IAW Newsletter 13 January, 2009

This Week’s Sponsors

4SistersSoaps
Washed your hands recently? Of course you have (we hope!). But you probably used boring, “normal” soap. Liven up your soap dish and your life by using 4 Sisters handmade soaps (& gift baskets), made by four adorable sisters, ages 2-12. Funky Soaps 4 Funky Folks—Handmade With Laughter & Love by www.4SistersSoaps.com.

Need more publicity?
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 covers five months of pitches to publications including The New York Times, Inc Magazine, Harvard Business Review, and many more. Pitch the same book or business every week, or pitch something completely different. You can even share a pitching space with a friend or colleague. Limited to 12 participants; the only publicity forum in 2009 begins in February: www.Expertizing.com/
forum.htm

Find your calling by helping others find theirs
Imagine if you could get paid to work from home, brainstorming with people on the phone or run seminars about creative ways they could turn their interests into income. Learn how, step-by-step, you can start your own business as an “Outside the Job Box Expert and Small Business Idea Consultant” with IAW contributor Valerie Young: ChangingCourse.com.

From Our Contributors

Terry Whalin

This week listen to IAW Contributor Terry Whalin's audio What a Publisher Looks For In a New Book Idea. Terry 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.

Joan Stewart

Next week's feature is IAW Contributor Joan Stewart with a tremendous 263-page (yes, I said 263 page) special report on press releases. This is something no writer or business owner can afford to miss, so stay tuned.

Featured Speaker

Kristen Eckstein

“How to Get Published in 5 Easy Steps: And Keep 100% of the Profits”

Kristen Eckstein is the Executive Producer of Imagine! Studios.

Book Kristen Eckstein as a speaker for your next meeting or conference

Email Kristen Eckstein

Be our featured speaker

Featured Expert

Louis Postel is an expert in Reputation Management in Cyber Space.

Book Louis Postel as a speaker for your next meeting or conference

E-mail Louis Postel

Be our featured expert

Featured Author

Christopher Paolini

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

Be our featured author

Featured Book

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

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

E-mail the author

Feature your book here

Attend a Talk

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)
Independent Book Publishers’ (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)
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

Need Advice?

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 for publishing consultation and $1500 / €1000 per hour (non-profits: $1200 / €800) for Expertizing consulting. Sign up at PublishingGame.com or www.Expertizing.com.

13 January, 2009

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

Welcome to our new members in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Canada, and the United States.

The International Association of Writers Newsletter

Welcome to the International Association of Writers, Speakers, and Experts. Whether you’re here for the first time, or are a regular reader, we’re so glad you've joined us.

This week we’ve got a 1-hour audio by IAW contributor Terry Whalin on What a Publisher Looks For In a New Book Idea; The Atlantic speculating that The New York Times might be out of business by summer (gulp); and the latest sad news in the magazine and publishing industry. Plus much more.

Enjoy it.

/Fern

Members
Photos on profile pages are now live; you can upload your photos at the Member Center.

Help Us Out
If you’re enjoying this newsletter, please forward it to friends and colleagues.

This Week's Feature

Audio: What a Publisher Looks For In a New Book Idea, with Terry Whalin

Interested in how publishers make their acquisition decisions? Particularly in rough economic times, how can you be sure that your query and manuscript will rise to the top? What are publishers really looking for?

IAW contributor Terry Whalin understands both sides of the editorial desk—as an editor and a writer. Sit back and listen to this 1-hour audio as Terry tells 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.

Terry Whalin shares:

The need to focus on why the world needs your book
That editors are each handling 20-40 books—so they don't have time to develop your ideas; you must do it yourself
That publishers are looking for any reason to reject your book—so something as simple as the 'wrong' word count for your genre will kill you
That it costs $50,000 - $100,000 for a publisher to take your book from manuscript to finished paperback—so the book's prospects need to generate that kind of return

Learn:

Why pointing out that your book will lead to offshoot magazine article sales might lead to the manuscript's rejection
Why if your book idea has been done—is about to be done—or has never been done—it is likely to be rejected
Why you may have to overcome publisher biases, such as ‘your audience doesn't buy books’—and how to do so
How your book's production costs may determine whether a publisher is interested in your manuscript
Whether credentials and potential audience matter—and how much
What words you should never say when trying to sell your manuscript
How to make your proposal stand out in a crowd
Exactly what you should not say about radio and television in your proposal
What technique is much more effective than mass marketing and should be the cornerstone of your book proposal
How you can best reach your audience
How to get top-notch endorsements (& when in the publishing process you should try to get them)

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 enjoy this audio right away.

