Gordon Burgett’s
Newsletter
for Writers, Speakers,
Publishers, and Empire Builders
August 3, 2010
My Ancillary
Publishing Book Service is open!
Do
you need your book published right now
to…
► get your speeches or workshops booked?
► add product to your
back-of-the-room sales table?
► create a quick
core for your empire?
► be a family
landmark (and Christmas gift)?
► submit
simultaneously in print to many big-house book editors?
If
you’re thinking of quickly publishing your book through the fast and free
ancillary publishers—Lulu, CreateSpace, Blurb, LightningSource (LSI), Scribd,
and Smashwords (for Kindle and iPad),—I’m
now offering a more tightly tailored and less expensive kind of book service.
See the new details here!
I
will also offer my standard publishing Pathfinder program,
which presumes you will either self-publish or you will directly approach major
publishers.
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Six recommendations for article writers
who want to get rich and famous.
1. If you are brand new to
article writing (starting usually in magazines, newspapers, or newsletters),
delay steps 3-6 below until you get some composing wind in your sails, like a
dozen pieces in print. You need to reap some paying by-lines so you get
comfortable with the process. Don’t worry about the money at the outset. And
don’t worry that your ship will sail before you get this preliminary work
accomplished. You may not be ready to captain the ship yet.
2. Simply use the 75%
selling process explained in my many “sell your writing” books in the library
or for sale—there are lots of used copies around. The Travel Writer’s Guide
is still in print and has been my biggest seller of all, but How
to Sell 75% of Your Freelance Writing is the granddaddy and still as
useful as it was then. (You can find a current version of the 75% book directed
to school administrators—not a whit of difference—in my new ancillary
publishing books at Lulu.com, CreateSpace.com, Kindle, Apple’s iPad (if it’s up yet), and scribd.com too—or just contact us.)
3. Here’s the process simplified.
Get an idea. Ask who would pay to read about that idea. List those potential
readers. Ask what publication(s) each of them would most likely read to find
that article. List those publications in a priority order: do they pay on
acceptance, how much, how often do they publish, what
freelance percent do they use? Send a one-page query letter to the editor of
the first publication in each prioritized list. Sell your idea on that page by
explaining what will make your article exceptional (what the article will say),
and show in your stellar writing why you are the person to write it. Include a
stamped-self-addressed envelope (unless the editor accepts e-mail queries). If
you get a rejection, write another query letter to the editor of the second
publication, and so on. If you run out of publications, go to a different idea!
If an editor says “go-ahead, let me see it,” study the publication, write your
article, mail it—and, soon, cash the check.
4. But by the time you have
a dozen printed pieces, start topic-spoking. That’s
where you take an idea you want to write more fully about. Write down that core
idea. Then do the pre-query research you did before so you know what you can
deliver, but here, instead of an hour, invest 12-24 hours of no-nonsense
research about your topic-spoking theme. Gather all
the basic facts you can (put the source by each fact) and simultaneously create
a list of potential articles you could write. Then go back and apply #3 to each
article. If you earned $300 an article in #3, here you may well earn a
cumulative $3,000 from all of the articles that come from that initial 12-24
hours of research. Each subsequent article is easier to write because you know
more and have more interviews (or go-back interview sources).
5. What must selling
articles (and books) contain? Facts, quotes, anecdotes, and
maybe artwork (photos or charts, mostly). I needn’t explain facts, other
than they must be true and verifiable (but no footnotes). Beginners must
remember to get quotes, particularly from real experts. Promise the quotes, get
a query go-ahead, then tell the person/people that you are writing an article
for “X” and could you please interview them (probably by phone) for 15 minutes?
Anecdotes add depth, if appropriate. Often they come from historical events or
happenings—they too must be correct. Photos are most often needed for travel.
If so, ask the editor after you get the go-ahead if they accept digital .jpgs and how they want them sent.
6. When you grasp the
topic-spoking concept (many professionals live very
comfortable lives on just a few topics they topic-spoke!), become an expert
about something that makes your bells chime. Capture that core information and
become “the” expert about it. Find an angle or slant and make it your own. Then
topic-spoke it to test the field, see if your love for the subject will last,
and where you can go with it. Here, though, you will sell your information by
many idea dissemination ways: articles, books, reports, manuals, pamphlets,
seminars, speeches, CDs, radio, and a dozen more. Find 20 closely-related
sub-topics, spread out, master the field, flood the associations and trade
journals, build a webpage and web dominance, create a newsletter and blogs… (The best idea of all: segue
your core concept into meeting niche needs. Use my Niche Publishing process to
remove the risk and expedite the earning. Become the emperor or empress of what
you can’t wait to share or know more about. Empire build,
and rule!)
Maybe I got carried away a
bit, but that’s how you parlay a simple starting article into an empire. Ask
any empire-builder you know if this process works. It works if you do.
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I keep referring to the IBPA Independent…
Sometimes hiding in a
niche (like small publishers) is a gem than seems to have the very answers you
need just as those needs arise.
For us, there’s both the Independent Book Publishers Association
(formerly Publishers Marketing Association) and its superb monthly newsletter,
the Independent.
I joined PMA (then) about 1982. It was the very best investment I could have
made, particularly for its Direct Mail Marketing Programs (I’ve used the
General Library Mailing for probably 15 books, the most recent to be
distributed in mid-September.)
Among the Independent’s 14 July articles are (1)
the last of a series of member responses about “Controlling (Book) Returns,” by
editor Judith Appelbaum, (2) Donn
LeVie Jr.’s “Niche
Publisher Makes Triple Play,” focusing on three ways a 30-essay book from the
top classical guitarists can lead to increased marketing; (3) a piece about how
librarians pick books to buy, (4) another about choosing an order-fulfillment
service, and (5) a thought-provoking item called “Our Platform Wars Problem,”
by Joseph Esposito, showing the peril of having Amazon, Apple, and Google take
over the eventual distribution and pricing of the book market (though I
personally see niche publishing, at least for now, separate and surviving and thriving
because of the re-testing and empire-building potential I explain in Niche Publishing).
My advice: check out IBPA if you are publishing—and read the articles that will help you put your ideas profitably and quickly in print.
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A sample radio show fact sheet/script—and
show confirmation
I received a surprising
number of comments and questions related to the radio shows I am doing right
now about How to Get Your Book
Published Free in Minutes and Marketed Worldwide in Days. Several
wanted to know if I had a cheat sheet, fact sheet, or script I kept near the
phone when I did the interviews.
Here is my APradioscript.
I used a see-through yellow marker under the key words, and in the left margin
I wrote the category or topic (a word or two) in red ink. So if I got the key
word of the interviewer’s question, I could let my eye fall on that category. I
simply spread the six pages out in front of me. Do I really use it? Not much,
frankly. But it’s great to have for that 5:30 a.m. drive-time in
Oh yes, here’s the show
confirmation e-mail I send the day before in case my phone number is
misplaced or I am forgotten! Notice that I ask the host (or producer) to have
the key buy numbers and info left at the reception phone too.
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If
by chance you’re north of San Francisco on August 8 or 19…
I’ll be
keynoting for the Redwood Writers, in
The next week,
in Petaulma, on Aug. 19, 7-9 p.m., I will tell the
Writers’ Forum “How to Pick the Right Publisher.”
If you’re in
northern
Best wishes,
Gordon Burgett
Communication Unlimited
P.O. Box 845
94948
US