Access To The Internet

At some point, every serious writer is forced to sit down and conclude that there is something seriously wrong with their work. It wanders; it is pretty in some spots and horribly ugly in others. It doesn’t always make sense, and is uneven in places. Even though every sentence is grammatically correct, there is something fundamentally broken about the piece.

It lacks structure.

Structure is what holds a good piece of writing together, the material reflection of the reader’s psychological need for order. It is the quality that makes the best writing appear seamless, conjured whole from heaven itself. Structure is the logical mind’s contribution to a creative process, and a primary difference between professional writing and amateur scribbling: a conscious decision and a learned skill.

Being in many ways the very essence of writing, structure isn’t mastered overnight. But here are a few rules of thumb that can help you improve the organizational readability of your work:

Establish a logical order to your presentation.

Ignore all the popular advice to “write like you talk”; that’s a misguided appeal to conversational tone usage and a shortsighted encouragement for people who are terrified to put pen to page. In order to master structure, you must learn to write deliberately and with forethought. Plan what you’re going to write and how you’re going to write it: don’t make it up as you go along, particularly when you are writing nonfiction of any kind.

In nonfiction writing (which means anything that isn’t fiction), the room for art is small. Don’t set out to create art – build a sturdy framework, as a skilled attorney would build a legal argument. Make your supporting points early and establish the logical flow to consequences and conclusions. Don’t loop back and make points at word 800 that you should have made at word five.

Make your points quickly – write in 300-word chunks.

That’s the magic number: 300. Books are typically printed with about 300 words to a page; magazine articles will usually be structured into roughly 300-word segments. An effective press release, page of website copy or newsletter article won’t run much above 300 words. Any longer and your reader will notice that something is off about your piece. Too much longer and your reader will get bored. For some reason, the human mind seems to be most comfortable reading at the 300-word length.

That does not mean that everything you write must be short, only that long pieces should be built out of short pieces put in order. If you can’t make your point in 300 words or less, then you are trying to make more than one point. Simplify the whole piece: break the manuscript down into single-point segments no longer than 300 words in length, and then put your points into a logical order that builds towards your final conclusions. The final product will seem to flow with a gentle rhythm that your readers might notice, probably won’t be able to identify, and so will most likely attribute it to your talents.

Try it: you’ll be amazed.

Take the entire piece down to a single thought, expressed in a single sentence, and then rebuild it from the ground up.

When in doubt, strip the piece down and rebuild it from its primary components. The greatest threat to structure is diffusion; rather than trying to communicate one thing well, you end up saying lots of things badly. Good structure requires that you have a very clear idea of what you are writing, how you are doing it and why. Do one thing, and do it very well.

Set the piece aside and attempt to make your final point in a single sentence, losing as little important detail as possible. Do not use compound sentences; keep it simple and limit it to a single direct thought. If you can’t do it, then you do not have a clear enough idea of what it is that you’re trying to accomplish – reorganize the piece or split it into several separate ones.

An English sentence has a natural internal structure all its own. Look at your one-sentence summary and use its structure to inform yourself on how the overall piece should be structured. Once you’ve reduced your writing to its bare essence, you can reconstruct it on a much more solid foundation.

In the end, professional writing is all about understanding the psychological needs of the reader. If you are writing purely for your own pleasure, with no intention of ever letting anyone else read it (and what a boring life that would be), then it doesn’t matter because you’re not really writing: you’re keeping a diary.

But if instead you want your writing to be appreciated by readers, structure is one concept that you can’t live without.

About The Author

Robert Warren (www.rswarren.com) is a Florida-based freelance copywriter specializing in the unique marketing needs of independent professionals.

writer@rswarren.com

The internet is a treasure-trove of information vital to the
aspiring or established writer. Whether you are an article
writer, book writer or looking to write content for websites, the
following will help.

Before looking at the free ways to gather information, you may
like to know there’s a new tool on the block for conducting
internet searches and it’s called Search Automator.

