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The YOU success factor
by Ken Silver
Over the past few weeks I've been assisting an ebook author. Now, I very
rarely do any personal consultation these days, preferring to help
through my forum where everyone can benefit:
http://network54.com/Hide/Forum/11488
or my Silver Circle for members only.
And not everyone can afford my casual $350/hour either.
But this ebook was good and had a lot of unrealized potential. The
author had also bought one of my software programs, so I knew that he
was serious about getting results on the net.
His problem was also one that many writers face. And it was this.
Let me explain...
You've all read textbooks, probably at school and university or at a
library.
These tomes of wisdom contain facts, miles of them, all bound up in
boring, fact-after-fact print. Sure, it's occasionally interesting to
know something like the boiling level of water, but as for making it
practically useful to you - not a chance.
This writer's book was like that. Chock full of information he used to
make his retail business successful. Excellent stuff, but written in a
generalized style.
I could tell it was just another manual in dire need of a work-out
before it got to Arnold Swarzenegger status.
My solution? I told him to put more of himself into the book.
As part of the make-over revision, I suggested he change all his
references to obscure brands and
replace them with products and ads from his own store.
Because the secret to interesting writing is to make it as personal as
possible, using real-life examples.
I'm doing that right now... you're reading an exchange of information
between me and the writer, almost as it happened.
So I made these following suggestions to him - and I've changed them a
little so you can see how they apply to your own writing:
1) Replace ALL the generic (bland) examples with ones directly from your
own business. Include dates, times and costs. Where you talk about an
item - change it to a real-life example of a certain product in your
store at a particular time. In short, make it yours and real instead of
a sample.
He had: "Use X Brand stereo $200 reduced to $120." He should
have put: "When I priced Tubman Paints at $40 a pail instead of
$100, they sold out the next day!"
2) Change the art graphics at the head of each chapter to actual photos
of your stores at various stages of your make-over. Caption them.
"Here's John, my store manager, and me at our Bulloyabba branch,
discussing how this stock of accessories will be placed." I'm
guessing you will have these kinds of photos about. Again it makes your
story real.
3) Litter your text with more real-life examples. For example, where you
talk about ad placement, scan a copy of the actual ad into that area and
describe the circumstances. Your audience will lap it up because they're
seeing real-life examples that worked for you.
4) Change the book title to reflect your makeover. Your title could
change from: "Retail Marketing Secrets" to something like:
"How I Turned A Failing One-Store Business Into a Chain in Less
Than A Year."
I suggested that he personalize the book with living, breathing examples
of actual events about his stores with as much detail as possible.
Well, after a few more emails, he did exactly that, and the change was
amazing. Instead of a me-too style of manual, he had a living, breathing
example of a real success store story, the methods he used to build it
and his successes.
Far more appealing.
Here's how you do it for your own writing:
1) Read from the beginning until you come across the first example of a
generalized statement. It may be something like: "When you bleed
the brakes, it is important to make sure you have something underneath
the car to catch the fluid, and be careful because it's corrosive."
2) Now write your own example of this fact: "One time a few years
back - when I had more hair than I do now - I thought bleeding brakes
was easy. Until I forgot to put a container under the hose and the
garage floor paint lifted in bubbling cracks when the fluid spilled. And
when I forgot to wipe it off my hands and put my hand on the bonnet to
go round the car, my thumb imprint was etched indelibly into the paint.
That was an expensive lack of knowledge!"
Notice how more interesting the second statement becomes?
When I asked my writer to do the same for his writing, his own make-over
increased reader's interest dramatically.
Forget writing boring fact-ridden stuff. Write to put your own story
into your book and watch it come alive!
If there's one secret to writing an appealing book - one that gets
people writing to you saying how interesting they find your manual -
it's remembering to put YOU into it.
1) Tell stories about YOU
2) Give examples of YOU
3) Use action statements concerning YOU.
To YOUr success!
Ken Silver
*Doing business online since 1996*
Copyright © 2001 Ken Silver Publishing.
All rights reserved.
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Ken Silver is the author of best-selling "eBOOK SECRETS"
and the developer of the automated Ezi range of products
- the easiest way ever to get your business on the net.
Go to: www.kensilver.com now!
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