WHAT IT MEANS: Shakespeare got it exactly right: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Too many words can actually obscure what you’re trying to say. Maybe in school you had to pad that term paper to some preassigned length—but school’s out. In the business world, it’s clarity and cogency that count.

ACTION PLAN: Mark Twain once wrote to a friend that he didn’t have time to write a short letter, so he went ahead and wrote a long one. You should give yourself the time to streamline your documents with some prudent editing. First drafts have a tendency to be disjointed and rambling—but first drafts are not for the general public. Put on your editor’s hat and fine-tune your document or presentation until it’s crisp and right on the money. If you lack the necessary editorial skills, find someone who can work with you.

EVEN BETTER: Brevity is a worthy objective for virtually all your written and spoken business communications. When you ramble or keep repeating the same thing, you project a certain lack of confidence and professionalism. Stay on point by carefully considering what needs to be said and then saying it. You don’t have to carry both ends of the conversation. And you’ll get more comfortable being “short-winded” with practice.

Reprinted from “Rick Frishman‘s Author101 Newsletter”
Subscribe at http://www.rickfrishman.com and receive Rick’s “Million Dollar Rolodex”

For a book, binder format has the highest perceived value. But binder products are more expensive to produce, more difficult to store, and harder to ship.

Publishing your book as a traditional “bookstore book” has more prestige – people revere book authors – but the lowest perceived value, because buyers compare its price with books sold in bookstores.

Hardcover books, which can be printed with or without dust jackets, have higher perceived value than paperbacks.

“Oddly enough” says Dan, “a hardcover without a dust jacket has a higher perceived value than one with the dust jacket.”

Reason: books for professionals do not have dust jackets. Think of the leather-bound volumes you see in the library or conference room of any law firm.

E-books also have a higher perceived value than paperback books. Because an e-book doesn’t look like a traditional book and has a larger page size, buyers see it as a specialized report rather than a regular book.

This article appears courtesy of Bob Bly‘s Direct Response Letter. Learn more and get your free subscription at www.bly.com.

1. Books
2. Mini-books (they don’t all have to read like novels!)
3. Booklets
4. Ebooks
5. Special reports
6. White papers
7. Workbooks
8. Worksheets
9. Templates
10. Resource lists
11. Database of resources
12. Spreadsheets
13. Pre-formatted spreadsheet templates
14. Charts/graphs
15. Checklists
16. Statistics
17. Survey results
18. Blog posts
19. Articles
20. Case studies
21. Interviews
22. Compilations (stories, articles, interviews, case studies, etc.)
23. Videos (full-length)
24. Video clips
25. Video trailers
26. Audio recordings
27. Audio recording series
28. Podcasts
29. Teleseminars
30. Teleseminar series
31. Webinars
32. Webinar series
33. Transcripts
34. Electronic newsletters
35. Print newsletters
36. Print magazines
37. Web-based magazines
38. Comic strips
39. Games
40. Card decks
41. Short stories
42. Computer-based training
43. E-mail auto-responder series
44. iPhone apps
45. iPad apps
46. Sample chapters
47. Audio books
48. Licensed content (articles, graphics, etc. that others can repurpose)
49. Ring tones
50. Bundles (collection of several items as listed above)

Stephanie Chandler is an author of several books including LEAP! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business (Career Press), From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products (John Wiley & Sons) and The Author’s Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leveraging the Internet to Sell More Books (Quill Driver Books). Stephanie is also the founder and CEO of www.AuthorityPublishing.com, which specializes in custom publishing for non-fiction books. Since 2004, she has hosted www.BusinessInfoGuide.com, a directory of resources for entrepreneurs. A frequent speaker at business events and on the radio, Stephanie has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Business Week, Inc.com, Wired Magazine and many other media outlets.

Last Saturday I was on my morning run through our neighborhood and I noticed a number of garage sale signs (that’s tag sale for those of you back east). One of the signs had a sign beneath it that read: We have free stuff! As I ran though the neighborhood I passed that house and noticed they put all their free stuff in the “Free zone” and already, even at that early hour, hoards of people were migrating there.

