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June 8th, 2008

A Powerful Vocabulary Will Transform Your Life

Posted in Publishing Management

Studies show that your word-power determines your earning power, that your skill in self-expression determines your status in life.

The link between your vocabulary and your income is universally recognized. Researchers have discovered that college students with the lowest vocabulary scores usually end up in the lowest income group. So, if you wish to maximize your earning power, it is clearly vital to develop a powerful vocabulary.

Similarly, advancement in your career depends to a large extent on your capacity to express yourself with clarity and precision. Even the most cursory examination of job advertisements shows that employers value employees who can demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills.

Within most companies, the people with the greatest command of words generally occupy the most powerful positions.

It is clear then that the more words you understand and can use, the easier you will find it to impress the very people who have the power to fast-track your career.

A powerful vocabulary is a highly-prized asset both socially and in the business world. There are very good reasons for this. Words enable you to conceive and articulate complex thoughts and ideas. The person who can use the right words at the right time enjoys a powerful advantage in any situation.

The words of a salesman can secure a million dollar order. The words of a judge can imprison or set you free.

A powerful vocabulary can make you sound like a genius.

Every day we pass judgement on the intelligence, education, and status of complete strangers simply on the basis of hearing them utter a sentence or two. We accept or reject them on the evidence of the words they use.

Let us not forget that other people judge us in exactly the same way!

A limited vocabulary paralyses your powers of communication. It can even make you feel like a foreigner in your own country - hearing and reading things you cannot understand, struggling to express yourself while your more eloquent friends or colleagues are able to encapsulate every thought and idea with infuriating ease.

Remember that the more words you have, the more ideas you have. The more ideas you can express, the greater influence you will have on those around you. When you improve your vocabulary, you immediately supercharge your powers of expression.

Unfortunately, most people pick up words in a haphazard and serendipitous manner. As a result, their vocabulary is amorphous and demonstrably inadequate to their needs.

Everyday, they see and hear important words that they neither recognize nor understand; and, lost in a fog of confusion, they are at the mercy of word spinners, persuaders, and propagandists.

That’s why it’s so important for everyone to follow a progressive and structured vocabulary-building program.

From ‘15 Hours To A Powerful Vocabulary’
http://www.assignmentsplus.com/vocabularycourse1.html
written by Gerard McLoughlin and published by Assignments Plus Business Publications.

Gerard McLoughlin, author of ‘15 Hours To A Powerful English Vocabulary’, has contributed articles to hundreds of publications and companies throughout the world.

April 20th, 2008

How To Pluck Fresh New Ideas For Writing Killer Sales Copy..

Posted in Publishing Management

If you want to improve your writing, you probably spend a fair amount of time reading a variety of “How To Write Good Sales Copy” kinds of information.

True?

You probably subscribe to a handful of newsletters like mine… you’ve read a few of the classic copywriting books by Claude Hopkins… John Caples… or Victor Schwab, and… you may have even read some “modern-day” books by guys like Dan Kennedy… Gary Halbert… and Joe Sugarman.

And this is good — you’re definitely going down the right track here.

Keep doing this, because knowledge applied in the right direction, really is powerful.

And in case you missed it…

The key word here, is… “applied”!

Anyway, what I want you to do right now, is to…

Completely Stop Reading These Books!

At least for a while anyway.

You see, you may not know it, but you could learn just as much — if not more — about writing effective sales copy, by reading fun stuff too, like fiction.

No, I’m not kidding, and let’s face it, you also get a lot more involved and emotionally attached to the characters in a good novel, then in a good “How To” book, any day.

Right?

See, I just finished up a few AWESOME novels, and I’d like to show you what to look for when you’re reading a good novel, and how to use this information to easily learn how to improve your sales copy.

Ready?

O.K. then.

The first book I want to tell you about is called “Motherless Brooklyn”, by an author named Jonathan Lethem, who’s actually from Brooklyn.

If you like a good old-fashioned murder / mystery / adventure and suspense book, only one that takes place in modern times, then grab yourself a copy of this book — you won’t be sorry.

It’s like a spy thriller, only there’s no spies in this one — just petty thugs and slick Brooklyn street hustlers.

