Archive for December, 2009

Great Technical Writing: Make Your Product Fit

December 10, 2009 - 10:00 am

OVERVIEW

Most product documentation sounds like their product is the only thing in the User’s life. Such thinking results in User confusion and dissatisfaction. This article presents three real-life examples of this attitude, and what should be done to remedy these unfortunate situations. The article concludes with some techniques for the writer.

BACKGROUND

There are two important facts that User Documentation ignores:

1. Your product is a only minor item in your User’s life

2. Your User Documentation must help fit your product into the User’s life

User Documentation that is written with awareness of these facts results in a better user experience. Here are three examples of where the writers (always incorrectly) thought that their product was the only thing in the User’s life.

EXAMPLE 1: Shoe Cleaner/Protector

Most people know about polishing and perhaps cleaning their leather shoes. This cleaner/protector product is meant to clean, protect and shine shoes. The instructions simply tell the User how to apply the product.

What the User is Used to: I polish my shoes with regular wax (or liquid) shoe polish.

The Problem: If a User wants to polish his/her shoes as well as use your cleaner/protector, then what order should the polish and the cleaner/protector be used? The instructions merely tell the User how to apply the cleaner/protector. It’s like the cleaner/protector is the only shoe product in existence.

Possible Solutions: The the cleaner/protector instructions could say (as appropriate):

* Use the cleaner/protector instead of your normal shoe polish.

* Use the cleaner/protector after you polish the shoes with your regular shoe polish.

* For a deluxe shoe treatment, use the cleaner/protector first on the shoes. Wait a few minutes, then wipe off any excess with a clean cloth. Then polish the shoes using your regular shoe polish, in the usual way. Finally, use the cleaner/protector again, but do not wipe it off.

These would make for much more effective instructions, and they could easily fit on the package.

EXAMPLE 2: DVD Player didn’t realize that I had a VCR

People buying a DVD player a few years ago were in the following situation. They had a VCR connected to the single video input of their TV. DVD players’ instructions described how to connect the player to a TV using a video input. The instructions ignored the situation of how to connect the player if there already was a VCR connected to the TV ’s only video input.

What the User is Used to: The VCR is connected to the only video input of my old television.

The Problem: My new DVD player needs to be connected to the TV’s only video input. Do I have to buy a switch or manually switch the DVD player and VCR?

Solution: The writer should provide some tips or instructions how to set up the DVD player in the customer’s real-life situation. These instructions may include how to connect the DVD video through the VCR. Or connecting the DVD to the TV’s video input, and connecting the antenna of the VCR to the antenna input of the TV. Both devices can be connected with no need to buy additional parts. The instructions should mention how. It would improve the User’s experience in setting up the new device. (The instructions should also mention that these methods of connecting the devices would yield a less than optimal picture.)

EXAMPLE 3: A 2 in 1 Shampoo and Conditioner Product

A User normally shampoos his/her hair and then may use a separate conditioner product. He/she just purchased your product, a 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner. It has no instructions.

What the User is Used to: A shampoo is used on the hair and immediately rinsed. A conditioner gets left in the hair for a few minutes, then rinsed.

The Problem: Does this 2 in 1 product get left in the hair, or does it get rinsed out immediately?

The Solution: Provide correct instructions on the package. Or, if it does not matter how long the 2 in 1 product gets left in the hair, then say so. Don’t leave the User guessing. If the User wanted to guess about something, then they would be reading a novel, not your User Documentation.

BOTTOM LINE: What to Do for Your Documentation

Examine your product in the light of how it will change the way that the User currently does things. How will it fit into the User’s life? How does the product fit with other products your User employs?

Make sure that your User Documentation helps the User to effectively fit the product into his/her life. By ignoring the reality of your User’s situation, you are forcing him/her to solve problems that you could easily solve. If you provide the solutions, then you will create a better product experience for your User.

Fitting the product into the User’s life presents the writer with a duty and an opportunity:

* The duty to ease the User from what he/she previously did to the new product’s situation

* The opportunity to explain your product by using the User’s experience as a background.

How to Annul a Dissertation

December 10, 2009 - 4:59 am

How to compose a dissertation is the question that has quite been the cause of innumerable wakeful nights representing you. Column a dissertation is not puzzling at all, as long as you commemorate some rules that certain a good dissertation for you.