To say that Search Automator is a comprehensive search tool is an
under-statement. It includes a phenomenal range of search options
all focused in one place. All you need to do is type in the
word or phrase you want to search on. You are then presented
with a vast array of useful options related to your search: lists
of websites, ebooks, tutorials, resources, checklists, guides,
tips, tricks, articles, MP3s, videos, images, pdf files and so
much more. It’s got neat built-in keyword research tools too. All
in an incredibly easy to use interface.

It’s fast, it’s slick and no other search tool on the internet
even comes close to what Search Automator can offer. It really is
worth your while to check out the full specs of this very
reasonably priced and amazing time-saving tool.

If your budget won’t stretch to Search Automator right now, use
the google.com search engine to find writing material. Here are
some ways you might not have thought of:

Type a keyword or phrase relevant to your subject into the
google.com search box. Then, read through the websites of the
first five search engine results on the left side of the page to
stimulate your thinking. Additionally, search on the keyword or
phrase and review e.g. type used cars + review in the google.com
search box. The resulting search engine listings may reveal all
kinds of reviews and comparison sites from which you can extract
information and ideas. It’s important to point out however, that
what is written on other people’s websites is copyrighted, which
means you cannot copy what they have written but you can
certainly use their websites to harvest ideas.

Look for key terms used on the websites e.g. used cars includes
words like: prices, values, private sales, how to buy, how to
sell, auto financing etc.. A list of these terms can be noted as
you browse through each site. Here’s another example using the
term “baby clothes”: designer baby clothes, gift ideas,
accessories, photo albums etc. etc. These terms can then be used
as building blocks for writing paragraphs.

Does the website have a sitemap? Look in the sitemap for things
like a feedback area which will have customer comments, or a
press release section – again, a rich source of writing ideas.

About the Author

©2005 Therese M Donnelly of Webmasters HQ home of the Search Automator, Sonic Page Blaster software review and others. You are welcome to use this article provided the signature box and all links within the article are included.

Have you been guilty of procrastinating on your book project,
lately? Like the author, many writers get hung up with wrong
thinking about writing and completing their books. They feel like a
loser because they have stopped and started countless of times over
the years. They fail to realize you actually become a winner the
minute you start moving toward your worthwhile goal. Instead they
continue procrastinating until they give up. A client confessed she
thought writing a book was too hard. Knowledge and know-how can be formed into a weapon that will destroy the power of
procrastination. Using the 7 weapons below writers can conquer the
giant procrastination and finally realize their book dream.

Weapon #1 Do it Now!

Now is better than later. Remember you become a successful author
the minute you start moving toward your worthwhile book goal. I
don’t know anyone that regrets they wrote a book. But the author
has met plenty of people that regret they didn’t do it sooner.

Weapon #2 Invest time in designing your passion points “top marketing spots” beforehand!

Spend time on developing the passion points designed to sell
more before your book is even completed The passion points are
the title, cover, thesis, audience, benefits & features, mini sales
letter written as introduction and back cover copy of each book.
For example, at least half of the book’s success will be on the
title you choose.

Weapon #3 Know you don’t have to be a degreed expert, great
writer or do loads of research.

Write books you are interested in and want to learn more about.
As you look for information, talk to experts and write, you become
the expert. Find out what questions your readers will want
answered. Organize them into categories which become your table of
contents and eventually your chapters. Remember there are
interested readers who are waiting for your helpful information.

Weapon #4 Realize your message is significant and deserves your
attention, love and time.

Consider what your readers need and want. If your book shares
something unique, encouraging, useful, entertaining, it is
important enough to be written. Think about your gift? God gave you
your gift to share with others. Our gift back to God is what we do
with it. The loving care you put into your gift (book) the more
rewards await you.

Weapon #5 Recognize your book will sell with your marketing efforts

It’s true not everyone will want to buy your book. Yet there are
plenty of your targeted audiences that will want your entertaining
or helpful information. The world awaits your self-help, how-tos,
business, or poetry book. When you take the time to touch their
emotions with something that benefits them, they will pull out their credit card or cash and pay the price. Top selling non-fiction topics are self- help, mysteries, parent/children, sex and romance. Remember women buy 78% of all trade books.

Weapon #6 Realize the journey doesn’t have to be long or
difficult.

