writing / thinkit creative

The business of writing in the realm of self publishing: a review of “Write. Publish. Repeat.”

By Patrick Gant

In the span of less than half a decade, self publishing has been radically transformed from its humble indie origins and is now a viable first choice for professional writers. That includes consultants and professional speakers who want to grow their audience and help people along the way.

A few of the reasons for this shift are obvious: the meteoric growth of tablets and the shift to online book selling has helped nudge the ebook side of publishing into the tantalizing realm becoming impulse buys. For Amazon, Kobo and the iBookstore, it means they are plenty happy to meet demand with titles that readers want to buy—be it from independent writers or others.

But there’s another reason for this shift, and it’s one that up until now hasn’t really drawn as much attention as it deserves.

A self published book used to carry a stigma. For many readers, it was synonymous with lousy writing, half-assed packaging, typically fitted with a gaping black hole where a publishing and marketing strategy ought to be. [Read more…]

Books that were originally self published: it pays to be different

By Patrick Gant

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.

In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters

A Time to Kill by John Grisham

The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer

The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton

All five of these highly successful books found their start as self-published titles. All did so in age well before it become easy to build a professional looking product and distribute it to reach a critical mass.

That’s an achievement in itself.

What they also have in common is this: each book was powered by an idea that was considered too different from what the market thought people wanted.

Being different is scary because it invites the greatest amount of risk that you’ll be rejected.

But most people don’t judge what they like based on a scale of sameness or how different something is.

They just like ideas that help them see things differently.

You are what you post

By Patrick Gant

Photo:Adrian_S

We used to call it the Web. Or the Internet. Or even (if you’re old enough to remember this gem of an anachronism) the information superhighway. And like good students of Victorian order, we even had subcategories for things that populated this space: blogosphere, social media, chat room, instant messaging” the list goes on.

Many fretted over the need to define these as places.

Some demanded that these words be treated as proper nouns, requiring capitalization and all the formality that we could muster in our language. We did this for a time because it was new, and out of worry that there might otherwise be what editors sombrely call “ambiguity for readers” ” in other words, people just might not understand. Slowly, ~~people~~ most people came to realize that just wasn’t necessary anymore.

That’s all in the past now.

Online is no longer a shelf space or a channel for content. It’s no longer a subset of what was once loosely called mass media.

Online is now the outcome of things.

It’s the record of what we do, of the things that matter to us. Every blog entry. Every tweet. Every comment posted. Every review or testimonial by a customer. Every friend made, or connection reacquainted. Every work sample. Every article written. Every collaboration. Every mashup.

Think about how what you say says everything now.

Today, what you have to say, what you write about and how you say things is all a direct reflection of how people see you.

That includes your clients and prospects.

And you better believe they’re reading what you post.

The number-one thing that people do now when considering doing business with someone is to consult online. Google calls it the zero moment of truth. Others simply call it finding out more right now.

According a US study by Google, 88% of consumers now engage in the “zero moment of truth” prior to making their final decision. As of 2011, they consult more than 10 new media or traditional sources before making the decision to buy—that’s double the sources consulted just the year before.

That good first impression you hope to make on someone? It’s probably already happened whether or not you were ready.

Whether it was successful or not is going to be determined in large part by what you post and how you treat others online.

You are the sum of the choices you make and how you choose to express yourself online. You are what you post.

Important facts and trends about ebook publishing

By Patrick Gant

Odds and ends and interesting facts about ebook publishing, about who is buying ebooks and where this industry might be heading in the coming years.

Ebook publishing finished 2010 with roughly $1 billion in sales: an astounding 800% year-on-year increase. It’s also well ahead of the projected sales figures I blogged about last year.

John Pulizzi and Johnathan Kranz over at Junta42 have a great definition of what an ebook can (and should) be for businesses:

Think of it as a white paper on steroids (the sexy white paper): a report, generally 12–40 or more pages in length, that presents complex information in a visually attractive, reader-friendly format. The content is both informative and entertaining; the tone, collegial; the format, “chunky” rather than linear, to facilitate skimming and scanning.

