Book Award for Entrepreneurial Publishers

Announcing the 2009 Excellence in Demonstrating Groundbreaking Entrepreneurship (EDGE) Award! 

Entry open to independents authors of books and ebooks worldwide who publish for the North American market with a 2008 copyright (or that were released in 2008).

Announcing the EDGE Awards sponsored by Professional Advancement Seminars and Services (PASS) Publishing Company recognize and promote independently published books and ebooks that change people’s lives and promote the professional. EDGE – Excellence in Demonstrating Ground-breaking Entrepreneurship. The EDGE Awards were conceived to recognize and reward extraordinary books by independent publishers.

 

The EDGE Awards are focused solely on independently published business books and ebooks. Winner, Finalists, and Honorable Mentions appear for an entire year at www.publishpass.com. Winners will also be featured and highlighted prominently in our monthly newsletter. Awards are a great tool for all those involved. Awards influence reviewers, buyers, decision makers and future clients. The gold seal prominently placed on the book cover often captures the buyer’s attention and leads to higher sales. Enter now at: 

http://www.publishpass.com

 

·         Any non-fiction book that promotes an industry accepted scope of practice in a professional area of expertise will be accepted.

·         A submission should set forth a theory that has justifiable merit and factual basis.

·         The book can cover any professional topic but must give a solution or benefit for issues of that professional practice. 

·         The entry must meet the standards of the professional practice from which it is related.

·         Each entry must list the profession to which it is related.

 Awards: Winning titles will be exhibited in a 2009 Publish PASS EDGE Book Awards Showcase web page. An overall Grand Prize winner, an honorable mention will be awarded. 5 finalists will be named, for each profession submitted a special award will be given to the top book and the top ebook.

Each entry will be judged on and receives an individual evaluation with the judges’ commentary based on the following criteria:

 

·        Appropriateness of subject matter.

·        Depth of research

·        Is the entry “well-sourced”? Are sources credible and accurate?

·        Presentation

·        Impact of entry on the problem or issue covered

·         How well the book has achieved its goal

·         What possibilities are suggested by the book

·         What the book has left out

·         What specific points are not convincing

·         Eye catching cover

·         Market appeal

·         Client generation ability

Writing a Book – Formulating a Strategy to Write a Market Ready Best Seller

How do you know that the book you want to write has a market? Do you plan to just write and see what happens? Some books were made to be written to satisfy our souls, others are written to be marketed in such a way that they support other work we are doing. So how do you create a strategy for your book?

• Define your goals
• Identify your target audience
• Explore and thoroughly research your topic/background
• Write with clarity of purpose
• Carefully and brutally edit

While your book is with an editor begin formulating your softsell marketing efforts:

• Create a blog or forum on your book’s topic and begin creating a ready made audience
• Write articles about your book’s topics and post them in article directories
• Pre-write press releases for your book’s launch
• Begin direct marketing efforts for your pre-sales
• Generate a mailing list to support an E-Newsletter for your potential audience

Effective marketing tactics begin with the crafting of the content. Create a winning strategy and you will have a best seller on your hands.

Promote Your Book with Internet Article Writing

Have you ever thought of using internet article writing as a way to promote your book? Online article writing is a great way to create more traffic back to your website to promote your book.  While you can not submit articles to reputable article directories if you include a hard sell message, you can leave a link that backtracks to your book site.

The more times your name appears on the web (in a positive manner!) the more times the little SEO spiders will pick up your name and associate it with your book. How do you get that all important backlink in your article without being too obvious or brazen?

Most sites have what are called ‘give’ and ‘take’ boxes for information. The ‘give’ box is where the content of your well written informative article is posted. Your ‘take’ box is where you craft a highly informative paragraph or two (at most) about you and your book. This is where you embed the links to your website, your blog, or your forum on your book.

If you have a well written article that is related to the topic of your book, websites and ezine directories will happily include a link back to where your book is sold. Make sure your article content is useful, relevant, and original and you can’t go wrong.

Promoting your book through internet articles is not only cheap (free except for the cost of your writing time) but is highly profitable in terms of the traffic it generates back to your book. Put your writing skills to work for you to promote your book. It can pay off big in the end!

Creating Time to Write

Making time to write is really difficult in our intrusive modern world. The siren song of email beckons us to respond to its ‘in your face’ immediacy. Blackberries chirp and ding in public places like a chorus of obnoxious magpies in discordant harmony. Telephone, email, and people clamor for my attention all day long. If only I could find some peaceful downtime I might be able to make time to write.

The easiest way to create more time for writing is merely a function of the earliest technological breakthrough of the Industrial Revolution: The ON-OFF switch.So simple but so hard to use… but you owe it to yourself to develop the discipline to disconnect and start writing. Turn off the phone, turn off the email, turn off the instant messenger, and make the time to write.

• Your time is incredibly valuable
• Commit in writing to write
• Put your writing schedule in your calendar…in ink!
• Get organized before sitting down to write – time spent researching is not writing time

You have to schedule down-time for writing much like you schedule time at the gym and doctor appointments. Let people who matter know that you are not available at that time daily. Block out at least 90-120 minutes per day to dedicate to your writing craft.

Make a contract with yourself to write X hours per week or X number of pages per week. Create a viable plan that produces a measurable output. Start small and build more goals for time and output as you become more disciplined in your writing schedule.

