Cy Stapleton was trying to find enough material to fill four columns each month for several printing trade journals.His solution was to set up an e-mail listserv and offer free subscriptions to printers. The claimed purpose of the list was to give printers a forum to discuss problems and share ideas with each other. The "real" purpose was to give him ideas of what topics deserved a little ink. Both purposes have been served admirably.The list now has almost 500 printers subscribed and he has a constant stream of new ideas. They also do his research. A 1200-word column that used to take days to research and write can now be written in a couple of hours.
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Book Publishing Tips of the Day
Daily words of wisdom from Dan Poynter and other publishing industry experts. (Search on "tip" in archives for complete list.) - Today's Tip from Poynter: "Research on the Web."
PUBLISHING TIP OF THE DAY"Research on the Web."
The Web is the world's largest library.
Online bookstore databases such as Amazon.com list all the books that are currently available or "in print" as well as out-of-print books. Make a subject search and print out the results. Try several alternative words. For example, for a book on parenting, try "parenting," "parent," "mother," "father," etc.
To be thorough, make a similar search for titles beginning with the same key words. Try several online book databases.
Next, make a search on your proposed or working title. Make sure it has not been used recently. Then join listservs.
See how much information is available on your subject. You want to gather details from every book, magazine article, database, and resource. Visit the Web sites listed in the Appendix and use search engines.
This detective work can be great fun. One scrap of information will lead to another as you become lost in (cyber) space.
Now you do not have to drive to the library; you may research your book from home.
On the Web, a journey of a thousand leagues begins with the first keystroke." -Scott Gross, speaker and author of Positively Outrageous Service.
(c) 2000 by Dan Poynter. For more tips and information on book writing, publishing and promoting, see the Para Publishing Web site.
MARKETING TIP OF THE DAY
THEME: COPYWRITING Before a media contact will say "yes" the best publicists are asked "could you send me more information on that?" Don't forget. Media people are journalists. They are writers. The materials you send them had better be well-written. Here are a few . . .
Rules for Powerful Copywriting
Immediately following the lead of a press release, fill in as many of the "5 W's / 1 H" as possible: Who, what, when, where, why, how. The meat of the story should be here; written in a spirit that gnaws at the emotion of the targeted reader and makes them want to take action - beginning with reading the rest of the release!
(c) 2000 by Tami DePalma. For more tips and information about "Marketing with a Twist," visit the MarketAbility Web site. Don't your books deserve MAXIMUM EXPOSURE?