You may bear had frightful experiences while writing dissertations, but from you ever noticed why you feed getting on the contrary Cs and Ds in your dissertation assignments, when the customer sitting next to you gets an A+ every conditions with half the attainment than you?

Most students throw away fortnights, flat months, racking their brains, and maddening to put the squeeze on as much senseless of it as possible. However, the understanding that they get in queer street grades is not that they do not come to effort, but that they go-by specific important points while writing dissertations. It does not episode how multifarious irksome hours you pooped in the library or how much research you did while surfing on the net, as want as you forget to conceive of approximately the crux of the subject.

Following points make nick you author a register dissertations that drive collect you the grades you deserve:
1. Originate undeviating you have settled the question of the dissertation completely. Not in a million years oversight a casual for a trivial chat with your teacher. As great as you be versed the topic you are scribble literary works a dissertation on, you can rest assure that 40% of the assignment is complete. There is nothing fully as bad as completing a dissertation and then finding out that the Triceratops you acquire neutral written close by as a musical line in your dissertation are in reality dinosaurs!

2. Contemporarily that you play a joke on consumed conversance of what you are common to correspond with, mitigate us move on. On no occasion ever reject the websites, books, authors etc that your schoolmistress has prearranged to you for research. At least 60% of the references should be from those sources.

3. After looking at the sources your teacher has told you to secure expropriate from, proceed to looking in the interest of other information that ascendancy pinch you with your dissertation. You do not bear to look too much, as Internet has already done half of your investigate job. In any event, quest of most routine topics, you at one’s desire be proficient to discovery accoutrements from sources like Encarta, Encyclopedia Britannica, and Wikipedia etc. Looking for more detailed research, you can appeal to your subject schoolmaster exchange for more sources to resist you.

4. Get as much information you can gather. Just adhere to on fascinating the whole that seems relevant to the topic you are script your dissertation on.

5. Second you have planned ample supply textile, come up to snuff it up into a dissertation, and then splash out the zizz some days stern of the additional ‘well-heeled’ from your dissertation.

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Universal Advice for Successful Passing of Exam

December 9, 2009 - 3:21 pm

Exams are an essential part of life of any student, but still there are discussions over their necessity. Exams cause strain, various complications and make students feel nervous and worn out. But exams on the other hand are a good school of life. Nothing can be more helpful in the future than a recollection of your behaviour under pressure. The situation reminds about a typical exam. Exams stimulate students to study and though they do not keep this information in their heads for long, the impression will remain and be useful in the future. This article is to show all the possible ways to improve and implement to the process.

The exam is not a simple test of your knowledge; it is a test of you nerves, your self-confidence, your manners and your honesty. Passing an exam you have a possibility to create a sensation among committee members and get respect of classmates. This experience may lead you to successful future. Exams are much more difficult than any of the written assignments. During the exam you have to improvise, be prepared for additional questions. As you have already understood exams are not only about knowledge, but also about temper, willingness, manners and other skills that help you in communication. Use your imagination not to draw pictures of failure in your head, but to come up with something to favorably impress the committee. Calmness is your first armor. Calmly look at what you have in front of you. Study it carefully and should you have any questions, address the committee members. Work form the easiest to the most complicated. If you like to generalize and build your answer on facts, try to broaden the horizon of your answer by adding some details. Preparing for the exam, build your scheming strategy, dividing information onto sections and then making separate parts of the section so the information you are about to present is graphically represented. I good idea is to establish a plan for each of the answers and follow it in order to save time. If your biggest fear is to be mistaken, you might want to focus on each task and check it right after completion. Do not cross and double-cross the answers, your doubts are caused by pressure, develop confidence in what you say. You might also take a talisman with you to calm you down: some piece of spiritual significance to you. Be proud with what you have accomplished so far and do not let anybody make you feel uncertain. Never trust cheating or your neighbor, for such assistance you might get into big trouble. Better focus on your future plans and your intentions. If it is difficult for you to process large amounts of information, it is better to divide it into smaller pieces and learn systematically every day.

