5 Tips to #Writing Memorable Content

We write what we know with non-fiction.

In fiction we spin our knowledge through the eyes of a fictional character. We use suspense to hold our audience's attention. We dazzle them with cliff-hangers and transitions.  Some writers even put us on edge, make us hold our breath, ie., James Patterson, Stuart Woods and Lee Child to name a few. Others baffle us with mystery . ..but is there an equally  effective way to better engage the reader in non- fiction?

Of course, there is. I'm about to show you. Remember , I promised. I'm also going to show you how to fully engage the reader's emotions.

Ask the right question as I have done, above.

Relevant questions prevent the mind from rambling. A relevant question readily demands the attention of a niche- audience no matter who asked.

Relevance is like a bright light in the eyes of deer.

If you know your business you will recall relevant questions with little thought.

Now that you have us, tell us in a short sentence why the content is important to us based on your own related experiences.

Share related past experiences, detailed in the way that you felt during the experience. Humanize the material.

In fiction, the protagonist push the reader's emotions. In non-fiction, you, the writer, are the hero.

Now, that you have the floor, give something and promise something...to be given in a moment but it had better be good. This need not be contrived. Just give what you promise.

Now, give them the benefits of your mistake. Explain in detail how to avoid that mistake. For example, give several reasons why people should listen to/read your content.

Especially, highlight the most embarassing mistakes you can speak of, relevant to the prevailing instruction. We learn more from failure than from success. We remember our terrible mistakes, vividly. Teach your audience how you made the mistake. Which rules did you violate? How did you feel?

They may laugh or cry or even emphathize with your experience. In fiction, our hero/heroine performs the task of reeling them in. In real life (non-fiction), you are that heroine.

For example, in my Spanish book, I pointed out several embarrasing attempts to speak the language when learning Spanish in high school. I asked a particular Latina girl if I could walk her home from school and carry her books.

      "Si. Se tiene que hablar con mis Padres."

Padres-parents.      Padre-Priest.

She said, "Yes, but you need to speak with my....?"

I didn't remember the word for parents, so...I...thought...priest.

Can you imagine?

The first rule in language is listening. I violated that rule, grossly butchering a potential romance, contorting the face of her father when I explained in Spanish that his  daughter and I needed to speak to a priest.

The entire home grew silent and she kindly explained my confusion of the two words. Everyone saw the humor except her father who looked on as he rubbed his chin, considering if irony was  in my statetement. He was a bulky man who could have wrestled bears for a living.

His face alone motivated me to get it right.

When we listen, intelligence considers spoken words, tone of voice, body language, surrounding circumstances, etc. That's one reason why we can sometimes follow along and help people who speak a foreign language when we know little. We know people.

Intelligence puts the puzzle together.

Here's a working thought: share your current experiences with you readers, relevant to what you teach in your own areas of expertise.

It is especially important to express to your audience exactly how you learned. You own the experience, the subject and the copyright. You are branding your intellectual properties.

This exercise rewards both the artist and the audience with the ability to state the jist of material in a single sentence. Another ensuing reward is therefore, one of crystallized focus.

Stop and develop a few pertinent questions of your own.

You have learned to engage your reader more.

1. Ask a relevant and timely question.
2. Why is your content important?
3. Give and promise.
4. Give remaining benefits.
5. Summarize in a single sentence.

Just write it

Write Today & Capture Your Growth

Check out @BarryWrites's Tweet: https://twitter.com/BarryWrites/status/432926335271313408

Writing Black History...Humanity Speaks

In honor of Black History, I attempted to write a piece on the civil rights movement of the 60's, but that all-knowing spirit led me here.

I have always been fascinated by the courage and comittment of the people.  

Remember the Jewish law students who lost their lives suppporting the Civil Rights Movement?

Let them not be forgotten.

Humanity often speaks through visionaries.

Those civilian soldiers shared the vision of Dr. King.  Black Americans had no choice except to march but what about the unselfish acts of others?

Humanity speaks.

The fact that we are one people is best expressed by people who unselfishly lay down their lives for others.

I don't know that I could do that.

Here's what I can do: I can take this  risk: I can appeal to you, the writer, to write about the condition of tens of thousands of isolated Ethopian Jews.

They have been abandoned.

70% of the children have no shoes and have never seen a doctor or dentist.

For more information see:
http://www.jvm.org

Jewish Voice. Ministries, Intl.

I have no affiliation with this organization.

The Business of Self Publishing

You have undoubtedly heard much about self Publishing but to succeed, you must know your market, master your material, plan ahead and know thyself.

Know thyself: know what works for you. Think outside tradition. Do it your way. For example, I love to teach; therefore, six months before the pub date, I gave free classes on building greens to guest of over 96 golf courses and received free rounds of golf in exchange.