Anyway, here’s why I loved this book: Check out how well this guy writes, from page 155:

“The four of them wore identical blue suits with black piping on the legs, and identical black sunglasses. They looked like a band that plays at weddings. Four white guys, assortedly chunky, pitched in the face, with pimples, and indistinct. Their car was a rental. Chunky sat in the backseat waiting and when the two who’d picked me up crushed me into the back beside him, he immediately put his arm around my neck in a sort of brotherly choke hold. The two who’d picked me off the street — Pimples and Indistinct — jammed in beside me, to make four of us on the backseat. It was a bit crowded.”

WOW!

I mean, how much cooler do you get than that?

Notice how Lethem’s writing:

Short, stacco sentences!
Lethem’s writing exactly the same way he’d be talking, if he was telling you this story in a conversation, instead of writing it.

Descriptive as all get out!
He tells you what the guys looked like… he gives you a visual and psychological anchor, by telling you they also resembled a band that plays at weddings… and… he also gives you an overview of their physical characteristics.

And the thing is, the physical attributes he’s describing, are vivid and stereotypical enough, that you can start picturing other visual, physical, and personality characteristics typically associated with people who share these same “trademarks”.

This guy’s simply brilliant!

He’s specific!
They’re not just “blue suits”, they’re “identical blue suits with black piping on the legs, and identical black sunglasses”.

Being specific makes the entire scenario much more believable and life-like. (Just the same way it does when you’re writing your sales copy.)

Do you see what my point is, about all this?

If you don’t, then you’re really missing out on a very valuable lesson here.

See, each of these techniques Lethem’s using in his fiction writing, are the same techniques you should be using in your sales copy.

They get your prospects more involved with the message you’re trying to deliver. And, if your prospects are actually taking time out of their lives to devote some mental “shelf-space” to you and your message… it brings them closer to you, and… closer to…

Buying From You!

Another book I just finished reading, is “Holes” by Louis Sachar.

My older son had been after me to read this book, and the truth is, I’m sorry I waited so long.

This was an easy book to digest… a fast read (maybe 2 hours of your time)… and boy-oh-boy, what a joy it was.

The sense of empathy (using very plain-and-simple English), Sachar was able to stir inside you, over the main characters plight, was heartfelt and simply wonderful.

If you can stir up emotions like that in your sales copy…

You’ve got a rock-solid
money-making machine on your hand!

And when you can show a “struggle to success” story the way he did, taking you by the hand and letting you walk alongside his characters as they overcome obstacle after unjust obstacle, your outcome’s going to be fantastic!

Can you do the same thing in your sales copy?

Of Course You Can!

For example, whatever you’re selling, has got to be the solution to some kind of problem… so tell your prospects stories about how you developed your product… or, how your product or service has changed someone’s life.

Either of those stories can be made into “rags to riches” or “struggle to success” stories, no?

I definitely shed a few tears after I finished reading the uplifting and pretty ironic conclusion of “Holes”, and… if you can move your prospects the same way, believe me you’ll make more than your fair share of ducats.

So read as much good fiction as you can get your hands on.

Start thinking about how your authors are painting their characters and bringing them to life for you.

And begin figuring out how the dynamics of the characters relationships are handled, and how YOU can use these same dynamics in your sales copy, to make your sales pitches compelling and “real”.

The bottom line here is, if you do the following three things, you’ll be able to use your fiction readings, to leverage your creative juices so they start flowing like the roaring rapids of the Snake River in Colorado, and not the Black Muddy River of folklore.

Here are these three simple things you must do:

Read!
Read voraciously and read like your life’s depending on it. Pretend each book you read is like a juicy thick sirloin steak, and then imagine…

You’re Freakin Starving!

And start devouring those books!

Think!
As you’re reading, s-l-o-w-l-y digest every single morsel you’re taking in. Discover what’s making your characters tick, and… even more important, figure out what it is about what’s making them tick…

That’s Going To Make Your Prospects TickToo!

Do Something!
You know, last week I saw this bit on one of those prime time television news exposés, about some poor gal who was just so desperate to lose weight.

