Write Nonfiction NOW!

How to Write About Negative Life Experiences

When writing about life experiences, it’s important not to let so-called negative life story scare us or our readers off. I recently received a comment on my VibrantNation.com blog about 10 Ways to Use Your Life Story in Nonfiction Writing (which you can also read here) that got me thinking about the fact that memoir writers, personal essayists and those using their blogs for personal exploration must think carefully about how they deal with these difficult topics, which often make great fodder for their writing and can prove inspirational to their readers. On the other hand, these topics, when not handled well can cause writers to feel depressed and unable to write and cause readers to seek out more uplifting copy.

The key to handling difficult life story material involves turning most of the difficult situations in your life into positive messages through your writing, but if you are having  difficulty delving more deeply into some  life experiences because it feels hard and depressing to spend time rehashing the bad things that have happened, take heart. Out of this exercise often comes the best writing and the most helpful insights for you and your readers.

Also remember that you can provide a positive experience for your readers by writing about “negative” things that happen  if you offer lessons learned or show how you became stronger in the process. In this way you help others through your retelling of your life story. Don’t just make it a story about the bad thing that happened to you, though; make it a story about your triumph and you will inspire others to triumph as well.

The key to this lies in keeping your “story” to just a small portion of the chapter, essay, blog post, etc. If you dwell in the you-know-what too long–if you spend too much time describing the negative stuff–you will lose your readers, unless you can do this in a manner that is interesting, engaging and much like creative nonfiction or fiction. (That’s why a good memoir reads like fiction.) Otherwise, keep the “story” to just a few paragraphs or a page at most, and make your inspirational message the “meat” of your manuscript. That’s how you’ll prevent  yourself from getting lost in the scary dark events of your life as you try to write about them. You’ll also prevent your readers from wanting to run away from your life story.

Why You Shouldn't–or Should–Blog a Book

I came across an interesting blog post not long ago and bookmarked it. If you are considering blogging a book, you might want to read it–just to get a different perspective than mine, since I’m a big advocate of blogging books.  If you didn’t know this, check out my other blog, How to Blog a Book.

This particular post is written by Joel Friedlander, the proprietor of Marin Bookworks in San Rafael, CA, Joel is a book designer, a self-published author, and blogs at TheBookDesigner.com. He has been a guest blogger for me here o write Nonfiction Now! He offers five reasons why you shouldn’t blog a book, including:

1. Blogging is specialized writing
2. Blogging needs lots of formatting
3. Blogs are mostly written in either a commercial or a journalistic style
4. Blogs are about communication
5. Blogs need a schedule

You can read read his post here.

Joel brought up some good arguments in his post. However, I would say that if you go through the nonfiction book proposal process first to see if your book is worthy of being blogged, and then you set out with the intention of blogging a book to create an audience and attract attention and get that book written, you’ve negated many of his reasons for not blogging a book. Plus, if you edit your manuscript to rid it of blog-like formatting and overly blog-like style–and then hire a professional editor to polish it up, you’ll have a manuscript that reads well enough for a traditional publisher or for you to independently publish without fear of turning away readers.

So, I say, keep on blogging those books. But take Joel’s words of caution to heart.

Pitfalls to Avoid in Media Outreach

Despite the fact that the Internet provides a wonderful way for aspiring authors to build platform and for established authors to promote their books, getting media placements, such as spots on well-known radio and television shows, still goes a long way in helping books succeed. However, if you don’t know what you’re doing when you reach out to the media your pitch can do as much damage as good.

Today, my regular guest blogger Drew Gerber, CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, tells writers how to approach the media correctly so your pitches do what you desire: get you air time and attention that helps you build platform, create expert status and sell books.

Pitfalls to Avoid in Media Outreach
By L. Drew Gerber

Major pitfalls that can befall authors in their media outreach are usually simple things—minor overlooks in an industry where a single misstep can result in the loss of the media’s attention. The Internet has made the media more accessible and email has made media outreach easier, but it has also increased the chance that you or your book be overlooked or even ignored. Here are a few things we did before hitting the “Send” button to land a client on Dr. Phil, CNN, and other national media outlets:

Email Subject Lines : Getting Lost in the Mix

Some journalists at top tier media outlets receive over 1,000 emails an hour. Media flooded with emails will often use search terms to go through their in-boxes and find emails relating to major stories they are working on. My PR team always put brackets around the one or two words in the subject line that involve the breaking news item. For example, during the Rihanna and Chris Brown fiasco we sent pitches out for our client and landed Dr. Phil with this subject line:

[Rihanna] Dr. Jill Murray—3 Stages of Violence—Which one is Rihanna?

