NORTH AMERICA’S ECLECTIC TASTES 

Did you happen to see the list of the most popular stories carried by North America’s broadcast and print media? This was reported by the UK’s Press Gazette, but compiled a Canadian media company. 

Are you surprised by the fact that Paris Hilton and Madonna were among the “winners?” Although outpositioned by relatively minor issues like the Iraq War and the Presidential primaries, they both managed to make the top 15. What does that suggest about the public’s passions? 

1. The Iraqi War
2. The Presidential Primaries
3. Iran’s nuclear threat
4. War non the Taliban
5. Tony Blair’s resignation
6. Virginia Tech Shootings
7. Harry Potter
8. General elections in France
9. G8 Summit
10. Saddam Hussein’s execution
11. i{Phone launch
12. Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
13. Jailing of Paris Hilton
14. Toy recall by Mattel
15. Madonna’s adoption problems

NEW ISBN’S TO BE RELEASED SOON 

Those of you who are planning release of a new book should be aware of the change to a “979” prefix anticipated for some time in the second quarter of 2008. It was announced in a press release from the International ISBN Agency last June. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any updates from the agency giving more information.  

Up until now all of the new 13-digit ISBNs have carried a “978” prefix. The release of the new prefix, in essence is the final step in the elimination of the old 10-digit ISBN. The announcement last June also indicated that country prefixes and publisher prefixes will change under the new numbering system, but it did not specify in which country the newcomer would be launched. 

Just be alert to any future announcements. I’ll try and monitor it, and will relay any info I discover. 

Charlie’s Choice 

Weekly Tips to Help You Write

Publish and Promote Your Work 

DEVELOP YOUR OWN NEWSLETTER TO

SELL YOUR WORK, EXTEND YOUR REACH  

Several years ago a relatively unknown travel writer launched her own newsletter. (Many refer to them as eZines…E for e-mail, the method of delivery and ZINE because they can be considered a digital magazine.) 

Francine Silverman had written several excellent guidebooks for travel in New York State. As she interfaced with other authors, she found there was a real need for promotional guidance. So she embarked on a new venture, publishing a newsletter to help writers promote their books. Her subscriber list began with just a handful of friends and acquaintances. Within a year, Book Promotion Newsletter had reached four-figure distribution, and it has grown in prestige year after year. The reason: content; excellent, informative content. 

Francine parlayed the eZine into her first book, Book Marketing from A-Z, a compilation of promotional ideas garnered from 300 of her subscribers. From there she went on to developing her own radio program on book promotion, followed by a source book that she wrote on radio talk shows for authors. 

When you see what this visionary travel writer accomplished, you recognize the amazing tool newsletters can be to help you sell your work and sell yourself as an expert. They are relatively simple to organize and launch. But before you take the leap, be absolutely certain that you can and are willing to devote the time on a regular schedule to researching, developing informative content and writing thoughtful articles. 

The information you include in your publication should come from a variety of sources. These include factual pieces you create on subjects related to your primary topic, guest articles, squibs (short tips, etc on various subjects) and your personal commentary.   

Here is an outline to follow as you create your eZine. I have broken it down into just nine easy stages of development: 

Stage 1  Choosing Your Subject 

Ideas for the eZine can come from many sources. What interests you and how much you know about it should be the primary determinant in selecting a subject. Ideas can also come from interests expressed by friends and acquaintances. If you have published, you will probably want to relate the eZine to the subject of your book.  

Think in terms of what type of information you sought as a fledgling writer and still do now even though you’ve progressed as a recognized author. Dig it out from your own experiences and from research, and write about it. 

Stage 2  Understanding the Purpose of Your eZine 

Understanding fully what it is you expect your zine to accomplish is as important as selecting its subject. Will it be a selling tool for your book(s)? Is its purpose to brand you as an expert? Are you designing it to be a very personal mode of expressing your thoughts and philosophy unrelated to your professional work? 

Once you have made that decision, the style, the content and the frequency with which you want to publish all fall naturally into place. 