Invite your friends and family to brainstorm with you as peer
editors. Ask for their feedback on the thesis, title and chapters -
one at a time. Don’t become isolated in your thinking. Opening your
writing process up to others will give you a better feel for what
your readers may want. Enroll in a writing and/or publishing class
to elevate your thinking. Join a critique group to get feedback.
Subscribe to newsletters and read articles on book writing to get
tips that will help you on your journey to a successful book.

Weapon #7 Acknowledge publishing has changed and doesn’t have to be too expensive, too long and too difficult anymore.

Technology has advanced the publishing process into new realms.
Traditional publishing has normally taken one to two years. With e-
Book and Print on Demand (POD) printing technologies, an author can see their quality looking book in print within a few months or less.

Remember if you get to some parts of the project that’s beyond
your skill or know-how consider coaching and other professional
services that will carry you over anything blocking you from
writing, completing and publishing your successful book.

If you have been succumbing to procrastination, take a different
strategy use the perspective and 7 weapons above to overcome any giant called procrastination keeping you from fulfilling your book dream.

© Earma Brown, 10-year author, entrepreneur and book coach
eBk: Jumpstart Writing Your Best Book
Helps Writers and Entrepreneurs realize their book dreams
P.O. Box 612, Wylie, Texas 75098
Visit http://www.writetowin.org
To receive free ezine iScribe
& mini-course “Jumpstart Writing Your Best Book”
mailto:iscribe@writetowin.org
Ph: 877-846-9908

Search Engines are constantly on the “look out” for freshly written content that has been submitted online. So how do you come up with ideas for your next article? Here are several suggestions that may help…

* Hang out in online forums. Watch what people are talking about. Look at the questions they are asking. The topics that are bringing the greatest number of visitors would make for an excellent article.

* Take a look at what information is being broadcast on TV, radio, newspapers, and online. This information is usually a hot topic.

* Read blogs. What are people posting about? What kind of comments are they leaving? What questions do they have? Blogs are the hot internet marketing medium right now and you can literally find them everywhere on any topic. This is an excellent source for your next article idea.

* Survey your current customers or website visitors. Ask them what kind of article they would like to see in your next ezine or published on your website.

* Check bookstores online. What are the top sellers? This can be a good way to come up with an article that catches the attention of what people are reading.

* Be seasonal. Write about what is going on that time of year. Holidays, festivals, sports, graduations, etc. all make for an article that someone will want to read.

* Write an article about a current fad. There is always something that is hot at the time and could make for interesting reading from you.

* Keep track of what your customers and prospects are asking you. If you get an email or phone call with a question this may make for a good article. Others may have the same question, but are afraid to ask it.

* Start a swipe file on what others are writing about. If it is of interest to you it will probably be of interest to others. Never plagiarize the work of others, but you can certainly get good ideas this way. The biggest benefit of a swipe file is having it handy to refer back to over and over whenever you are ready to write your article and are not sure what you want to write about.

Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how to come up with your next article. The internet marketer who can write interesting articles has a huge leg up on their competition. If you can master this strategy there is no limit to how much money you can make online.

Shane Woods, successful online marketer creator of http://www.automatedrecruiting.com

There’s one skill you can develop that will boost your confidence, credibility and career. It’s public speaking. If the very thought makes you queasy, you’re not alone. For some people, only death is more frightening. For others, death is preferable. Are you the latter? Avoiding the spotlight? Suffering not just butterflies but sheer panic? Dry mouth? Shaking hands? Flushed or pale face? If this sounds like you, then consider overcomingor at least controllingyour fear. You can start by attending a Toastmaster’s meeting and picking up a couple of books for additional help.

Forget any ideas you have that Toastmasters meetings are intimidating. You might think you’ll encounter only eloquent and self-assured speakers which would make you even more self conscious, but that’s not the case. You’ll find a variety of members, ranging from those who recently joined to those who have been members for years. They represent diverse lifestyles and occupations and varying levels of education. What do they have in common? Almost every single one joined because they were afraid of public speaking just like you. This isn’t a place for polished performers to show off; it’s a place to learn and practice. Those members who dazzle with each speech…they’ll be your mentors. And, trust me on this, each fellow member will be rooting for you to succeed.

