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tips for writing

beach
Blog, Business, Coaching, Faith, Spiritual Gifts, Travel, Writing

Sought After Speaker Summit Part 8

Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending Caterina Rando‘s Sought After Speaker Summit in Los Angeles, CA. This is part 8 of my Sought After Speaker Summit blog series. You can read part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here, part 6 here, and part 7 here.

On Friday night, Caterina Rando offered an optional Q & A Session for anyone who was interested to ask her more questions. My friend Shelley calls me a question box. I always ask people questions because I am very curious and want to learn new things. The Friday night session was primarily dedicated to writing a book.

Here are more tips Caterina gave us for writing a book: Just choose the things from this list that apply to YOU.

    • When writing, you want to be educational, motivational, inspirational, and transformational. It’s tricky, but you must include all these. It must be reader-centric – not about you! Use exercises and stories to engage them.

      Beth Jones, speaking at Women of Destiny conference

      Beth Jones, speaking at Women of Destiny conference

    • Use your story, but bring it back to them.
    • At the end of a chapter, always have a call to action.
    • You can write standing up, while working out, by buying the Treadmill Desk or NextDeskFit.
    • The back matter of your book (marketing pages) is more important than the front matter (dedication, contents, acknowledgments). Plant seeds. Say something like, “For more information on Beth Jones’ speaking, visit www.BethJones.net. Or, “Here’s a coupon code to get xyz on my website.” In the back of Caterina’s books, she has resources of her trusted alliance partners to get a special code.
    • Your book is like an expensive brochure. You need your bio, your picture in the back (back cover or inside sleeve), your speaking topics, the url for your speaking page, etc.
    • Books need to be evergreen, relevant in 5 to 10 years from now.
    • Use massive distribution. Hire people to help you with your book. Repurpose the content. Put your book on the Kindle/Nook. A book carries a lot more weight so use massive distribution. Amazon has a POD division. Give your book away on Amazon for 1 to 3 days. This will give you exposure and visibility, and you can truthfully say your book is an Amazon best-seller!

      Walking with God ebook by Beth Jones

      Walking With God ebook
      BethJones.net/beth-jones-estore/

    • If you have your book available on audio, never read your book. It takes practice for those to sound good. Use professional editing. Caterina advises not to do your own editing; hire a VA. Use good headphones. A good mic is the Bluebird.
    • Survey your clients to find out what they want in your new book or your new program. Give them options for helping you choose the book’s cover or title or chapter topics. Say, “I’m creating my 90-day Catch a Star and Make Your Dreams Come True program. What do you want me to include in this program?” Facebook is a great place to survey: “Here’s my 10 titles. Which one do you like best or what other title would you use?”
    • Your one title may not resonate with your niche! Be benefit focused.
    • Be brand consistent with your book.
    • Just do it. Stop getting ready to get ready to get going to start. One client told Caterina that she was “in beta.” She had one year of her coaching, a year in her mastermind group, and her revenue was growing but she was running her business like a corporation. It was taking her 2 years to get out there. The longer you do that, the longer you are pushing off your revenue!
    • Send your book to the Library of Congress to copyright it.
    • Buy an ISBN so it can be tracked on Amazon. You can buy one for $125 or a block of 10 for $250 (or more).
    • On vacation, be on vacation. Caterina said it’s hard to shift to business space when she’s on vacation somewhere. It just doesn’t work.

      Beth Jones on Jacksonville, FL beach

      Beth Jones on Jacksonville, FL, beach

    • Create events talking about your book. Be loud and proud about being a speaker. Tell family, friends, or clients: “I want to go to Houston. Do you know of any massage therapists I could speak to while there?” This may not be an event, but you can create an event ahead of time! “If you put 25 people in a room, I’ll come and speak to them.” Learn to power think. Do workshops to promote your book!
    • Be open to travel anywhere in the world. If you are thinking you’d love to speak at that event to promote your book or programs, you might be able to speak next year at it! Sometimes Caterina pays for her traveling on her dime. It’s worth it. She took her dad to Venice, Italy and he cried. Traveling is a great opportunity of life.

      Me on the beach at Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

      Me on the beach at Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

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Have you read my book Bahama Mama: When God Uses Ordinary Women For His Extraordinary Purposes? Check it out by clicking here. Just $5!

October 21, 2013 by
Woman in office
Blog, Business, Ebooks, Faith, prayer, Writing

Do you have writer’s block or writer’s avoidance behavior?

Woman in office

Woman in office

Today I finished organizing my new office. Leah helped me to assemble my second black bookshelf, and now all my books are put away. The closet in here is organized:

  • My notebooks, filled with notes from business training the last several years, are in plastic tubs;
  • My journals are in another plastic tub;
  • Important papers are filed in a small file box;
  • My books to sell at my next live event (July 11 @ 11 a.m. Central, details coming soon!) are boxed up, ready to go;
  • Tax returns and this year’s bank statements are together and are in storage boxes on the shelf;
  • Office supplies are organized and in a storage box.

The new office is now clean, neat, and completely organized. I’ve been unpacking and organizing our new house for a couple of weeks, taking off time from my business to get this done. It feels so good!

And as I finally sat down today at my desk to write, I realized now I have writer’s block! Or maybe it’s writer’s avoidance behavior.

Kathy Steffen writes about this in her post. Just click here.

I think my precious friend Rochelle, a.k.a. “Shelley” is doing this, too. For the last several weeks, she’s been “working on getting her office ready.”

Getting it ready has included shopping for a desk, a reading chair, a big screen t.v. (huh? Why does she need a t.v. in there if she’s working?), a cool futon…I think she may be just avoiding writing! 🙂

This is common among writers. They clean, organize, decorate, do anything to avoid writing – the very thing they love.

Why do they avoid it if they love it, though?

A lot of it is just plain fear. Fear of rejection from publishers (or fear of silence from your blog readers with NO comments!).

Fear it will be ridiculous, silly, or worse of all, BORING.

Fear that your writing isn’t good enough.

We writers all deal with this.

As Kathy Steffen says, “So what? Nobody else has to ever see it.  When you get right down to it, writing is simply putting pen to paper and writing words.  No one ever said what you write has to be interesting, good, or earth-shattering.  Just write.  No one has to see the first draft.”

She gives great tips for pushing past the fear and writer’s avoidance behavior (or legitimate blocks).

I loved her creative writing exercises, such as writing about a word like echo or about someone who is passive, a list of 20 things you’d like to do in the next year, or eavesdropping on a conversation, haha.

You can read her tips by clicking here.

In what ways do you find yourself doing writer’s avoidance behavior? Share in the comments below. (Yes, WRITE in the comments below!)

June 15, 2013 by