Stage 3  How Much Tech Knowledge Do You Need 

Actually, very little to get started. Don’t be sidetracked by concerns about seemingly arcane subjects like HTML, tagging and even SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Launch your newsletter in simple text, the very same that you use when you e-mail friends. In fact, most of the best eZines pass on their information in a relaxed, chatty style.  

Capitaliae on the one-to-one intimacy the Internet allows. Think of your zine as a personal note to a friend and before you know it, you will reach hundreds, even thousands, of new friends. But don’t allow yourself to relax to the point that misspellings, typos, etc sneak into your copy.  

Stage 4  Research and Choose a Mail List Program 

Without effective professional management of your mailing list, you will be overwhelmed by the minutia of list maintenance as your readership grows. It is essential to keep your list up to date, weeding out cancellations, changing addresses as needed, etc. But your time should be spent writing to expand your reputation through articles, press releases and other techniques. That’s why you need a professional mailing service. 

Ask acquaintances for an evaluation of their mail managers. Look on the Web for others and carefully select the best and most cost-effective. I use Attain Response, but there are many other qualified services to pick from. Make certain the service you select is able to break your list down into subcategories Soon you will want to be able to pinpoint your mailings more exactingly. 

Stage 5  Familiarize Yourself With SPAM Regulations 

There are specific government regulations governing the use of SPAM promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission. Click onto http://www.ftc.gov/spam/ where you will learn your responsibilities as a user.  

Stage 6  Invite Guest Columnists 

Just as you would enjoy exposure on another zine or web site, so others will be happy to participate by writing a guest piece on yours. Don’t be afraid to ask someone whose work you admire to submit an article on a pertinent subject. You may even want to specify the aspect of the topic you hope your guest will write about, but be sure to explain why. Participation by others can help validate the importance of your zine. 

Stage 7  Design the Format for Your Newsletter 

Don’t let this step frighten you. You don’t have to be an artist to design an effective newsletter. Study a half dozen other eZines to get ideas. Then create an attractive, but simple, header. Make sure your eZine’s title is in the header. Use an effective keyword or phrase in your header to attract readers as well as those spiders sent out by the search engines to crawl your work.  

Use short paragraphs with adequate spacing between them. Sprinkle lots of subheads in bold face type throughout. They make your text more inviting, and welcome the spiders to peruse all of your text. And while “sprinkling,” don’t be afraid to use magnetic keywords and phrases throughout your content.  

Stage 8  You’re Ready to Roll 

Build a list of friends, acquaintances and relatives as a base to begin with. Send those names off to your mailer. Select other addressees—possibly other web sites, eZines or blogs—that cover the same subjects you do, and add them to a trial list. Your mailer will attempt to validate them to protect you from SPAM. 

Write and send articles off to article directories on the Web and in the bio at the end of your piece, hyperlink to your eZine. By continuously reaching out this way, you will attract a readership. Word of mouth will begin and the buzz will add more subscribers.  

I suggest not charging at the outset until you have established a base. If you want income, try Adwords or similar programs. Once established, you may want to ask for voluntary contributions to help subsidize the zine or actually convert to a paid program. Go slowly and make sure you are on solid ground before making each of these moves.  

Stage 9  Double Checking   

It is extremely important to view your eZine as others do. Become a subscriber. Mail every edition to yourself and if possible to two or three trusted friends or relatives. This will give you the reassurance that your mailer is working efficiently and will help you evaluate each edition as it arrives. And it will send the alarm if you have gotten sloppy and allowed errors to occur without editing carefully. 

Next week, Charlie’s Choice will take the week off to catch a breath, tend to other pressing activities and also share the holiday season with friends and family. The following week we’ll take

a look at blogging and show you how easy it is to harness this outstanding medium to sell your books and build your reputation. See you then. 

HAVE A JOYOUS HOLIDAY AND A FULFILLING NEW YEAR! 
 

THE BATTLE OF THE BIGGIES 

It portends to be the Super Bowl of the digital world. Mighty Google is about to field a competitor to long-established Wikipedia, the acknowledged (and at times somewhat controversial) leader in Web-based reference. Any bets on the outcome? 