Smashwords is now one of the largest distributors by title count of independent ebooks to retailers such as Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. Not bad at all for a company that only 24 months ago started with just 140 books by 90 authors. I like these guys.

Ebooks won’t replace all hard-copy books, but they are a suitable substitute for many—particularly in trade publishing. The attraction of ebooks is that they are convenient to buy and read right away, they’re affordable and they make keyword searches a cinch. But make no mistake: there are limitations to their form and design.

Ebook pricing continues to be a problem for publishers—particularly those whose business model remains rooted on moving and managing hard-copy books. I haven’t made up my mind fully on this yet. On one hand, it’s not smart to compete on price alone, but it’s a mistake to defend a higher-price strategy the way one publisher has done by saying “our ebooks cannot stand the low, mass market pricing some consumers think should be applied to every ebook.”

Preliminary research on this new market suggests that affordability is a powerful motivator behind ebook purchases: readers buy more books for less money.

Unlike many consumer technologies, older generations have been one of the largest early-adopters of ebooks. However, the market is rapidly changing. The measured intent-to-purchase consumer demographic is getting younger.

Seth Godin, best-selling author of a dozen books on marketing and ideas, recently announced he will no longer be publishing in, as he calls it, “a traditional way.” In its place: The Domino Project, which he promises “will redefine both what it means to be a publisher and what we think of as a book.” Watch this guy.

Pew Research reports that nearly two-thirds of consumers online (65%) have paid to download or access some kind of content. Music and games combined own the lion’s share of the consumer’s dollar online (66%), and eBooks claim 10%.

Although I can’t attend, the speakers’ list at Digital Book World Conference 2011 suggests this will be a great event. Looking forward to hearing what people have to say about it.

It takes far less time to write, edit, package and ship an ebook to market compared to what was entailed with conventional publishing 10 years ago. Maybe ebooks will mark the rebirth of serialized books: not just for novels but for non-fiction, too.

[Update] Post-Christmas 2010 sales data is starting to roll in. Wow! Of the top 50 in USA Today’s Best-Selling Books, published January 6, 2011, 19 had higher ebook than print sales. That’s the first time that more than two ebook titles have outsold their counterparts in print.

How to make your next speech a memorable one

By Patrick Gant

Common among the best, most memorable speeches you’ll hear is an old trick among speechwriters: themes. Whether it’s an allegory to help explain a complex topic, or a personal anecdote to help break the ice with a little bit of humour, themes can be a big help to a speaker, keeping the audience interested in the topic at-hand.

Fletcher Dean, who runs the excellent and much-quoted thespeechwriter.com has posted some helpful tips on using themes in a speech. I’ll share some highlights:

True ‘happened-to-me’ stories — This isn’t a “while I was waiting on the taxi” theme but a real event in the life of the speaker. These not only have the benefit of providing a good theme, but they endear the speaker to the audience.

Stories — Folk tales and fairy tales can even provide memorable introductions into your main topic. These are especially useful for international speakers when you can find a local tale familiar to the audience. It shows the speaker has done his or her homework and appreciates the local culture.

Quotes — A good quote can set the tone early in a speech and give you an interesting theme. If the person being quoted is well-known and well-liked, this technique has the added benefit of letting your speaker borrow credibility.

Reference to an historical event — One of my favorites, this often requires some legwork to ferret out but is easily worth the effort. Listeners appreciate the historical perspective and anecdotes this technique provides, especially if it’s tied to a “day-in-history” event.

Current events — A quick scan of the news can often provide just the hook you need to develop a theme. Because speeches are often written days, if not weeks ahead, however, it’s most useful to look for news events that have staying power. These may even include books on the best-seller list, popular movies and television shows or even print and broadcast ads.

Statistics — In a category all by themselves, statistics can often be elevated to theme status if you find the right ones. Economic and education stats are often useful but so are demographics if you can use them to illustrate a point. The key here, of course, is to bring those statistics down to a personal level.