KnowledgeCommunities
Could your organization benefit from more knowledge sharing and distributed leadership? (Hey, are there any that wouldn't?) If your biz needs a little kick in the pants on the cooperative front, check out Naava Frank’s KnowledgeCommunities.org.

Naava will help your team to build a better business or nonprofit by working together. (What a concept—do you suppose she does siblings too? Where do we sign up?)

Complete Your Writing Projects
Jump start 2009 with this teleseminar course on getting more writing finished, with IAW contributor Marcia Yudkin.

Learn no-guilt, no-pressure techniques for getting more writing done in a limited amount of time. Whether you are wrestling with a marketing plan, web site content, articles or a novel, this class will transform your relationship with writing. 

Originally developed for Harvard-affiliated professors and graduate students under the gun of "publish or perish," this teleseminar course from author/creativity expert Marcia Yudkin is for anyone who wants to see great pages piling up faster than before.

Starts 7 January, 2009. See yudkin.com/complete.htm.

This week's feature: Meg Weaver, with a 15-page special report on How to Sell to Magazines. Learn how to pitch—and sell—to magazines worldwide, based on Meg's techniques of examining reader demographics.

Next week listen to IAW Contributor Terry Whalin's audio  What a Publisher Looks for in New Book Ideas. Terry is a literary agent who understands both sides of the editorial desk—as an editor and a writer. Sit back and listen to this 1-hour audio as he shares with us what publishers look for in new book ideas—and how, in this market, you can position your book to be among the lucky few selected for acquisition.

Pat Olsen is a frequent contributor to the New York Times business section, a professional ghostwriter, and health writer. Her first book, Sober Siblings, was published in July.

Read more

E-mail Pat Olsen

Be our featured freelance writer

“Is it finally time for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal?”

Linda Gradstein has been the Israel correspondent for National Public Radio since 1990.

Book Linda Gradstein as a speaker for your next meeting or conference

E-mail Linda Gradstein

Be our featured speaker

Meet Christopher Paolini. The 19-year-old homeschooler is the best selling author of Eragon (now a 20th Century Fox movie), Eldest, and Brisingr.

Read more

Be our featured author

The Soul of a Leader
Margaret Benefiel

“Today’s global community desperately needs leaders with soul. Margaret Benefiel’s groundbreaking book meets that need beautifully, by teaching principles of soulful leadership, illustrated with stories of real leaders who practice them. Required reading.”

—Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Read more

Book Margaret Benefiel as a speaker for your next meeting or conference

E-mail the author

Feature your book here

Katie Jay is the founder and director of The National Association for Weight-Loss Surgery.

Read more

Book Katie Jay as a speaker for your next meeting or conference

E-mail the expert

Be our featured expert

If you'd like to hear IAW Director Fern Reiss in person in 2009, she will be speaking at:

• SpeakerNet News teleseminar on Book Marketing (2 February)
• Keynote, Colorado Independent Publishers, Denver (25-28 March)
• American Society for Journalists and Authors, New York (24-26 April)
• Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Conference, New York (17-19 May)
• IBPA (PMA) University, New York (26-28 May)
• Book Expo America, New York (28,31 May)
• Private consults, Europe (July & August)
• Publishing Game Workshop, Jerusalem (July 28 and August 4)
• Publishing Game Workshop, London (17 August)
• Expertizing Workshop, London (19 August)

Please contact us to book her for your event or conference, or to book a private consultation on writing, publishing, or publicity while she's speaking in your town.

Follow Fern online: Twitter

If you need some personal input on your writing, publishing, or publicity dilemma, consider a consultation with IAW Director Fern Reiss. Fern consults to clients all over the world via telephone; the charge is $300/ €200 per hour or $1500 / €1000 for six sessions. Sign up at PublishingGame.com.

6 January, 2009

Welcome PublishingGame.com and Expertizing.com readers to the new PublishingGame/Expertizing weekly newsletter.

Welcome to our new members in Ireland, Australia, India, Canada, and the United States.

How to Sell to Magazines — Meg Weaver

This week, we have a 15-page special report from IAW contributor Meg Weaver, one of the world’s experts on how to pitch magazines. Meg is the owner of Wooden Horse Publishing, whose Magazine Database contains contact information, demographics, writer guidelines, and editorial calendars for more than 2000 consumer and trade magazines. In today’s special report, How to Sell to Magazines, Meg shares her secrets of how to pitch—and sell—to magazines worldwide, based on her techniques of examining the reader demographics.