I passed the other garage sales which were doing OK, but not great. Clearly the one with the free stuff pulled more people, but did it actually sell more paid merchandise? Yes. I checked in with the sale after my run to find most of the good stuff gone (note to self: shop first, exercise later). When I talked to the homeowner they said that the free stuff went fast, but as I noted each time I passed by, it wasn’t junk stuff, it was actually good enough to make the garage sale shopper feel like they got a real deal. If it’s junk and it’s free, it doesn’t really matter.

What’s the lesson here? Free stuff can help you sell more of the paid merchandise, but you have to be careful, because some people just want freebies and that’s fine. But they are not your customers. Here are some tips to help you maximize the use of free:

1.      Why free? The first question you should ask yourself is why are you doing this?  If you aren’t sure, then free might not be right for you. Free content should be offered to help further your message, build a list, and get new people into your marketing funnel. If your model isn’t set up this way, maybe it should be. If you aren’t interested in this kind of a marketing model, then free probably isn’t your thing.

2.      Define how free can help: Figure out why you want to give free stuff. As I mentioned above, getting clear about your model will help determine if a free product is even worth your time. If it is, then you need to figure out how it will help you. As an example, we have a lot of free stuff on the Author Marketing Experts, Inc. site (www.ameauthors.com) but the free for us is designed to build trust. Distrust is rampant online, and in particular, in the book promotion and publishing industry. There are a lot of scams out there and so trust is important. Our free stuff builds our mailing list, yes, but it also builds trust.

3.      Make sure it’s really free: A lot of people have content that is purported to be free when it’s not really free. What I mean is that you get a sliver of it, not even a piece really worth mentioning, but the stuff you want is something you have to pay for. If you want to do free, make it free. Find something of value and give it to your customers.

4.      Make it something your end user wants: As I’ve mentioned a few times, make sure the free is something people want. If it isn’t you a) won’t bring in the right crowd of people (you’ll end up just getting the freebie hunters, and b) you won’t build your mailing list as fast. So, for example, give your readers something really substantial like an e-book or tips, or a workbook. Virtually any electronic product is easy to create and deliver. When I changed our freebie on the Author Marketing Experts, Inc. website, we quadrupled our sign-ups. So, what was the freebie? 52 Ways to Sell More Books. Now, as an author, isn’t that appealing to you? Exactly my point.

So, what if you’ve written a fiction book? Well, consider this: 83% of Americans want to write a book, so what if you gave them a free how-to guide? You don’t even have to create this yourself, you could partner with someone who has already created this. If you don’t like that idea, consider (for those of you in the historical fiction market) doing a did-you-know piece on the history you’re referencing in your book. The idea here is to a) give value, and b) give your readers something they will care about. Also, whenever possible, give your readers something they need to keep so it will remind them of you and your book: tip sheets, workbooks, reference charts. All of these things are pieces that your consumer may keep, which can keep you top of mind.

5.      Take names: You should never give free away without asking for an email address. I see people do this all the time; they have a ton of free stuff but never collect emails. If that’s the case, the freebies you are offering may be of great value to your end user but they won’t matter to your marketing. Get emails. It’s called an ethical bribe. You get something (their email) and give them something (the free stuff).

6.      Make it easy to get: Don’t make free difficult. What I mean is make it easy to get your free stuff. If people have to jump through hoops, they won’t do it and the free stuff won’t matter. For example – put your free stuff on your home page, or at least have a link to it, though I recommend using free stuff as an ethical bribe (as a way to get sign-ups for your newsletter). When you ask for their email, make it easy. A simple click or two is all it should take. Then, don’t ask for too much information. If you ask me for my address, birthday, and whatnot I doubt I will want your free stuff that badly. Shorten the staircase. If you make it complicated, it’s not really free. Just bait. If you bait your consumer in this fashion. You’ll lose them.

