I’ll be on short-term medical leave through mid-September.
Until then, check out some of my favorite blogs:
Seth Godin’s Blog
Copyblogger
Advergirl
Marcom Writer Blog
Duct Tape Marketing
As I mentioned earlier this week, my web site and blog have a new look. What I neglected to mention is that I enlisted the assistance of blogging strategist and Web 2.0 expert Dawn Friedman of OpenBook Strategies. I’m pleased to endorse her as a strategic partner and apologize for my oversight.
Learn more about what we accomplished and then contact OpenBook to find out how and why you can leverage blogging for your brand.
2 CommentsYesterday I had lunch with a client and we spent some time talking about social media and how to leverage it for her company. Part of our discussion centered around Twitter, so when I got back to the office I went to Twitter to see if her company’s name was already being used by someone else (if not, I was going to snag it). Sure enough, it was.
Which led me to this article from the Publicity Hound, which I’d like to share with you.
Reprinted from “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email the handy list “89 Reasons to Send a News Release.”
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Don’t Get ‘Brandjacked’ on Twitter
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So you think the micro-blogging site Twitter is too frivolous,
too much of a time-waster and too much trouble?
If you aren’t Twittering about your product, service, cause or
issue, somebody might beat you to it, pretend to be you, and
write whatever they darn well please. Then it could take you
weeks to unravel the mess.
That’s what happened to Exxon recently.
Someone known simply as “Janet” opened a Twitter account under
Exxon’s name and started Twittering about the oil company. Much
of what she wrote was favorable. She amassed more than 500
followers fairly quickly. But she wasn’t associated in any way
with the company.
Exxon apparently hadn’t been monitoring its own brand online, or
Twittering. When it discovered that “Janet” was highjacking its
brand, it asked Twitter to give it control of the fake account.
The page has since been removed.
You can read more about it at http://tinyurl.com/55hofo
No CommentsAs you can see, my blog and my web site have undergone a makeover. With the new look comes a sharper focus, too — tips, insights and best practices for getting great copy.
Now that I’ve launched, I’m still working out some of the “bugs” in making the transition. Contact me if you find something “wonky” so I can fix it. Thanks.
1 Comment: Draw attention to the customer benefits
: Break up the monotony of long blocks of text
: Create visual interest
As a freshman in high school typing class (I think they call it keyboarding now), I sat next to a sophomore name Diana. Diana had perfect Dorothy Hamill hair, a petite frame and a perky smile. And she was a first chair flutist. Diana was everything I was not — except when it came to typing. Ah, in typing, we were equals.
During daily timed typing exercises, we battled it out. She typed 65 words per minute (wpm); I typed 70. I typed 68 wpm; she typed 72 wpm. Our typewriter duels were famous. At least in my mind. The fact is I don’t think she even noticed the chubby freshman with glasses and braces sitting next to her.
But somehow this imaginary competition spurred me onto greatness. I excelled at typing, er, keyboarding. Still do, in fact.
I suppose I have Diana to thank, at least in part, for my keyboarding speed; however I suspect that the real reason I type so fast is that the keyboard is a tool for me. It’s a conduit for moving thoughts from my head to the page.
When I write, I essentially carry on a conversation in my mind that manifests itself not from my voice but through my fingertips. What comes out are stories, ideas and natural dialogue. I don’t stop and try to choose the absolutely best, most perfect word before it comes out onto the page. We certainly don’t do that when we’re talking now, do we?
Of course, I may go back and change a word (or 20!) during the editing process, swapping out words that I find more pleasing or more descriptive than my original choice, or I may remove redundant words and phrases and shuffle some paragraphs around. The point is that sometimes we try too hard to “write” as opposed to “have a conversation.”
So the next time you’re composing a memo to the boss, writing a proposal for a client or creating copy that will be read by your customers, just sit down at the keyboard (or typewriter, if you dare) and say what you want to say simply, plainly and conversationally. Then you can go back to the copy and edit and reorganize as necessary.
No CommentsAs I mentioned last week, I’ll be sharing some writing shortcuts that work for me. Both professional writers and those that must (but don’t like to) write can benefit.
Get Great Copy Shortcut #2
Can’t face the writing task in front of you? Besides making sure you have enough rest and proper nutrition, shake off writing fatigue by doing something other than writing for a brief period of time. Thirty minutes to an hour is all it takes. Talk a walk, mow the lawn, do yoga, strength train, read fiction. Whatever refreshes and renews you personally will help take your mind off the task at hand. Then, when you come back to your work, you should find (as I do) that the words come more naturally, easily and quickly. (Oh, and tell the boss I said a 30-minute break is okay now and then.)
Lyn Chamberlain of Arcadian House Writing & Publishing is back for a final installment of her series on self-publishing.
There are a bunch of numbers on every book. Can I just make them up so I have some, too?
Nope. Sorry. The numbers on the back of the book and on the copyright page provide important information.
The copyright page is part of the front matter, those pages that come before your text begins. While there is some variation, you’ll find a title page, a copyright page, dedication, acknowledgements, and table of contents. You may also find an introduction, forward, preface, and a frontispiece or illustration that precedes the book and usually faces the title page.
And those numbers. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. This 13-digit number is comprised of groups of numbers unique to each book. The first number identifies the language group: 0 means the book is printed in English. Next comes the publisher code; 9766666 stands for Arcadian House. Then comes an item number followed by a mathematically-produced check number designed to prevent errors.
If a book will be sold through an electronic system, it will need a barcode. The barcode allows electronic identification of the ISBN and the price for which the item was sold.
Your book also needs a Library of Congress Control Number available to all books published in the U.S. It allows librarians and book vendors to locate your book in national databases.
The first two copies off the press go to the U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright is a public record that says you own the way the material is presented.
The term prepress refers to gathering all the above in addition to creating a design for the book, making a template from the design, and fitting the manuscript into it. A good layout artist will tend to details like avoiding widows and orphans (single lines separated from their paragraphs), assuring that no pages are too long or too short, and seeing that chapters begin and end consistently throughout the book. These details are often unavailable from an online publisher.
Well, it’s been fun writing these blog entries and I hope you’ve enjoyed our short spin into self-publishing. Once again, thanks to Jan for inviting me. If you have questions feel free to call me at 614-451-5479 or email me at lyn@arcadianhouse.com. And of course, visit the web site at http://www.arcadianhouse.com/ at any time.
1 Comment