The breaking news item acts as the keyword search and the brackets grab the attention of the media.

Summary & Body: Losing the Media’s Interest

The first few words of your pitch have to get immediately to the point: What can you offer the media that they can’t get elsewhere? If your pitch is tied to breaking news, you must say immediately how you will help the journalist advance their story. One way to do this is to list topics you can discuss that will shed new light on the news. Another is to give the journalist a sampling of key tips or advice that you can offer their audience. These should be short, concise, single sentences.

Teaser: Forgetting Who the Media Serves

Close your pitch with a “teaser” designed to show the practical advice you will provide the media’s audience. With Dr. Jill Murray we closed with the warning signs around text messaging to alert parents, friends and relatives that a young person may be in an abusive relationship. We even provided the media with a link—we never send attachments—to an online quiz by our client to help educate their audience on warning signs of relationship violence. We closed with the all-important after-hours contact information to show we were serious about getting our client coverage.

When it comes to media outreach today, less is more. Now that the media is bombarded with pitches via email, your subject line and first few words of your email have to be clear and concise. If you keep it simple, you’ll grab hold of their attention and see results.

About the Author

L. Drew Gerber is CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free service to connect journalists with authors looking for media coverage.  Sign up now for free publicity advice including a free online marketing course. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed (www.PressKit247.com). Contact L. Drew Gerber at: AskDrew@PublicityResults.com or call him at 828-749-3548.

Consider Getting Your Book Reviewed by A Book Blogger

As authors continue to look for ways to promote their books, the ever-decreasing number of newspapers providing book reviews seems to make it harder and harder to get the world out. However, the Internet has spawned a host of bloggers who specialize in reviewing books of all types and actually giving authors more ways than ever before to land reviews. Thus, authors should consider getting their books reviewed by what has come to be known as a “book blogger.”

Some 250 book bloggers attended the first-ever Book Blogger Convention in May, an event held at Manhattan’s Javits Center the day after Book Expo America (BEA) ended. Sponsorships from major New York publishing houses and lots of support from independent presses seems to have given book bloggers’ an accepted position in the industry. So, garnering a review from one of these bloggers actually can mean as much as a review from a traditional newspaper columnist.

If you are wondering who these bloggers are, Publisher’s Weekly provided a list of the 200-plus attendees at the Book Blogger Convention and the links to their blogs—and handy resource when it comes time to send out review copies of your book. You can find the list and the links here.

Creating Human Presence in Your Media Message

Last week I wrote about what I learned in my post interview session with Michael Ray Dresser after he interviewed me on his show, Dresser After Dark. One of the main points he drove home to me was that I failed to offer even one example of how any of my workshop attendees, coaching clients or readers had used the principles I teach, use in coaching or include in my booklet, The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation, during our “conversation.”

In fact, when I asked him what I needed to do to improve my on-air presence or interviewing ability, the only thing he suggested was to “stop lecturing.” The explanation that went with that piece of advice can be found in the following guest blog post from Michael Ray. In it he explains the need to get people emotionally and personally involved in your media message.

If you think this has nothing to do with writing, think again. This is how you sell books. This is how you gain blog readers. This is how you write great articles. This is how you build your mailing list. This is how you become a sought after speaker and radio and television guest, which leads to becoming a best-selling author.

So, read on.

Creating Human Presence in Your Media Message
By Michael Ray Dresser

A brilliantly orchestrated interview or a presentation, whether you are speaking to the public through the media or in your office promoting your business services, is an acquired skill. It doesn’t just happen. It is learned. It is a process with a strategy, utilizing precise tactics and working toward a specific end result that has impact and influence. Everything you say and the way that you say it is planned, it is on purpose and deliberate. This allows your results to be intentional as opposed to accidental. This also represents the difference between luck and skill.

It starts by creating, then shaping, and finally delivering your message in a way that is engaging and, most importantly, personal for your audience. They have to see it, feel it and experience themselves as part of what you are saying, because if they do not perceive personal involvement, if it is not about them, you will lose them. Persuasion, a call to action of any kind, can not be stimulated without perceived personal involvement. The poet Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Being creative and resourceful are great traits, but without that “elusive something” that your audience needs to hear in your communication you can easily fall short of your desired goals. What they need to hear is that “something” that personally relates to them in their life.

The one reality of effective communication is the critical shift from you to them. The first step to making that shift involves developing a sense of human presence in what you communicate.  Your message has got to be about someone using the information, as opposed to just offering data or statistics. Your audience has to see themselves, they have to feel themselves, in what you’re saying, and they have to actually live your presentation.

