Nancy Peske Has a New Blog

Nancy Peske’s new blog can be found at: http://www.NancyPeske.com/blog

Sign up at my new website http://www.NancyPeske.com (you’ll see there’s a pop up form) and you’ll receive newsletters with links to the blog pieces, resources, and special offers from me, Nancy Peske, your “wordmason.”

You can also find me on Facebook where I host a closed group called Nancy Peske’s Nonfiction Author Community. Ask to join and you’ll be able to connect with other nonfiction authors who are writing memoir, transformational nonfiction (such as self-help books and parenting books), and more. I share helpful tips, resources and links in this Facebook group.

Looking for me on YouTube? I’m there! My NancyPeske1 channel has helpful videos such as Developmental Editing: Cut and Paste, a video showing how I work with paper printouts, pen, and tape to piece in a developmental editing or ghostwriting process; How to Write a Self-Help Book: Structuring; and How to Write a Book Based on Your Life – 7 Ways.

If you want to contact me about my services as a ghostwriter, developmental editor, and book content consultant, email me:  info at NancyPeske dot com Tell me about your project and where you are with it (or just go to my website and fill out my form at the Contact link).

Thanks!

Waiting for an Agent or Editor to Respond? Get Busy!

How frustrating it is when you’re waiting for an agent or editor to respond to your submission! Rather than drive yourself crazy waiting, here’s what to do:

Ask when to check in. When your proposal or manuscript is requested after you query the agent or editor, ask when you can check in. It’s better to know they’ll need four weeks than to wonder, “Is it too early to ask what they think?”

Be patient. If you push too hard for an agent or editor to respond, you predispose that person to look for reasons to reject your submission. Agents and editors hate feeling pressured, and it’s always easier to say no than it is to say yes. Don’t prejudice them against your project. Instead, focus on getting someone else’s interest and making your book an even hotter property. Light a fire under the pokey agent. You can send to more than one agent (or have your agent submit it to multiple editors). The idea is to be able to send this message: “I have strong interest from another agent”—or editor—”so please let me know whether you are interested as well.” That’s more likely to drum up excitement than a nudge note that essentially says, “Can you please get back to me?”

Build your platform and try to generate good news about your work. Sure, you could twiddle your thumbs, agonize, vent to your friends and your dog, or call a psychic to get her take on your book proposal’s prospects, but here are some more practical and productive ways to spend your time right now. All will improve your chances of getting an agent and a book deal by building your platform and generating good news about your work that you can share with agents and editors.

–Offer to be a guest blogger on a popular blog.

–Write more blog pieces. Tease them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

–Pitch an article to a magazine or website.

–Write a free “service” article (how to do such-and-such, 7 tips for such-and-such) and submit it to a free articles site.

–Comment on major blogs and include your URL.

–Sign up for HARO: Help a Reporter Out and contact journalists and bloggers about their articles they are seeking experts to comment in. The paid version can be less cumbersome to us since you can set it to show you the most appropriate opportunities for you.

–Get active on social media and work to build your following.

–Work on your Web site. Make sure it encourages visitors to give you their e-mail address so you can someday send them notice of your book’s publication. Pop up sign ups should be attractive and promise a giveaway like a free ebook, a tipsheet, or an audio file (such as a guided visualization).

–Get booked on radio shows and podcasts. Ask the host to include a live link to your site in the description of the show and be sure to mention your website and any free giveaway you offer for subscribers.

–Start your own podcast. If it feels too daunting, make it a short one, 20 minutes perhaps, and give it a theme so people know what they’ll get when they come to your podcast.

–Set up some speaking engagements. Libraries and recreation departments are great places to start.

–Make some informational videos and post them online and on your website.  Share them via social media and your newsletter.

–Be sure you have accounts on the biggest platforms: YouTube, Facebook (have a business page but also a closed group), Twitter, and Instagram. If you haven’t been active on one for a while, put something out there.

Remember, if you get a publicity break, or suddenly have a big uptick in followers, you can send a nice note to the agent or editor saying, “I just thought I’d let you know that I’ll be on MSNBC tomorrow/have an article in Psychology Today this week/got 2000 new Twitter followers/stripped for Playboy magazine to build my “healthy body” brand.” Think of all the many ways you can draw attention to your brand at this critical point. I’m not kidding about the centerfold: When I was an in-house editor, one of my authors, who wrote guides to improving intimacy, appeared in a major men’s magazine half-clothed, the month of our annual sales conference. That certainly woke up the sales force! My authors with similar books in the pipeline were intrigued by this bold move, but decided on other means for self-promotion!