The only problem was… she was eating enough food in a day…

To feed a small farming country in the mid-east!

Now what’s up with that?

Do you need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that’s NOT the road to losing weight?

I’m not saying it’s easy for someone in her position — NOTHING good is easy.

Anything worth while, is usually worth fighting for, and… it’s also usually incredibly difficult to achieve.

Period.

Sorry, but there’s just no getting around that one.

So if you think simply “reading” and “understanding” everything you must know about “how to write”, is going to make you even one thin dime, then you’re sorely mistaken.

To do this, you’ve actually got to go out and…

Write something!

Be, as Teddy Roosevelt said, the “man in the arena”. Feel the sweat pouring down the sides of your head… bounce back from your mistakes… and then… emerge victorious, baby!

Before I go, check out what Rod Argent said, back in 1968. (Do you know who he is?)

“Really, music is a very personal thing. It’s the product of a person’s experiences. Since no two people have been exactly alike, each writer has something unique to say. That makes anything which is not just a copy of something else, worth listening to.”

So listen to music that moves your soul… read good books that quench your thirst for becoming whole, emotionally… and enjoy creating and basking in the “non-real” things life’s imagination is offering you.

And then, use these gifts to go out and create the very best damn sales letters you can, and… start…

Enjoying… Your Results!

About the Author

Craig Garber is one of America’s Top Direct-Response Copywriters and Direct-Marketing Consultants. For more copywriting tips, go to www.kingofcopy.com
Copyright 2005 www.kingofcopy.com

April 18th, 2008

Cheap Ghost Writing Isn’t Easy — But It’s Worthwhile

Posted in Publishing Management

You might think that selling yourself short is a sure way to not
be a success in the ghost writing field. And your eyes are
probably dancing with the very large figures of money that
you’ve heard ghost writers pull down, in yearly figures such as
$60,000 to $100,000, or amounts such as $15,000 to $60,000 per
each book you write.

This is especially so if you’re breaking into the field of
ghosting for the first time, and if you’re a ghost writer (or
ghostwriter) who has never really ghosted a book for someone
else before. You’re probably thinking big bucks, major book
contracts, large amounts of cash advances from publishers and
huge percentages from the books you will be anonymously writing
for big time authors.

But let’s face some facts. The first time writers, people with
no time to invest in writing a book, and who may have fantastic
stories to tell don’t always have the enormous amount of
financial capital available to hire any such “cheap” ghost
writers. They simply don’t have the money. They’re bound to
enter some psychological difficulties when they see that the
payments to you are the whopper figures such as those listed
above, and that those are the only sorts of prices accessible to
them. By laying out such enormous fees, you could be stuck
losing a huge customer base of clients with fantastic stories to
tell — but without the major wherewithal to pay you to tell
them. What if, say, your potential author, the person hiring you
to write his or her story, has only $5000 to spend?

I know what I’m talking about, and I can create a decent work of
cheap ghost writing in a month for that amount of money. You do
that, and there’s your $60,000 per year! It really isn’t all
that hard.

Most other ghost writers I know are as capable of doing so as I
am, but some of them do charge the higher amounts. The clients
of the latter group tend to be people with enormous sales
potential, not the typical first time authors who have a great
story but often don’t really go anywhere with it - the so called
“sucker market.”

It might be worthwhile to consider charging less, or negotiating
a deal with such a “first timer.” Over the years, I have drawn
the conclusion that there are an awful lot of such people out
there. I have been ghost writing books for people for as low an
amount as $2000 per book, and as I have other sources of income
from other types of writing, I have been finding an immense
amount of personal satisfaction from helping such would be
authors actually obtain what they are looking for in a cheap
ghost writer who charges a reasonable price for the quality and
quantity of work done for them.

This works out to be less “greedy” on my part and more of a
service that I provide for authors who are only dreaming of
getting their books up high on the top of the New York Times
Bestseller list, and who know that such are their dreams, not
necessarily their realities. They are often people who have come
to the end of their ropes when it comes to negotiating a lower
price for their books. They usually have nowhere else to turn
when it comes to putting out their own personal stories, and
they need someone with a willing ear and pen to listen and help
them set down their stories before it’s too late for them to be
told. Also, some of these people simply don’t know what they’re
doing and need a guiding hand to help them, They need their
Letters of Query written up for them, their Brief Biographies
put together and their advancement letters as well, as they are
just dipping their toes into the writing field and getting them
wet for the very first time.

