s enlightened about where we’re heading can yield a much better chance of success…and that’s just a good way to show up in the world anyway.

(My favorite part, of course, is the last part of Chapter 6, called “Leaning Into It,” in which it becomes abundantly clear that Joel and I agree completely on my “Leaning Into Your Marketing” concept. Yay, Mitch!)

Joel also talks about careers and how, as an employee, you’re going to have to become a lot more “squiggly” (you’ll have to read the book to understand what that means), entrepreneurial, mobile, and indispensable. Good news: Joel tells you how to do just that.

And if you’re on the verge of losing your job (and if you listen to Joel, you probably are), there’s a whole chapter just on “startup mode,” and moving from a job to “the work that you were meant to do.”

Just as with the first section, in the second section, each chapter comes with several lessons that are extremely practical and actionable. I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say it’s a blueprint for what to do—Joel’s a bit too cerebral for that, so you do have to take the next steps yourself—but it’s not far from that, if you’re a person who can take lessons and put them into action.

What’s Next

If you’re already savvy to everything in the first two sections (but really, who among us has embraced all of the lessons in this book? I’d wager…few to none) and curious about what’s coming next, then the last chapter will be of great interest. And in fact, if you want to start thinking deep and planning for the future, then you won’t want to miss that chapter.

The Analysis

The fact is, I’ll be studying this book for a long time to come. It’s a great book. I do, however, think that there’s a need for balance…sort of like…after reading this book for a couple of hours, I felt like I needed to go outside to my garden, smell the tomato plants, and get my hands in the dirt. Joel’s ideas are brilliant and worth way, way more than the price of admission…but while I believe that he’s right about our digital future, I can’t help but also think that we’ll see an increase in the need for more and more tactile and real experiences in certain segments of our population. Because as much as digital is now and in the future, fundamentally, we’re still human beings who need contact and tangible connection in the real world, too. It’s the merging of digital and real that we have to come to terms with, so that, as businesspeople, we leverage the power of technology without losing our humanity. That, I think, is the real takeaway from Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

P.S. Thank you, Mitch, for including one of my tweets on the last page of this book. I’m FAMOUS! :)

It’s a word that is so overused in the business world that it has almost lost its meaning. Everyone has a strategy… for everything. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of the existence of a ‘Visiting the Bathroom strategy’ or  a ‘Having my lunch strategy’, such is its ubiquity. Look at my personal portfolio, even I’m at it! A digital technology strategist of all things!

It’s time to reclaim the word, to give it some real meaning, to rescue it from the mire into which it has descended. If not for its own sake, then certainly for mine; I’ll never be taken seriously otherwise.

Luckily, that’s exactly what Howard J. Malham Jr. – or simply Malham from this point on – is aiming to do in his book: I Have a Strategy (No, You Don’t) - The Illustrated Guide To Strategy. It sounds like a lofty subject and you might expect a rather dry examination of the subject, given the length of the title, but it’s anything but that. Short, simple, fun (yes, fun) and easily digested, Malham’s book is surprisingly effective.

Malham – just who is he?

Howard J. Malham Jr. is a Co-founder and Director of Insight Labs, a Chicago-based consultancy that works on some of the world’s (read United States) biggest challenges and issues, from the state of schooling to the future of healthcare. It’s this experience, born out of trying to make sense of seemingly impenetrable challenges, that is distilled down into the book.

So this tells me what a strategy is? Right?

Absolutely.

For Malham, a strategy is simple defined as:

A planned, doable sequence of actions designed to achieve a distinct, measurable goal.

That’s it. Simple and easy.

Malham’s book comes to life through a few carefully selected examples and the ongoing commentary from Gary and Larry – two cartoon characters that explore the serious page content a little less seriously. They’re not always funny, but it’s a nice change of pace and certainly isn’t an unwelcome addition, keeping the writing light and away from the self-satisfied navel-gazing that some ‘business’ books descend into.

The examples he uses are, by and large, good ones, including Boeing versus Airbus, and even US foreign policy. If I had one criticism, there are some smaller examples, such as REDF and AGC (academy for Global Citizenship), that although being worthy, are not recognisable. It’s a small criticism, but some readers might want to see Malham’s obviously incisive mind to throw light on some more well-known brands (Nike versus Reebok, Apple versus the computer industry, Apple versus the music industry… you get the idea).

Within each example, the elements of the strategy are broken down, supporting his initial definition:

• Purpose
• Plan
• Series of actions
• Measureable goal

It’s clear and precise, which is exactly…

Why you should read it

Malham applies a light touch to the misconceptions around strategy. In a world full of weighty tomes on all matter of subjects, it’s a pleasure to pick up something that is as simple and concise as ‘I have a Strategy’. And the best thing about it is, because of its brevity, you really remember what you have read. It makes the book actionable.

And isn’t that the point?

If you’re interested in finding out more about the book you can visit http://ihaveastrategy.com/, or alternatively you can follow Malham on Twitter or find out more about his work at Insight Labs.

Have you read the book? What did you think? Have you changed your behaviour or your approach to business strategy as a result? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Disclaimer: This is an independent review based on a copy of the book supplied to me. I have no business relationship with Howell J. Malham Jr., InsightLabs, or Wiley (the publishers). I have not received any monetary incentives or payments, but they did let me keep the book, which was nice. I don’t need to write this bit, but I think it’s always good to be completely transparent.

This article was originally published at Writing by James 

In order to accomplish this, you must separate yourself from your personal feelings about your book, and think like the objective buyer would think. What would attract you to a book like yours? What would attract people in your audience to a book like yours? Would you as a buyer be more attracted to a handsome cover, or to the cover blurbs? Would you buy a book based on its cover art, or because of the well-known names that are quoted on the cover? Does the book’s page count seem too long, or too short, to cover the topic adequately? Does the subtitle seem to be promising too much for such a topic? How does your book’s attributes compare to other books within your subject category?

Here is a quick look at the first things that readers notice when they first view your book.

1. Cover Art
Having the appropriate graphics, images, photos, illustrations, colors, fonts, etc., are essential if you expect to get noticed by book buyers. Books with a great looking cover almost always sell better on Amazon than those that have a lame, confusing, or unprofessional-looking cover. What needs to be on your book’s cover that will draw in, or attract, a reader and a buyer? Are the graphics, colors, and fonts appropriate to the book’s subject matter? Make sure that you design several covers. And don’t be afraid to hire professional help.

2. Title And Subtitle
Your title must grab your buyer as quickly as possible. Generally, it must let the reader know what your book is about in as few words as possible. You can give more specific details in the subtitle. This is where the author lets the buyer really know what the book is about. When deciding which book to purchase, the buyer will usually give more weight to the subtitle than to the main title.

3. Author’s Name
The big well-known names will always get more attention. But there are several ways for less well-known authors to get the shopper’s attention. The new, or less well-known author, can impress the consumer by putting the title of a previous book that they have written directly under their name on the cover. They could also bring attention to their business or personal website which the consumer can quickly look-up on the internet. One of the best ways to bring attention to a lesser-know author, is to get a much bigger, or more well-known name to write the book’s foreword. This person’s name will also appear on the cover, directly below the author’s name.

4. Cover Blurbs
Blurbs, or short testimonials, are essential for making book sales. And they are not difficult to get. The best ones, and the ones from big-name authors and celebrities, should be on your cover, front and back. You should include all of the other blurbs that you accumulate inside your book, as well as on your book’s web site. You must get them from a wide variety of sources, not just the big names.

5. The Foreword
The foreword is a discussion about why the reader should read your book. It is the place where a guest author shows the reader why they should be reading this book. If it is written properly, and by the appropriate person for the job, the book’s author will gain a lot of credibility in the reader’s eyes.

6. The Preface
The preface is a discussion about how the book came about. It is a place for the book’s author to tell the reader how this book came into being, and why. It will build credibility for the author and the book. More credibility will translate into more book sales. Here the author should explain why they wrote the book, and how they came to writing it. The author should be showing the reader why they are worth reading and buying.

7. The Introduction
The introduction is a discussion about the content of the book. Here the author sets the stage for the reader, and prepares them for what can be expected from reading the book. The introduction grabs the reader, and intensifies the reader’s desire to find out more, and hopefully devour the entire book.

Business “as usual” exists no more. As business owners, executives and upcoming professionals look to make sense of the current environment, Mitch Joel‘s latest book could not come at a better time. Ctrl Alt Delete reviews the essential aspects of what businesses must focus on to succeed and excel through this transitional time which he labels “purgatory”.

Mitch provides a valuable introspective that will benefit anyone, but perhaps the audience who will benefit most are those CEO’s and business leaders who are struggling with reservations about online investment, or those who do not “get it” at all.

This is not a book about social media, Facebook and Twitter. It’s about real business concerns. The stuff in the trenches, the stuff that produces profit and dollars. It’s serious.

At a time where the next steps seem unclear to many this book puts forth compelling examples and clarifies concepts as to why focus must shift for business to survive.

Mitch Joel is an author, podcaster and President of Twist Image – one of the largest independent Digital Marketing agencies in North America. He is known as a marketing and communications visionary, interactive expert and community leader. When I heard about his upcoming book, I expected to delve into Mitch’s brilliant marketing mind, but the book was far richer and focused on the essential mindset shifts required for business leaders to succeed in our evolving “business-scape”. This is not a book about marketing, this is a book about success, about adapting and understanding what it takes to serve the modern consumer. It is well suited to entrepreneurs, professionals, business owners and anyone looking to strengthen their business to respond to the needs of consumers in this ultra connected time.

Utilitarian Marketing is Sexy

Everyone wants to know what the next big thing will be. When it comes to marketing, Mitch discusses the need for businesses to embrace a “kind” culture and focus energy on looking for ways to enhance their consumers lives through their marketing efforts: give them something they need. In the video below, filmed during his presentation at 140 Montreal in May 2012, Mitch highlights one of the stories found in the book. It supports a key concept that he presents as Utilitarian Marketing.

If businesses can find ways to make their customers lives easier, remove the friction from their experiences, while keeping things as simple as possible, they will succeed and move forward through this “purgatory”. An important take away is the fact that people have moved from multiple screens to “One Screen” and that the majority of the consumers are on mobile, the key strategy needs to be to create something that the consumer must have. Taking advantage of the potential reach to the mobile consumer, companies will be fighting for valuable digital real estate, the app on their consumer’s phones.

A key piece of advice: It doesn’t have to be complicated.

The book warns people that perhaps too often, businesses have gotten so mixed into things that the levels of complication they have created are what hinder them. The answer: review, revise and keep it simple – do one or two things great. Reboot!