Envision the sale. Imagine that you have gotten the call from the agent or editor saying, “This is the greatest thing EVER!” Visualize every moment of that call…yourself on a major national television show talking about it as the host stares at you, enraptured…your book’s title on the top of the New York Times bestseller list…you speaking to an audience of aspiring authors, telling your story about how you, too, thought at one point that there was no hope but then the call came and now look at you. Don’t feel embarrassed by this exercise. Many successful authors have envisioned their success and infused their fantasy with the emotions so that it felt real, only to have that success play out in reality.

Need help with writing and editing your book? A consultation on building your author platform? Contact me at info@nancypeske.com and check out my new blog at http://www.NancyPeske.com/blog

 

Getting Started on a Memoir, Novelization, or Self-Help Book Based on Your Experiences

Many people contact me about help with writing a book based on what they’ve learned as a result of their experiences. They want to help others by sharing their story, wisdom, and advice in a book but don’t know how to get started.

Now, I am all for writing your book  solely for the sake of catharsis and self-expression, and I think more people who are in a healing process should write about their experiences. That said, writing for an audience that has its own needs is different from writing for yourself. Don’t confuse the two. Your needs and desires have value, but they are not always the same as a reader’s needs and desires.

Maybe you already are certain that you want to write a self-help book and weave your story, and other stories, into the book and use it as a sort of credibility card for your work but also as a key tool for your clients and followers. Maybe you feel strongly that a memoir is the best way to get your story out there and inspire and educate others.  If you’d rather not use real names, or you would like to explore what might have happened instead of just what did happen, you can think about turning your story into a novel. You can also consider writing a book of life lessons, with advice based on your story, and don’t offer any specific advice to readers.

If you’re struggling to conceptualize your book, here are some tips.

* Write. Notice I didn’t say “write your book.” Some people free write until they reach hundreds of pages of material and there’s nothing wrong with doing that, but it’s easy to get attached to what you’ve written, and what’s on the page may not work as the basis of your book. Start small. Write a blogpiece, a scene, or a chapter. Play around with it: Write it in first person, then second, then third. Write it as fiction or as a memoir, or as an anecdote illustrating a point, like you would find in a self-help book. Explore your story and your message from various angles to get a feel for how you want to tell it.

* Look at your goals. What audience would you like to reach, and why? What other types of books are they reading? Where do they hear about those books? Do they buy books based on advertisements, word-of-mouth recommendations, Facebook posts, bookstore displays–what is the main way of reaching them? Why do they trust the authors of those books? Are they drawn in by the power of the author’s personal story? Are they impressed by the author’s work as a therapist or coach? These are the kinds of questions that will help you to put yourself in the shoes of your potential reader and know how to write for that individual and how to get him or her to know about your book. You’ve thought about what you want to write. Now think about who wants to read it.

* Look at comparative books. Know what other books and information are out there. What is your fresh idea, take, or spin? If you know you want to write a self-help book on a particular topic, be aware that your idea probably isn’t completely unique but that’s okay. Give it your own take.

* Check in with your gut. Does it feel right to do a memoir, or even a novelization, of your story? Do you want to share life lessons, or give advice? Do you want to create exercises that will help the reader to learn what you learned, only in a more pleasant way? Get in touch with your instincts about the book you are meant to write–and think about whether you might be meant to write more than one book!

 

How do you get started writing your story?

* Consider collaborating or procuring a foreword. I knew I wanted to write a practical guide for parents whose children had sensory processing disorder because it was incredibly difficult to access that information back when my son who has SPD was two years old and newly diagnosed. There were NO practical books that could help me figure out how to brush his teeth or calm him when he was having a sudden tantrum. I teamed up with my son’s occupational therapist, who was not only treating him for SPD but who had also done some writing herself, to create Raising a Sensory Smart Child, a book that offered two valuable perspectives and appealed to parents and professionals. If you’re thinking you don’t have the right credentials to write your self-help book, find someone to team up with as a collaborator, or ask this person to write a valuable foreword for your book. I ended up with both a collaborator and a foreword writer with an important name in the special needs community (Temple Grandin).

* Start your outreach now. Begin building your author platform. Get a Facebook page and a blog if you’re going to create a memoir or a nonfiction book. If you want to write a novel, start writing regularly and working with a writer’s group to receive and give feedback and support (your fellow writers may well become your loyal readers!). If you’re blogging or on Facebook, ask your followers for feedback. Ask them questions to get them involved in a conversation, and respond to their answers. Encourage them to subscribe to your blog, like your page, and give you their email addresses so you can contact them in the future (you should offer a free gift, or a just a promise to send them information but never to sell their email address to anyone). Think about building a community of followers who talk among themselves and to you about your topic. These followers will not only buy your book when it’s ready, but they will also spread the word about the book or any other products or services you want to promote–not because you pay them but because they believe in you and your work and message.

