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Archive for the ‘Write like you talk’ Category
Hope you like the Facebook page I’e created for my book, Write Like You Talk Only Better. More ways to connect. Check it out.
For the next couple weeks, you can download a free e-copy, any format, of Write Like You Talk–Only Better, the secret to pulling ideas out of your head and onto the page. Click here and use coupon code BC25Q.
The catch? I’d really appreciate you sharing the link, writing reviews and creating a buzz on Amazon, Smashwords. Goodreads, your site, Facebook, the library, the ice rink or other places you hang out.
And of course I’d love your feedback. Just as the new edition, now also available in print, was revised with feedback from readers and students, so this one will be too. It’s a living book.
So get yours today, before the free offer expires. And what about one for that colleague whose long-winded prose or embarrassing flubs is driving you crazy? Work would be so much easier if everyone would simply write like they talk–only better.
Thanks for the photo, Tonx.
I received lots of compliments on my PowerPoint-video hybrid promoting my book. These came mostly from people who share my discomfort with appearing on video, disdain for staring-into-webcam clips and tight budget.
Although they’re comfortable with PowerPoint, they want to post more places, with animation and music. So video it is. Or should I say pideo.
I’m not pretending that Learn to Write Like You Talk Only Better in 1 Minute is top-notch. I’ll do better on the pideo I’m planning on how to make a pideo. In the meantime, let me share what I’ve learned. And please, share your pideos and pideo tips with me.
10 steps
1. Think about what your community would most like to learn from you.
2. Break down the process into a few simple steps.
3. Plan your slides, something like this:
1 A catchy yet informative title
2-4 The problem
5-10 The solution
11 Learn more, which is your sales pitch.
4. Reduce the text on your slides to as few words as possible. Think about the kinds of pictures that could better convey your ideas. Show me; don’t tell me.
5. Search for images in your personal archive, stock photo sites and through an advanced search, in Creative Commons, on Flickr.com.
6. Create one helluva PowerPoint presentation. Don’t worry about transitions, which won’t convert to the video, but apply some animation to add action.
7. Save the presentation as a Windows Media Video, or the Mac equivalent.
8. Search for free or inexpensive music. As with the photos, expect to spend lots of fun time choosing the best for your pideo.
9. Add the music and other effects with Windows Movie Maker.
10. Post and publicize on YouTube, your site and as many places as you can.
You may not know this is International Networking Week. Now that Facebook and other social media places are so popular, many people think they don’t need to talk to real people at their local business networking group.
They may have a point, but only if they have a perfect marketing slogan.
Networking events, especially the ones where you have to deliver a 30-second infomercial, are wonderful places to practice your elevator speech and polish the tagline you plaster all over your web site, profiles, email signature and other places.
Talk to strangers
Say them out loud to people you don’t know. Immediately you’ll realize how stilted you sound. You may want to race back to the office to shut down your web site and burn those brochures.
When the subject of elevator speeches is raised, many people think about those moments when, heart pounding, mouth dry, they talk about what they do, quickly so they don’t get gonged.
Lucky for you, no one is really listening to your infomercial. They’re thinking about their own pitch, though some will perk up if you talk about them.
Slide it into conversation
You have to not only deliver this fast pitch in front of the big crowd, but also comfortably slide it into small conversation at networking events. Only if it survives these stress tests is it ready it for your web site and other marketing material.
While the elevator pitch can take you to great heights, you have to avoid snapping the cables and plunging to disaster. To prevent that, you must focus on how you help other people, not on what you do. And you have to sound natural.
To get started, think about how you solve a problem or ease a pain, then write a tagline. Say it out loud, then to your gold fish. Not your dog, who will respond enthusiastically to anything you say or your cat who will reduce you to baby talk.
Rehearse and revise
Rehearse your pitch at a networking event where you don’t expect to meet prospects, a safe place. You will probably meet some cool people who feel just as uncomfortable as you about practicing their pitch. Maybe you’ll rehearse more with each other later.
If you get frustrated by all the work and time, remember the money that advertisers pour into successful slogans. A catchy slogan is worth a thousand words. You are worth it.
Write, revise, rehearse, rewrite. Rinse and repeat. That’s how I came up with my tagline: “I help people write like they talk—only better.” It worked so well it became the title of my book. My subtitle also came from talking to real live people: “I help people pull ideas out of their heads and onto the page.”
I knew these phrases would work in writing, because I had received such an enthusiastic response when I said them out loud to strangers at networking groups, my favorite focus groups.
My only complaint about publishing on Smashwords, which is now distributing my book for all e-readers, was the waiting. I followed the instructions for preparation and formatting provided in clear detail by Mark Coker in the free Smashwords Style Guide. Then I waited for more than a week.
In contrast, the Kindle prep took me way more time, largely because their instructions weren’t as precise. I had to figure out a lot by trial and error. Mark gave me more advice than I needed, after my many years as a professional communicator and days with Kindle. Fortunately, it was easy to zero in on exactly what I wanted to know.
I’m not a detail person, so I was pleasantly surprised when no mistakes were revealed by the first checking step, the autovetter Mark calls Meatgrinder. I was shocked and elated when I aced the manual premium review, which covers the higher standards demanded by Apple before you can sell for the iPad.