On Leadership & Charting The Path For the Future

Going into the second half of the book, I wasn’t sure what to expect, however I was pleasantly surprised. This section addresses a critical area of need in most businesses today: mindshift . As with any strong business approach, Mitch dissects the core of what is at the heart of any business: the individuals working within it. Although the book’s basis is in marketing, it doesn’t take long to realize that what is really needed to succeed in today’s environment is a complete switch of mindset to what he refers to as a digital first posture. A switch that must take it’s roots in the leadership of any organization and extend through to every single player.

From a personal perspective, having had numerous conversations with many leaders in the community and business owners from across Canada and the US, Mitch couldn’t be more on target. I’ve discussed similar concepts in previous posts here and here. We see this challenge every day, people who are resting on the laurels of how business was always done, not realizing that the consumer is changing. Pockets of people who stay away from our technological advancements, leaning on the excuse that “face to face” is the only way to go, are sadly misguided not realizing that indeed there is no substitute for face to face conversation and relationship building, but what the consumer is demanding, and where they are connecting and feeling value is through the little things that help them in their day to day lives.

Utilitarian marketing is not about taking away “relationships” and replacing them with computers, it’s completely separate. It is about reaching your consumers where they are, and giving them something they need. Tell me this is not where the core of value will be.

For those still on the fence, and not knowing where to go next, Mitch invites you into a personal dialogue and conversation via Ctrl Alt Delete, he takes the time to share with you many case studies, examples and even personal stories that help switch the reader’s perspective to understand what the implications are of the changes we are seeing in society. Clarifying what it will take within organizations to make that jump out of purgatory and into rolling success.

I strongly recommend this book, and look forward to hearing your comments and insights below.

• For those of you who are lost, pick this up for direction.
• For those of you who work for an organization who do not work on culture and think sales gimmicks or Facebook alone will save the business, pick this up and give it to the CEO. Not only will they thank you, but you’ll assure yourself a better work environment with an innovative culture for years to come.
• For those who miss the boat, or who wish to stay in the dark, enjoy the slow ride downwards because while others will reboot, adapt and shine, you’ll be left behind and as you look at your cell phone wondering why the lines aren’t ringing at your business you may look back and finally realize it’s because you chose to look another way.

For more insight from Mitch, you can subscribe to his weekly podcast here or follow his blog here. Ctrl Alt Delete is available on Kindle and through order on Amazon here, pick it up and start rebooting your business and your life. It’s time to move into the digital age with some solid leadership and innovation, this book maps a solid path and is a must read.

- Go…now & prosper.

Mr. Scott is a veteran marketer, who cut his teeth with big companies, and now (surprise!) has his own lead generation marketing firm. He knows a lot about a lot of things and he has put most of it in this book. Maybe a little too much. Did I mention it’s comprehensive?

The first few chapters are a really terrific primer in the nuts and bolts of lead gen. What it is, what it isn’t and why it matters. I’m not sure I quite agree with the assertion that there are two marketing activities: brand awareness and lead generation. I think there is one marketing activity, which is demand generation. Leads are a symptom of demand, not a separate thing. But that doesn’t change the fact that just because we’ve created demand, doesn’t mean everyone is going to give us money.

Each chapter in this book comes with a handy review bit at the end, which is good because if you’ve been a marketer for more than about ten minutes, you are going to get bored pretty fast with the basics here. If you’re just starting or you’re considering marketing as a deliberate career move, it’s not a bad place to start.

In fact, if the book had ended here, it would have been an excellent guide to the basics of lead generation, and one that would stand up nicely over the years with not a lot of revisions. But it doesn’t stop after Chapter Five. It keeps going. There are another ten chapters of tactics. Really, really, really granular tactics.

Everything from display ads to cold calling and two, yes two, chapters on social media. Each tactic is explained, deconstructed, analyzed and put very slowly back on the shelf. Which is not a bad thing but one that will date this book in about ten minutes. The minutiae behind Google ads and Twitter promotions changes hourly, which is pretty bad news for a book in analog format that seeks to explain them. I don’t doubt for a minute that Mr. Scott will update the book regularly, but I’m not sure it’s wise to try to keep up with social media bidding models in your spare time.

Then there’s the creative advice. I understand the temptation, after you’ve explained all about how to run an email campaign that drives to a webpage, to then assert some best practices about how to design said page, but that’s seriously a whole other book, and the advice here is rudimentary and not helpful.

There are a lot of very helpful bits of advice here, though. His guidance on testing campaigns, particularly SEM and email, is very good, and something I’m going to try. He advocates a lot of testing and tweaking and A/B tests, but suggests you hit a large piece of your list at the outset instead of doing what most of us do and dribbling it out in tiny bits. The logic is that you’ll learn a heck of a lot more if you test and learn on 25% of your list than on 5%.

He also makes a fine point about SEM, which most of us forget, and that is that it’s okay to finish second or even third. Chances are the first place winner paid way too much for their click-throughs and you are the beneficiary of a little keyword dumpster diving by pulling off great return-on-marketing-investment (ROMI) for way less money.

He also makes a very strong case for not letting sales people anywhere near their cold call scripts. Amen.

Mr. Scott has a long and distinguished career in strategy and management. He’s worked for electronics manufacturers, Fortune 500 companies and now owns a lead generation agency. So why are there so few examples or case studies in this book? Surely it’s more instructive to show us lead generation in action than to lecture on abstract concepts. The few examples we have are personal things like this one:

“When I leased my BMW I received a hat, a shirt and a coffee mug with a BMW logo on it. Over the term of the lease, I received branded BMW magazines with reports on new car models, customer testimonials, and travel articles… BMW also entered me into various drawings for road trip excursions in Europe. Also, a friend of mine who had just bought a BMW roadster received a set of branded luggage the fit perfectly in the trunk of her new car.”

Well, based on that massive sample size of two, I’m more convinced than ever that LTV is a problem we can solve with loot bags and propaganda instead of with great products and responsive service.

The direct mail section features a campaign the author “heard about” where a bank gave away toy helicopters, plus he once received an adorable thing in the mail from a marketing agency. Really? Dude, there are thousands of amazing and terrible lead generation campaigns in market on any given day. About 90% of them are entered, for no good reason, into marketing awards programs. It’s just not hard to find examples of great lead generation, and it’s disappointing that a book like this doesn’t find them and then do the leg work of showing us how they worked, or didn’t and why.

The final chapter on integrated lead generation marketing is a bit disappointing. Integrated marketing is one of those things we claim to do since all the tactics are listed on one spreadsheet that must make them integrated right? But it’s sadly something few of us pull off. This tiny chapter does little to tell us how to pull it off, and offers a strange example of fictitious car insurance campaigns that are simultaneous but not, to my mind, integrated.

The chapter on trade shows reads like it was written for someone who has just crawled out of a cave and started up a technology company. Skip it, unless you have literally never been to a trade show before.

The book is well written and the chapter summaries are helpful, but it’s a very dry read with few anecdotes, war stories, case studies or examples. This is not a way to kill time on a long flight or inspire you to brilliance on your next campaign. It’s a solid overview of a large subject that would benefit from a bit of focus, a lot of research and a bunch of success stories with metrics.

Bottom Line: If you’re looking for a comprehensive Marketing 101 text book, this one is a great place to start. If you’re past that and wanting real world examples of lead generation that works, you should look elsewhere.

What’s the 3-Step Process to Marketing Your Book?

I’m often asked, ‘When is the ideal time to start marketing my book?’ It’s a good question, but let’s go a bit deeper today.

The question should not only be that, but also: how do I ensure I get the most sales when I do release?

Sales vs. marketing. Marketing vs. sales. In corporations, they are often diametrically opposed in technique and vision. As authors, we are both, and it’s that inherent conflict that can create issues.

Today we’ll look at your book release from a marketing perspective. Part Two will focus on sales. Part Three will combine the two.

Let’s deconstruct.

1) Pre-release marketing activities. The best time to start marketing your book is before you have one. Yes, you read that correctly.

In fact, that’s probably THE number one biggest mistake authors make; waiting to market their book upon release. Why?

You need to attract people when building relationships, right? If you like someone, you ask for their phone number (or email or social info). How is attracting book buyers, readers, book bloggers, or book reviewers any different? Do you attract people by pounding them over the head like Bam Bam? No.

You develop relationships with people by talking with them. By helping them. By promoting them. I don’t mean telling them to purchase your book (which doesn’t work if you don’t have a product anyway). You focus on what’s in it for them. Why should someone follow you or buy your book (eventually)? That’s what you need to provide.

So, practical tips to get you started in effective pre-release marketing efforts:

• Share chapters or posts as you write them, either on your blog or in a newsletter.
• Create a fan page on Facebook, Google+ and/or Pinterest. Different than a friends and family page, this is a great place to share your work and others’ as well. I recommend using your name as opposed to the book. Why? You’ll write another book, right? Then what? This is planning ahead.
• Use your social media fan base to find beta readers and reviewers: people who are anxious to be ‘chosen’ to get a glimpse of your completed work before anyone else sees it AND to give you feedback. It’s very empowering. Thank them, and change the work only IF you agree. I suggest having your editor review suggested changes also.
• Actively build your following daily. I use ManageFlitter to follow 250-500 people daily on Twitter. I have a large account, so that works for me. But it’s large because I do this every day! I recommend starting with 25-50. Tip: Use their ‘fast select’ button. You can follow in one swoop. Starting actively getting LIKES on your Facebook page also. Invite a few each day. Same with Goodreads and other channels. Bits here and there add up!

2) Release activities: Think of your book release in two phases: a soft launch and a hard launch. If you’ve done all of the efforts I mention in #1, you will have a wonderful base to draw from.

• Phase 1: upload your book. You must have an eBook at this point – it’s been said lately that 90% of book purchases are made online (of all types of books); of those, 50% are digital. Paperback is helpful but sales are dwindling.
• Send out a newsletter to all your beta readers that the book is up and ask politely, could they leave a review? Remember: there’s no guarantee they will like your work or give you a positive review. But hopefully you’ve already made changes and they will be pleased. The goal is to have 10 reviews up (minimum) before taking it to Phase 2. Also, contact book bloggers via the Book Blogger List. It’s updated weekly so you know the info is accurate.
• Phase 2: Announce it to the world! This is what you’ve been waiting for. I recommend:

– Blog post

– Adding the cover with buy link EVERYWHERE (site, posts, email signature, all social media)

– Guest posts

– Blog tour

– Advertising

3) Post-release activities: If you think the hard work is done, think again. Now is the time to focus on visibility and exposure. How?

• Insure your website is optimized for both SEO (search engine optimization) and SMO (social media optimization). If you’re not sure what this means, think about what your keywords or key phrases are and see if that’s represented in the copy on your site.