Desire happiness for the reader, relevant to your work.

Give each buyer something extra.

I welcomed my readers to write in with questions which I answered on the web site. That practice created a valuable product , leading to the sale of the company.

You must do everything possible to create useful content ...and then engage the reader to start something. Motivate them to start where they are. Remain relevant by monitoring their progress. Use the collective mind of your team to anticipate your customer's needs.

My book, How to Build a Putting Green succeeded due to the collective effort of my team, as planned.

Step 1

Build a Launch team.

You need not look far. Prospective team members are nearby. They are in your email files. They comment on your blog post. They like you on facebook and follow you on Twitter. They are all over the place.

Step 2

Use Resource Base Strategy

Map your strategy based on key resources.

Recognize individuals who are most interested in your subject and solicit questions. For example, I often asked my most passionate golf enthusiast "How will the addition of a putting green at home impact your family?"

I received a variety of publishable answers along with permission to publish their comments.

"It adds value to the home," some said.

"...great curbside appeal," said a real estate agent.

I did not think of those most compelling benefits.

"The book helps because putting accounts for 80 percent of your scoring opportunities," said a golf pro whose name I used in the quote.

I sold three thousand books that week...at $49.95

I sold them at my putting greens web page. That means I made most of the profit. I also sold the book through traditional distributuon channels-Barnes & Noble , Amazon.com -at less profit.

There is a great lesson inherent in this discipline. For example, should a writer focus on traditional (vertical markets) or try something more creative?

There is a price to pay for each method. Choose your medicine.

If you go with traditional markets, you must aim to sell lots of books within ten consecutive days for any hopes of making the traditional best sellers list. It does not matter if your book sells ten thousand copies in a month, it's that 10 day period that governs the best seller's list.

It didn't seem good business to me to give the lion's share of proeeds to the publisher and distribution and earn only a modest royalty for myself. That's a fool's game.

No, thank you. I don't care that unit sales are calculated and tracked through traditional channels. This method is used to determine sales performance over a ten day period.

It's great if the book makes the New York Times Best Seller' list, due to volume because the royalty with volume earns you a handsome sum of money but if your book does not make the Best Seller' list, you, the writer, have left up to 60 percent of your money in someone's pocket.

That 60 percent represents the up pricing policy of a carriage trade product, a product that maintains a premium. The lack of competition coupled with favorable market demographics helped support the price point but premium research drove demand and inelasticity of price, thus the $49.95

Know your business.

Step 3

Think Creatively

As business goes,we have to make the work pay. Do so by thinking for yourself. Think creatively.

I Iove writing but I wrote the golf book to make money. It is a how-to book. The how-to category, like business consultants, offers value. Get paid for your work.

It makes better sense to me to sell my art directly to my customer in conjunctuion with traditional marketing efforts.

I know my customer and his habits. He is a lot like me: loves golf, has the time and means, and purchases a garage full of gadgets priced from $19.95 to $150.00, impulsively, all to help improve his game. He even takes golf lessons at about $40.00 per hour on average.

Are you suprised that my book retails for $49 95?

What would have happened to me financially, if I had chosen less imaginative  publishing channels?

I may have missed the benefits of both the best seller's list and the elevated profit in the niche?

Here are the numbers:

$...cost full editing.
$...cost to format book.
$...cost of cover productuion
$...cost to print.
$...cost to market & distribute.

My team accomplished this work. I built putting greens at their homes in exchange for their services.

One of the team members owned a Landscape magazine which exposed the book to the point it was entered into a national diy (Do it yourself) challenge leading to a national landscape award.

The bottom line? I ended up with an out of pocket cost of about $6.00 printing cost per book, $599.99 one time cover expense plus $6.00 shipping and handling to mail the book.

Choose your srategy early on in the game. Either go for the best seller's list or own the niche market. I do not mean to imply that a book that falls short of the list is not profitable.

Think about it. I have, roughly,   $12.00 in the book.

Thanks to:
Jason & Caitlin Montoya of Noodlehead Studios, Tim Lyles of AgriGro,  Dan Poynter, author of The Self Publishing Manual, Beth Guertal, Soil Scientist of Auburn State University, The Patten Seed Company and Ampac Seed Company.

Please, forward your comments to help other writers.

Suggested reading: The Self Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter
at www.parapublishing.com

#philosophy...It is sight that blinds the unenlightened. Explore the thought this Spring

https://sites.google.com/site/transcendencecom/

Happy New Year

There is a great expanse before us: 2014
Fear calls it danger.
The mind: opportunity
The heart weighs it.
Love says, take no precaution.