7.      Make the free stuff work for you: If you give away something, make sure that it works for you. What I mean is that when you get our free stuff, we always make sure and remind folks of who we are and what we do. For a while we had a free Twitter e-book that always went out with our product catalog imbedded in it.

8.      Call to action: Make sure that your free stuff has a call to action. You are collecting names and email addresses and building your list, that’s great. But what do you really want people to do? Define what you want them to do, and then include your call to action in the free stuff. Let’s face it, it’s a good piece – designed to help your reader – but it must also help you. It’s ok to promote your book on the last page, or encourage folks to do a consult with you if that’s what you offer. You can also offer specials and change these periodically in the giveaway.

9.      What will you give? People often ask me what you should give away, and I say, it depends: Who is your market and what do they want? Now, on our site you’ll see 52 Ways to Sell More Books, which is an e-book we offer when you sign up for our newsletter. Do our folks want that? You bet. Why? Because they are authors and authors want to sell more books. A special report or e-book always makes a great freebie, maybe you have a white paper that you did on the industry; if so, offer it as a freebie.

10.  Follow up! The best kind of free stuff is, as I like to call it, the gift that keeps giving. Auto responders are a great system but often underutilized when it comes to marketing. If you are collecting names and then never contacting your prospects again, what’s the point? Our 52 Ways to Sell More Books is delivered over several weeks, and then when we’re done, we deliver more quality content. People need to be reminded, and reminded again. Now, you can also funnel folks into your newsletter as I mentioned earlier. I do both. We have the auto responder and the newsletter. Think it’s too much? Maybe, but our market wants information. Define what your market wants and then give it to them. If a newsletter and an auto responder is overkill, then scale it back. No one knows your market like you do.

The real key here is that free stuff can work well for you in so many ways, but free stuff without a goal is just free. Great to get free stuff, right? But then how is all of this hard work going to pay off for you?

If you still aren’t a believer of free, try it for 90 days and see if it doesn’t change your life. If you do it right, free will monetize your audience like nothing else will. The biggest reason is that in an age of pushing things on consumers, your audience really wants to sample what you have to offer before they buy. Free is a great way to do that. It’s also a great way to stay in front of your audience, build trust, and develop a loyal following.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Instructor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright 2010 Penny C. Sansevieri

Well, that’s two, but many writers balk at attempting to play publisher.  If they only knew it’s not as hard as they think it is, not to mention all the profits are theirs, I feel more writers would be comfortable to take on a project like this.  Not only is self-publishing eBooks a profitable venture, but it also can be used as a valuable tool to gain expert status.  Plus, eBooks are really simple to promote as long as you take a no-nonsense guerilla approach to marketing.

As long as you have a market, and have a quality eBook that is free of errors, your eBook can become a success, thus give you that added income. You won’t be sharing the profits with anyone. There is no overhead except for website expenses, which you should already have if you’ve been published before.  If you haven’t been published before and don’t want to set up a whole website for this, use one of the free blogging platforms such as Blogger.com or WordPress.com to talk about your new money-making e-Book.

I have successfully promoted several eBooks for myself getting those eBooks into the #1 position in the search engines.

How?

That’s where your guerrilla marketing plan comes in.

Here are a few simple ways I have used to promote my eBooks and get them to the top of the search engines:

• Using key search words throughout my selling page and on every single piece of promotional literature I send out.
• Using free press release sites frequently, keeping in mind to use those key search words not only in the title, but also throughout the release.
• Using free content ezines as vehicles to get my selling page’s link on hundreds upon hundreds of websites (being careful to put the title of your article into google alerts so your article doesn’t get reworded like this to make it sound like another business wrote YOUR article).
• Using online storefronts (this is a suggestion; a search in google will find you more) who will list my eBook for free.
• Using writer forums and websites that will let you announce your eBook.
• Using blogs to announce your eBook and promote it.
• Using virtual book tours, thus using other people’s blogs to promote your book.