You can relate to someone’s experience of something but not to just information and figures.  You can’t influence or persuade anyone to do anything without some them feeling some sense of personal involvement, some kind of recognition of them in what you’re saying.

About the Author

Radio show host and author of the forthcoming book “The Link to Connection: Techniques For Getting What You Want Out of Any Media Interview On or Off the Air” Michael Ray Dresser was born in Chicago, IL, but raised in the Los Angeles, CA, area. He came to Fairbanks, AK, in January 1983, for a short visit and made it his home for 20 years. Michael Ray sat down behind a microphone that summer for the first time and went on to become a pioneer in the development of talk radio in Fairbanks.

Today Michael Ray Dresser’s show, Dresser after Dark, features authors, experts and trainers from all over the country who offer diverse solutions to the listening audience on all types of lifestyle matters as well as business, political and financial areas of interest. He is well known for getting to the heart of the issue at hand.

Michael Ray returned the Midwest and now hosts his show from the Milwaukee area. The former owner of many successful businesses, Michael Ray currently devotes his time to his 27 year career as a thought-provoking radio talk show host as well as being sought after internationally for his unique media training skills.

www.dresserafterdark.com

Are Blogs and Blogged Books Protected by Copyright Laws?

I’ve been asked the same question several times: If someone blogs a book—actually composes it in the form of blog posts they publish on the Internet—do they need to worry about a copyright for that blogged book. The question has been asked about blog copy in general as well. Are blog posts protected by copyright law?

Previously on my other blog, How to Blog a Book, I’ve offered a general answer: As the blogger, when you hit the “publish” button, you basically copyright the material by becoming its publisher and publishing it.

In fact, my answer was correct. I just didn’t offer you the background material to go with it. I’d like to do that here and now. Under the Copyright law of 1976, which went into affect in 1978, any work created in a fixed form is protected by copyright upon creation. That means that when a work is put into any fixed form—printed out from your home laser jet printer, published as an e-book, booklet or POD book, or sent into Cyberspace as a blog post, your written work is protected by copyright. Thus, completed and published blog post, or all the posts that comprise a blogged book, comprise written works created in fixed form and are protected by copyright.

This information comes straight from a copyright attorney. I asked another literary attorney as well, who advised that writers always print out their work. That means, as a precaution, simply print out your blog posts before actually posting them on the Internet.

The so-called “Poor-man’s Copyright,” putting your work in an envelope and mailing it to yourself, only serves to prove when you wrote something not that you wrote it.  However, it can be a handy piece of evidence should you need it, I’m told by the copyright attorney.  As he said, it’s useful but not terribly essential.

And actually filing our work with the copyright office can be a royal pain in the rear if you produce a lot of writing, such as daily blog posts. If you want to sue someone for infringement and collect damages, if you worry about being infringed, or if you ever want to bring a lawsuit against someone for infringement and want to collect money, having a document that says you own the copyright to your work certainly can be a useful.

Four Tips for Author Radio Show Interviews

Yesterday I was interviewed for an Internet talk radio show. I thought I was prepared and ready. I sent in my questions, just as they asked, and I had a basic script with questions and talking points. I knew my material. However, the host decided to throw away my questions and simply have a conversation.

This has happened to me before. I find it quite enjoyable actually, but it can be difficult to get your message across when the show format is different than expected or the host seems to have his or her own agenda for your time on the air.

Luckily for me, this particular host, Michael Ray Dresser, offered me a free media coaching session and review after the show. It was worth more than the interview, which I did not feel was my best by far.

Here are three tips I learned from Michael Ray, as he is known, that I’d like to pass along:

1. Tie your talking points to stories; when the host goes in another direction, use a story to lead into your talking points.
2. Remember that listeners don’t care about you; they want to hear a story about someone or something that triggers some sort of personal recognition within them–that elicits an emotional response within them.
3. Don’t sell your listeners on you or your product; sell them on a solution to a problem.
4. Provide your listeners with a way to achieve emotional satisfaction; this drives them to take action.

My thanks to Michael Ray for time on his show and the great tips and feedback. Check out his media coaching services; please tell him I sent you…And watch for a guest post from him right here very soon.

Using Your Blog to Build a Platform

Most of you know I’m a huge fan of using blogging for building and author’s platform. I even encourage writers to blog their books if they think they might have an idea that will generate enough on-line readers to attract a publisher’s Web surfing eyes.