In a typical meeting, lasting 60 to 90 minutes, the Toastmaster will introduce two to three speakers who will give their prepared 5 to 11 minute talks. Their evaluators will follow with a short, gentle but fair critique. Everyone in the group will also fill out a critique which the speakers take home with them to review. The Table Topics Master will present the meeting’s theme and ask questions of attendees who will reply with one to two minute impromptu answers. Members (who have been given advance notice) will provide the inspirational pledge, word of wisdom, mentor moment or joke, or serve as timer, general evaluator, grammarian, vote counter or “ah” counter. The idea is that everyone will have a chance to speak, no matter how briefly. At the end of the meeting, Best Speaker, Best Table Topics and Best Evaluator are voted on and ribbons are awarded. And surprise! It’s all fun. (Table Topics can be scary but it’s great practice for thinking on your feet!) Membership costs approximately $20-25 for six months including chapter fees; check with your local group for exact costs. You’ll receive several manuals to get you started and a booklet for your evaluators’ critiques. As you accomplish the speaking goals in the manuals, you move up to different levels and receive certification for those achievements.

Do this for yourself…find a local Toastmasters group at www.Toastmasters.org and commit today to attending one meeting. You might try several groups in your area, meeting at different times of the day, to find the one where you’re most comfortable. Guests are free, so you have nothing to lose. This one simple step right now could make a huge difference in your future. Dave Hershman, a proponent of Toastmasters, says in his book, More Income with Less Stress, “Public speaking is such a great tool because not many people do it well or effectively (if at all). Attend any marketing seminar and they will tell you to market by making yourself look different. People then spend thousands of dollars concocting major schemes to shoot themselves from cannons…Look at me; I am different. In reality, it only takes something everyone already has to look different: your mouth. You should do it and do it well because your competitors can’t.”

For additional help, if you’re truly frightened of public speaking, read Janet Esposito’s In The Spotlight: Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking and Performing. The author herself suffered with this fear for years before using her training as a psychologist to study the cause behind the problem and develop a method for overcoming it.

If you’re just a little nervous before speaking and would like to improve your technique, try 10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking published by the Princeton Language Institute and Lenny Laskowski.

How will public speaking boost your career? Every marketing guru tells you to visit any group where you can promote your business. “Speak to them,” they say. “Hold a seminar.” For instance, if you’re a loan officer, the group may be MLS meetings, real estate offices, homebuyer seminars, and of course, the Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club, Rotary Club, Leads Club and so on. That’s good advice if you can speak with authority and confidence. You’ll be able to do that with the help of Toastmasters. Maybe not tomorrow or next month, but eventually you’ll receive a big payoff and be proud of conquering your fear. And if you can speak comfortably in front of a group, imagine how easy your one-on-one presentations will be!

Here’s a tip that applies to this and every other idea you consider: If you don’t take some action within the next 24 hours, the odds are you won’t ever act on this idea. So do something now, even if it’s only writing a note on your calendar to find a Toastmasters group. That’s a start.

About the Author:
Sharon Hassler was a successful loan officer and real estate agent in Southern California, then served as Communications Manager for First American Title-Arizona for 11 years. She is President of Go Get Experts, owner and operator of GoGetLoan.com, a web page directory for mortgage brokers and loan officers, along with GoGetEscrow.com, GoGetNotary.com and GoGetRealEstate.com.

Copyright © 2005, Go Get Experts, for GoGetLoan.com. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is reproduced in its entirety, without editing, including author’s information. When using this article in magazines or newsletters or online publications, please include the full URL or a hyperlink to http://www.GoGetExperts.com

I’ve been involved in publishing for over a decade now as an author, editor, and project manager; however, it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I decided to move into self-publishing. Indeed, my first few projects involved consulting for others and, now, I am involved in my own, personal projects. It has taken a while for me to come back around to my own works, but in the process I learned how to minimize time and expenses in producing a book and getting it to market.

This short article will not try to explain every aspect of book publishing in detail, but it will brush on a few of the important topics. I have a few other book projects in the making that will detail the book self-publishing process; however, in the mean time, this should give you a good basis of understanding.