Also, and so critical: have share and social media buttons prominently displayed – typically top right is ideal – on your home page and every subsequent page. If this is all Greek to you, I suggest you contact Barb at Bakerview Consulting. She’s affordable and knowledgeable.

• Blog consistently, at least twice per week. This helps your SEO.
• Participate in memes and chats on Twitter (i.e., #MondayBlogs or #litchat).
• Purchase a book about getting speaking gigs (if you’re comfortable with that) or connecting with local news organizations or charities that have to do with the book’s content.
• Remember: social media is for building relationships, not spamming repeated, duplicate links BUY MY BOOK! LIKE MY BOOK PAGE! ME, ME, ME!!! Annoying, right? Don’t be that person. Besides being an effective way to be blocked, it’s also against Twitter’s TOS (Terms of Service) guidelines.
• Continue growing your presence via following and interaction.
• Set up book signings.
• Apply for awards.
• Attend conferences.

If you have the money, a traditional PR person can do much of what’s in #3 for you (with the exception of blogging, though some do). If not, do what you can. I’m also available to help with the social media aspect (see BadRedheadMedia.com for services and fees).

I hope this gives you some idea of marketing your work, and the three-step process. Some of the steps are interchangeable – i.e., you can go to a conference and build your social media presence anytime. See what works for you, your time, and budget!

Questions? Ask away!

Now it’s time to persuade your top executives to pick up Amy Jo Martin‘s new Renegades Write The Rules: How the Digital Royalty Use Social Media to Innovate – one of the most inspiring real-world books on social media I’ve read.

(Source: Young Entrepreneur)

“Renegades Write the Rules” Book Review

Early in Renegades Write The Rules, Amy Jo tells the story of how she was introduced to movie star/wrestler Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson during an Ultimate Fighting Championship match and set him up with his first Twitter account. Martin explains how she overcame the Rock’s concerns about mixing his private life with his professional life online – and helped transform the actor into a Twitter sensation with 4.3 million followers.

Not only does Amy Jo provide a road map for convincing unconvinced CEOs of the value of two-way conversations on Facebook and Twitter, she reveals the inside details of her “digital brand audit” for The Rock. You’ll learn how her agency categorized audience targets for The Rock’s social media engagement, from females who like to see the actor without a shirt on to action fans who hunger for inside gossip from movie sets. She then digs deeper by explaining the “value bucket” strategy that provides The Rock with guidance on the social content of his tweets, her thinking behind The Rock’s “hide and tweet” ticket stunt to promote the “Fast Five” movie, and how she helped The Rock gain 9,400 new followers in one 30-minute period through a global #RockTalk engagement with fans.

4 Social Media Marketing Tips

But wait – your CEO and the brand you represent aren’t as sexy as a worldwide celebrity? What’s remarkable about Renegades Write The Rules is that Amy Jo makes the lessons she’s learned working with celebs like The Rock applicable to anyone – even if your CEO isn’t a 6-foot, 5-inch, 265-pound muscled God of a global movie star. Among Amy Jo’s takeaways:

1. Don’t Be Afraid To Fail: “Sometimes it’s not about being the best or the smartest, it’s about being the first to try and the first to learn from failure.”
2. Be Brave Enough To Say No: ”The people you choose to do business with will be the most important decision you make. Those you say no to are just as important as who you say yes to.”
3. Be Ready To Pivot: ”A five-degree shift changes your entire trajectory.”
4. Renegades Get To Define What Drives Them: ”You can have it all; you just have to define what your “all is” and accept that it is always evolving.”

Renegades Write the Rules doesn’t provide many tactical lessons – you won’t find out how to optimize a YouTube clip for video search, or what time of day is best to publish a blog post. Instead, Renegades Write The Rules shares something more valuable – an easy-to-digest view of online strategy, delivered with clarity and irreverence.

More Favorite Parts from Amy Jo Martin’s Page-Turner

Of special value to CMOs is Amy Jo’s recounting of how her agency, Las Vegas-based Digital Royalty, helped turn Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh‘s book Delivering Happiness into a best seller. Her campaign for the online shoe mogul involved live-stream “Virtual Happy Hour” events, a “Very Happy People” blogger evangelist program, Facebook and Twitter dialogues and the creation of Meetup.com book club launch parties from New York to Peru. “The movement was less about encouraging people to purchase the book and more about creating a conversation . . . that people would gravitate to because of the value it offered,” says Amy Jo. “We trusted that those who were truly affected would happily buy the book.”

(Source: DeliveringHappiness.com)

Amy Jo explains why Kobe Bryant’s tentative foray into Twitter was so lame, versus why Shaquille O’Neal’s use of social media (with now 7 million Twitter followers and 3.3 million Facebook fans) is so successful. You may be intrigued by her insider’s account into how Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White uses Twitter to promote his martial arts juggernaut. What marketer won’t cheer to read how she won over White, who resisted using social media at all (“Listen, fans don’t give a f—k what I’m doing all day,” said White. “It’s boring sh-t”), only for him to become a social media superstar?

And, Don’t Forget to Earmark These Pages!

Renegades Write the Rules isn’t comprehensive; at 187 taut pages, the book focuses primarily on the power of Twitter and Facebook. A single page (hint: it’s 137), which shares Amy Jo Martin’s alternative to defining ROI as Return On Investment – suggesting instead a new paradigm she calls Return on Influence – could be worth the book’s price for marketers struggling to quantify the value of social media.

There’s a single paragraph that sums up the promise of smart social media marketing better than anything I’ve seen – it begins on page 153, where the author suggests that social media “takes the humans behind your brand engaging the humans in front of your brand in ways that make your general business strategy about adding as much value to as many people as often as possible.” Tattoo that on your wrist and tweet it.

Amy Jo has no illusions about the challenges facing marketers as they convince the C-suite to shift dollars from the safety of traditional marketing to social media tools that are viewed by CEOs as risky and rebellious. “The biggest hurdle to full-scale implementation of social media is the issue of control,” she writes. Many businesses’ best antidote to that fear could well be sharing a copy of Renegades Write the Rules with your CEO. It’s that good, that convincing, and that persuasive.

A Final Message from the Author

Amy Jo shares an exclusive video message for this book review (that was originally published on the Maccabee Public Relations MaccaPR blog). Watch for her insights into social engagement formulas and her solutions to the “innovation allergies” that pose obstacles to using social media marketing.

“If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.”

The independent author surge has given rise to dozens of “how-to” books and articles on publishing, promoting, and marketing. With so much information available, the first time author is all too often overwhelmed and, as a result, spends a lot of time climbing the ladder only to discover that it was leaning against the wrong wall.

We’ve all heard the real estate mantra, “location, location, location.” It’s the number one rule in real estate, and it’s often the most overlooked. If location is the mantra of a realtor, target should be the mantra of the independent author.

Before you reserve your blog tour dates, build your website, buy your ads, or even design your cover, you’d better know exactly who it is you’re hoping will read your book. Seems elementary, right? It’s not. The first question I ask any writer seeking advice from me is, “Who is your target market? Who’s going to be reading this?” More often than not, I hear, “anybody,” or “everybody.” I stop them right there and tell them to figure it out before they put pen to paper. There is no such target audience as “everybody.”

It’s not as much of an issue in the nonfiction world as it is in the fiction space, but knowing your target clientele is paramount in any marketing endeavor whether it be a book or a bar of soap.

I don’t know your story, only you do. I do, however, know my stories. I’ve written several, published one, and am getting ready to publish my second. The currently published title is called Jamaican Flowers. It’s about a hippie scientist trying to find a cure for bipolar disorder using a cannabis/Jamaican orchid hybrid and, in the process, mend a broken relationship with his daughter. I’ve deliberately crafted everything around this book to cater to my target.

Jamaican Flowers is an action/adventure fiction novel with a lot of cursing, violence, and drugs. I wrote a male lead character. Based on the story, I knew that my audience would likely be males aged 18-35, and more specific, those in the “cannabis crowd.” Yes, I thought my story would best appeal to male stoners.

Never one to put my eggs in a single basket, I needed a secondary target. What other sector of society is made up of males 18-35 who like action/adventure stories? Yep, the comic book crowd. So there it was; my primary and secondary target audience. I was now ready to build around what I thought they’d like.

Cover

I hired my friend, Alan Gallo, an amazing comic illustrator and artist, to draw the cover. I wanted it to look very 1960’s psychedelic like a Hendrix album cover but have the main story elements conveyed; the twin daughters, marijuana, a cherry blossom tree, and some really cool comic-type lettering. Here’s the result:

Website http://www.sweetjim.com

I used strong colors and purchased the “Keep on Truckin” font. I needed to make sure that the web elements complimented the book and the “feel” of my personality. My headshots were casual and I kept the majority of my web content light and funny.

Book Formats

I knew that a lot of stoners wouldn’t likely have tablets or be willing to sit in front of a computer to read my raucous adventure. Denying them ease of reading meant they’d walk away. In addition to formatting JF for electronic delivery, I worked with Createspace to offer a print-on-demand paperback.

Advertising and Social Media

Now it was time to get the word out, and as you might imagine, it’s a lot easier and cheaper to do when you know to whom you’re marketing. I put a lot of my marketing budget in banner advertising. I used a company called Designpax (http://www.designpax.com/) to design my banners (example below).

I researched websites that catered to my audience: medical marijuana sites, hightimes.com, comicartfans.com, and dozens of others. I advertised my book on a lot of sites that didn’t have any other books advertised. It was a huge advantage in gaining exposure to my target audience.

*Note* If you want people to buy your book, you need to get them to the place where they can do it as quickly as possible. If you do banner advertising, send the clicker to your Amazon page, not your website.

Facebook/Twitter

It’s a given. You need a Facebook page and a Twitter account. For all things social media related, I tell people to talk to Rachel Thompson. She’s amazing. (badredheadmedia.com)

• I did a couple things on my own, however, that I’d recommend.I had my Facebook cover photo designed by Designpax. I wanted a unified theme throughout all of my web presences.

• I merged my personal FB page into my fan page. What this did was immediately make all of my “friends” turn into “likes.” It’s a lot easier than asking a million times for people to like your page. As you might have guessed, you need to then go back and make a new personal page and re-friend all those people you just converted into likes. My friends were all pretty understanding. Now when I make new friends, I simply recommend that they also like my fan page.

• Twitter – I found the stoner juggernauts (those in the stoner community who had a ton of followers) and gave them t-shirts, books, etc. to help promote me to the community.

Lessons

These are the pearls, the bits that cost me something – money, lost readers, bad reviews, etc. I paid the price. Hopefully now you won’t.