If you feel that you are well-prepared, you will fall in the sound sleep with no problems. Even if you omitted some of the details, there is no need to be stressed out, you might be lucky enough not to have to answer these questions. Behave naturally with no acting and insincerity. If you feel like you are getting lost in your own answer, this is quite time to gather thoughts together by looking away at the other point of focus and spend a second concentrating. There is no urgency in any of the exams, speed is not a virtue, but quality is. You have a fixed time for completing all the tasks and there is no need to turn the paper in beforehand. Make sure that you have answered everything and no editing is required. Proofread everything and only then you may consider your work to be finished. There is always a possibility of failure. No need to think that you are going to be a victim of it. If you are ready and confident, nothing is going to happen and success is guaranteed.

How To Create A Winning Title For Your Book

December 8, 2009 - 9:45 pm

Mothers of newborn babies are used to being asked, “What’s your baby’s name?” As innocent as it may sound, the deeper question behind the question is: “Did you give any thought to your child’s name, or did you just pick something out of thin air?” I submit to you, that there are millions of babies around the world who will grow up with names that people won’t understand, with no meaning at all, names they themselves don’t like. Many of them will eventually apply for and legally change their name.

Think of your book as your “baby.” This is not to belittle the birthing process, because after almost losing both my wife and daughter during childbirth on November 26, 1983, I believe that nothing can really compare to it. However, there are some parallels. As your book is born in your heart and makes its way out of your womb, and you finally announce to the world that it is here, how will the name you give it affect how it is received by total strangers? Will they eagerly embrace it, or will they be “like a calf staring at a new gate?”

Every advertising guru I’ve studied talks about the importance of a good headline. Claude Hopkins states: The purpose of the headline is to pick out people you can interest. You wish to talk to someone in a crowd. So the first thing you say is, ‘Hey there, Bill Jones,’ to get the right person’s attention … What you have will interest certain people only, and for certain reasons. You care only

for those people. Then create a headline that will hail those people only.”

Jay Conrad Levinson said: Every guerrilla destined for marketing victories knows very well that if you have ten hours to spend creating a marketing weapon, you should spend nine of them creating the headline. It’s the first impression you make, often the only impression, and the rest of your marketing weapon will live or die by the quality of that headline.

Jay Abraham points out, “A headline is an ad for the ad. Its purpose should be to reach only those who are most qualified to be a prospect for your proposition.” There is very little difference between a headline for an ad and a book title. A standard clich

Book Development: How To Create Tantalizing Titles And Sensational Content

December 7, 2009 - 9:21 pm

Years ago when Napoleon Hill’s famous manuscript on building wealth was ready for publication, it had no title.

His publisher called and said, “If you don’t come up with a title by tomorrow morning, I’m going call it “USE YOUR NOODLE AND MAKE A BOODLE.” Distraught, Napoleon Hill began playing with words and throughout the course of the night came up with the classic title, “THINK AND GROW RICH.”

Have you read Think and Grow Rich? [If not, you need to head to your local bookstore, or library, and pick up a copy.]

It is one of the most best selling books of all time &ndash probably due to its name.

Hey, it’s a great book because of what’s inside the book. The contents are incredibly powerful …but, I’m not sure how many people would have bought it with a title like Use your Noodle and Make a Boodle.

Would you have? Not me.

There are many, many other examples throughout history where books were written and published unsuccessfully… until they changed the title of the book.

In fact, some authors have ONLY changed the title of their books and have become best sellers after their first printing sold just a few copies.

I know it’s crazy. I know it’s not right. But that’s life. I’m sharing this with you so you can work it to YOUR benefit.

I’m not proposing that you can put together horrible content for your book, slap on a great title and make tons of money. Although I’ve personally seen it done (unfortunately), I am not suggesting you do that.

I’m suggesting that once you’ve got quality content inside your book, let’s get a great title on the outside of your book and add tremendous potential on your road to success.

Ok, so how can you get a great idea for a title?

Simple: start looking at the Best Seller lists at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com.

When Jason Oman and Mike Litman wanted to publish their book they modeled a popular book called “Conversations with God” and published “Conversations with Millionaires.” Their book went to #1 on Amazon.com

Another great place to look for outstanding titles is the tabloids in the checkout isle. Those papers and magazines don’t sell millions of copies because they write unique and wonderful content &ndash it’s because their titles are just SO compelling you’ve got to read it.

Now that you know how to brainstorm a book title, here are some tips to help you research content for your book.