According to statements from Google staffers, the name of the challenger will be “knoll.” That stands for “knowledge.” Surfers are invited to write an authoritative article on a subject they know, very much as they do for Wikipedia.  

However, there are differences between these two competitors. While both will be free to online readers, knoll contributors will be allowed to place paid advertising alongside their articles. In addition, contributors to knoll will always be identified and cannot edit the work of other contributors in contrast to Wikipedia’s hallmark regulations. 

Knol contributors may copyright their work and will not be subject to editing or other controls.Their content will be ranked by the Google search engine. Google hopes that the knolls it prints will be “the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read.”  

There is nothing better than competition to improve a product, so I think we can all expect some dramatic changes in the way knowledge is distributed digitally by both these titans.  

As for the Super Bowl, I think I’ll put my money on Google even though Wikipedia is far ahead with only five minutes left in the fourth quarter of the game.

WHAT’S HAPPENING ON THE COURT’S VOIDING OF

THE AGREEMENT OVER FREELANCE COMPENSATION? 

I haven’t yet heard a meaningful response to the Manhattan District Appeals Court’s overturn of the compromise between freelancers and publishers on payment for electronic reproduction of a writer’s print work. The two-to-one decision ruled that the lower court that had validated the agreement had no right to do so. 

This has been a long-standing battle that began with the 2001 decision by the US Supreme Court that reproducing an author’s work digitally without explicit permission was a violation of the writer’s copyright. That was followed by a class action suit authorized by a Manhattan District Court Judge that allowed freelancers to claim compensation for work that had been previously published on the Web. 

With the judge’s approval, the suit was settled in 2005 by offering modest payments to the writers, but capping the publishers’ liability at $18 million. It was this settlement that the Second Circuit appeals court voided. 

Writing the majority decision, Judge Chester Straub claimed that copyright law authorizes damages to be paid only to those authors who have formally registered their work with the federal copyright office, and the majority of freelancers had not done so. Therefore, he claimed the courts had no jurisdiction over this case. 

To his credit, Chief Justice John Walker dissented, pointing out that “the registration requirement was a malleable procedural rule for processing a legal claim, not a strict limit on the court’s jurisdiction,” according to a New York Times article. 

Hurrah for the Chief Justice, but he should also have added an ethical consideration. A writer, like anyone else, is entitled to be compensated when someone gains a benefit from publishing his/her work, whether formally copyrighted or not.  

This decision is an outrage, as Gerald Colby, president of the National Writers Union, told the Times. It turns writers into second class citizens.  

I assure you those judges who rejected the compromise don’t hesitate to accept big bucks whenever they give a speech.

The Columbia Journalism Review, one of the nation’s finest commentary on our world of words, devotes 13 type-laden pages to a retrospective on George Orwell and an analysis of how his predictions play out in the political campaigns of 07 and 08. It is a rather upsetting examination. 

Back in 1946 Orwell, an accomplished essayist, wrote a classic piece entitled “Politics and the English language.” In it he lambastes the sloppy, meaningless language that he feels characterizes the politics of his day. His thesis is that the degraded level of political life is reflected in the language politicians use and that in turn is mirrored by the rest of society. He proposes that better language in writing and speech can improve the quality of the political world and of society as a whole. 

Nicholas Lehman, Dean of Columbia’s Journalism School and one of the contributors to the Orwell section, asks, “What idea could be more attractive to writers than that what we do, if improved along the lines that Orwell suggests, can improve not just our readers’ experience of our work, but the lives of everybody?” 

Newspeak, a Frightening Concept 

In sharp contrast to the essay, Orwell’s masterpiece 1984 creates a new imaginary language “Newspeak” that is designed by the ruling forces to stifle any degree of independent thought. The language limits the words that average folk can use and keeps them at the expressive level of little more than a toddler.  

Conversely, the political world wraps its edicts in ambiguous and unintelligible gibberish. Lehman points out, “Take away words, and you have taken away mental function; take away mental function, and you have taken away the possibility of political action.” Sound familiar today? 