Blog Tours

Everyone is telling you they’re a MUST. I say they are great IF you ascribe to the right tour. I failed to heed my own mantra and did a blog tour without first researching the stops. I ended up with a crowd that wasn’t anywhere near my target. They were largely females who liked paranormal romance, chic-lit, literary, women lead characters, etc. As the result, the majority hated Jamaican Flowers. It wasn’t their normal fare and far out of the realm of what they were expecting. I should have looked for a tour that catered to my target.

Editing

Learn the difference between line editing and copyediting. I had my book line edited and then published. It didn’t matter that I reviewed it after getting it back. My eyes had read the same story a hundred times and glazed over many of the errors. I had to have it re-edited (copyedited) and then reformatted in all forms; electronic and paperback.

Reviews

Send out advanced copies of your book before publishing it and get some reviews, at least 3-6 (Ed. Note—I recommend at least 10 ready to go when you release). It will not only help new readers feel confident picking up your new title, but will also offer feedback ahead of publishing.

Facebook Ads

Do them and spend your daily budget simply trying to increase the “likes” on your fan page. Don’t try to send people to Amazon to buy your book. Every “like” on your fan page is a potential built-in customer for your next book.

That’s it. Know your target and cater to them. Best of luck as you work to stand out in the crowd. I wish you a short ladder leaned against the right wall!

In her new book, Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers Into Fanatics, author Jackie Huba discusses just how she built her legions of intensely loyal fans and how businesses can learn from her.

Through seven lessons in loyalty from Lady Gaga, the book outlines not only what happens in Gaga’s world, but also how specific companies have already adopted these practices. Some of them, although seemingly simple, are really ingenious. One of my favorites is giving your community an identity – quite literally, a name. Lady Gaga did this by claiming them as her “Little Monsters” and in doing so embraced who they were. She allows her fans opportunities to be flawed and loved anyway. The way she engages with her fans seems to remove the “on stage” persona we all see when she performs in meat dresses or giant eggs. The stories of her fans are moving and personal. And the way Gaga responds by sharing most credit with them and for them is compelling. After winning her Grammy for “Poker Face,” she tweeted to her fans “We won big tonight” and thanked them for inspiring her. What a wonderful way to bring your community into a moment.

This book is full of stories like that, as well as the parallel stories of organizations who have had success through similar approaches. An easy favorite of mine is the story of how Innocent, a UK-based juice company, invited customers to knit mini hats for their bottles. For every bottle sold donning a customer-made cap, Innocent donates to a charity. It’s such a feel-good, totally winning campaign. There is something about each story that made me smile. That’s the thread. It’s not just whimsy, it’s heart-warming and real.

This book is easy to read and fun to learn from. As a casual Lady Gaga fan, the stories of how she reaches out to her typically vulnerable fans caused me to respect her more than I thought I would. The business case studies showcased real world ways to apply these loyalty-building principles to your customer strategy.

I’ve never hidden the fact I’m a fan of Jackie’s, and happy to call her a friend. (In fact I still recommend her first book as a classic.) But this book felt fresh and compelling in a way I can’t remember a “business” book being in quite a while. I’d recommend it for anyone who has the desire to build a real community. Jackie (and Lady Gaga) can show you the way.

(Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review.)

Erik is an international keynote speaker, entrepreneur, professor and #1 best selling author on digital trends, motivation and leadership. In 2010, his book Socialonmics was a Book of the Year finalist. His Social Media Revolution 2011 video has gained over 1,100,000 views on YouTube. Erik is a true digital leader. He embodies everything he teaches in his latest book…I know because I’ve emailed and tweeted him and he responds promptly and infuses all the techniques he teaches in his book. Absolutely refreshing!

Overall I give the book a 5 out of 5!

The first perfect book review! There is an urgency in today’s marketplace for a new era leader to rise and this book nails the traits our future leaders need. Erik leverages relevant real-life examples and coaches his readers on best practices to stay productive and lead thru the digital chaos.

Overview of What You Will Learn

5 habits of digital leadership from the acronym STAMP (referring to your personal stamp on your life and others):

• Simple: in a digitally paced world success is dependent on simplification.
• True: your unique digital DNA is what makes you interesting to others.
• Act: more experimentation is crucial in our digitally paced environment.
• Map: be firm in your destination but flexible with your path.
• People: teams are the only way to solve problems in a global, interconnected world.

6 Next Generation Takeaways

1. Word-of-mouth is now world-of-mouth.
2. Post-it-forward is the new pay-it-forward.
3. If you truly want a life that inspires, you need to change your leadership habits to adapt to the new digitally open wold.
4. Your digital footprint reminds you, in real-time, how you are living your life.
5. The golden rule of treating others as you’d like to be treated still applies in the digital world.
6. Technology has made the cost and risk of starting a business or endeavor much smaller than previously.

Favorite Book Quotes

“Life, leadership and legacy are an inseparable trinity.”

“If we dislike change but it is all around us, we are on a direct path to frustration.”

Get more Erik here and follow Erik @equalman.

Question: How do you practice digital leadership?

In his book, Contagious, Berger asks why are some things contagious while others just die quietly, unnoticed. It’s a question of interest to everyone who’s marketing in the age of the Internet. More specifically, how can we get noticed by word of mouth, given that we’ve got a good quality and price arrangement built in?

It’s not the who – it’s the what. It’s not a matter of getting to the right influencers but creating something that is likely to generate buzz. in one example in my current city, a new restaurant created a $100 cheese steak. That particular item made sense because cheese steaks are SO Philadelphia and they’re usually a little on the cheesy, greasy side. This cheese steak was made with the finest ingredents, cooked to perfection.

Berger identified six STEPPS to going viral; you don’t need all of them but the more the better.

Social Currency – That’s currency in the sense of “dollars” or value, not being current. Examples include a secret bar inside a pizza restaurant. It’s also about novelty, status, scarcity and exclusivity.

Comment: So many online marketers are using this strategy it’s no longer WOM-worthy. We all promise to share secrets, which now seems to be interpreted as “Very Special” or “I’m the only one who’s saying this” even when our audiences don’t believe us. Scarcity? Well, often you’ll see a price break with limits to promote sales or genuinely keep demand reasonable; I can handle a half dozen discounted Turnaround sessions but after that it’s not a good use of my time.

Triggers – This one’s a little surprising. People respond to triggers that relate to something they do every day. A student dining hall slogan relating to fruits and vegetables on a tray got a stronger response than slogans referring more generally to healthy eating.

The idea here is to relate a message to triggers that come up naturally. A song about Friday comes to mind on … Fridays, which come every week. Hot dogs are associated with baseball, summertime, street food vendors and “even wiener dogs.”

We tend to forget things unless we’re reminded. It’s not surprising that when I go to the natural food stand in Reading Terminal, I forget to bring my own bag; there’s no trigger till i get there and realize they charge for bags, being totally into environmental support.

Emotion – Anybody who’s studied copywriting knows the importance of emotion, but Berger points out that certain emotions are more helpful than others when it comes to going viral. Usefulness and awe were associated with re-direction of articles from newspapers and videos from YouTube. Sadness doesn’t motivate sharing because it slows us down; anger and anxiety are high-arousal emotions that support sharing.

Berger points to the video “United Breaks Guitars,” which got millions of views on YouTube. (If you haven’t seen it, it’s not exactly hard to find.) Berger associated the video’s popularity with anger that resonated with so many travelers who felt ill-treated by airlines in general and United in particular.

Berger stops there, but you can dig deeper through Dave Carroll’s book, also titled United Breaks Guitars. Dave’s not the world’s greatest writer but his book explains how he deliberately set up the video to go viral, choosing music that would be catchy and an appealing story line.

Copywriters won’t be surprised to learn that emotions will resonate even in a left-brained product like Google search. Berger explains how artistic designers encouraged Google to show the power of search engines by presenting a funny, romantic love story instead of a collection of statistics. We can all learn from this one.

Public - It’s no accident that the apple logo on Mac laptops is backwards to the user but upright, visible to others, when the laptop is in use. We talk about products we use publicly (cars) more than those we use privately (toothpaste).
Social proof works: it’s why we get those “I voted” buttons at the polls and why researchers found that binge drinkers tended to think everyone else binged. Hotmail generated buzz by p promoting itself with every email (today you couldn’t get away with it).

You can make the private public, as a cancer fund did with the mustache campaign and yellow wristbands called attention to the Lance Armstrong foundation. Some of these programs can backfire, as we’re seeing with the “Think Pink” breast cancer campaigns.

Practical Value – This one’s pretty obvious, although some examples aren’t. For instance one video went viral with a demonstration of how to shuck corn without leaving any threads! On the downside, myths about health also go viral, because people are looking for solutions.

Stories – Best for last. You’re probably reading this advice everywhere. People remember narratives – even everyday stories. Berger gives an example of someone who wanted to send a coat to Land’s End for repair; instead, the store sent him a whole new coat, saying, “It’s too cold to wait for yours to come back!”

That’s not just a great story but a lot of useful info, says Berger. We learned that Land’s End makes warm winter coats, has outstanding customer services, and fixes things for free.
Of course the key to a successful story is the link to the message we want to communicate. A video about transforming an ordinary young woman into a model can be a compelling “Trojan Horse” for Dove soap. A man diving into a pool wearing a tutu doesn’t do much for casinos, Berger says.

I like to tell the story of a famous beer commercial, featuring a dog who goes to the kitchen to fetch beer for his master. We hear the refrigerator and the can opener and then we hear lapping sounds, to the owner’s dismay. It’s a great story but I can never remember the beer company sponsoring the ad. In contrast, the Budweiser dog is hard to forget.

Do you moan and groan that you’ve been screwed?

Do you spend countless hours in phone and email hell trying to get to someone who’s going to fix whatever needs fixing on your book?

Do you cave in, with book tail between your heart and soul and just slink away?

Do you make a variety of excuses as to why you are in the mess you are?

Do you ignore that you’ve been treated like a piece of yesterday’s trash?

Do you …

How about: let’s kick in “your better judgment” “Do you …” and get the heck out of dodge. Stop working with the people and group that have zapped you.  Just stop. Lick your wounds; you made a mistake that is costing you time, energy and money. I know, it’s the money thing that keeps people in the book and author abuse cycle.

If you don’t, it will suck the passion out of your book and you. Tell everyone you know who they are, what exactly has been the pits and engage with someone who knows what they are doing. And listen to them; dump your ego, not your vision.

There is too, too much information out there available with a few clicks to weed the publishing predators out. Google the names; add “scams”, “problems”, “cons”, “complaints” after their names—read every one of them. Predators & Editors should always be checked out. Ask, Ask, Ask. I had someone who called me last week who admitted after I asked him why he signed with Xlibris–he was sick of being hounded by all the phone calls and just wanted them to stop. He signed a contract, gave them money … because he wanted them to stop calling him!