— The Idea —

The most difficult part of creating your manuscript is deciding on the topic. We all have ideas. It’s part of our being. Ideas pop in and out of our heads all day long; however, we usually dismiss many of them as useless or too simple to be of use. You would be surprised at how many people want “simple” and easy-to-understand information! Readers want books that teach, inform, and entertain.

When you sit down and really think about all you’ve learned throughout your life, you’ll be amazed at how much you really know! Your life experiences alone could fill a library! Even if you feel that you don’t have any knowledge that would be of interest to anyone, you can start small. Research a market that interests you, find your competition, learn all that you can about a specific subject, and then write about it. Your ideas are important, as your knowledge and point-of-view are unique and of interest to others.

— Planning the Product —

I always suggest keeping your book concise and informative. This provides a small footprint, yet it also allows your readers to purchase your book at a reasonable price. Keep it around 100 pages, which, once in book format, equals about 50, two-sided pages.

The core content of the manuscript consists of a title page, copyright, table of contents, figure and table references, acknowledgements, forwards, content, appendices, index, and back page. This list is the basic minimum requirements to support the information necessary to present your book and its content. Of course, you can add other items such as a glossary and a preface, but such inclusions are at your discretion.

It is best to produce your book in the standard 5.5″ by 8.5″ format in both print and PDF. I always suggest PDF to my publishing clients because it is one of the few cross-platform (i.e., Mac, PC, PDA, and UNIX-based machines) document distribution products available today and it is the most popular.

— The Manuscript —

Once you’ve focused on an idea, you’ll have to create an outline or table of contents to define the content. The best way I’ve found to do this is to break the idea down into blocks of contiguous information — similar to assembling a pyramid. Step through your idea and ensure that you are building from, for example, the most general information to the most specific information. Check the outline several times, and have a friend review it, to ensure that gaps are filled in appropriately.

You can actually over-rewrite your work to the point of frustration and burn-out. Ensure that you’ve planned and researched appropriately to provide a solid foundation. In this way you can develop a first draft and then perform substantive and grammar edits. Then, perform a technical edit and a second draft. Once the second draft is complete, move into a final copy edit then, once you produce galleys or a sample version of the finished book, perform a proof read. Don’t rework any of the core steps of document development, but ensure that each step is completed with quality in mind. This ensures a solid product in a short amount of time. If you would like to update or add to the information in your first release, provide a follow-up revision.

— ISBN and Copyright —

Once you’ve started your manuscript, order your group of ISBNs. You can sign up for your ISBNs at http://www.isbn.org for about $240 for 10 ISBNs. However, additional fees can be imposed based on express orders. This is why I say, order the ISBNs while you’re writing the manuscript so that you can afford to wait the 10 days for standard, free, delivery.

You will have to convert your ISBN numbers to EAN barcodes to apply to the back page of your book. The barcode must consist of the ISBN you assigned to the book as well as the coded pricing of the book. You can have a vendor generate the barcodes for between $3 (http://www.toupin.com/serv_writing.asp) and $20 per barcode or you can download and use the Barcode Maker (http://hem.passagen.se/sams/barcode.htm) to generate your own barcodes. For the price, it will pay for itself in just a few ISBNs for your books.

Once you have assigned one of your ISBNs to a book, you can register it in Books In Print (http://www.booksinprint.com/bip/). This is how booksellers are able to access your information and sell your book through their outlets. Additionally, you’ll want to register your manuscript-in-progress with the Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication (http://cip.loc.gov/cip/ecipp14.html). This registers your book for access by libraries and government archives. You will be e-mailed the “CIP data” to be printed on the copyright page following the heading “Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data”.

To protect your work and ideas, copyrighting your book is a simple and inexpensive process. There are actually several different methods of protecting your work including government and commercial organizations. The primary sites are the government copyright office (http://www.copyright.gov/forms/) and WriteSafe (http://www.writesafe.com/).

— Production —

There are many different ways to produce your books; however, costs range from a $1,000 initial setup plus the purchase of a few hundred copies down to no setup fees and pay-as-you-go. The final choice is yours, but my direction involved a local printing company and a pay-as-you-go scheme. With this approach, reduced initial costs are reflected back to the readers and your profit potential is seen immediately.

