It’s all very well writing a book or an article for a magazine, but how can you find out whether your message is hitting the right people and having the desired impact? Executive communications strategist Mindy Gibbins-Klein suggests that the first step to successful communication is accepting that writing is very likely to be a one-way approach, at least at first…

A business colleague said something astounding the other day. He said he would rather speak to an audience of ten people than write for an audience of a thousand. I thought that sounded a bit strange, so I challenged him on it. It turned out that he had written an article for a magazine with a good circulation, but he hadn’t had any feedback at all from it. He felt he had spent his time crafting a wonderful, informative piece that no one appreciated. He also felt that if that message had been delivered in person, he could have seen the response from people immediately, in their eyes and their body language.

It’s true, what my colleague said, so how can we justify putting time into writing when we don’t get feedback? That, my friend, is the nature of writing. Sometimes you get to find out what your readers think of your material, and many times you don’t. It’s my view that we have to be OK with the fact that writing is one-way until we get a response, and we must continue to put good material into the market. There are some excellent guidelines for one-way communication that I have seen business experts use to their advantage. Here are my favourites:

1. Keep your outcome in mind at all times.

Hone your message according to what you have to say as well as what your reader needs to hear and decide what kind of information you are imparting. For example, if you need to teach people with your writing, you would probably choose a style which puts your ideas across in a reasonably straightforward way and allows you to get into plenty of detail. You will probably also want to offer the reader a chance to test his or her learning in the form of questions or even exercises. This differs tremendously from writing which aims to influence or persuade. That would need to sound more exciting and compelling; it would possibly use psychological elements to make the key points. Being conscious about your desired outcome will make whatever you write more clear and effective.

2. Deliver your message as passionately and authentically as if you were speaking.

I prefer to see writing as an extension of speaking, and in fact, for people who will not get the opportunity to hear you in person or even on the phone, your writing must do the same job. It has become very trendy to write conversationally, spurred on by the advent of blogging and newsletters. That style can be used effectively in books and articles as well. It’s no secret that one of my favourite authors is marketing guru Seth Godin. I love the in-your-face, direct style he uses. It feels like he’s in my living room talking to me one on one. It seems from his book sales that others also respond to that style. And it happens to be the way I prefer to write, in case you hadn’t noticed!

There is one caveat here which I must stress to you. Delivering your message as if you were speaking does not mean that it is the same as speaking. There are excellent ways of recording material for books and articles by using digital recorders and voice-to-text software. If you choose to use those methods, you really do need to take extra time to get it sounding right. I know some people who record their books take hours to tidy the text up and edit it. That can work and I have even had some of my clients make excellent progress by recording parts of their books. I just think you can be more careful and precise with your wording when you write or type.

3. Get feedback.

That may sound like it contradicts what I said earlier. Actually, there are some clever mechanisms to get people interacting with you, even though you are not there. Starting with the most basic idea, get people in your network to review your book – favourably and honestly. Even though we are all busy, we find time to help friends, don’t we? Once your friends’ reviews are published, it will encourage more readers to post reviews. You can also get readers to go to a web page and complete a survey – with or without an incentive. You can put an email address at the bottom of the piece, asking for comments – again, with or without an incentive. This can work equally well for books. I get a lot of clients excitedly planning to include CDs with their books, until I show them how they can still give away free CDs and capture people contact details and feedback at the same time. Never include bonuses with your book when you could engage with readers and get some indication of how many people read it and liked it at the same time.

That’s plenty for you to be getting on with. If you know your subject and deliver your message well, if you write powerfully and authentically, they will listen. And they may even respond. Let me know all about your success by writing to me at mindy@ bookmidwife. com – I offer lots of fabulous bonuses for my readers.

Mindy Gibbins-Klein is better known as The Book Midwife™. She has helped hundreds of experts get their message out into the market by writing and publishing the best possible books and articles. She is also a founder and director of Ecademy Press, an independent publisher established in 2005 and specialising in business and personal development books. For more information visit www.bookmidwife.com or email info@bookmidwife.com

Why you need to be writing and publishing
Mindy Gibbins Klein

More business books are being written and published than ever before. If we combine Internet publishing, self-publishing and traditional publishing, the total number of non-fiction publications has more than doubled over the past five years, and this trend looks set to continue. So why the big increase and what are the implications to the average CEO?

The main reason we are seeing more books in print is the ease with which they can be published. Print-on-demand technology and cooperative publishing enables books to be printed only as needed, which save the publisher (or the author) from having to make a significant investment to print books up front. There are more publishers out there than ever before (48,000 at last count) so publishing has become a trendy thing to do, and more business leaders see writing a book as a viable activity, compared to years ago when it would have been much more difficult to get the book published. Most of us would love to have a book with our name on it; the only things that usually stop us are lack of information, confidence and clarity and not knowing how to get published. The advent of the Internet, for publishing electronically but more importantly for promoting books, has made a huge impact on independent authors and publishers. All in all, writing is now more attractive because publishing is easier and more accessible.

