What Do You Believe?

What do you believe about book publishing?

You can't be published without an agent. You're going to do it no matter what. It would take too much time. It sounds like fun. It's really hard, and few people ever do well at it. You're hooked and can't wait to do it again. There's only one way. The door to possibility has never been open wider.

Know what? Whatever you believe, it'll likely come true. Think it's too hard? It will be as long as you expect it to be so. Think it's going to be a cool adventure? It will be, miss-steps and all.

Along with skill, knowledge and training, a big part of success centers around what you believe deep down.

Where are you in your journey today? Where do you believe you can be?

20 Seconds

20 seconds. That's roughly the amount of time you have to describe your book in what's called an "elevator speech". For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, an "elevator speech" is a little prepared statement of less than a minute that you use in brief conversation, in pitches to the media etc.

You pull it out in conversations like this:
"Oh, you're a writer, what do you write about?"
"So what are you doing now?"
"What will you book do for my audience?"

Many of us know this, and many have even written one out including myself. But how good are we at using it?

I'm going to stand up and admit that I botched an attempt a couple of days ago. I'd called in early to a teleseminar and the host began chatting. It was a call about online marketing so eventually, the time came to mention why I'd tuned in.

For a few seconds my mind went blank and although I did explain my topic, it wasn't nearly as smooth as it could be. I definitely need more rehearsal and practice. How about you? Do you have your elevator speech ready, written down, tightened up?

Last week, I challenged you to post about your target audience. Well, the next step is having something to say once you get in front of them.

So let's see them. Post your elevator speeches here, in whatever form they are at the moment to get some feedback, and to give us all some examples.

You've got 20 seconds.

Who Are You Talking To Part 2

First, thank you to the brave ones who've taken up my challenge and posted their thoughts and questions! I'm sure there are more out there, keep 'em coming!

Next, here are a few tips for narrowing down who your target audience is and what you are going to offer them:

1. Who is interested in the information you want to write about? There may be multiple groups.
2. How are the people in those groups different, how are they similar, do they need separate info or can you combine?
3. Who needs your the services/products you're offering?
4. More importantly, who wants the services/products you're offering?

If you're still having trouble figuring it all out, maybe it's time to consider chatting with me in a consultation. Sometimes it just takes an outsider's point of view to get past the block. Reach me via my website http://www.publishinganswers.com/services.php

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Who Are You Talking To?

In the most recent issue of the Publishing Answers Newsletter, I related another lesson learned with regard to the forum "hecklers" I talked about in my last post. The lesson involves the concept of target audiences.

For any of you who might be unfamiliar, target audience marketing involves figuring out and then marketing to the groups of people most interested in what you have to say. This is in contrast to those who believe "everyone" should buy their book and who market in a shotgun approach trying to make that happen.

In the heckler situation, I was reminded that even though there are definitely people in that forum who need my information, it's also important that they want it. That being the case, I can eliminate a group who's not truly interested, thus not my target audience and put my efforts elsewhere.

Who are you talking to?
My assignment/challenge for you today is to comment here with a brief statement as to the identity of your target audience. Why? It's good practice and who knows, one of my current or future readers might be a good match!


Good Writing & God Bless,

Cheryl Pickett
www.publishinganswers.com

P.S. If you aren't getting my bi-monthly newsletter, pop over to my site and sign up today. I'll be happy to send you this week's issue as well.

Handling Hecklers

Most comedians expect and are used to heckling, someone from the audience shooting them down, yelling obnoxious comments and the like. But I'm not a comedian, I'm a writer. Writers are generally known for helping others in the community and for being cordial even when we disagree. I wasn't prepared for heckling.

I wasn't taunted in person, but rather online in a forum. It actually happened a few days ago, but I just happened to read it today and it stunned me for a minute. In forums, heckling is called flaming and most, have rules against it. The official rules of this forum indicate they do too, looks good to say so I guess.

My reaction? Honestly, my first desire was to play by their rules and dish it back. It would have been really easy and it would have momentarily let me burn off some steam.

What did I actually write? A few politely worded statements pointing out their "rules", and that stated my disagreement with their opinions while still noting the fact that they were entitled to them.

Why? Of course I won't post there again, but who knows who will read that thread today, tomorrow or next year? If I'd stooped to name calling and snide comments, how would that reflect on my reputation? It wasn't worth it.

I also know it won't be the last time this will happen. As long as I'm in business and putting my work out there, the potential exists for this to happen anytime and anyplace. If nothing else, now I'm a little more prepared.

Has this happened to you? Feel free to share.

Cheryl Pickett
http://publishinganswers.com

P.S.
Feedburner customer service finally responded and things seem okay for now. Thanks for sticking with me.

Writers & Technology Part II

Speaking of technology and learning to work with a tool or two, those of you currently subscribed to this blog may not be for much longer as I've had difficulty with Feedburner for about a week now with no help or end to the situation in site. In fact, I don't know if you're even going to get this. I may switch to Feedblitz, but I'm not sure yet. Still checking that out.

If I end up having to close my account and start over, I do hope you'll bookmark and check back for new posts and resubscribe in the future. If you don't already, you can also visit my main site and sign up for my newsletter to stay posted on the blog and much more.I truly appreciate your readership and look forward to continuing to help you with your publishing journey.

Cheryl Pickett
http://www.publishinganswers.com

Writers and Technology

I am going to show my age here, and tell you that when I typed high school papers, I was doing so on a typewriter. I did have correction tape at least. I did that through most of college too, then near the end, a small computer lab with maybe 5 computers was available. At that point we could type our stuff in a word processing program, save to a disk the size of a big coaster (remember those?) and print it out to hand in.

No need to tell you that things have come a long way since then. Now the problem is not learning "the" new technology, it's picking which one to learn first and trying to learn it fast enough to keep up with the latest recommendation.

As a writer who wants to write, publish and sell, the choices are almost never ending now. There are programs to help you write, that will read your work back to you so you can edit, and multiple ways to produce a book. There are blogs, social network sites, and bookmark sites to help with publicity just to name a few. Where oh, where to begin?

My suggestion-pick one or two at a time that can help you with the level you're at now. For example, if you're writing and want help, find those tools. You can learn about publicity and networking later. Get to know those tools, if you like them, get to know how to use them well, then move on in your own time. You may not be on top of the latest and greatest at the first moment, but you will be on top of what matters to you, and that's what matters most.

Cheryl Pickett
http://www.publishinganswers.com/