Three places that I’ve experimented with to print some of my books include Kinko’s (http://www.kinkos.com/), InstantPublisher (http://instantpublisher.com/pricing.htm), and Mimeo (http://www.mimeo.com/). Of course, use these for starters to experiment with your books. Eventually, you’ll find the right bindery for your needs. You can locate many publishers via Google.com or AllTheWeb.com using keywords such as “online printing”, “book printing”, and “print on demand”, but once you get some experience behind you, the choice will be much easier.

— Marketing and Distribution —

Once you assign and register your ISBN for your manuscript, it becomes available to the multitude of book stores around the globe including Amazon, Borders, Barnes&Noble, and various other major book sellers. Now that you have your book out there, the trick is to have people purchase the book and have book stores stock copies on their shelves.

To have the book stores purchase in quantity, you’ll have to devise a solid marketing plan to their acquisitions personnel. In many cases, book stores will simply sell your book to their customers as it is requested, but if you can get them to buy in bulk, that’s greater exposure and sales for you!

You can also license out the content to various professional speakers. Speakers are always looking for ways to provide quality information specific to their presentations. They might use your content in a handout, or perhaps for sale in the back of the room. Locate those speakers that fit within your audience and contact them. Find out their needs for their next presentation and work out a deal for them to resell your books. I’ve had many speakers use my articles in their presentations and the exposure and feedback has been overwhelming.

Of course, you should always locate affiliates to help sell your books. One way is to offer them a percentage of the gross sales or sell them copies of the books at a discount. Either way, you will have “agents” out pushing your books for you to make money for them, as well as for you.

Always provide a web site that boasts the benefits of your book. Use a book cover maker to create a book image on the web site. One quality book cover creator is called CoverFactory (http://www.ans2000.com/a2k_coverfactory.php) and provides numerous capabilities to generate professional looking covers for books, software, and services.

Free content is an important way to bring people to your site and let people know about your book. You can provide rewritten excerpts from your book as articles and submit them to various article announcement lists, press release sites, zines, and directories. I’ve been able to locate and associate with over 1,000 sites and lists that accept and publish my articles. This provides outstanding coverage for my sites, services, and products.

— Sales and Returns —

Since you are the publisher, you now have to determine how to handles sales. It’s important to define how you will handle direct sales and shipping, bulk sales, and affiliates. You want to ensure that your sales go smoothly as well as provide enough of a margin so that everyone profits.

When collecting funds, it’s important to accept credit cards through one of the popular merchant vendors. To minimize expenses and provide a common and secure payment mechanism, I use StormPay (http://www.stormpay.com) and PayPal (http://www.paypal.com). Since people have their likes and dislikes of online payment vendors, using both allows many different types of users to submit payments. Of course, you must always determine how to handle returns as part of a quality customer service program.

— What’s next? —

Obviously, the information provided here is merely an overview of the entire process. However, I am working on a book that provides all of the details of producing your own book under your own imprint. Publishing provides excellent return monetarily as well as through enhanced self-esteem. There is quite a feeling that comes with getting your message out there and having people return positive feedback. Perhaps, once you self-publish a few of your own titles, you can work on publishing other authors and open a full-fledged publishing house. In this day, such a venture is not unheard of!

— About the Author —

Edward B. Toupin is an author, publisher, life-strategy coach, counselor, Reiki Master, technical writer, and PhD Candidate living in Las Vegas, NV. Among other things, he authors books, articles, and screenplays on topics ranging from career success through life organization and fulfillment. Check out some of his recent print and electronic books as well as his articles covering various life-changing topics!

There are seven fundamental reasons that some books succeed and others collect dust on the author’s bookshelf. These seven keys to success as an author are simple, obvious even, and yet in the midst of our writing many of us forget them.

We get so focused on the idea of the book that we forget the mechanics. Here is the strategy that award winning authors use:

1) Create a hero that your audience can relate to.

Examine your target market honestly. Who will be reading your book? Just because you think that your main character is funny, charming and brilliant doesn’t mean that they will or even that that is what they care about.