The secret to selling self-published eBooks (or any kind of eBook or print book, for that matter) is to get your link on as many websites and blogs as you can (an added bonus to this is that it raises your PR ranking in the process).

You have to remember, you have an electronic book. You can’t go on book signings so you have to rely on the Internet to get the word out. But, by following those seven examples above, I’ll guarantee you’ll get the sales you need if you have a market for your book.

So what if you’ve done everything above, and your eBook still isn’t selling?

Where some authors go wrong is that they fail to remember the most important thing you need in order to sell any kind of books—a market.

No amount of promotion is going to do you any good unless you have an audience who is willing to fork out the money.

Before you even put down that first word, you have to ask yourself these following questions:

• Who is going to buy my eBook?
• Why is my eBook any different than Joe Blow’s eBook on the same subject?
• What will my audience gain from my eBook?
• Can they already find this information readily on the Internet?
• Will my buyers gain something from my eBook, or is it simply to entertain?
• Pique your potential buyer’s interest.
• Post an excerpt on your website so they can judge for themselves whether your eBook will be something they need.

Once you get into the mindset of your buyer, things start falling in place, and you’ll get those sales you want.

Zero in on your market, do the steps I’ve outlined above, and I’ll guarantee you’ll be selling ebooks like flies on to honey.

Happy promoting to you!

Dorothy Thompson is CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book, an innovative public relations firm specializing in online book promotion and virtual book tours for authors who want maximum exposure online.  Visit us at www.pumpupyourbook.com.

When an author travels on the web, before and after being published, they should realize that everything they’ve posted can and will come back to haunt them.

YOUR REPUTATION FOLLOWS YOU

With all of the advances of socializing, writing, chatting and traveling on the web there is the temptation to drop your manners and be wild. Well remember, ANYTHING you put out there on the World ‘Wild’ Web – NEVER EVER gets destroyed.

That means that twenty years after you blasted out your parents, took naked pictures for your boyfriend, cursed out your boss on a rant site – it can be found.

When you delete content from a site, it does not get deleted from the many replicated data sites that google has. That means that meta-data or subset of information about whatever you posted is held or replicated in the many different search engine databases.

For example: Let’s say you uploaded a picture on photobucket. You named that picture um ‘naughty name’ then after about a year, you delete it from your photobucket website. Now if anyone searched for that item in a year, and the search engine grabbed it – the picture and description may have been copied and saved. So years later when you put in a search – you have an 80% chance that it will pop back up.

WATCH OUT FOR PREDATORS

I know, I know…you’ve heard this before. Well I am here to tell you that predators are still out there. So set up your social networking accounts with proper privacy settings, and check those private settings continuously. Also, DON’T ever post your personal information (even though someone can plop in your name and find out anything they want about you on peoplesearch – scary thought huh?)

REMEMBER – YOU HAVE A FUTURE

When you are surfing the web, speaking your opinion, or having a wild time at Spring Break – remember you have a future. If something questionable is placed on the web about you – your prospective employer, spouse – even kid may see it. So just for grins and giggles – search yourself on the web. You may be surprised at what you find.

LM Preston is the author of Explorer X – Alpha and The Pack, http://lmpreston.blogspot.com

Maybe you have a book or a few DVDs-that’s a great start. But you can use those materials over and over again in different ways to generate more attention and income to your speaking career. Regardless of what you’re getting paid to speak, you can make six figures at every event. Consider the following tips.

1. Use Content to Market Yourself

Sure, you can place ads and use publicity opportunities to get additional speaking engagements and business. But creating content is one of the best ways to make yourself known. In your marketing plan, you should include writing articles and special reports, as well as hosting free and paid teleseminars and events for your clients. These are simple ways to generate a large body of content fast.