Authors—the boiler room operations of Author House, Author Solutions, Xlibris, iUniverse, etc., have hundreds of people “hounding” naïve authors-to-be around the clock—it’s their “job”—they are author hounders, lurking in the shadows, ready to root into your creative juices, and yes, your personal vanity, to get your wallet and book.

And Amazon, with all its bucks, needs to kick up its quality control. The results are hit and miss on printing and layout quality for its CreateSpace program.  CreateSpace is a pay to publish method, let’s call it what it is. The choice for cover presentation—gloss or gloss—is dismal. Lightning Source is leap years ahead of it. Certainly OK for a “galley” and ARC strategy or to “test” the grounds for a book … but to sell in physical quantity/quality—to compete what books that authors and publishers of any size are putting thought and money into—not so hot. If you don’t care what the physical presentation of your book is, then it doesn’t.

When I look at the finished results of the vanity, pay-to-publish, subsidy crowd, and hear the author tell me in writing or in person that they are OK/happy with the results … just what are the results being comparing to? If he or she doesn’t know better … well … is that really OK? Your choice, you choose … and look in the mirror when you do. I would choose to get out of dodge and start over. Yes, you are out some money and time. And yes, you will get your book and author life back. The book-buster is in the mirror. Your choice, you choose.

By J.C. Carleson

Portfolio/Penguin, 192 pages

There’s an industry blog called Agency Spy that purports to be “deep inside” your agency.

They’ve got nothing on the CIA.

Work Like A Spy explains how CIA practices might work in the business world.  It’s been reviewed on that general premise (here and here) so this post concentrates on how practices at “The Agency” might work at youragency.  In what ways are secret agents and advertising agents similar?

What’s It Like to Work Like A Spy?

J.C. Carleson (a pseudonym, of course) was both a CIA case officer and a corporate executive.  If you’re squeamish about taking advice from the CIA, start by reading the last two pages of the book, which summarize her advice – and her ethical standards.  Her advice in one sentence is that getting information important to your business “is a matter of asking the right people the right questions in the right way.”  Is that “right way” ethical?  According to Carleson, “It is possible to use clandestine techniques to get ahead in the corporate world while still maintaining your integrity.”  If you don’t believe her, then put down the book.

Those who press on will get Carleson’s advice in three parts:  an introduction to the clandestine world; how to apply clandestine techniques internally; how to apply them externally.  Sprinkled throughout are CIA stories generally less exciting than James Bond – but one of her main themes is that typical CIA work resembles typical corporate work more than it resembles the typical Hollywood treatment.

It’s important to point out that, like any book by former CIA employees, Work Like A Spyhad to be vetted by “The Agency”.  This may account for generally bland tonality, occasionally ham-handed editing, and overly-obvious appeals to ethics.  On the other hand, this book is virtually free of business jargon.

It’s also a relatively short book, worth one airplane ride to the client.

Secret Agents and Advertising Agents

Here are the passages most applicable to the advertising world.

Hiring People (pages 89-98).  Advertising depends on the right people on the right teams, so we might derive some lessons from the government agency with the disproportionately largest budget for recruiting and hiring.  One amusing line is that the ideal CIA candidate is “a Boy Scout with a latent dark side” – admit it, you work with some of those.  Some of the strategies ring true for agencies:  encourage frequent rotation, make room for lone wolves, etc.  Others sound obvious, but do we really practice them?  For example, mixing groups that don’t normally interact could be done more regularly in large agencies.

Keeping Clients (pages 185-189).  As clients continue to stray from the AOR model, bringing in multiple agencies on the same brand, agencies will feel freer to poach each other’s business.  Carleson’s advice is to study the competition’s M.O., exploit their major changes (we all have them these days), and fight back against their attempts to spy on you.  Not everyone in this business is ethical (ha!) and you can be sure some skullduggery is afoot.  Earlier, in Chapter 3, Carleson gives good advice on protecting your agency’s secrets – doubly important because these are often also your client’s secrets.

Winning Business (pages 144-156).  The author knows something about “Making a Sale” (the name of this chapter) given that her job was to convince someone to betray their own country – with really bad consequences if they got caught.  There is a ton of great advice; each one of the eight techniques listed merits some consideration.  Taking a step back, though, the real value of this section is that it reminds you we are in a relationship business.

Relationships

A key theme of this book is “elicitation”:  You gain information and insight not by dirty tricks, not by interrogation, and not even by direct questions.  Think about consumer research.  Don’t you love focus group questions like “Just why do you like this layout better than that one?”  The idea is that you can get the answers you need from listening and patience.

Indeed, these are also the foundations of good relationships.  “A good CIA officer,” Carleson writes, “is charismatic without being flashy, inquisitive without being nosy, friendly without being boisterous, smart without being pedantic, and confident without seeming arrogant.  Above all, a good spy is a great listener.”

That sounds like the kind of person I’d like to work with in an ad agency.  As long as they’re on my side, of course.

1. Children’s books

Because these books are highly visual and mostly illustration, it is possible that they will be the darlings of mobile reading in the future. In addition, kids are acclimating to technology faster and faster these days. At a recent conference, I heard Meredith Artley from CNN.com describe how a child she knew walked up to the television and tried to swipe it like an iPad and walked away unsatisfied when it did not concede to her wishes. Mobile is the way of the future and the kids are on board.

2. Interactive literature

As our technology develops and our computers begin to “learn us,” it is not unlikely that books will soon be quite interactive on tablets + e-Readers. Think back to the ’90s when you could flip to certain chapters to get a different ending. There could be music or sound clips that go along with your literature, an interactive historical timeline that is integrated into your copies of Lord of the Rings, a quiz at the end of your textbook’s chapters. The possibilities here are endless and really only achievable through a digital medium.

3. Adult literature

As the WSJ pointed out, Fifty Shades of Grey‘s success may not have been had e-Books not existed. The fact is that some people are mildly embarrassed to purchase certain books from certain sections of the bookstore. The anonymity of buying these books on a tablet or e-Reader allows the consumer some privacy.

So what does the future hold for publishing? In my research, it seems that people think digital publishing will supplement traditional publishing similar to the way that audio books supplement the market. Though more and more people continue to buy tablets and e-Readers, it is possible that they will not completely abandon print books–especially hardcovers in the aforementioned verticals. But it is important for publishers to think about the different mediums that will catch the public’s attention in the future as overall reading for pleasure continues to decline across all demographics.

Today, advanced social business intelligence is delivering detailed, actionable insight on shoppers, consumers, markets, influencers, brands and competitors like never before possible. With the exponential growth of commentary across mainstream social networks and niche open-source channels, like blogs and forums, social business intelligence is now a “big data” challenge requiring massive, real-time processing capabilities and concept modeling beyond the limitations of keyword lists and data samples.

This book serves as an executive guide exploring social business intelligence with analysis and case studies on leading brands like Apple, BMW, Disney, The Daily Show and Wisk, providing recommendations on how businesses can effectively implement an advanced social intelligence strategy to set strategy, drive innovation and make decisions.

Early reviews for the book include:

“This book is a must read for any business executive or market researcher.”

-Jerry Wind, The Lauder Professor, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

“The analysis and research in this book provides the practical hows and whys for managers to effectively leverage social business intelligence.”

-David Larcker, James Irvin Miller Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business

A select number of complimentary copies of the book are reserved qualified professionals. If you’re interested in receiving a complimentary copy to learn more about strategically implementing social business intelligence for your organization email your name, title, company and mailing address to SBIbook@ListenLogic.com. You can also contact this email address if you’re interested in purchasing copies.

1. Lorna, please share with us a little background about your bestselling (and now movie-optioned!) books, The Imago Chronicles.

First of all, thank you for inviting me here, Rachel! Second, only in my dreams are my novels considered to be ‘bestsellers’! In all honesty, you’ll notice most of my followers on Twitter and Facebook are more interested in seeing the movie than in reading the books. I get more “I’ll just wait to see the movie” tweets than the “I’ll read your books first before the movie is released,” but I hope it changes once I can announce the names of the director and actors now that development is underway.

With the Imago Chronicles, it was pitched to the film industry as LoTR and 300 meets The Last Samurai. It has an ensemble cast of characters, but the central protagonist is a female warrior. Nayla Treeborn is half human and half elf. Being the only one of her kind, she is shunned by one race and denied by the other. The first of the movie-optioned trilogy chronicles her rise from unwanted child through her evolution to become a legendary warrior amongst the very people that keep her at arm’s-length.

2. What was (and is) your inspiration for writing fantasy books that center around a strong female character?

I grew up dealing with racism, sexism, male chauvinism and physical abuse. I also know what it’s like to be the only female in the male dominated arenas of law enforcement and martial arts at a time when women were breaking into these fields over 30 years ago. Knowing what it’s like to be up against some incredible odds, it made me realize most barriers are just challenges that are not insurmountable if there’s a will to rise above.

Nayla was created after I taught at a martial arts seminar. There were many women signed up for this self-defense class, but I was the only female instructor and also the tiniest person there. It was only after the session, when the female participants approached me, telling me that they never knew a woman could really fight.

When I asked why they believed this, the response was: “It’s in our culture, our upbringing and in the stories we read. Women don’t fight, they wait to be rescued by the hero.”

A quick check in the bookstore revealed there were many female characters, but if they were able to physically hold their own, they were either evil or they were imbued with supernatural or superhuman powers.

I didn’t want my daughter reading about women waiting to be rescued. I wanted her to read about women capable of doing the rescuing without superpowers.

In the Imago Chronicles, Nayla Treeborn is basically an ordinary woman capable of extraordinary things because of her years of training, her determined mindset and a rather fearless disposition.

3. As the mother of a daughter myself, I’m often disenchanted with Disney movies and other big screen movies which place young girls in situations where they are dependent on men for their survival. Do you feel strongly that your lead character, Nayla, fend for herself and how did you incorporate that into the books?

That’s interesting you’d say that, Rachel. It was for this very reason Jessie Finkelstein (editor at Raincoast Books, publisher of the Harry Potter series in Canada) was interested in the Imago series! She loved the Nayla character and how she was NOT imbued with supernatural or superhuman strength to be able to physically hold her own. She felt Nayla could be a real role model for today’s female YA audience.

Unfortunately, she asked if I’d rewrite the entire series to make the content more suitable for a YA audience. I had to turn down her offer (and yes, many of my writing friends dying for a traditional book deal thought I was crazy)!

As for Nayla being able to take care of herself, it can be done and my 30 years of martial arts experience are reflected in her style of fighting. Sadly, there are many with little or no martial arts experience that believe a puny female can’t fight to save her life. I’m shorter than Nayla, and until recently, all my martial arts students had been men and these guys know exactly what I can do. When I’m called to do a martial arts demo, I always choose the largest guys just to demonstrate you don’t need strength to take someone down and subdue them. Nayla is a very capable fighter, but she is not perfect and has the scars to prove it!