2) Write for your audience, not your highschool English professor. There has already been a Shakespeare. Most genres do not require you to write like him. You will just turn your audience off if you write at a level beyond their comprehension.

3) Give your reader a problem that he or she can empathize with.

Ex. Are you writing for teenage girls? Then something to do with the pains of adolescent romance, or lack thereof, might be a good start.

4) Provide a nemesis that makes sense. The antagonist in your story should appear to be everything that your main character is not. Then go back in and give him or her some good qualities as well.

People are not good or evil. Your characters should have the same character traits, as the rest of humanity.

Ex. A Thief with a Conscience or who hates everyone except his little sister, who he has taken care of since their mom died.

Give all your characters depth.

5) Provide obstacles for your main characters. Both your hero and antagonist need to have a few bumps in the road. Life isn’t smooth. Let them both screw up and figure their way out of their messes.

6) Your hero, at the very least, must learn a lesson about himself or herself. Is he braver than he thought he was? Is her nerdiness actually an asset?

Your characters should have some type of self-realization. It can be subtle. You do not have to go into a five chapter monologue on it, just give the readers some clues that he or she has changed.

7) Begin and end your story with a bang. Grab your reader’s attention in the beginning and have them hoping for a sequel in the end. The rest, no matter how much work you put into it, will probably be skimmed until they hit the next seat gripping scene. Your job is to make that skim time as short as possible.

A recent survey showed that more than eighty percent of Americans want to write a book. This extraordinary statistic is somewhat puzzling considering that the National Endowment for the Arts estimates that only fifty-seven percent of Americans have read even 1 book in the last twelve months!

What is it that makes people — even non-readers — want to put pen to paper?

Perhaps it’s the desire for fame and fortune, the need to earn the respect of others, or maybe it’s just the wish to leave some mark on the future, a permanent record of a life lived.

Whatever the reason, for those who actually complete a manuscript, the odds of seeing it published by a reputable firm are slim.

For the estimated 2 million manuscripts currently completed, there are only 64,000 publishers of record, and only a fraction of those are actively seeking new manuscripts.

So what are the millions of hopeful authors to do?

Well, the first step would be to ensure their manuscripts are the best they can be. This can be done by re-writing, editing, proofreading by an outside firm or even by a well-read and literate friend.

Even then, most of those two million books stand no chance of being accepted by a traditional publisher. Those authors that do make the cut are not necessarily the best writers, but rather are those who can sell themselves and their stories most convincingly.

Some authors, after rejections from the trade, will find themselves victims of vanity publishers, who take advantage of the hopes and aspirations of writers to extract an exorbitant fee to ‘publish’ their book.

Luckier will be the writers who publish through firms like iUniverse and Lulu, for although their books will likely never see wide distribution, at least their losses will be minimal.

And finally there are the select few who decide to become publishers themselves, even if it is only to self-publish their own book.

These publishers will find great obstacles, and a great deal of work in this route, but the challenge and reward of having one’s success or failure entirely in one’s own hands is a powerful feeling.

Whether they choose to publish electronically, or use short run printing service like Lightning Print, or even to go full boar with a print run of 1,000 or more, their success depends on how well they sell themselves and their story to others.

And so, if you are about to embark on a new manuscript, educate yourself thoroughly about the industry, its scams, and potential pitfalls. And more importantly, learn to market yourself well, for this, more than any other skill, is the determining factor in your success or failure.

Strategy can sometimes be seen as a bad word to fast-moving, agile entrepreneurs, but is often what separates the top 5% of businesses in any given market.

Same goes for your information publishing business.

It is quite possible for anyone with some information to be shared toward a market with some decent timing to generate some promising success with a first course, workshop, ebook or audio program.

As we cover in the Ultimate Information Entrepreneur’s Success Package (http://www.infoproductcreator.com), once you understand the steps to discovering hot markets, uncovering hidden opportunities and practicing rapid product development techniques, releasing your first successful product is NOT the real obstacle – following it up with a well thought out program taking advantage of your early success is the real challenge.

While many information publishers struggle to get their $17 or $27 ebook released, having dreams of quitting their job and placing all of their bets on this one single product – the giants in the industry that quietly bring in 5 and 6-figure monthly incomes focus 1-2 products ahead.