2. Repurpose Everything

If you’re actively marketing your business and speaking services, then you should be generating tons of content that can be reworked or reformatted to create multiple valuable products. For example, every teleseminar or speech you deliver can be recorded and used later as a CD. That CD can be used as a lead-generating giveaway or packaged with other CDs or sold on its own. Then you can transcribe and edit that recording and use it as a special report or break it up into several articles or combine it with other reports to compile a book. The opportunities are endless!

3. Write a Book-But Don’t Stop There

Authoring a book is one of your most powerful marketing weapons. So if you haven’t already, start looking at your articles and reports to see how you can repackage these into a book. You may need to write a few chapters to fill it out and make it more powerful, but using your existing body of content gives you a head start. So write that book! (Then break up all the chapters later and repurpose those too!)

Writing Your Body of Work

Creating and repackaging content can multiply the income you earn at every speaking engagement and consultation you do. Even if you speak for free, you can walk away with a pocket full of checks from people who loved what you had to say and wanted more. But you have to have the content-the books, articles, CDs, and workbooks-to take advantage of this opportunity. Use these tips to start today!

Melinda Copp is an editor and ghostwriter who specializes in helping aspiring authors achieve their writing goals. Sign up for Melinda’s free e-zine, and get a copy of “The Top 10 Mistakes Aspiring Authors Make and How to Avoid Them!”

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Learn more about repurposing content and profiting from content.

Would you like to receive a growing monthly income from a book you wrote? Where would you go on vacation with the additional income stream your book created for you?

Most people are inspired by the possibility of their appointment book filled with cream of the crop clients paying top dollar for their services as an expert author.

Still not convinced you get to do profitable things when you write your book? Here are some ways to gain profitable leverage when you write your book:

1. Write your book and grow your assets. Robert Kiyosaki author of Rich Dad Poor Dad says, “In simple terms, anything that puts money, or income, into your pocket is classified as a financial asset.” When you write a top selling book that puts money in your pocket every month, you can list your book as an asset on your financial statements.
2. Write your book and position yourself as an expert. As an author of a book, you can become the go to guy or gal in your field. Pull potential book readers in with free articles and tips to help them. People are always looking for good information, a whopping 85% of Internet users are looking for information. Supply them with good information and they will think of you (a trusted expert) when they’re ready to buy.
3. Write your book and expand your market. After publishing your book to the world, you enter a global market. You have the ability to reach out and touch someone across the globe. After you write your book, your customers may live in your neighborhood or across the world in another country. A book will extend your reach and profits to new markets.
4. Write your book and create an electronic product. Develop your book into an ebook. Technology has advanced making it easier and easier to electronically publish your own e-books. The profits from each sale on a per-unit basis can be 10X the royalties earned by your original book.
5. Write your book and develop an information empire. Now that you’ve finished your book, don’t stop there. You can create other products from it. Just divide it into chunks, sections and parts. Dividing your book this way will allow you to refine, repeat and repackage your information. You can keep developing your book with a website and a stream of follow-up products and even services to build your brand and your profits further.
6. Write your book and offer a new service in your business. You can use your new book to launch a new service in your business. Or you can simply use a book to leverage your existing services to new levels. With your book, you can consider starting a career in publishing, speaking or consulting in your field.
7. Write your book and start speaking for a fee. Travel the world speaking about your book’s topic. Does travel excite you? For some, it excites them to go to new cities or to a country they’ve never been before. Well, pack your bags! Writing your book opens the door of opportunity to go places you’ve never been before. Add speaking about your book’s topic to your list of services and watch even more new doors and opportunities for you open.

Are you excited about your increased bottom line waiting for you on the other side of completing your book yet? Don’t keep waiting for extra profits to come to you. You could be this time next year looking for that experience. Go ahead; write your book. Then get excited about the profitable things you get to do. Here’s to seeing your name in print!

Earma Brown is the author of Jumpstart Writing Your Book, a free mini-course to get started writing your book today. Grab your complimentary copy at http://www.writetowin.org/jumpstartyourbook.htm

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