People like that don’t need to face down what looks like to them
to be a million dollar price tag when they are looking for
what’s described as a cheap ghost writer. They want an actual
inexpensive ghost writer who understands their needs, both
budgetary and otherwise, who can sit down with them and
negotiate a fairly low amount of money paid out by them so they
can figure on at least getting some return from their books.
These people are not Presidents of the United States or famous
movie actors, whose books are guaranteed to sell, and many of
them find themselves “stuck” with what used to be called vanity
publishing, nowadays called self publishing. They won’t
necessarily find a commercial publisher who wants to take a
chance on huge returns from their books in today’s multifaceted
but still challenging world of publishing.

These clients need literally cheap or inexpensive ghost writers.
They don’t need to spend a small fortune on their books to find
out they dead ended in a warehouse, didn’t sell as widely as
they thought they would, or otherwise came out on the short end
of the stick.

Help them. Consider bargaining and bartering at a lower price
sometimes, and not at a higher price. It might be worth your
while. Try it and see!

April 9th, 2008

Getting ideas that sell

Posted in Publishing Management

*Article Use Guidelines*

Use in opt-in publications, or on Web sites, but please include
the resource box.

Please send me a copy, if possible. Many thanks.

**

Summary: If you want to sell your writing, you need to get ideas
that sell.

Category: Writing

Words: 650

Getting ideas that sell

Copyright (c) 2002 by Angela Booth

(This article is an extract from my new writing workshop, Writing
to Sell in the Internet Age.)

As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you
can’t make it drink. You can offer your writing too, but if no
one wants it, you’re stuck.

You’ve got to train yourself to come up with saleable ideas, for
specific audiences. Somehow, someway, you’ve got to discover what
people want, and give it to them in your writing. The more
successfully you do that, the more you’ll sell.

==> To get more ideas, write more

In an article, the prolific thriller/ horror writer Dean Koontz
said that when he wrote more, spending six to eight hours a day
at it, he got more ideas. He frequently found himself writing one
book, while making notes for another two or three.

It’s true. If you’re not writing, you won’t get ideas. Your
subconscious mind is lazy. You haven’t convinced it that finding
ideas is important to you, so you don’t get them.

Start a program of writing every day. Write anything, but make
sure that you’re doing it for at least an hour, and that you
force yourself to write. Get your fingers on the keyboard, and
move them. Let whatever wants to come out, come out.

Sounds like work, right?

Sure. At first it is. Then it’s fun. And easy. The first couple
of days you do this, you may feel that it’s pointless. But I
promise you, keep at it, and within a few days you’ll start
coming up with more ideas that you know what to do with.

==> If you want to know what people want, ask them

One way to find out what people are interested in is to read the
bestseller lists. What are people buying? Extrapolate from these
lists. Can you find any new trends?

On the other hand, the best way to discover what people are
willing to buy, is to ask them. Go to the online places where
they hang out, and ask.

For example, let’s say that in your day job, you’re a
nutritionist. You know that diet is a perennially popular topic.
You advise dieters on how to eat, and you’ve garnered a lot of
experience in how and why people put on weight, and ways that
they can safely dump the lard.

You decide that you need to learn what people really want to
know. So you subscribe to a few discussion groups, and after
you’ve read the postings for a few weeks, and have posted
responses to some questions, you ask your own questions.

Be straightforward about this. Just admit that you’re doing
research, and ask for help. Post a questionnaire for people to
fill in. (Assure them that their privacy will be respected.)

After a month of this, you’ll get ideas for products (articles,
books) that will sell.

==> The sure-fire formula for winning, instantly saleable ideas:
combine entertainment and information

You need to be clear about what you’re selling. With non-
fiction, you’re selling information. With fiction, you’re selling
entertainment.

The best way to sell either fiction or non-fiction is to combine
both in your writing.

