The Write Stuff...
By Mike Black
 
How to Pitch an Editor On an Article Idea

 
In my experience with editors, I've found that politeness and brevity are two fundamental ingredients to getting an article you wrote placed in their publication.

1. Before you pitch, prepare: Your target publication may not accept articles written by non- staff writers. A lot of publications also post editorial calendar on-line. This will tell you exactly what topics they plan to cover in the next year, as well as any planned special features. Read 3-5 past issues of the publication - get a copy of their editorial calendar, and see if you can write upon a topic that fits their need.
2. Send a short, polite query email: "Dear Editor, I have an idea for an article I think you'd be interested in. It's about a new copyright law affecting authors and how they can keep it from costing them money. With your permission, I'd like to send you a proposed outline for the article. Please just reply to his email and I'll send it right out…etc. "
3. Prep the outline: What issue important to the publication's readers are you going to solve? A good outline is short and too point. It tells the editor in one or 2 sentences exactly what you're talking about and then offers 4-5 sub points or sub-issues you'll touch upon. If you're going to be quoting experts, tell them who and what their credentials are.
4. Follow up: If an email follow up isn't enough to seal the deal, by all means get on the phone. Don't be surprised if the editor has amnesia when it comes to remembering your name. Reintroduce yourself and refer to the most recent email you sent them. Most likely they'll search for the email while they have you on the phone and give you the go ahead on the spot to write the article.

Selling Your Book?
Start With the Media.
By Ben Campopiano
 
Your new book is published and ready to be released. You want the entire world to take notice - millions of copies sold - reporters beating down your door - and bestseller lists seem like step ladders…
 
Well, so does the next guy. So it ain't gonna come easy. Especially if it's your first publication or you have an independent publisher. Selling your book doesn't happen overnight or on its own. You need a plan. To sell it, you need to market it, you need to promote it. It's that simple.
 
The process of marketing and promoting your new book is time consuming and tedious work. And what's worse - it costs money upfront. But there's hope. It's doable. And it can be fun, too. The key is to start with the media. Get the media behind your book and it will sell itself.
 
Phase 1: Create a press release for your book. Keep the release to one page and your author info to a paragraph. Include the ISBN number and other publishing info near the top of the release. Yeah, be creative and catchy, but stick with the simple and stupid theory. Offer complementary copies of the book for review.
 
Phase 2: Use the Internet to distribute the release. Start with a cold email distribution to literally anybody and everybody in or around the media - the more the merrier. Reporters, producers, professors, friends, event planners, prison inmates - you name it. If they're in the public eye, get the release to them. Go online and dig through databases and Google searches to find email addresses. Avoid the phone. If you can't get some emails without making calls, just forget those for now.
 
Be aware of a few things when sending the email. Subject lines in emails are overrated but needed - just keep 'em short. The email message itself should be one or two sentences prompting them to read the release and if they're interested to feel free to contact you for a complimentary book. Include the release in the body of the email and use a different font or do something to differentiate it from your message.
 
Don't expect much response from these cold emails - but you never know. You're looking for a one percent hit rate here. If someone responds, send them a complimentary book with a handwritten note thanking them and asking for something: a book review, interview, book signing, book reading, blog spot, media mention, presentation - something - anything.
 
Keep track of everything. Who you emailed; who responded. Who yelled at your for spamming them, etc.
 
Phase 3: Get on the phone. Because phone calls are ultra time consuming, you can't call the whole world. Thus, you need to focus your calls on media-ites who are most likely to cover your book. Figure out who your book speaks to, and call the media sources who speak to that audience.
 
Limit your call list to twenty people per day for as many days as you can endure. Call them and warm yourself up. Tell them in thirty seconds who you are, the name of the book, and that you would love to send them a complimentary copy to review. The goal of the phone call is to get them to accept a complimentary book. Period. It will be in your follow up calls/emails that you will convince them to write a review or bring you on their show.
 
Cold calling won't be easy. You'll leave lots of voicemails and get few callbacks. Don't take it personal. Because you'll be calling lots of people and leaving many messages, use an organized system to track your calls and record each interaction - even if it's with a message machine. Just remember the goal: get your book in their hands. Once it's in their hands, then its follow up time.
 
Phase 4: Send your book directly to the source. Depending on your budget, send the book to ten or twenty media people without warning. Include the final edition of the book, the press release, a business card, and a handwritten note thanking them for thumbing through your book. Follow up and see what happens.
 
Selling your book won't be easy. People don't know you. They don't know your publisher. So they won't buy your book. But that can all change in a heartbeat if the media likes your book. Get the media into your book, and the public will follow. Thus, the first step to every book marketing campaign must start with the media.

Speak Now or Forever.
By Donna Lubrano
 
Getting booked to speak in front of a group whether for free or for a speaker's fee requires the same effort and skill. There are several important steps to explore, but a key ingredient is to find the right fit between you and the client. You may be an A-list speaker on the topic of team building, but that may not be relevant for stay-at-home moms who work out of their kitchen.
 
What constitutes the right fit?

