Writing Helpful Help – A Minimalism Checklist by Glenn Murray User documentation is all too often written by programmers for programmers. It tends to focus on the product’s features, rather than the user’s tasks. Generally, programmers aren’t in the ideal position to be writing user documentation. They’re too close to the bits and bytes, and they’re too far from the user. To them, what the product can do tends to be far more important than what the user can do with the product. It’s a subtle – but vital – distinction. Research shows that the key to eff ... Wording Up Your Website by Glenn Murray Are you losing business because of your website? More and more customers are logging on to the Web to decide where to spend their money because it is quick and convenient, and they can jump from site to site instead of walking from store to store. Web savvy customers don't need to be patient, studies have shown that you need to engage a potential customer very quickly by giving them easy, fast access to the information they need. Otherwise they will simply move on to the next site. Appeali ... Writing Newsletters – Tricks of the Trade by Glenn Murray Follow 10 simple rules of thumb, and you’ll soon be writing great newsletters and reaping the rewards. Company newsletters can be an amazingly successful marketing technique. Whether you want to up-sell or cross-sell, establish your brand or establish your authority, or simply reach a wider market, a newsletter can do the job for you. You just have to make sure you write it right. Television, radio, and print advertising are often too expensive for many businesses to justify – especially s ... 10 Tips for Tech-Writers by Glenn Murray Tech-writing is a tricky business. It’s not a very high profile industry, so there’s not much support around. Follow these 10 quick tips, and you’ll be well on your way to a satisfying tech-writing career. 1) Follow a sensible career path… STEP 1: Start in a team STEP 2: Stay only just long enough STEP 3: Manage yourself STEP 4: Manage a team STEP 5: Go contracting (depends on the market) 2) Knowledge is your lifeblood – learn the politics of your company. Know who knows what. Find s ... Tech-writers – a necessary evil by Glenn Murray New to tech-writing, or thinking about starting? The key to success is recognising that tech-writers are a necessary evil. Tech-writers are necessary because someone has to write the user doco. The programmers and managers sure as hell don’t want to. This is actually part of the reason that you’re evil, too. In my experience, most programmers and managers think that they could write the manuals if they wanted to… they just don’t want to. They might not write all “flowery” like the tech-write ... Free Reprint Articles That Will Interest Publishers - 4 Tips by Glenn Prialde Have you been writing and submitting your free reprint articles for quite sometime now? If so, how is your reprint rate doing? Is it doing well or is it a bit below 50%? Are webmasters approving your articles? Here are some tips on how to write effective free reprint articles that would guarantee great interest from ezine publishers and webmasters. 1. Choose a good keyword A good keyword is your Author's Biography: Glenn Prialde invites you to submit your free repri ... One Persons Porn is My Erotica by Rose DesRochers Erotica is not something easily defined or easily accepted by society. I often have been accused of writing porn by those who think that any kind of writing that examines the bounds of intimacy is dirty and something that should be kept in the bedroom. Most look at all Erotica as porn. But I must warn you that one person’s porn is another person’s erotica. One thing erotica is not is badly written trash. I'm sorry to disappoint you but I don't write trash. There seems to be a misconception bet ... Story and Screenplay Structure by Kal Bishop Structure is beneficial to creative output in a number of ways. There are at least two types of structure, work processes and frameworks: a) Work processes such as incremental production produce more output than a Author's Biography: ... A competitive and cutthroat look at writing by Rose DesRochers Let me start by saying, humor that is hurtful or at the expense of other writers has no place in the writing industry. Board fights and flame wars do not belong in the writing community. This should be about writing. Online writing communities have become a cutthroat, often uncaring part of cyber world. In order to succeed in writing, I've always believed that we must come together and help each other. I do not understand the attitude many writers have adopted of stabbing their fellow writer ... The Blog Factor: Everything you need to know to start blogging - today! by Penny C. Sansevieri So what is this Author's Biography: Penny C. Sansevieri The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the #1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was released in 2005 to rave reviews and is being called the �roadmap to publishing success.� Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She also coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marke ... Making the Most of Amazon.com by Penny C. Sansevieri Besides being a great place to shop, Amazon also offers considerable marketing opportunities for anyone willing to take the time to explore them. Here are just a few you might want to consider. Keep in mind that Amazon's site is not static, meaning that they are in a constant state of change. If any of these items aren�t available on the site, keep checking back because Amazon will often shuffle features to gauge their individual popularity. Tell Amazon Who You Are One of the first thin ... Are You Ready When the Media Calls? by Penny C. Sansevieri Are you prepared for the media to call you? If you're not, you should be. Pitching is great, but if you're not ready when the call finally comes in, it is really just a wasted effort. Most authors go about their routine of sending press releases, e-mailing pitches or mailing books, but they're unprepared for the caller that says, Author's Biography: Penny C. Sansevieri The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks a ... Getting on Radio�. Tomorrow! by Penny C. Sansevieri Whether you're just starting your campaign or knee-deep into it, radio is a great way to promote yourself and gain valuable media exposure. When people begin working on their book promotion, most of the time names like The Today Show and Oprah immediately spring to