Add the component “secrecy” and suddenly 1984 skips a few decades to arrive at 2007. No, we’re not yet in the throes of a completely Orwellian society, but by gosh, the warning signs are eerily evident. 

Doubletalk, as any White House correspondent can tell you, is rampant. Flip flops and secrecy make discovery of the realities of what’s happening both here and in the Mid-East close to impossible. Worse yet is the inability of the political opposition to muster up the courage or the strategic ability to counteract what the Bushies and their sycophants in the Congress want. 

That’s pretty frightening stuff! When the political opposition falters, as the Democrat legislature has, how can we prevent the continued ruination of our great country? 

And if we authors, journalists and literati, don’t become vocal and fill that void with our words, who else is there to step into the fray? 

CHECKPOINTS TO ENSURE YOUR BOOK SALES

SOAR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

We’re now in the midst of the holiday selling season when the greatest volume of books is sold. (You may remember we told you last week that 41% of shoppers claimed they would buy a book as a gift this year.) 

I spotted this super checklist on the emarketer web site, and want to pass it on to you. It is the result of a study by Future Now. The company dispatched mystery shoppers to 300 retail web sites to determine their readiness for the big sales push. The online stores they visited, of course, were not all book sellers, but the findings are applicable to our industry as well. 

If you’re determined to move a healthy number of your books this year, read and heed what Future Now discovered on the web sites it checked. Some of these are plusses, so consider adopting them. You’ll spot negatives as well and hopefully avoid them: 

+ 35% had a checkout process with more than four steps

-  Only 33% offered customer reviews of their product

-  61% offered no info regarding in-stock availability

+ 43% offered free shipping

+ 42% provided shipping costs early in the checkout process

-  Only 58% correctly answered an e-mail question within 24 hours 

And if I were to add another suggestion, it would to remember always that the customer comes first. Make the buying experience easy and pleasant. 

Happy sales! 

Charlie’s Choice 

Weekly Tips to Help You Write

Publish & Promote Your Work   

WRITE YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS

ON THE WEB

      With content the key to success on the Web, it is essential that you recognize that there is a difference between writing for print and writing for the Web. As we have said repeatedly in previous Charlie’s Choices, surfers are a voracious bunch. They hunger for information, and constantly search for sites that can provide it. 

      However, they are also very fast readers and seldom linger as they peruse a web page. Reading your text must be easy. It must allow them to spot the words and phrases that have meaning for them as they scan through. Some folks dislike scrolling, so try and make your content concise and as brief as the complexity of the subject permits. 

      Remember, these are information seekers, so be as specific as you can be. Eliminate self-serving copy and glowing adjectives. Write as though you were talking with a friend. Since the Web is really a one-to-one personal experience, regardless of the distance between sender

and recipient. The most effective style is relaxed and easy, even humorous at times. 

Introducing Your Subject

      Once again, I remind you that surfers are generally folks in a hurry. They want their info fast. That puts a special burden on your headline, whether you are creating a page for your web site or writing an article that you send to other sites. The headline must grab surfers quickly and let them know that this is the place where they will find what they are looking for.  

      Following this informative headline, a short summary of the article is helpful just below the headline. It is similar to an abstract in an academic treatise, but a good deal shorter. Some article distributors require that you include this. It not only supports the headline in welcoming interested surfers; it also filters out those who really have little or no interest in your subject. 

      One school of thought on article writing suggests that this short paragraph serve not as a summary, but as an extract of  the most newsworthy or catchy part of the article. But of course it must be representative of the article in its totality. A common example of this in articles written by authors is to extract a sentence or so from a favorable review and highlight the quote. 

The Inverted Pyramid

      Most of you, I am sure, are aware of this style of article writing. It has been used by journalist for decades because newspaper readers too want their information presented quickly and succinctly. The lead paragraph of your piece should be comprehensive enough to relate the essence of the article or the web page. In a sense, you are offering the conclusion of the piece right up front. 