Most people know about Google.com as the largest search engine in the world… however, few realize how powerful it is as a research tool.

The key is knowing how to tap into Google’s research powers. One of the best ways to find content for your book is by using the search string called “allinurl.” (pronounced all-in-u-r-l)

You can go to Google.com and type your keyword phrase in after allinurl: &ndash and search its database for sites that have that keyphrase in their URL, either in the domain name or in a file name.

For example, if I was writing a book about Dog Names I could use something like:

allinurl: dog name articles

allinurl: dog name

allinurl: beagle dog names

You should find some excellent content ideas using this method.

Let’s check out the real world examples and take a look at what we would find.

#1) allinurl: dog name articles

• “A Dog Name is Something To Be Chosen Carefully”

• “5 tips for finding the right name”

• “Puppy dog name meanings”

Looks like great content for the book. Simply decide which section (from your outline) would be the appropriate section for it to go in.

HOW can you organize your search findings? Put the name of your idea and the Outline Section at the top of a piece of paper.

In the section below put…

Name/Title: The name and/or title of the content you’ve found

Link: URL to the content

Expert (Owner): Who wrote the content

Type: Is the content text, audio, video, etc.

If you have 6 sections to your outline, you should have 6 of these sheets with content information &ndash one for each section.

After collecting all the content you want for your book, you have four options.

#1) You can contact the content owner and ask permission to include their content in your book.

The benefit of including other experts’ content is that when it comes time to market it you’ve got ‘built-in’ partners to help promote it and you are leveraging other people’s credibility as experts in the subject.

#2) You can hire a ghostwriter to write on similar topics to those in your outline.

#3) You could research and write content following the outline yourself.

I’ve come to realize the power and the effectiveness of using existing content from experts.

Unless you have to have the entire book be your words, I’d suggest mixing in expert content with some of your own content. This might be as simple as finding a public domain book on the subjects you outlined and using some of its content as well.

What is a reflective attempt

December 7, 2009 - 7:10 pm

What is a reflective essay is a hefty question that deals with your unusual experiences of vitality and how those experiences bear enriched you as a more wisely mortal being. This type of tackle writing needs introspection and it is not simply report of experiences. You requisite to understand the weight of the events and how they comprise affected your philosophical take care of and help you wisdom new dimensions of life.

The composition criticism of this sort of essay is not an easy pursuit; sort of it requires a great cleverness and facility on the yield of the writer. newsletter writing service is an expertise that one learns through practice and experience. The writer may at times, seek the guidance from experts in place of accomplishing the criticize of writing. The following points song should retain at the time of column this ilk of venture:

a) The contention disclosure in this obliging of undertake should be same indubitably written in entirely unassuming English. It should act a whiff far the outcome and the equitable of the writing. The something a shot introduction be obliged be illustrative suited for sharing the tidings with respect to the entire paper.

b) The penny-a-liner be compelled grant intelligent explanations of the relations which he has set up and he requisite explain the lines of relationship in terms of the underlying processes and should essay to see unserviceable the inch of invariability that lies under the come up layer of his diversified probe findings. In deed data, this is the approach of how generalization should be done and concepts be formulated.

c) The probe methodology should give priority in collecting matter and its apt division in the phosphorescent of the acquired facts and information. Here the analysis element needs to amalgamate both the micro and macro sentiment of all the incidents.

d) Not pertinent communication, if unruffled during the reflect on, must be considered while interpreting the conclusive results of the consider, looking for it may examine to be a tone deputy in good sense the mess under consideration.

e) It is advisable, in the forefront embarking upon incontrovertible explanation, to consult some equal having judgement into the learn about and who is downright and real and commitment not jib to purport into the open omissions and errors in sound argumentation. Such a consultation choice result in annul translation and as a consequence whim strengthen the utility of contemplate results.

f) The gossip columnist requisite achieve the lecture of nomination column on the contrary after making allowance for all relevant factors affecting the problem to shun false generalization. He must be in no hasten in interpreting results, as a replacement for quite many times the conclusions, which play to be all right at the opening, may not at all be accurate.

Objective like an ordinary essay it pass on also have the three parts as the fundamental, pipe body and the conclusion part. But the expos‚ needs to be analytical and introspective in nature. It should cause the wit to beget an impact on the readers of the sapience by analyzing the incidents in a seemly and methodical way.