4. You’ve got a dream job: writer whose movies have been optioned. Congratulations! I always tell writers: start with a great book. How do you feel you’ve reached such success in your writing?

I think pretty much everyone I know measures success differently. I’ve had traditionally published bestselling author Jack Whyte refer to me as a ‘colleague’ and ‘fellow novelist’ and he has told me how well I’ve done, especially as an indie author (I will always consider Mr. Whyte as my writing mentor, he’s taught me so much about the craft). I also get many unpublished writers tell me that the true measure of an author is in getting a book deal with a traditional publishing house.

For me, I just feel grateful the stars have aligned to make a major motion picture trilogy for worldwide theatrical release possible! To know I don’t have a big following, but I do have very loyal readers that keep asking for the next adventure tells me I must know something about the craft of storytelling.

So, on the writing front, having about 97% of the first time readers returning to buy the movie optioned novels and many coming back to purchase all 9 novels in the series, even crossing over to my YA fantasy series just to keep reading can be used as a measure of success. This, to me, is a very gratifying experience.

5. Tell us a bit how your books led to movie production and when will we see Nayla on the big screen?

I started off writing the first book as a gift to my daughter for when she grows up and I’m dead and gone, but it seems that fate had other plans for this story. One day, I was invited to do an interview about the books as well as a martial arts demo so the viewers could get some sense of what Nayla does. My book was actually used as a weapon and a film producer happened to see this interview. She ended up buying my books and reading them. She fell in love with the characters and the stories and spent about 3 years trying to track me down and negotiate a movie deal. She moved quickly to finalize an agreement, as two other producers were interested in rights to the Imago series.

As for when it will be released on the big screen? Currently, we’re in development. An award-winning screenwriter I had recommended was hired and he did an AWESOME job on the movie adaptation, the line producer determined the budget based on the screenplay, 100% of the financing for film production has been secured, the list the producer wanted me to compile of possible actors for principle roles had been submitted; and just last week, the conceptual artist gave me a sneak peek of the preliminary visuals we might incorporate into the movie. So, development is well underway & full production is slated for later this year. Possible release is late 2014, but you’ll have to wait for the formal announcement via the PR department when they issue press releases to the trade papers in a month or two.

6. Any casting ideas or info you can share?

I was asked to compile a list of 5 actors I can envision in each of the principle roles. If we can get them, great! But this list is more so the casting director can narrow down the search in terms of height, age, look, etc. to fill a particular role. For now, all I can say is that part of the deal for this movie to be made is that there must be some A-list actors included in the cast, for this can be a real draw for many moviegoers.

7. What do you do when you’re not writing?

If I’m not writing, I’m teaching martial arts or spending time with my daughter.

8. How do your family and friends feel about the books and movie deal?

My husband, daughter and my close friends are thrilled for me. In fact, I believe they are more excited than I am!

9. Many female authors (and mothers) find it difficult to make the time to write and market their work. How do you do it?

It can be very hard. Like most moms, everything takes a backseat to the family. I spent years waiting until my daughter was asleep to begin writing. There were many long nights where I’d write into the wee hours of the morning, sleep for a few hours, and then make that long morning commute to work.

Thankfully, the movie option made it possible for me to quit my day job and write full-time, but still, my family takes precedence over everything.

As for the marketing, that’s tough. I’m a writer, not a marketer! So I do struggle with this. I barely have time to do a weekly blog and I try to ration my time on Twitter so maybe this is why my book sales suffer. I rely on returning customers to make up a big chunk of monthly book sales.

10. What’s one piece of advice someone gave you that you’d like to pass on to aspiring writers?

A traditional publishing deal is not the be-all and end-all in this business. I’ve had traditional book deal offers I’ve turned down for various reasons. I’ve also had two literary agents, the last having a stable of award-winning authors and multi-book deals with the Big 5 publishing houses, but I released her of her contract to use a fabulous entertainment lawyer to negotiate the dream movie deal for me.

I’d say do not get discouraged as this business can really grind you down. The majority of authors will never receive that big book deal with a major publisher and gone are the days of the six-figure book advances for a debut author, but still, if your ultimate goal is to share a story with the world, if you put the time and effort into the craft of storytelling, you will find your audience.

11. When is your next book due out?

I’m hoping the 10^th novel in the Imago Chronicles will be ready for release before we head into full movie production, so I’m thinking my readers will have to be patient and wait for an October 2013 release.

12. Do you plan to write another fantasy series at some point?

After this novel is done, I will resume writing the 4^th novel in the YA fantasy series that I cowrite with my daughter, Nia. She has become quite the writing powerhouse in her own right and we have another adventure planned for the characters in the Dream Merchant Saga. This series is slowly making its way into public libraries in the USA and was even the ‘Pick of the Month’ in April at the Walnut Cove Public Library in North Carolina where librarian Samantha Martin is determined to get these books into all the libraries in her region!

13. Do you write other genres? If yes, please share. If not, please explain.

I’m a freelance writer and I’ve tackled just about everything out there! From scripts for an Alice in Wonderland themed fundraiser and educational manuals to scripts for a TV travel adventure series (now with over 25 million viewers worldwide) and for a documentary that was aired on The Biography Channel, I’ve become pretty versatile and adaptable when it comes to making my clients happy.

14. Gin or vodka?

Non-alcoholic Vodka, please! (I think it’s called water…)

15. Please tell us about your writing routine!

On the weekdays, I wake up at 6:30 a.m. to make breakfast and see Nia off to school. While she is expanding her knowledge, from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, I devote my time to writing. I try to treat it as a regular job, even going as far as getting dressed, and doing my hair and make-up before I settle down for a day of writing. Also, I fuel my brain with a cup of Mocha Latte or the writing muse will not cooperate.

16. What do you read when you have (haha) downtime?

This past year, I’ve made a special effort to squeeze in a bit of reading. I read not just for entertainment, but I like to study other authors’ writing styles. Right now, Edmond Dante’s in The Count of Monte Cristo has been coming to bed with me each night. Before this, I read Vlad: The Last Confession by C.C. Humphreys.

By the way, I follow the advice of one of my writing mentors, Terry Brooks: I will not read anything of the fantasy genre while I’m writing fantasy.

17. How long have you been writing professionally? Any tips for new writers?

I’ve been writing corporate newsletter and training manuals for years, but I didn’t start writing my first fantasy until Feb. 7^th, 2002 the day after I lost my job.

I’m always reluctant to give advice as many feel I’m not a professional because I am not traditionally published, therefore, I have no business giving advice. I can only share what has worked for me, which will properly not work for most normal people!

One advice I will share is: If you can afford to hire a professional editor, then do it! If not, engage a critique group and use Betareaders to get unbiased feedback. Don’t rely on close friends or your grandmother (unless she’s a professional editor), as they will often bend the truth to spare your feelings just to keep relationships intact.

18. What types of marketing do you employ to get the word out for your books (social media, blog posts, advertising, promotions, press releases, etc.)? Which do you feel is most effective?

I’ve tried blog tours and interviews, even newspaper and TV interviews, but it has done very little to generate book sales. It wasn’t until I started warning people on Twitter “Please do not buy my books before reading sample chapters first…” did I start building a growing readership.

It wasn’t meant as reverse psychology ploy, but more as a way to pique potential readers’ interest and to warn those hoping for traditional epic fantasy to steer clear if this is what they are expecting.

19. Making people care about our characters is key to creating interest and empathy. Do you have a specific method when creating characters you can share?

Readers like characters that are believable, even in a fantasy world. I tell people to give their characters depth. In real life, we have layers to our personalities, we have things we believe and drive us to do the things we do. Just as we have good qualities, we also have weaknesses and flaws. So too, should our characters. Just as we have 5 senses, your characters should have them as well.

Bottom line: Even with tons of action and plot twists, if the readers don’t care about the characters, they probably won’t care to read to the end or read the subsequent novels in the series.

20. Final question: of the main social media channels, where do you spend most of your time and how do you manage it?

Twitter is my best friend! I’ve met so many fascinating, talented, and exceptional people like you on Twitter. Because my time is at a premium, I’ve chosen to focus on Twitter as my social media preference. As for managing my time on it, I try to limit it by using 5 or 10 minutes on Twitter as a reward when I meet specific writing goals otherwise, the writing would never get done.

Thank you so much for taking the time to interview, Rachel! It was fun!

If you have specific questions for Lorna, please ask below. Thanks for reading! Find her on Twitter at @LornaSuzuki or her site.

This week celebrates National Library Week. For authors, libraries can be your best friend. With over 100,000 throughout the country, their budgets still purchase approximately $2,000,000,000 in books each year—two billion dollars! That’s what the American Library Association and the Book Industry Study Group report.

So … the question is … are you getting your share?

• Befriend your local library and librarian. Let them know about your book.
• Offer to do a program—especially if you are a children’s author. Many libraries have author programs and are enthusiastic in working and featuring authors—stick your neck out. And if you get invited, make sure you encourage others to come. Bodies count!
• Ask for testimonials and endorsements.
• Make sure you share reviews and any media clippings with your librarian … the one you befriended!
• Donate a book to the library—it just may be the thing that generates a purchase order.
• Encourage your followers to contact their libraries to request your book and tell them tell their friends to check it out as well as them.
• Librarians pay attention to reviews. The Library Journal is a key one—usually requires a four month lead before official publication date.
• The read the Library Journal thoroughly—depending on your marketing budget, you might want to consider an ad in one.
• Libraries buy from distributors—key ones are Quality Books, Unique Books and Baker & Taylor. Make sure you have representation with at least one of them.
• Make sure you have a media release/flyer about your book (include a cover picture on it. Include the price of the book and your ISBN as well as who distributes your book. Send it directly to libraries or participate in a coop mailing, such as the one that IBPA does to both academic and public libraries each year.
• Get online and/or make phone calls and determine who the Collection Development Librarian is (make sure you spell the name correctly. Send them your flyer.
• Consider making a collage of reviews that you received and creating a flyer as an attached to anything that you send out.
• If you have the opportunity to attend of exhibit at a Library trade show, do it. There may be a signing you participate in (that means you give books away (make sure there is a flyer in each for additional ordering information).
• If your book has won any awards, make sure you include them within your flyer. If the honor comes to you and your book after your initial contact, it becomes an excellent opportunity to follow up.
• Don’t forget to let your librarian know that you have an ebook or an audio book.

When libraries order a book, they pay for it promptly. It good thing for the author. Yes, celebrate your library … it, they, do lots for you and your book … not to mention the community.