Next week features IAW Contributor Joan Stewart with a 263-page special report on press releases.

Special Reports

Special Report: How to Sell to Magazines

If you missed our 15-page special report from Meg Weaver on How to Sell to Magazines, there’s still time to learn how to make that perfect pitch.

Learn:

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 read the entire report here.

Not a member yet? Join now for $149 [approx. €99], and read the report immediately.

Special Report: Get More Media Attention

If you missed our 7-page special report 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. Non-members join now for $149 [approx. €99] and read the rest of this report right away.

Media Leads & Magazine Update

New this week: The Atlantic suggests that The New York Times may be out of business by summer, but the NYT claims that’s totally unfounded speculation… LiveJournal cut 75% of its staff, leading to speculation that social networks will be the next in the industry to dwindle if they can’t quickly find a way to monetize (ie, enjoy Facebook while you can!)… UK wholesaler Bertrams is predicting a sale by next month… According to the NY Post, Laura Bush will receive $1.6 million advance for her memoirs… Times UK reports that there’s a scramble to reclaim inventory after EUK/Woolworth’s bankruptcy… Broadway theatres all dimmed their lights for one minute at 7 pm in honor of the death of Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize Winner in Literature in 2005.

In other news, POD/subsidy house Author Solutions (formerly AuthorHouse), which recently swallowed iUniverse, has now acquired Xlibris as well. The combined list includes close to 100,000 titles from over 70,000 authors. (But according to a recent Publishers Weekly, only 14 of those titles sold nationally through Barnes and Noble stores—so don’t dive in to POD just yet unless you’re prepared to forego bookstore sales.) Read more about the acquisition.

Hardcore Gamer Magazine is for sale on eBay with a starting bid of $42,000…The inflight magazine market is drying up for freelance writers: Both US Airways and Southwest Airlines Spirit have stopped accepting queries, and Northwest Airlines World Traveler is expected to be cancelled in the wake of the Delta/Northwest merger… Single-copy magazine sales overall have declined a reported 8 percent… Pershing Square, which had previously disclosed holding 11.8 percent stake in Barnes and Noble, disclosed in an SEC filing that as of 22 December, the investment firm sold all its holdings in Barnes & Noble stock…

According to new U.S. rules, children's books must now be tested for lead (even though books generally do *not* contain lead.) This has panicked large segments of the children's book market, who claim that their entire inventories will have to be destroyed because testing is too expensive and advance notice was too short… Hearst Publishing is planning to sell or close the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, they announced, within the next 60 days.

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

Tip of the Week

British Columbia authors of at least one book (traditional or self-published ok, but no POD) can get a free listing in British Columbia’s BookWorld Author Bank by filling out the form at:

www.abcbookworld.com/submit_author.php

Agent in the Hot Seat

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.

Writing and Publishing Spotlight on...
OZ (Australia)

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 read more at Spotlight.

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

Max Your Membership

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

First, find the Syndicated Articles Directory form at www.associationofwriters.com/SubmitArticle.php
You can add as many articles as you want to the syndicated articles directory.
Be sure to categorize your article correctly. Ezine editors, website editors, newspaper editors are looking for particular topics.
Think carefully about your article title. Studies have shown that the catchier the title, the more likely people are to read the article.
The ‘short biography’ is the part that will be posted on the Syndicated Articles page of the website and in the browse window, so make it catchy and relevant to your article.
All your contact details will be displayed except your email address. Instead of your email address, a link is provided to an IAW contact form. Editors who want to be in touch with you can do so using the contact form, and we’ll forward you any correspondence promptly. That way, you won’t have to deal with sp*m.
Don’t forget to upload your photo for your profiles at the Member Center.

Next week, we'll look at improving your Agent Query listing. Stay tuned!

Spread the Word

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!