Get a wall calendar and a day planner and schedule time for your writing. You and your writing are important. Make the time to write articles, blog entries, or your next chapter.

Writing with discipline and purpose can be hard at first but over time it becomes an ingrained personal routine. But beware! Writing regularly can become as addictive as email, IM, and texting. 

Writing the Introduction – How to Hook Your Audience and Keep them Reading

Can you write and opening that hooks the reader and keep them coming back for more? Sure you can!

Make your opening an introduction that hooks the reader with the content and makes then want to stay.

• Begin with a question or a challenge to your reader.
• Follow this with a good thesis statement that identifies the objective of the work, makes a point with making, provides structure for the complete work and is easy to identify.
• The remainder of the work should be filled with stories and solutions that the reader can connect to as they continue to read.
• Make sure that all of the remaining sections of the work are compelling, well organized and easily read.

In order to draw your reader in you have to cast out your hook with bait that makes them bite…then you reel them in with the rest of your “story.”

Book Cover Design For Non-Fiction Books

Front Cover – Go out and explore your local book store. Look at book covers that draw you to them. Why are they so effective? Where is the title on the book? Is it centered or off-set? Are the letters raised or outline in a contrasting color? How does the lettering of the title impact the image on the cover? Does the title stand out or does it get lost? Will it photograph well in marketing materials?
* Make sure the image you select for your book best represents your content.
* Select a font for the title and author name that have slight variations.
* Use at least four colors for the cover, six if you can. Play with the effects of outlining, shadowing, and other design elements.
* Raised lettering adds a touch of class and style to the book cover design.
Spine – Center your title on the spine. You don’t want it falling off on the back of front cover. Check the spelling carefully. This is the first thing the person in the store or a library usually notices about a book.
Back Cover – Proof read, proof read, and proof read! Use Arial for the headings and Times Roman for the content. This makes the content easier to read. If you wish to include your photo, this is the ONLY place to include. Unless you are famous, never put your mug on the cover. 
* Include your URL on the back cover.
* Include 1-2 features of your book followed by 3-5 benefits for each feature in bullet statements.
* Short testimonials or endorsements are a must to have on the back cover.
Following these simple guidelines will help you design a cover that you can not only be proud of but that will help sell your books.

Why Should Authors Blog?

Blogging is a quick way to generate excitement, stir up controversy, and get people talking about a variety of topics in a short space of time. Why should you as an author blog?

Simple answer: To create a ready made audience for your book.

Complex answer: To create a ready made audience for your next book.

 Wait a minute! That is the same answer! Yes, but if we peel it apart there are many layers that could be examined.

Blogging creates excitement and gets people interested in what you have to say. As you the author begin to generate the excitement and stir the waters you begin to be recognized as a possible authority in the field you write about both in your blog and in your book. A made to order audience begins to develop for your book.

The more complex answer is that as an author we truly never know what the fickle audience wants at any given time. We can make educated guesses based on studies, surveys, etc. The world of information has become so fluid with the accessibility of the web that we as authors would be foolish not to use it as a medium for testing the waters. 

What if you as an author began to blog about the different chapters of your next book? Could you get immediate feedback for content development? You bet you can! Fiction or non-fiction, you get to create and collaborate with the very people who will be in your book audience.

Put blogging on your author “to do” list. Schedule it. Perhaps it can be your warm-up activity for your daily writing sessions. Begin with a short personal paragraph or two and build out from there. You will find your voice just like you will find an audience.

Now get out there and start blogging!

How to Prepare Your Final Non-Fiction Draft for Your Editor- Part 2

Prior to sending your manuscript out for editing, preview it for ”tightness” with a critical eye to detail. Do you have a general outline for your book? Go back to that and review it then look at your work chapter by chapter to see how well your work sticks to the original outline and premise for the work.

Go to the first chapter of your book and find your thesis statement. It should be relatively obvious and in the very first paragraph of your work. After you find it, underline it. Then go back in the rest of the chapter and highlight ONLY the parts that are directly related to your thesis in that chapter. How much of the work is thesis centered? How well do you communicate the supporting details to prove or expound on your thesis? How much fluff is there?

The fluff has to go! Tight writing requires an economy of language and a straightforward approach to the topic discussed. Sentences that are more than 17 words should be re-evaluated for unnecessary verbosity. Remove any fluff or unrelated material (save it for another section of this book or for another book – even for a handout or workbook when you start speaking in public on your book). 

Then take what is left and organize it according to the outline you used earlier to craft your work. Turn some of what you wrote into bullet statements, some into supporting paragraphs, etc. Your work should fall more naturally into place if you do this. The writing will be more cohesive and the entire work will be logical and easy to follow.

How to Prepare Your Final Non-Fiction Draft for Your Editor- Part 1

The following questions are things you want to have a fairly firm answer before shopping for an editor. These are structural questions and not content questions. When shopping for an editor these are the kinds of questions they will ask and you will want to be prepared to answer.  Nothing makes you feel more like the ninth grader who is not prepared for an oral quiz then not having a good answer on the details about your own work.

1.             What is the estimated word count for the entire work?
2.              Will the work be paperback or hardcover?
3.              Will you have an index?
4.             What deadline are you working toward for the completed work/edit of the draft? 
5.             What deadline are you working toward for completion of all revisions?
6.             How many charts, tables, graphics, etc will be sent ? 
7.             Do you have citations and references? If so, what style will you wish to employ? 
8.             Will you have footnotes?