Mix a dash of entertainment with your information. That is, when
you’re writing an information product, an article or a book, even
though it’s non-fiction, don’t be dull. Check out the wildly
popular For Dummies series of books: good information, delivered
with an entertaining style.

On the other hand, if you’re writing fiction, ground it in real
life with good information. I’m a fan of Diana Gabaldon’s
Outlander series. Definitely fiction, but Ms Gabaldon grounds her
time-travel historical novels in their era with fascinating facts
that make the unbelievable plots credible.

***Resource box: if using, please include***

==> Writers: Turn Your Talent Into Dollars <==

Transform your talent into a flourishing business. Subscribe to
Creative Small Biz, the free weekly ezine for creatives. Free e-
courses to improve your skills.
Visit: http://www.digital-e.biz/

About the Author

Australian author, journalist and copywriter Angela Booth
has been writing professionally for over twenty years. She writes
business books and copy for businesses.

April 1st, 2008

5 Reasons Why Every Writer Needs A Newsletter

Posted in Publishing Management

There are a number of reasons that every writer should have their own newsletter.

1. Creative Outlet — Every writer I know writes because they must, because they simply have something to say. However the trick is for many writers finding the right outlet, the right expression, for that message. Starting your own newsletter or ezine can give you that creative outlet and satisfy your inner writer.

2. Shut Down The Editor — The three most satisfying moments for me as a writer were the first time I saw my name in print as a writer, the first time I cashed a check for my writing, and the last time I had to listen to an editor. I learned a lot from the various editors I worked with as a professional writer over the years — and some of it was even beneficial to me as a writer and person. However there were many times when editors did nothing but push me in a direction I didn’t want to go and force changes on me that I didn’t want to make to my writing. Sometimes they even made those changes without telling me. My byline or name would be on the printed word, but someone else had tampered with my writing. Now I don’t have to listen to an editor unless I choose or request insight from someone I respect.

3. Your Own Fan Club — In the past those who have appreciated my writing have been limited to a specific geographic area, genre, or field; however publishing my own ezine which is delivered around the world to people from a very diverse experience and background means a broader fan club than I could ever achieve in any other medium.

4. Becoming A Guru — As you publish and share your writing and your audience grows something amazing happens. You become someone of note within your niche and you become someone that others listen to and turn to. You become a guru.

5. 100% Profit and Pride — In the past I have written for several award-winning, successful publications, but very rarely did my paycheck reflect the honors and profit I brought into the company. A few years ago my writing earned one publication I wrote for a very prestigious award. During the slide presentation leading up to the award ceremony I watched column after column with my byline sliding by on the screen and then I watched someone else walk up to accept the award. Now when my publications are honored and recognized I knowexactly where the credit goes and similarly when they are profitable I know exactly where the profit goes.

Now that I have convinced you that you need to publish your own ezine or newsletter, I want to go over a few questions that budding editorsand publishers always ask.

What exactly is an electronic newsletter or ezine?

Just like their paper counterparts like newspapers, newsletters, and magazines, ezines deliver written messages usually relating to a common theme or topic. The main difference is that an ezine transcends paper and ink and most likely only ever exists on a computer screen.

Some ezines are delivered only via email while others are delivered only on the web. Most are delivered in some combination of the two. Most of my ezines are delivered via email but also available immediately via web page (or rather blog page) and RSS feed.

You can choose as your own editor and publisher what method is most suited to you and your audience.

How do you publish a newsletter or ezine?

It is much easier to start publication of your own ezine than it is to start up a print publication. You simply need to decide on a topic, name your publication and start writing. It is easy to find an audience through the various ezine and newsletter directories around the internet as well as going directly to the source, for example discussion boards for people interested in your topic.

You will need to determine a delivery method, which means most likely setting up your own web site; creating an archive for your issues once they are created, which could mean setting up a blog; and tracking your readers, which likely means setting up a mailing or autoresponder service. However you can use free tools to do any of these things.

Deanna Mascle - EzineArticles Expert Author

Deanna Mascle shares more writing advice in her blogs Your Route To Internet Writing Success and Word Craft