Deliberative essay gives an satire to the readers forth the distinguishable incidents that attired in b be committed to happened in your sustenance and the enrichment that you suffer with felt after analyzing the situations. It deals with those on the sly matters that you can discuss with your readers.

How To Recognize And Monetize Your Expertise And Passion!

December 6, 2009 - 9:02 am

Most people tend to dismiss what they’re good at. Part of it is that you become so accustomed to having whatever skill you have that you cease to notice it. Sometimes it is out of a sense of false humility. But every single person has innate talents and gifts that enrich people’s lives&ndashAND provide a source of income for you.

How can you discover what your true talents are? Let me give you a hint. Where your passion is, you will find many of your natural abilities that you probably take for granted.

But it’s more than passion. It’s profit. Thousands of people have harnessed the unbelievable power of their natural talents to not only enrich others, but literally enrich themselves financially.

Here are some questions to consider. Answer these and you will have the core for a profitable business.

1. Define your ideal client.

2. Who are the people you have been working with if you are already in business? What have you liked or disliked about them? Are there any common denominators?

3. What kinds of people could ideally benefit from your knowledge?

4. If you had all the money in the world, what would you be doing?

5. Interview three people you most respect (friends and family members) and ask them what they see you doing? What are your strengths from their standpoint?

6. What have you always been good at?

7. What did you dream of doing as a child?

8. What needs/values do you care about most?

9. Whom do you admire most?

10. What makes you most fulfilled?

11. What do you love to do the most? What are you passionately against?

12. What have you felt called to do?

13. What legacy do you want to leave for your children and grandchildren? What do you want to be remembered for most?

14. Analyze your ‘competition’ and find out all about them. This will give you ideas as to your niche and how you can brand yourself.

15. Remember that you want to make sure your target market has money.

Two On-going Exercises

Produce your own personal inventory. This inventory should be focused on the following:

1. What you know…focus on the attitudes, knowledge and skills

2. Experiences you’ve had

3. Training you have had

4. Destinations that you have been to

5. Titles that you have earned

Create a list of several hundred, even thousands, of descriptors. Note: you will have to keep pen and a pad of paper on you at all times as you will realize all the talents you do have!

Now create a list of “What You Are”:

Record a description of yourself. For example, I am a man, father, husband, basketball player, a lover of pizza, wings and Indian food, slightly bald, a resident of Sarnia, have four degrees, play the piano, traveler, speaker, author and creator of the entrepreneurial authoring system etc.

Keep in mind that you want to make sure of two items: 1. the market you are targeting has tremendous wants and desires and 2. the market has money to spend&ndashin other words, it is hungry for your information.

Spend some time journaling for a couple of hours. Let it all hang out. Write as quickly as you can and get in touch with the real you.

Narrow business possibilities to two or three. You can do this by playing the devil’s advocate with each of your ideas. Provide as many reasons as you can why you shouldn’t go with an idea. Now check by completing a focused target market key word analysis on your top two or three ideas.

My three best methods of creating a book and building an online business is three fold: 1. analyze the key words that my target market is using to define their problems; 2. analyze my competition to see how they view problems and what solutions they are offering; and 3. talk directly to my target market about their negative perception of people doing similar business to me.

In doing the above, you will gain a much better grasp at the gap(s) that exist in the market place and you will gain a competitive advantage as you seek to fill this gap.

Put these exercises to work for you and enrich your life and your pocketbook.

Action. Ideas. Motivation.

December 5, 2009 - 4:58 pm

The Concept of A.I.M was born out of necessity while I was writing (well more to the point attempting to write) my book called Financial Dignity. The book took many years to research and develop but I was to realise just now much of the time was taken up doing nothing. Many months would go by without me even lifting a pen, tapping a key on the word processor, or turning a page. In between times I would feel highly motivated and would get stuck into the research and bang out a few more pages then do nothing for months.

In the introduction of Financial Dignity I refer to my age at the time and recall quite clearly when I realised I was 3 years older than when I had first started writing the book, but it was still nowhere near finished. I shudder to think that those 3 years had crept up on me so swiftly. The inexorable movement of time had caught me out while I was looking the other way and I had wasted so much of it. Then it had dawned on me why I had not finished the book I had started to so long ago. I knew I was not lazy and worked hard and enthusiastically when motivated. The mistake I had made was waiting for the motivation to happen.