      The remaining paragraphs fill in the details…the how, the when and the why that led to the conclusion. Although print journalists are wandering further and further away from this approach as they adopt creative non-fiction techniques, the format is particularly important when writing for the Web because of the reluctance of some readers to scroll down. By placing the most compelling information in the lead using this “top down” format, you can intrigue even these folks to continuing reader your whole article or web page. 

The “F” Factor

      Jakob Nielsen, often labeled the “guru of web page usability,” has completed many studies of the way in which readers read what appears on their computer screen. Through his studies of eye movements, Nielsen has discovered that people read across the top of the page. The eye then lowers and may read across several more lines of copy. But then it drops down through the left side of the page scanning quickly. As you can envision, this forms an “F” pattern of reading. Wide across at the top, less so just beneath and then down the vertical stem of the letter F.  

      That is one reason why subheads are so critical to effective web writing. When typed in boldface, they stand out, and serve almost as a tickler to goad the reader into reading the paragraphs beneath them.

Making Your Content Readable

      As a result of his many studies, Nielsen has concluded that “Scanable, concise and objective language improves usability (of Web text) by 159 percent.” Let’s see how well you’ll conform to Nielsen’s prescription, if you follow the suggestions outlined earlier in this article. 

      Adhering to the inverted pyramid format, we can make our text far more readily scanable. By eliminating self-serving language and flowery adjectives we meet Nielsen’s objectivity standards. Lastly our level of specificity and our tight writing combine to keep our copy concise.  

      But to make your message even more effective, there are several other rules to follow. Because of the speed with which surfers gather their info, keep your message simple. Concentrate on a single topic, don’t wander and complicate your paragraphs with extraneous thoughts. Stick to that single message. 

      When you select keywords and phrases for use in an article, think in terms of what I call “surfer speak.” Put yourself in their place and concentrate on how you would phrase a search if you were looking for this information.  The precision with which you mirror the words and phrases they would use will greatly enhance the chance you will entice them to your web site. 

      When editing your copy, test it by reading it aloud. With careful attention you’ll not only ensure it conforms to Nielsen’s formula and helps you gain that 159% greater usability, it will also help you to keep your writing conversational and easy. You’ll be amazed at the improved response you receive.  

      Be sure to join us next week as we continue this discussion and look as writing and distributing a newsletter (or ezine as “Webbers” call them). We’ll also concentrate more on sales copy since in many cases, the ezine is a sales tool. 

BOOMERS AND 60 PLUSers

HAVE LEARNED TO LOVE THE WEB

Experts are predicting an impressive growth in the number of baby boomers and seniors using the Internet on a regular basis. They have become a prime target for online retailers and a superb potential for sales of your books. 

Right now the two groups represent a total of 78.6 million Internet users, close to half the total population using the Web. By 2010, experts predict, that number will grow by another 8 to 9 million healthy, active surfers. 

With their health far better than what their predecessors experienced in their advanced years, these folks will continue to be avid readers and active participants in civic, social and cultural activities. They are a great market that should be reckoned with, not written off as so many have done with the foolish assertion that older generations will never become computer literate.

ARE YOU READY? 

This holiday season is much too important to neglect…and that’s why I have been hammering home the importance of gearing up for greater sales. I know I am repetitious, but U.S. shoppers are scheduled to spend $474.5 billion between now and the first week of January.  

For sure, that ain’t hay! 

It means that 105.2 million shoppers are going to buy online this season. Couple that figure with the polling info that shows that 41% of holiday gift buyers will buy at least one book. Do the math. It’s simple. At the very least, more than 43million books will be sold. I suspect every one of you would enjoy a slice of that pie. 

Get your promo geared up. Pay a wakeup call to retailers in your area that are carrying your book. Perhaps rush out a flyer to the more distant stores. Sharpen up your web site and/or blog  to turn your visitors into buyers. Make sure your merchant program and shopping cart are working properly. Send a reminder to your subscribers. Even if you haven’t begun the effort, it’s not too late to salvage the season.