Here are some of Meg’s tips, in a report packed with suggestions:

• To get the audience understanding that you need, study both the magazine’s writer’s guidelines, and particularly the advertising media kit (as distinct from the press kit). You can usually order this directly from the magazine’s website, at no charge.
• Since more than 2/3 of magazine income derives from advertising, magazines tend to showcase their richest readers—so you need to see through this muddiness to determine the real audience of the magazine, since that is what editors need you to target.
• There are five key factors to look at before you pitch: The audience’s gender, age, profession, education, and household income.
• Writing your pitch—and article—in a gender-neutral manner is smart, because you won’t inadvertently alienate part of the audience.

Meg’s 15-page special report on How to Sell to Magazines also reveals:

• The one thing you must know about the magazine’s readers before you can pitch successfully
• Why you should never pitch an article for this group—ever
• The two methods of measuring audience income—and which is the one you need to focus on, and why it’s important
• The optimal reader age range to target to improve your chances of successful magazine pitching—to almost any magazine
• How to craft generic press releases to save time—and then how to easily add the ‘magic something’ to make your pitch stand out from the crowd.

Members can learn the secrets right now. (You can also read/hear all our back articles, audios, and reports in our member archive.)

Not a member yet? Join now for $149 (approx. €99), and read the rest of this report immediately. (And then get out there and start pitching!)

Next week: Stay tuned for our 1-hour audio by IAW contributor Terry Whalin on What a Publisher Looks For in a New Book Idea.

 Special Report: Get More Media Attention

If you missed our 7-page special report last week on How to Get Media Attention for Your Business: 18 Techniques to Attract Journalists to Write About You, it’s not too late. Learn:

• What two key techniques make your story irresistible to journalists
• How to position yourself as an expert to the media
• How to coin juicy soundbites
• How to get journalists coming back to you regularly
• The do’s and don’ts of dealing with journalists
• What not to waste your money on
• How to leverage your publicity into still more publicity
• And three effective ways to generate publicity online

Members can learn the secrets here. (Not a member yet? Join now for $149 [approx. €99], and read the rest of this report right now.)

More bad news on the US newspaper front: Many newspapers are closing their Washington DC bureaus, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, Advance Publications (publisher of the Newark Star-Ledger and the Cleveland Plain Dealer), and Cox (publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and 16 other papers); many more papers have drastically cut down their DC staff. Variety Magazine also just closed their DC office; more are expected to follow suit.

“In its latest concession to the worst revenue slide since the Depression,” The New York Times announced Monday that it will begin selling advertising space on its front page. (Cost: $75,000 / €50,000)

In other news, Mark Penn, CEO of Burson-Marsteller, is starting a Microtrends column for WSJ.com. The column will focus on demographic trends in society and business and is set to appear regularly in the Media and Marketing section of WSJ.com. You can reach WSJ.com editor Alan Murray at alan.murray@wsj.com, or newseditors@wsj.com.

Credit insurer Euler Hermes will no longer insure transactions dealing with US distributor Baker & Taylor and its UK-based subsidiary. They’ve also withdrawn coverage of U.S. Borders, Borders UK, and The Book People.

And HarperCollins, Penguin Group, Random House, and Simon & Schuster have all announced salary freezes and/or layoffs, as well as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s now infamous announcement of no new acquisitions in 2009…

Members can read more by clicking through to:
PartyLine Media Leads and
Wooden Horse Magazine Update.

You can get a complimentary copy of Joan Stewart’s 60-page Best of Publicity report here (but it may take a while to download—it’s a long pdf):
www.publicityhound.com/files/pdf/Ebook--Bestof2008PublicityHound.pdf.

You can also get a complimentary download of the 2009 edition of BurrellesLuce’s Top Daily Newspapers, Blogs, Consumer Magazines and Social Networks at:
www.burrellesluce.com/top100/2009_Top_100List.pdf.

Download IAW member Dana Smith’s complimentary 16-page e-book, Top Book Marketing Tips at:
bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/book_marketing_maven/2009/01/a-new-years-gift-for-you.html.

Agent in the Hot Seat this month is Rita Rosenkranz, here to tell us what's hot and what's new, and the best way to get that publishing deal…

Members can click here for more.