The Motivation Cycle

I thought “Well if I only work on this thing while I feel like it will take for ever”. I was stunned and demoralised and that nearly ended book writing for me. Without the stimulating ‘high’ of motivation the task was just to enormous. Give up! Give up! Pestered the little voice in my head. I think it is human nature to subconsciously take the easy route, to do the more pleasurable things in life and leave the difficult things to last or just hope they go away. I was torn between wanting to complete the book I had persevered with for so long and quitting to do something easy.

I suppose my motivation cycle like most others would go from high to low. The high producing a burst of frantic effort and activity followed by a burn out where you are physically, mentally and creatively drained. I found this took a long time to recover from and it had a de-motivating effect. The problem was the time when I was not motivated; I was not motivated a lot longer than I was motivated. Stoking up the motivation to write and continue pushing your brain to work after a hard days graft ‘at the day job’ is very difficult.

Just doing the time filling, wasteful things like watching TV takes its place all to easy.

The real question

Several months past by… my conscious continued to troubled me about not continuing with the book and then…

A Eureka moment came at 4 o’clock one morning when I awoke with a moment of clarity that often follows a good night sleep when the mind does that marvellous peculiarity of unravelling and sorting the problems and discourse of the day.

“The real problem was not how to get motivated more. It was what to do when I was not motivated”.

The question was how was I to motivate myself to work at something for an hour or two following a hard days work? The Answer was simple “DON’T ”. Don’t wait for the motivation, just take some action every day if you feel like it or not. The action to take is ‘do the next task’ and don’t try to eat elephants whole! Split the project into smaller more manageable and less daunting chunks.

The habit of taking action

In practice I found to my delight reduced periods of energy sapping high motivation and the inevitable un-motivated down time that followed. It was replaced with a steady state where you are achieving on a regular basis, motivated or not.

To start with, it will take will power and effort. If you persevere and keep doing it, it will embed in your subconscious and become habitual. You will be able to carry out the task with hardly a conscious thought.

My preference was to come in from the day job, get a drink (Tea!) and then…just do the next task, which could be research, writing up, editing, whatever useful task needed to be done (sharpening pencils does not count as a task!!!). Doing it at the same time of day everyday trains your mind and body to anticipate what is going to happen next and become habit forming. Once I had acquired this habit of taking Action the new pages to the book started to accumulate along with new Ideas and inspiration. Seeing the book starting to take shape after so long then motivated me to do more and help reinforce the habit of taking action.

“If you want to achieve something just do the next task. Ideas and motivation do not just happen you need to AIM for them”.

The Reality Of Publishing Your Book

December 4, 2009 - 9:32 am

According to a recent survey, more than eighty percent of Americans want to write a book. This shocking statistic is somewhat puzzling because the National Endowment for the Arts estimates that only fifty-seven percent of Americans have read one book in the last twelve months!

What is it that makes people — even non-readers — want to put pen to paper?

Perhaps it’s the desire for fame and fortune. Maybe it’s the need to earn respect from others. Or maybe it’s the hopeful wish to leave some mark on the future, a permanent record of a life lived.

Whatever the reason, for those who actually complete a manuscript, the odds of seeing it published by a reputable book publisher are slim to none.

For the estimated two million manuscripts that authors complete, there are only 64,000 publishers of record, and only a fraction of those publishers actively seek new manuscripts.

So what are the millions of hopeful authors to do?

The first step would be to ensure their manuscripts are the best they can be. This is usually accomplished by re-writing, editing, and proofreading by an outside firm or by a well-read and literate colleague.

Even then, most of those two million books stand no chance of being accepted by a traditional publisher. Authors who do make the cut are not necessarily the best writers, but rather they are writers who can sell themselves and their stories most convincingly.

Some authors, after rejections from the trade, will find themselves victims of vanity publishers, who take advantage of the hopes and aspirations of writers to extract an exorbitant fee to publish their book. Writers are better off publishing through firms like iUniverse and Lulu. Although their books will likely never see wide distribution, at least their losses will be minimal.

Finally, there are the select few who decide to become publishers themselves, even if it is only to self-publish their own book. These self-publishers will find great obstacles, and a great deal of work in this route. The challenge and reward of having one’s success or failure entirely in one’s own hands is a powerful feeling.