Kindle, in contrast, had simply posted the book, within hours of me deciding I was satisfied with the e-version. No human being checked it. In fairness, though, the only place where I can see a big boost in quality is the linked Table of Contents. Thanks again, Mark.
Points to Amazon, which owns Kindle, for much better advice to me, a Canadian, on what to do with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
Waiting for Smashwords
While I was waiting, I would check the site several times a day. I have lots of marketing plans, that Mark is also helping me with through the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide. In addition, I am picking and choosing from the strategies and tactics of authors I’ve been following. And I intend on falling back on a few old skills, especially media relations.
But I wanted to wait until everything was ready before I open the floodgates.
A watched pot never boils, right? Last night, when I was chuckling over Parks and Recreation with my daughter, the approval came through. Wanting a break after two evenings of business events and an exhausting week polishing my pideo and other marketing prep, I had turned off my computer.
I found out about the approval this morning, only after I had submitted a guest post to promote the book to a big-shot blog. The post, by the way, was accepted almost immediately. I am buying a lottery ticket today.
Then I’m going to go away for the weekend, so I’ll be refreshed when the big push starts on Monday.
I waited for the two main e-reader versions to be ready before I send the book to reporters, reviewers, bloggers, small business groups, college profs and the many other people on my list. Just before Christmas, I had mailed many festively wrapped paperbacks to thank people who had helped and encourage some reviews at Amazon. I’m glad I did, but I can’t see the point of spending tons on stamps.
I could go on about my marketing plans. I probably will go on here, as they proceed.
I know my love for Smashwords will be tested when I get tired of waiting for them to pay, which I’ve read takes ages. But after I scanned the long form from Kobo, I knew I didn’t want to keep going through this stage, like an e-publisher’s Groundhog Day.
I’m going to be busy, just as busy as I was when I was writing the book, just as busy as I was with editing and formatting. But busy pouring my heart and soul into something I have created is the best kind of busy there is.
You can read Write Like You Talk Only Better on an iPad, Kobo, Sony and other readers. Check it out. Would-be authors, stay tuned for a post about the joys of publishing with Smashwords.
I keep hearing that you need to have video on your site, but then I see yet another schmuck reciting a clunky script into a web cam. Please, I grew up on television. I expect better. At least adjust the lighting, dress the set and rehearse.
I’d rather be reading, listening or depilating. Sure, some blow my mind. But most of the DIY videos of earnest people hyping their latest breakthrough just make me laugh. As do the Flash-y promos, full of exploding type and dizzying effects, so overblown they look likes parodies of movie trailers.
But when I kept encountering places where I’m supposed to post a video to promote my book, I knew I had to go over to the dark and grainy side. I love a live audience and a microphone, but not a camera that can’t contain my energy. Even when I was younger and marginally hot, I made faces, swayed and fidgeted too much.
Then there was the issue of budget. If I were going to do a video, it would have to have the high production values of the ones I’ve worked on for corporate clients or marvelled at on YouTube. But I cannot afford a technical crew, let alone a stylist or editor.
So I went with what I know. Good old PowerPoint, that I could convert to a video and post. Not the mind-numbing, text-filled slides of corporate presentations, not masterful like An Inconvenient Truth, but fun with photos that pull at heart strings and just enough words.
And of course music. I wanted the pictures and bits of text to do the talking, not me. But I needed a soundtrack to create mood and move along the story.
I had so much fun creating the presentation that I didn’t mind working evenings and weekends on it. That is, until I ran into technical problems transferring the audio from PowerPoint to video, which took weeks to solve. Mind you, every time I tried something I had learned on Google, YouTube or a friend, I would also get better ideas for the slides.
When I would convert my presentation to a video for Windows Media Player, I would lose the music that I was convinced would hypnotize millions into buying the book. The trouble was that if I stuck with my musical PowerPoint, then Skydrive, Slideshare and other possible hosts would not only strip away the music, but also the animations and transitions.
Finally, I discovered that I could add a soundtrack to a silent PowerPoint-based video with Movie Maker. So I did. My slick transitions disappeared, but by this point I knew compromises would have to made if I was going to have time for anything else. And to get the damn thing up.
Learn to Write Like You Talk Only Better in One Minute will not go viral. But it’s better than watching my eye lid twitch. It cost only time that was mostly enjoyed.
As a professional who communicates mostly through written words, I was inspired by the challenge of conveying ideas through images. As someone who hates the technical side, I was proud of myself for hanging in.
I’m not expecting a stampede of sales because of my hybrid PowerPoint-video that I refer to as my pideo. But at least now I can tell the cool kids I have video on my site.
Plus I have accepted that video is here to stay. I have signed up for lessons. Now if only I can sit still.
Thanks for the photo, Smussyolay.
Too busy to read the book? Then check this out.
Start with your first and favorite way to communicate
People get so hung up on debating irrelevant rules such as serial commas that they forget the whole point of writing is to understand each other. My rant.
Now that you click away on your computer so much of the day, you had better learn to love writing. Here’s how.