Each month, we spotlight the writing and publishing scene in a different part of the world. Whether you’re a business traveler or an armchair traveler, here’s what’s going on in the writing and publishing world for writers in Australia.

Members can click here to read more.

(Interested in sharing what’s going on in your part of the world? Become an IAW ambassador.)

This week, make the most of your IAW expert profile. Here's how:

• First, fill out the basic profile.
• You can list up to five separate areas of expertise, so if you have different topics, give talks on different subjects, or have books on different areas of expertise, be sure to list them separately. (This will help you get more attention from the search engines, too.)
• Don’t forget to fill in the section asking for a quote. Sometimes, journalists on deadline will be happy to use a canned quote; even if they want something fresh, a good sample quote will give them a sense of what they can expect from you, and more incentive to get in touch with you. The better your quote, the more likely they will be to contact you.
• Remember that this portion of the IAW site is public so only post content that you want the entire world to be able to see. (However, your email address won’t be displayed here; journalists trying to get in touch with you will be channeled through our dedicated email contact form, to prevent unsolicited email.)

Also, don’t forget that you can now upload your photograph for your profile pages here.

Next week, we'll look at improving your Syndicated Articles Directory listing. Stay tuned!

The more members we have, the more clout we have with meeting planners, journalists, bookstores, etc. Want to help make others aware of the International Association of Writers? Here are some ways you can help:

• Become an Ambassador from your geographic area, or become a web ambassador and mention us on listserves and writing forums online.
• List us as a favorite on Digg.com or Delicious.com.
• Email a friend or colleague to tell them about us.
• Add this to your Facebook or Twitter Status line: “If you're looking for publicity as a writer or small business, check out AssociationofWriters.com”.
• Remember—sign up three friends or colleagues, and get a free one-year extension on your membership!

(Want to see your syndicated article here? Members can post to our Syndicated Articles Directory; if your topic is writing, publishing, or publicity, you may see your article featured here!)

Missed our article on Publicize Via Social Networks?  If you don't know:

• Which social network should you be on if you're a professional?
• Which one is most read by teens and musicians?
• Which is most frequented by Europeans?
• Which should you use if you're marketing to Brazilians? Koreans? Latin Americans? Japanese?

Read the article here. (This article is accessible to both non-members and members, but only members can post articles. Join now!)

Q: “I’m thinking of publishing my book through a POD company. Is there any downside to this decision? They seem very reasonably priced…” —Richard, Bombay

A: It depends on your goals for the book. If you’re interested in publishing a book to sell from your website, or to sell at your speaking engagements, there’s nothing wrong with printing through a POD company. On the other hand, if you’re interested in selling to bookstores, it’s probably not the best choice; iUniverse, one of the largest US POD companies, printed 18,000+ books in 2004, but only 14 of them were able to be sold in bookstores, according to an article in Publishers Weekly. In general, POD books are not eligible for book reviews in the trade publications, nor are they carried by bookstores. So think carefully about your goals for the book, and where you’re hoping to sell the book, and make the decision accordingly. You can read more about the tradeoffs involved in publishing POD here.

Members can post their Talk Out questions here.

“About eleven minutes after I posted my availability as a professional ghostwriter to the International Association of Writers' site, I was contacted by a major conglomerate about the possibility of a writing job! This is the best use of $149—and the fastest job action—a writer could ever hope for!”  —Pat Olsen, ghostwriter

Members send your kudos & we'll print them in a future issue.

The third annual O'Reilly TOC (Tools of Change for Publishing) Conference will take place 9-11 February in New York City… Jump start 2009 by getting more writing finished with IAW contributor Marcia Yudkin's Complete Your Writing Projects teleseminar course, which starts 7 January. See www.yudkin.com/complete.htm for more information.

Read the entire Calendar. (Members—post listings at no charge.) Hundreds more listings will be added next week.

Need more targeted and intensive publicity than the International Association of Writers is providing? Our Expertizing Publicity Forum, connecting you to prestigious journalists every week for five months with personalized feedback guaranteed, may be for you. $2400 (approx. €1600) covers five months of pitches to publications including The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, Harvard Business Review, and many more. The only Expertizing Publicity Forum in 2009 begins in February. Limited to 12 participants. See www.Expertizing.com/forum.htm.

Copyright © 2009 International Association of Writers

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