In a competitive market, the winners are usually those who shout the loudest, or at least those that stand out in our minds. We don’t always like to admit that or believe it; we prefer to think that buyers make their decisions rationally, based on facts, choosing the best products and services. However, research has shown that most people make decisions emotionally and then back them up with logical arguments, after the fact. One professional speaker I know swears that he lost a job because he didn’t have a book and the other guy did. When challenged, he told me that he asked the decision makers what influenced their final choice and they told him “We didn’t like the other guy as much but he must be authority because he’s written a book”. Shocking but true.

You are an authority

I happen to like the word “authority”. I know some people don’t like it, but I think it has a lot of value. What I mean by “authority” is simply being a source of knowledge that people look up to and respect. Contrary to popular belief, it does not mean being the best or offering something completely unique. Too many people worry about being “unique” when what they need to concentrate on is being excellent, reliable and authentic. There are already plenty of books on your subject in the market, and yet there is room for many more. Each new book offers a slightly different perspective and, if the author has been completely authentic and shared his or her own views and perspectives on the subject matter, the book creates a personal relationship with the reader. Thought leadership is not an esoteric label; it means that we are leading by sharing our thoughts.

Although we ultimately want to see full-length books written by our top business leaders, some people prefer to start by publishing articles or being part of a compilation or anthology. It’s all part of a comprehensive writing and publishing strategy, which, executed effectively, puts those executives ahead of the majority of their peers. Journals such as this one are highly respected and books with multiple authors can be more interesting and add more value than books by single authors. I have worked on several anthologies during my career, with the most successful by far being a book called BusinessWise – Words of Wisdom for Small Businesses with Big Ambitions (Ecademy Press, $19.99). The secrets of that book’s success were a good title, stand-out book cover and a team of authors who were absolute authorities on their subject. They all had something to add to the overall content and an interest in using the book to boost their own professional profiles. BusinessWise hit number 2 on Amazon on launch day and continues to sell well, with most of the authors actively using it to build credibility.

In larger organizations, there are opportunities for more than one executive to create writing and publishing strategies and build their own personal profiles while adding to the company’s image. You need to ask yourself who in the executive team should be visible and what they have to add. For example, different members of the team have different skills, experience, and ideas or opinions. The key is ensuring that the individual writing and publishing plans support the overall plan, in terms of messages, format and timing.

It needs to be a printed book

You may have heard of e-books, or electronic books. I would like to differentiate between electronic versions of good, full-length books and the phenomenon of sketchy, overpriced, misleading e-books whose prime purpose is making money. I am in favor of making books available in different formats to suit different readers, but let’s face it: respect is normally reserved for authors whose books or articles are in print. Electronic versions are simply not perceived to be as impressive. For example, I have never heard someone say “He is the author of that important e-book”. Maybe this will change over the next few years, but for now, print books remain the only way to establish that real sense of authority.

How and when to get your message out

Having worked in this area for many years, I am still surprised at the number of executives who do not have personal writing and publishing strategies and plans. They may have marketing and public relations plans and activities, but their own articles, books, blogs and related public speaking are generally not included in those plans.

We have already discussed the fact that if you want to be seen as the leading authority in your area, you need to be writing and publishing books and articles. In a tough market in particular, your customers need clear messages from you that set you up as a true thought leader. What you need to produce depends on several factors, such as where your business is in its life cycle, the competitive state of your market (i.e. what your competitors are doing and saying) and your key product and service messages. For example, in the early stages, when you are not yet known, you need to provide higher level information to introduce people to you and your company. Later on, you can differentiate yourself by providing your unique perspectives on your topic and influencing the market in that direction. If you are in a very competitive sector, it may be necessary to bring in the influencing earlier.

If you have many different ideas, it is more even more important to create a strategy for getting one clear message into the market, supported by several subsidiary ones. I meet a lot of entrepreneurs at networking events who, when asked what they do, talk about at least three or four things and make people totally confused. I also see business leaders dilute their message by writing several unrelated articles or blogs. You want to be known for one thing, and it starts with your perspective on your topic. Taking the time to strategize will make it easier to produce high impact, effective books, articles, blogs and speeches. Those activities will, in turn, set you apart from your competition as a real authority on the subject, which could result in more business, higher fees and the satisfaction of having your name on the cover of an excellent book.

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Mindy Gibbins-Klein is best known as The Book Midwife (TM) an international speaker, writing and publishing strategist and leading book coach who has helped over 100 business experts write and publish books, many of them bestsellers. She is a Director of Ecademy Press.