1. Is your topic relevant and important to the group you are contacting? Are you selling a hard or soft skill? Does the topic appeal to women, men, or youth groups? Do the market research and discover your niche. Know your target market.
2. What kind of compensation do you require? Does the organization pay a speaking fee, for travel or expenses? It helps to have access to that information before you get on the phone. Know your financial needs.
3. Can the group or organization provide the right venue to make it profitable for you to present? If you decide not to charge a fee or discount the fee, make sure you understand the opportunity cost of that decision. Better yet - what is it costing you to speak for free? You may not be getting a speaking fee per se, but you can examine ways in which you can be "compensated" for your time. How much visibility will you have? How many people will attend the event? Can you get referrals or email addresses? Can you sell a product from the back of the room? Not all speaking engagements are created equal. But good PR is always helpful.

Rights and Permissions
By Elizabeth Nollner
 
Using images, quotes, concepts, or other material from other published works can create a complicated issue that could hold up production of your book for a considerable time. Securing permissions to use material that is not your own in a commercially published work requires a contract for the use of that material, usually signed by the publisher of the book. Because this process is time consuming and often expensive, Acanthus Publishing recommends to all our authors that they don't use any material that would require the use of Permissions, namely any image, concept, or quote over three sentences. Any quote of one to three sentences in length generally falls under the protection of Fair Use, and is therefore not an issue.
 
If you do choose to use material that requires Permissions, this should be determined as early as possible. Everything the author wishes to use must be determined at the beginning of the writing stage; the permissions process can take up to six months or more, so any delay in starting the process will significantly hold up book production.
 
A cover letter and contract must be written following legal standards detailing your request for permission to use the specific material. This must be sent to the publishing company of the book in which the material you wish to use appears. Some publishers have a separate Permissions department with standard procedures; smaller publishers may not. Regardless, it usually takes anywhere from a few weeks to several months for publishers to get back to you with either a signed contract granting permissions or a contract of their own requesting payment. This fee could run into the hundreds of dollars, depending on how much text you wish to use.
 
Also, for many publishers, this contract places a limit on the time allotted for Permissions; many only grant permissions for a certain number of years, or only in the current edition. This means that in some cases, you may have to repeat this process again for the same materials, especially if you publish a subsequent edition. For these reasons, again, we recommend restricting your usage of any other published material to under three sentences in order to avoid the permissions process entirely.

Keeping it Consistent
By Allison Rowland
 
What you've written is perfect. Your designer has created the perfect template and layout for your words. You're all set to send the document to the printer. But wait! Are you sure it's consistent?
 
The trickiest part of putting together any written work - be it a brochure, full-length book, or one sheet - is making sure the document is consistent throughout. With so many acceptable forms of various words these days, it's easy to make a not so obvious mistake.
 
The word "website" can also be written "Web site" or "web site."
 
There's "healthcare" and "health care."
 
How about "OK," "ok," and "okay"?
 
There are enough of these to drive you nuts with edits.
 
To keep your documents consistent - and the number of edits to a minimum - create a company style guide. In the style guide, you choose your company's "right" way of writing. If your coworkers know the company's standard, there will be less edits and hassle in the proofing stage.
 
In the last few weeks at Ictus, Elizabeth and I have worked on a style guide to eliminate inconsistencies in the writing stage. This way when Ben or Donna - Ictus's premier public relations folk - write a cover letter for a media kit, they can refer to the style guide and make sure the letter is consistent - not only within the letter, but per the company's standard as well.
 
For example, say one side of your one sheet carries the tagline: "Visit my website! You won't regret it!" Now, on the other side of the page is the same tagline, but with a slight difference: "Visit my web site! You won't regret it!"
 
Though it might take a keen eye to catch a small slip-up, once noticed, a tiny error can be a glaring mistake. Potential clients reading your printed materials might form negative opinions about you after noticing something so small. "This person doesn't pay attention to detail," or "Looks like this person rushed the final product," might be thoughts that come to mind.
 
But these thoughts are easily avoided with consistency and a style guide. Make decisions about how certain words with various spellings/arrangements should appear in all of your printed material. Once these decisions have been made and put to paper, distribute the guide to all of your employees - not just the ones who spend most of their days writing for you. The style guide is appropriate to hand out to everyone you work with.
 
Make the decision to keep it consistent! You won't regret it!

Visual Language
By Anthony Vincent Manes
 
It is impossible to make everything you touch turn to gold - or even silver; however, anything less than bronze is unacceptable in my office. As Graphic Designer for the Ictus Initiative, it's my responsibility to make a visual masterpiece out of a verbal mess. Establishing a visual consistency for each client's material is no easy task, considering the variety of expertise they all carry. But since visual consistency is my expertise, I can easily set one expert apart from another, even with something as minor as a business card.
 
The most difficult part of my task is the initial step, branding! Some of the clients I work for are just starting out; they have no branding, no material - just a brain full of knowledge on their own professional expertise. Once the writers and editors hand over the carefully written copy, I must find a way to display the information so it doesn't just look professional and clear, the design must also speak for itself. For example: I recently did a layout for a series of one sheets for our client, Dr. Tel Franklin. He is an MD that is incorporating Alternative Medicine into his traditional practice. If were to layout these few pages of information in Greek, you would still know that Dr. Tel Franklin was an MD, and that he has something to do with Alternative Medicine.
 
Between leadership experts, interior designers, personal life coaches, lawyers, and commercial artists - to name a few - the only thing our clients have in common - besides being experts in their respective fields - is that they all need a little help with the PR materials, web development, and marketing pieces. What I enjoy most about my role at Ictus is having to adjust to an array of personalities to get the job done right.