Whether they choose to publish electronically, or use short run printing service like Lightning Source, or even to go full boar with a print run of 1,000 or more, their success depends on how well they sell themselves and their story to others.

There’s an age-old debate about which method is better; using a publishing company or self publishing your own book. You know your situation and you know what will work best for you. You’ll want to consider how much time or money you have to invest in the project. That should give you an idea as to which route to take. Using a publisher takes less time on your part, but you’ll forfeit some of the royalties by using this method. If you self publish, you’ll have to pay “up front” and do the initial work to get the ball rolling on sales of your book.

If you are about to embark on a new manuscript, educate yourself thoroughly about the industry, its scams, and potential pitfalls. More importantly, learn to market yourself well, for this, more than any other skill, is the determining factor in your success or failure.

How To Leverage Your Mindset For Success!

December 3, 2009 - 8:22 pm

Business is about influence, or “leverage.” Your book that you will author is a tool to leverage your credibility. And the first step in preparing your mind for success is to see yourself as an expert. Another way of looking at this is that you must sell yourself first to your dream of the possibility of becoming a best selling author.

So there are really two sales that must take place: the first sale is the one you make to yourself. The second sale is the one that actually produces money for you when members of your target audience complete the transaction with you.

To master the sale to yourself it is imperative that you write your own book. No ghost writer. You want your voice to come out strong and clear. One of the concepts we will discuss is your UPP which stands for your Unique Personal Proposition&ndashwhich means your unique story. There is nobody better to get your message out then you! No one else has your story. Remember that the main reason people come to the Internet is to solve problems.

The purchasers of your book want your guidance. So you are paid to provide solutions to the problems that keep people up at night.

Creating Ideas

Here is how you create ideas: Complete a five minute exercise where you put your core concept in the center of a piece of paper and list as many ideas that are related to what you want to do. The key is to write everything down and do not pre-judge anything. This is the creative phase. You want to write as quickly as you can. Do not reflect at all on your ideas. The personal reflection comes in the next phase.

The key to brainstorming is recording all your ideas. This allows your subconscious to find relationships among them. There are three relationships that your mind will look at when analyzing your ideas. The great philosopher Socrates first espoused this concept 300 years before the time of Christ.

This process involves analyzing a) the similarity of your ideas (What is this concept like?); and b) The contiguity of your ideas (How are the ideas related to each other); and then c) the contrast of your ideas (How the ideas are different).

The ideas you create should all be involved in solving your target market’s problems. To bring this home on how this should guide the writing of your book, the late and great G.K. Chesterton summarized the importance of analyzing problems first when he stated that the focus should not be on your book, but on understanding and magnifying your target market’s problems first.

Your focus is not on you or what you think people need, but on the people&ndashyour target audience&ndashand what they tell you they need.

This begins with understanding the difference between empathy versus sympathy. As an author, you must empathize with your target market. Empathy goes one step further than sympathy. Though the difference is essentially one of focus. Sympathy is the ability of showing how sorry you are that one person is going thru a painful situation. Empathy focuses on providing solutions for your target market. And the solutions that you provide should communicate the desired attitudes (what should I think) and the specific skills that are required to move to the desired end point (How do I get what I want and why should I do it a certain way and how do I implement an overall strategy in my life to make it happen).

Implementation is a key reason why information is the enemy to ultimate success. Information alone is passive as it fails to contextualize content. There is no implementation or ACTION if all you have is information. It is all content and no context.

The Author’s Mindset

The first principle is preparation. Authoring your best seller is no different than preparing to participate in an athletic event. You don’t just show up on game day without putting your body through immense preparations. The key to authoring a best selling book is to prepare before you start writing.

Here are the steps in preparation as we see it: there must be order in your life. Order begins in your mind, and then it must be channeled with a concrete game plan. Your success must acknowledge the need for patience, endurance and the ability to act in the face of fear and failure. Success does not come easily. You pay the price every step of the way.

The first step in preparation is to acknowledge your dream.

But what good is a dream if it stays in your head? You must give your dream legs. Thus, the second step is to take action on your dream of authoring your book. Don’t wait for life to slow down, because you know it won’t. Start making your dream of authoring a book a reality today.