Starting a book is a major event. Continuing the journey deserves a tap dance or two. Launching it is a firework celebration.

As The Book Shepherd to many, the author of 30 books myself, my goal is always for the author to create a book that she or he doesn’t regret. The cover, the insides, the content, the editing, the time spent creating it, the ____.

One of the most important things that an author—new or old—must keep at the forefront is the voice—is it his or hers? Or, has it been so morphed by others in the process that it has gotten lost … not to be found. This is the year that your voice is heard above the noise—the noise of millions of other books that are out there.

• Let this be your year that you are not lost; that you are found in the present and the future.
• Let this be the year that you will seek and find the answers to every question you have … and ones that you didn’t know were circling, just waiting for you to ask.
• Let this be the year that you invest in both your work and yourself to get it grounded and launched.
• Let this be the year that your Author and Book Platforms rock and roll!
• Let this be the year that you build on your crowd—or as Seth Godin says: the tribe.
• Let this be the year that your crowd—your readers—find you.
• Let this be the year that you, and your book, are truly findable across the Internet.
• Let this be the year that no one looks at you with a glaze in their eyes as you share that you are publishing your book with your own imprint.
• Let this be the year that you say, “I can do that. I can be a bestseller.”

It’s an exciting time to be an author; it’s an awesome time to be a publisher. The typical author, especially the author that views his path aligned with a traditional publisher, wants the details to be taken care by others—to in some ways, be taken care of. The independent author/publisher knows that “if it is going to happen,” he needs to be intricately involved in the process. He must continue his education; keep updated on marketing strategies and tools; and stay connected with others in the authoring/publishing community.

That’s because you want to educate yourself, you want to find out what’s happening in indie publishing, you want to learn about book construction, or you want to find out the cool new ways people are marketing their books. No longer does an author write a book, get it published and wait. Wait for success or wait for the end, meaning sales have dwindled to zilch and the ride is other. Today’s savvy author knows that his book can have a never-ending life—with marketing smarts, vision, passion, commitment and the tribe.

Welcome to my world … the world of publishing that I embraced in 2000 when a client said, “We would like to buy 1,000 copies of your book that you will be speaking about in the spring … and do you think you could arrange a discount with the publisher.” Of course I said, “Yes,” knowing that I had just taken the rights back from the traditional publisher and to the best of my knowledge, only 60 copies existed. I jumped in; started to learn the insider’s world of publishing; the dollars and sense of publishing; and how to find people to create the book that I committed to deliver on my promise. I was an already an author of 18 published books; now I was to become a publisher. Heady stuff.

What I’m thankful for is that I did come from the traditional publishing side. My visual model. My books were edited and professionally designed on the interior and exterior. When I created my own imprint, it never dawned on me to do it half-assed … I expected that my first book would be of quality—that’s what I grew up with as a beginning author in 1981. The vanity press/publishing model? Never an option—not even in my sights.

The growth of quality independent publishing is phenomenal and will only continue to escalate; the “e” world has become a pearl for many authors who would have never had a chance; and the separation of the vanities and publishing predators from true independents is comparable to buying a cheap 50 cent toy that breaks when it is picked up versus one that is designed to last.

Indeed, here’s to you and the book that is within you … just waiting to come out.

PS—my latest book, Author YOU: Creating and Building the Author and Book Platforms is perfect for anyone who is interested in authoring and publishing.

Charles Schwab, Bill Gates, Lou Gerstner, Brenda Barnes - what do these CEOs have in common? According to Harvard Business School Professor Quinn Mills, an expert on leadership behaviors, their personality profiles classify them as introverts. Quiet CEOs may not be obvious – they can be quite comfortable on stage or socializing with colleagues and friends. The introvert test is that they don’t get their energy from other people. They leave the party early and recharge by retreating to their offices or studies, spending their favorite time reading or thinking.

I haven’t been able to put down the hot new book Quiet, The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Author Susan Cain makes a compelling case for the power of the introverted leader. A masterful storyteller, Cain also convincingly shares example after example of how brilliant people can be overlooked and over-talked by extroverts. In American business, where we value the gregarious individual, this has consequences. She chronicles the history of how we came to favor the outgoing personality, and what companies must do to avoid always capitulating to the leader or team that is quicker to put forth an idea and able to argue until they win the debate.

Cain also cites the work of Gregory Berns, a Harvard Business professor and expert on leadership traits. Berns explains the consequences for companies that rely too heavily on presentation skills to weed out good ideas. He shares examples of companies that try to solve it – like a software company which set up an online idea exchange so good ideas wouldn’t be squashed by the conversational dynamics of the typical extrovert-oriented brainstorming session.

It may seem odd to read a blog that praises the introverted leader, written by the CEO of a communication strategy firm. First, I must tell you that by Cain’s definition, I am clearly an introvert. Perhaps that’s why our courses on executive presence have always focused on substance first, style second. While companies call us to help their leaders develop greater executive presence, we have always believed our job is to help the smart, but not necessarily outgoing leader become more influential by giving voice to substantive ideas and making their case.

Yes, leaders who are introverts must learn to be effective on a big stage, or in boardroom. It’s just the reality of succeeding in our extrovert culture. They also have to express clear and compelling ideas in their written communications. That isn’t what they teach you in engineering school, or finance school, or the laboratory.

There is so much to learn on this topic. Check out Quiet, whether you suspect you are an introvert, or know without a doubt you have Extrovert stamped on your forehead with a capital E. It will provoke your thinking about why we need to make sure the I’s and the E’s in our organizations learn to talk, and listen, to each other.

Invest In Your Book For Successful Sales

First, do no harm.

Or…sell a terrible book.

Okay, I’m not a doctor nor do I play one on TV. However, I am an author and I’d love it if every author (no matter HOW you’re published) took this oath.

Why? There’s so much negativity out there surrounding self-published authors (which I am), why add to the ammunition? I typically don’t write ‘author’ kind of blogs, but a reader suggested I address this so I am. I’ve written before how product is the most important part of your platform, but I’d like to break it down further.

How does one write and produce a ‘not-terrible’ book? By writing and producing a great one! Is it that simple? Nope.

Let’s deconstruct.

1) Writing. I’ve written three books and am in the midst of writing number four and researching for number five. I’ve loved writing since age ten. I’ve written since age ten, throughout my life (internships and journaling), and professionally since 2008. My point: writing takes time. For me.

Many people will disagree and that’s fine – I know one author who writes one book per week and releases a new book every two to three months and she makes a good living. No offense to her, but that doesn’t work for me.

I love the luxury of working through my thoughts, words, and phrases. As a (primarily) nonfiction writer, it takes me some time to address some of my experiences and share them in a way that evokes an emotion for the reader.

Without getting too much into my ‘process,’ I will tell you that my first draft is like the Hemingway quote about writing as bleeding. I just sit down and get it out. As author Karen Kondazian says, a first draft should be ‘emotional vomit.’ Just get it out. It took her 27 drafts and six years to finally be ready to pitch her award-winning book The Whip (and it’s wonderful, by the way) and she was signed right away.

So my point here is: take your time. Make it amazing. It took me about nine months to complete Broken Pieces and I’ve gotten the best reviews of my career.

Share your work with other writers you trust with your baby. Then share it with more people. Then, when you finally feel like if you see it once more, you’ll hurl, it’s time to pay someone to edit it for you.

2) Editing. I never knew this until I hired a professional (the extraordinarily talented Jessica Swift Eldridge): there are really three types of editing and a book needs all three. They are:

• Substantive: (also called content or structural) edit, where they dissect the book, look at the structure, and many times suggest major changes.
• Line edit: more intense than basic proofreading, they do exactly what it sounds like: review a book line by line for errors and suggest fixes.
• Proofreading: basic proofing for grammar and spelling errors. Proofreaders often read words and sentences backward, a skill most authors do not possess.

Much of the complaints people make about self-published books is in the editing (poor grammar, misspelled words, clichéd writing, etc.). Hiring someone who knows what the hell they’re doing can prevent all of these mistakes. Your high school English teacher may be a nice lady, but does she know the Chicago Manual of Style inside and out?

Yes, editing costs money. So, start saving for it while you’re writing. Stop going to Starbucks and out to sushi (gasp). Put money toward making your book amazing and you’ll make up the editing fees plus more in sales on the backend.

3) Betareading. What does beta mean? Basically, it’s a test version. For authors, it’s the first shared version to send to readers, reviewers, etc. This is where you get feedback from many others (I sent Broken Pieces to about thirty people – readers, fans, other authors and reviewers I respect). They all gave me wonderful feedback and I made several changes. Some I didn’t.

Betas are also important from a marketing standpoint: many will write reviews for you. There is not guarantee they will, of course, or that they will be positive. But if you send to your readers (I suggest tweeting it out and sharing that you’re looking for betas), many people will be happy to post a review after your upload the book to Amazon or wherever.

4) Graphic Design. We all judge a book by its cover. Sorry, but it’s true. So you need a great cover. Eye-catching – using colors that draw the eye in, like red (notice red is on all my covers). Unless you are also a graphic designer, I suggest hiring someone who does this for a living. Why?

Well, no doubt you’ve seen some truly horrible book covers. I know I have. Horrible covers rarely sell thousands of books. I’ve paid anywhere from $150 to $500 for my covers, every penny well spent. Don’t skimp.

5) Formatting. Just like the above, I suggest paying someone to format for you, unless you’ve learned and love doing it and get paid for it also. To me, it’s like math. I don’t want to do it mostly because I’ve rather spend those hours writing or marketing. The last thing you want is a terrific book that’s formatted poorly. Again, it’s worth the investment in you.

So there you have it. I’ll discuss more about writing next time, and plan to have some successful writers visit as well to share their processes and secrets. For now, focus on making your writing the best you possibly can and start looking around for the best help you can afford.

I welcome your comments and questions!

The world we now live in – virtually

It’s more than a modern world. It’s a virtual world. It’s no longer about what we can see, touch, taste, hear and smell. The focus is on everything outside and beyond the tactile world.

For the Digital Dinosaurs it’s like living inside a gyroscope – with an overload of information flinging at us from every angle, simultaneously, with that data moving too fast to read the fine print and, even if it slowed down (and it won’t), the dinos would struggle to understand because half of it is a new vernacular and no one believes in writing stuff down anymore so you won’t find the terms in a dictionary until they’re outdated, and that still won’t help because everything will be misspelt. LOLcano!

I’m only partway through the book ‘The Brain That Changes Itself’ by Norman Doidge, MD, but in the spirit of true modernity, I’m brushing aside all the seriously important content about the gobsmacking results for stroke victims, the spatially and mentally challenged, autism, OCD, phantom limb pain relief and life changing help for physical and psychological problems like we’ve never seen before – and heading straight for the ‘WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?’ buffet.