mind. And while these are admirable goals, I highly recommend you consider tapping into the resource of radio. With people spending more and more time in their cars these days and radio is becoming a very valuable resource. Befor ... Fatal PR: Mistakes Authors Make on Their Campaigns by Penny C. Sansevieri Any author who is driving their own PR campaign knows that often times marketing and media can be an uphill battle. Many times authors are pitching and promoting themselves with minimal results. It can be tedious and frustrating and sometimes lead them to make fatal PR mistakes that can cost them their campaign. One of the first, and potentially most fatal, is thinking that one or two media appearances are going to wing your book into the bestseller spotlight. Media works when it�s done co ... Never (ever) Sell Your Book by Penny C. Sansevieri So you�re all ready to promote your book. You�ve got a great press kit, a polished bio, and a letter-perfect press release. Now you�re ready to sell, sell, sell, right? Wrong. One of the biggest mistakes authors make is selling their books. Remember it�s not about the book, it�s about what the book can do for the reader. Finding the benefits to your book might seem like a pretty simple task and touting that Author's Biography: Penny C. Sansevieri The Cliffhanger was publ ... Micro-Genres: The Next Big Thing in Publishing by Penny C. Sansevieri Welcome to the world of publishing, an ever- changing dynamic that seems to reinvent itself nearly every season, some might even say everyday. The latest of these reinventions is what I call the Author's Biography: Penny C. Sansevieri The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the #1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was released in 2005 to rave reviews ... Writers Conferences: The best thing you can do for your writing career by Penny C. Sansevieri Writers conferences come in all shapes and sizes. Virtually anytime of the year you can attend a conference anywhere around the country. But, why would you? Just when your manuscript is gaining momentum, why on earth would you put it down to go hang out with a bunch of writers you've never met? Because despite the notion that writing is all about isolating yourself, isolation is not a good thing. No one can live in a vacuum and these days, it takes a lot more than a good manuscript to hook an ag ... Get Your Book Done � Now! by Penny C. Sansevieri I don't believe in writer�s block. (I can hear the gasps of disbelief already.) Listen: If you hire a plumber to come to your house and fix a problem, do you expect him to say, Author's Biography: Penny C. Sansevieri The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the #1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was released in 2005 to rave reviews and is being ca ... Seven Secrets of Writing a Book that Sells by Penny C. Sansevieri It's one thing to write a book, it's an entirely different thing to write one that's a saleable, viable, marketable product. Ensuring the success of a book is something even the biggest publishers have never been able to guarantee. Mitigating circumstances, flash trends, and world events will all affect buyer preferences. That said, there are still ways to leverage the sales-factor in your favor and here's how you do it. 1. Know your readers. We're not just talking about whether your readers ... The Business of Publishing by Penny C. Sansevieri Congratulations, you're published! But what exactly does it mean to be Author's Biography: Penny C. Sansevieri The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the #1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was released in 2005 to rave reviews and is being called the �roadmap to publishing success.� Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She ... Winning the Name Game by Penny C. Sansevieri How many of you have spent hours or days toiling over the title for your book? My first book, The Cliffhanger, was renamed probably six times before I stayed with the current title. Naming your book can be difficult, especially if the book will work as a sort of branding for everything else you do. Non-fiction books are often seen as a stepping stone to speaking engagements, product launches, and a variety of other business endeavors. In fact, the naming of a non-fiction or business book is so c ... Story of a Bestseller: The Power of a Postcard by Penny C. Sansevieri A recent article in Publisher's Weekly reported about an author who shot their book up to the #1 spot on Amazon.com where it remained for two days. This new marketing tactic (called Author's Biography: Penny C. Sansevieri The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the #1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: No More Rejections. Get Published Today! was released in July of 2002 to ... When Old News is Good News by Penny C. Sansevieri Sometimes when you�re pitching your topic or learning the art of the media pitch all you will hear is �your topic must be newsworthy, it must be trendy AND it must tie into a current/relevant topic.� So let�s say you have a great pitch, the only thing is it�s from last year. Is old news good news? Sometimes, yes it is. If your pitch ties into something current and relevant then it�s what we can an �evergreen.� In fact I have pitches that I�ve used several times over, they are s ... Cover Yourself by Penny C. Sansevieri One of your biggest sales tools is your books cover. Did you know that if someone sees your book on the shelf, you have less than thirty seconds to sell it? Remember too that your book cover will not only be on your book, but it will more than likely grace most or all of your marketing materials as well and a heavily funded PR campaign can not make up for a poorly designed book cover. If you�re stumped for cover ideas, try spending an afternoon perusing your genre of books in a bookstore a ... Networking Gold by Penny C. Sansevieri Whether you’re trying to find an editor for your book, or a producer to pitch your story to, sometimes it’s all about networking. If you still have 999 of the 1,000 business cards you ordered, you’re not getting out there enough. It’s time to step out from behind that computer and strike networking gold. One of the first laws of networking is that you want to get to know the people you’re networking with. If you’re at a writers conference or networking luncheon, don’t just pass out business ... | ||||||
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