Therefore, I found myself particularly attracted to some comments related to blogging I recently saw my regular guest blogger, Drew Gerber, CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, posting on LinkedIn. So, I asked him to write a post for me on the subject. Here’s what he wrote:

Using Your Blog to Build a Platform
By L. Drew Gerber

Writing a book is hard work, and even more difficult is finding an audience for it. These days, publishers and literary agents are often finding new talent and signing book deals with bloggers — people who already have a large following and are consistently sharing their ideas and thoughts with the world. (It makes sense: If a blogger has 2,000 daily readers, then he or she probably has 2,000 people interested in reading/buying their book.) As an author, you probably have brilliant ideas and unique takes on issues every day you can share.  But if you’re not delivering your messages via a blog or similar platform that allows the world access to your voice, you’re definitely missing out on a golden opportunity.

A blog is an amazing tool to have at your disposal when building a platform for your book. If you already have a loyal following and engaged readership to your blog, you’ll have a receptive audience for your book as well. They enjoy your writing. They enjoy your ideas. They enjoy your voice. They enjoy what you have to offer.  So your marketing platform is partially set. With a blog, you’re giving away something for free — you’re hooking your book’s target market with value.

If you don’t have that loyal following already set, you’ll need to drive traffic to your blog.  Here are a few techniques you can employ to lure readers in:

Cross Promote — Build relationships with other bloggers you like and promote their site in turn. This is great for link building and reaching out to a wider audience. Send your book to them, do guest posts for them and have them contribute to your blog. Look at the blogging world as a community. Don’t isolate yourself.

Be Consistent — A lot of newbie’s to the blogging world will start off strong, but, may give up or not be as vigilant about writing new posts if they aren’t getting the traffic they want. Don’t give up though. You never know when the tide will come in taking you from 10 visitors to a day to 10,000. Be consistent, even if you have only a few loyal readers, providing value on a regular basis. If you deliver thought-provoking and interesting ideas regularly, you’ll build upon the audience that you already have.

Media Coverage — When you land media coverage, make sure you talk about it on your blog.  It’s another way people can learn more about you and your expertise.   Be sure to include links to any TV clips, radio interviews, online/print placements or book reviews so your audience knows what you’re up to.  It’ll build credibility with your current readers and will turn new readers into potential buyers.

About the Author

L. Drew Gerber is CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free media tool that connects journalists and the highest rated experts. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed (www.PressKit247.com). Contact L. Drew Gerber at: AskDrew@PublicityResults.com or call him at 828-749-3548.

How to Query a Magazine Editor and Land an Assignment

As a seasoned magazine journalist and a nonfiction editor, I know how to query a magazine editor and what type of pitch makes an editor sit up and take notice. I also know what mistakes will make one never get past the first sentence or two.

These days, the best way to approach an editor is with an emailed query or pitch. It should be short and pithy and show that you know something about the publication’s readers and what they want to read. It also should show that you know something about the magazine’s advertisers. After all, these two groups keep a magazine in business. That said, a terrific idea backed up by a writer’s expertise will more often than not get you the job if presented well in a flawless query letter.

While emailed queries can be a bit less formal than the traditional snail-mailed query, don’t make the mistake of tossing out the old query letter format. Still treat your cyber query much like a business letter, and include all the traditional query elements: an intriguing lead paragraph, a second paragraph explaining exactly how you will approach the article and including a title, word count and information on sources you plan to interview, and a third paragraph detailing why you are qualified to write the story.

A few things not to do:

• Call the editor.
• Send in a query with typos or other errors.
• Put the wrong editor’s name on the letter.
• Indicate that you may not have the experience to write the article.

A terrific idea backed up by a writer’s expertise and knowledge of the magazine will more often than not get you the job if presented well in a flawless query letter. Add a tie in to the publication’s advertising focus, and you have a sure-fire sale.

You Can Realize Your Dream of Publishing a Book

When you come home from a conference and think about all the things you need to do—and haven’t yet done or aren’t quite sure how to do—before you try to publish your book, do you feel discouraged? You aren’t alone.

After hearing all those speakers and experts tell them what they should or must do to get published, many writers feel inclined to pack up their manuscripts and give up their dreams of becoming published authors. Building an author’s platform feels too large a task. They have no desire to take on the business end of being an author, such as publicity and marketing. They don’t want to spend their time—or money—on a professional who will help them write a proposal or edit their book. So, they consider quitting.

I’m here to tell you not to quit. If publishing a book is your dream, make it come true. Leave that conference and recommit to realizing that dream. Yes, writing and publishing a book involves lots of hard work. Yes, it involves doing things you may not want to do—and spending your time doing things you don’t want to do that have nothing to do with writing per se. Yes, it can be expensive.

Commit yourself to manifesting your dream of writing and publishing your book anyway.

You can do it. I know you can. Call me or email me if you need help manifesting your dream.