In other words, for the information product marketer thinking strategically, their $27 ebook may simply be a stepping stone toward achieving much higher sales through other back-end products, partnerships, services or other business models.

Which leads us to the silver bullet for earning the BIG payday for information product developers.

“SILVER BULLET” TO MASSIVE SUCCESS

Momentum and timing are critical factors to any businesses success. There is nothing more powerful in your business than the single point in time when you have the highest attention of your market.

In the weeks and months following your successful product launch, you have a golden opportunity to begin immediately introducing your market to your next steps, branding your business 1-year out rather than just marketing your single product.

Unfortunately, 99% of information product publishers are focused entirely on their first (or next) product. They have given very little thought to what’s next.

Here are 5 factors to help you strategically grow your information publising business:

- think multiple products/services – create project plan for product deliveries – define low price products to generate leads – define mid-price product as stepping stone – create high-end, back-end products

Looking at this list, by far the most challenging task for information publishers is creating high-end products.

It is true, there is more work to putting together a $1,000 product than a $27 ebook, however it is not to the degree that most believe.

Trick is to work smart.

Turning the content of an ebook into several teleconferences that are recorded, an interactive coaching session, a 1-day seminar, a series of interviews are all ways that you can turn out a high value back-end product in a matter of weeks.

Stop thinking about strategy as a bad word, something that slows you down.

Instead, well thought out strategy is really the sliver bullet that separates information product publishers on a 5-year wealth plan from those that are putting all of their hopes in one low-price product.

I’ll definitely be touching more on this in coming weeks, stay tuned to the Information Product Developer’s Blog over at: http://www.highertrustmarketing.com/blog/ for new updates.

The obvious skill of being able to communicate in a language that the age group you are targeting, is an evident one. Choosing a topic that the child relates to is all important. In many cases it is also deemed to be imperative to include graphics – again, depending on the child’s age; BUT all children of all ages like to see illustrations.

You need to understand what the children want from reading and what their parent’s want. Keeping the children happy and enjoying the story while enticing their imagination and appealing to their creative spirit is essential. But what is it that will make the parents purchase the book? Parents are also looking for books that will give some educational benefit to the child. It is obvious that new words and ideas are educational in themselves, but parents often want something more constructive – they want a way to measure the success of the book, to the educational value to their children.

Activities included within the text of the book can certainly give your book a uniqueness that will appeal to both kids and parents. Having a glossary of words that may be new or unusual will ensure that children and parents alike fully understand the text and kids will not be constantly asking what a certain word means.

Including quizzes, crossword puzzles, writing and drawing/colouring exercises – all add value to the story – for both the children and the parents. Years ago it was very popular to receive a large book full of stories and activities for a Christmas gift. These Annuals were always popular because they gave the child a series of activities to accompany the reading of the stories.

Currently, books are creeping onto the markets that have more activities than stories. But if you can combine the gift of story telling with suitable fun activities, you will appeal to both the kids and their parents and give your writing a better chance of being successful.

With the Internet you can produce e-books with full colour graphics and not be hindered by the production costs. This, of course, means that your books can be cheaper than what is available in the retail outlets.

As to how to promote and market your book so that it can make sales – that is a more complicated task. But it is generally agreed on by Internet Marketers that one of the best ways is to write articles and have them published, to establish your credibility as a children’s author. Include in that article a reference box at the end of the article to include a link to your website (or email) where you can offer the book for sale.

The good news is that you already have a head start over others, because you can write and producing an article would be ‘no big deal’. Just make sure that you target the right type of e-zine or newsletter or the correct category in web sites such as this one, to submit your article to – you need to target the customer who has children e.g. Mums.

If you decide to approach your own church or school – consider adding an affiliate programme, whereby the organisation gets a commission (around 50%) in return for promoting your book for you e.g. via a testimonial. Don’t be mean about giving commissions – once you have written your book there is virtually no further cost for you, so you can afford to give a good commission. This is a great way for you to show your community spirit and to further add to your credibility as a caring children’s author. The parents will appreciate your generosity while the children love your book!