Digital Dinos – Don’t give up.
There’s more than hope – there’s facts.

In some ways, those of us with character lines and real-life experiences may actually have a bit of an edge over the ‘natives’ in coming to grips with fast-moving innovation and technology, and it comes down to our grey matter – and I’m not talking hair.

Baby Boomers and early Gen X already have the building blocks for consecutive and orderly learning processes because of the archaic way we were educated. We know how to read maps. We memorised Nut Bush, Time Warp and/or Thriller dance steps, for pity’s sake! Don’t throw these how-to-learn skills out! You’re going to need them.

The irony of this new discovery is that for hundreds of years… a classical education often included rote memorization of long poems in foreign languages, which strengthened the auditory memory… fanatical attention to handwriting, which probably helped strengthen motor capacities…added speed and fluency to reading and speaking… The loss of these drills has been costly: they may have been the only opportunity that many students had to systematically exercise the brain function that gives us fluency and grace with symbols… their disappearance may have contributed to the general decline of eloquence, which requires memory and a level of auditory brainpower unfamiliar to us now. (p42).

Don’t let your brain get dry and crusty like Play Dough in a cranium tub

USE IT OR LOSE IT. This is a repetitive theme across multiple studies. As it is for muscles, so it is for the brain. Apparently it’s a seriously busy place within the skull, so if you leave something on a shelf for too long, it just gets shoved out and new stock takes its place. This explains why I can’t recall but two sentences of French, although I studied it for three years in high school; and why the ability to play a simple piano scale is no longer simple, but has been lost entirely. It has something to do with ‘competitive plasticity’ (p 59-60) which makes the brain sound like a schoolyard with too many kids competing for the best playground equipment. In short: don’t neglect or throw away existing skills or previous learning if you can help it. We want to BUILD on that. Up and out, people. Bigger and better.

Sure, sure, the brain isn’t going to learn as fast as when we were 3 year olds. But it’s not dead, folks! We can still learn. And medical science is saying we can learn A LOT, with studies proving that the brain can EXTEND its functions, BUILD NEW pathways (and, we’re talking highways, not just pathways), EXPAND in multiple areas with dedication akin to corporate takeovers, no matter what age!

… as neurons are trained and become more efficient, they can process faster. This means that the speed at which we think is itself plastic.” “…not only did neurons fire faster, but … their signals were clearer… becoming better team players – wiring together more and forming groups of neurons that gave off clear and more powerful signals. (p.68)

Apparently, there’s a party waiting to happen inside our heads.

ALSO, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: It’s not necessarily about learning new things. It’s about learning DIFFERENT things. Even if your job is highly intellectual and brain-heavy (e.g. lawyers and doctors), or requires huge amounts of dexterity (e.g. forklift operators or professional gamers), you need to keep your brain active and learn different things:

We rarely engage in tasks in which we must focus our attention… trying to learn a new vocabulary or master new skills. Such activities as reading the newspaper, practicing a profession of many years or speaking our own language are mostly the replay of mastered skills, not learning. (p88)

So, I ask you – What is becoming tech savvy or learning how to utilise social media to market your own business, if not a new language?

When I first emigrated to Bluewire Media – from the Jurassic Park Land of having a Facebook account (set up by my kid. Hey, I know I’m not alone!) but not using it, to the Land of the Technologically Advanced where the young thangs eat Tweet Bix for breakfast, chow down on the alphabet soup of SEO, SEM and ROI for lunch, and sit down to a substantial main course of web strategy, analytics, Javascript and wireframes – I missed my Outlook email account like an old teddy; I lost my cursor continually in the no-man’s-land between the twin monitors (I know why they call it a cursor); and I genuinely thought, ‘This time, I really have bitten off more than I could chew.’

Acknowledgement:

…So I have to thank Anne Sorensen – Marketing is Us – who was a panellist at our Web Strategy Summit last year. Anne runs her own marketing business, tweets and blogs confidently and is undertaking her PHD and, when I expressed being a bit overwhelmed by the enormity of not only learning an entirely new ‘language’, but having to learn in a different way, Anne calmly and cheerfully assured me that I could not only learn, but could become accomplished at living comfortably in the world of digital innovation and supersonic information; and it who Anne who first raised the topic of neuroplasticity with me.

And she’s right. I am now a Facebook addict – mild, not yet requiring rehab. I understand the analytics reports about ‘hits, conversions, positive-to-negative ratios’. I get webpage functionality and layout, and I ‘link’ content like a beserker. I actually admire the concepts of inbound marketing and the whole globalisation ‘give your stuff away for free’ ideology. And, just last week, I think I wrapped my head around the difference between a Twitter handle and a hashtag.

HUZZAH! … I mean, WOOP-WOOP. Give up for me!

So chillax. Jump in. Have fun. And make your neurons fire up like sparklers.

Quoted from: The Brain That Changes Itself
Author: Norman Doidge, M.D.,
Version: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd (2007, reprinted 2008),
ISD 9781921215827 (pbk.) Dewey reference: 612.8

Brill was a longtime product manager for IBM’s Social Business products, where he fought an uphill and often public battle against Microsoft. Brill’s barbs were notable because IBM’s buttoned-down culture had historically discouraged direct public engagement. How did a product manager get away with poking a stick in the eye of a major competitor?

The fact that he did get away with it is one of the sub themes of Opting In, Brill’s new book about social product management. “Only twice did someone ask for me to be fired at the chairman’s level,” he jokes. That seems funny today, but at the time it was a bold test of new management principles that challenged IBM’s 100-year-old prohibitions against individual expression.

Brill’s engaging and readable book is aimed at product managers, those corporate jacks of all trades who fret about everything from market research to customer support. Product managers are the ones who ultimately take the credit or blame for a product’s performance in the marketplace, and Brill sees social media as their ally at almost every level. Opting In covers everything from Google Alerts to Pinterest, and Brill not only outlines the unique utility of each of these tools but usually provide stories to support his points.

Telling Stories

For me, the benchmark of an enjoyable business book is storytelling, and Opting In has stories aplenty. They include detailed accounts of some of his more notable confrontations, such as a 2004 dustup with the influential Radicati Group and a 2010 challenge to a controversial Gartner report. Conventional wisdom holds that you don’t pick fights with these influencers, but Brill went to war and lived to tell about it. The explanations of his reasoning behind these actions are valuable competitive intelligence for any product manager.

Ed Brill

Most of the tales in Opting In are more upbeat. For example, Brill tells how a single tweet on a trip to Sydney led to a meeting with a local follower and fellow foodie and a friendship that has lasted for years. Social media is about more than business, he emphasizes. Those glimpses into your experiences, hobbies and interests create touch points that lead to meaningful relationships.

Product managers will learn much from scrutinizing Brill’s insight on topics common to the profession. He introduces the concept of “progressive disclosure” as an alternative to the traditional Big Bang product announcement, with the idea being to use social media to build awareness and buzz leading up to the communication of the news.

He describes how Lotus has increasingly moved toward open product development as a way to integrate user feedback into the process and even shares a story about how his group handled an unforeseen customer backlash to some changes that everyone expected to be a hit. Fellow product managers will relate to all of this.

Opening Up

The hero of the book is IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines, which get a full appendix entry of their own. Brill frequently praises these rules, which are often cited as a model of social media policy, for giving him the courage to take on some of his more notable battles and to continually give voice to his opinions.

The guidelines, which were first drafted in 2005, have changed IBM fundamentally. To dramatize the scope of that change, Brill recalls how he was slapped down by corporate communications in 2003 for identifying an employee in a blog post because, “we don’t have celebrities at IBM.” Less than a decade later, IBM was running ads celebrating individual employees.

“The guidelines…signaled to employees, clients and the market that IBM would stand behind its [people],” he writes. In a day when corporate loyalty seems almost a quaint historical curiosity, the kind of faith must be pretty empowering.

Full disclosure: I have a consulting relationship with an IBM subcontractor.

Well what if I told you that I could make all of this come true?  Not only is this possible, but we can do so with one hundred dollars a month or less.

Sound too good to be true?  Well it’s not.   In fact, I’ve been doing so for years.  The answer lies in selling information.

That’s right, these days selling information in the form of e-books is one of the most valuable commodities on the Internet.  All you need is a cashier service, and monthly hosting for your website, which amount to less than one hundred dollars per month in expenses.

In this article I am going to teach you seven steps that will help you get started on this path the same way I did:

1.  Figure out what you are passionate about.

Make a list of all the topics that you either have advanced knowledge on, or would like to have advanced knowledge on.   In order to provide value to customers, you must be passionate about what you are selling.

2.  Choose your topic and make it as niche as possible.

Once you decide what information to offer, make your area of expertise as niche as possible.

For example, providing help with relationships is too niche.  But providing help to women who are struggling to find a fiancé online is much more focused, and has a target audience that is obtainable.

The more niche you make your business, the more you will find a loyal customer base.

3.   Acquire as much knowledge as possible.

You may think you are an expert, but there is always more to learn.  Read every book you can on your subject.  Do research.  Perform experiments.  Test out theories.

If you are going to sell information, you need to know your area from top to bottom and all its little intricacies.

4.  Come up with an original concept.

Now that you have the knowledge, it is time to put your ideas on paper.  But before you write a book filled with useless clichés, think of ways to make your writing original and distinct.

Ask yourself the question, what valuable information can I offer that nobody else can?  You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  But you do have to bring something new to the table.

5.  Create your book on an Adobe PDF file.

This is where life gets good.  Adobe PDF files are compatible on just about all software, computers, E-readers, and smart phones.  And the best part is, you will have no overhead or shipping costs whatsoever.  Delivery will be a completely automated process.

6.  Show the world you are an expert.

Think you are ready to start selling?  Not so fast.

Its not enough these days to become an expert in your own mind.  People who arrive at your website are going to want to know what makes you more qualified then everyone else.

The best way to do this is to get featured on as many sites as you can.  Contact all the authority websites in your field and ask to write a guest article.  Use LinkedIn as a source to make contacts.  Interview experts in your field.   Do whatever you can think of to get featured.

Although this is difficult at first, if you push hard enough, you will get through to a few sites.  Once you obtain a few notches on your belt in the expertise department, this process will become easier.  As your expertise grows, so will your sales.

7.  Build a website, set up a cashier, and get started.

Congratulations.  You are officially an expert in your subject and have a unique E-book that is ready to serve the world.  All that’s left to do is get out there, market your product, and let the cash flow in.

Your best route towards doing so is to read a few books on Search Engine Optimization, and Pay Per Click.   Once you reach your target audience, if your product is good enough, the results will follow.