* Make a habit of learning a little more every week. Notice I didn’t say make this a goal: I said make this a HABIT. Every week, schedule time to learn more about your topic and your audience and more about using social media, creating webinars and teleseminars, marketing, doing workshops and lectures, and getting the word out. If you don’t make time to do it, you will become overwhelmed by all there is to learn once your book is actually written. Set some boundaries so you don’t get sucked in to using social media so often that you don’t get any writing done–it can be addictive!

* Talk to a book publishing consultant or developmental editor early on in the process. It can be invaluable to toss ideas around with a knowledgeable publishing insider. It’s energizing to have a clear picture of your overall strategy and clarity about what you can do write now to get started creating your book. If you are going to contact me, do give me some details about your book project and whether you’re leaning toward self-publishing or building your platform then aiming to get a book deal. We can schedule a brainstorming session and focus in on your brand, your plan, and your action steps for getting closer to your goal right now. Email me at info@nancypeske.com and check out the services page on my website, www.nancypeske.com.

How to Write a Self-Help Book, Part 1: Structuring

Many people have enjoyed reading self-help books but when it comes to writing one, they don’t know where to begin. How do you organize the material?

A great self-help book takes the reader on a journey from problem to solution. Watch this new video I made about how to structure a self-help book into six key sections, then take out your favorite self-help book and look at the contents page. Does it have the structure I’ve outlined here? Does it have a variation it? It never ceases to amaze me how often this structure is used and yet no one talks about it!

If you get stuck, contact me at info@nancypeske.com and let me know what kind of help you need.

How Will a Ghostwriter Capture My Voice?

One of the main reasons people resist hiring a ghostwriter for their book is the fear that the ghostwriter will not capture their voice and the book will sound as if it’s been written by someone else.

To capture your voice, the ghostwriter needs to understand two important rules about writing your book for you:

Rule #1: A voice on the page is not the same as a person’s spoken voice. Back when I was studying English linguistics in college, I had to do a paper analyzing an actual conversation that I’d tape recorded and explain why the speakers were able to drop certain words or make certain grammatical errors without confusing the listener. When I transcribed the conversation word for word, “um” for “um,” with all the half-expressed thoughts in place, the result was a document few people could make sense of, and yet the actual conversation had proceeded smoothly. If you’ve ever had your speaking transcribed word for word, you may have been horrified by how often you interrupted yourself or spoke ungrammatically. A ghostwriter will create a voice on the page that captures the essence of your personality and how you express yourself, but this will be the voice you would write with if you were your English teacher’s dream student and you had plenty of time to craft your sentences and paragraphs.

 Rule #2: Your voice on the page should not sound uptight and stiff. An excellent ghostwriter will stick to the rules of grammar but help you avoid sounding too formal, stiff, and cold. Read a few pages of a biography of a favorite celebrity or two. Does it sound as if the celebrity wrote those words? Or has this rock star written about an “ameliorating effect” or a “problem with which I wrestled”? The ghostwriter and, later, the copyeditor are responsible for retaining the voice of the expert or celebrity whose name is on the book.

A ghostwriter will look at any material you’ve written in the past and talk to you about the voice. It may be that you basically like how you sound in your blog pieces but want to be sure your voice sounds energetic and commercial throughout your book. In that case, the ghostwriter can look carefully at the elements of your voice in those blog pieces and make sure to retain your catchphrases and rhythms. Your ghostwriter will avoid passive tense verbs and use strong ones–for example, writing “she decided” rather than “she made a decision.”

If you’re ever unhappy with what a ghostwriter has written for you, even if it’s just a simple word choice, speak up! It’s important that you feel comfortable with the voice your ghostwriter creates for you.

Think you need a ghost writer for your book? Contact me at info@nancypeske.com

 

How Will a Ghostwriter Capture My Voice?

One of the main reasons people resist hiring a ghostwriter for their book is the fear that the ghostwriter will not capture their voice, and the book will sound as if it’s been written by someone else.

 

To capture your voice, the ghostwriter needs to understand two important rules about writing your book for you:

 

Rule #1: A voice on the page is not the same as a person’s spoken voice. Back when I was studying English linguistics in college, I had to do a paper analyzing an actual conversation that I’d tape recorded and explain why the speakers were able to drop certain words or make certain grammatical errors without confusing the listener. When I transcribed the conversation word for word, “um” for “um,” with all the half-expressed thoughts in place, the result was a document few people could make sense of, and yet the actual conversation had proceeded smoothly. If you’ve ever had your speaking transcribed word for word, you may have been horrifed by how often you interrupted yourself, changed directions, or spoke ungrammatically. A ghostwriter will create a voice on the page that captures the essence of your personality and how you express yourself, but this will be the voice you would write with if you were your English teacher’s dream student and you and plenty of time to craft your sentences and paragraphs.

 

Rule #2: Your voice on the page should not sound uptight and stiff. An excellent ghostwriter will stick to the rules of grammar without making you sound tightly wound. Read a few pages of a biography of a favorite celebrity or two. Does it sound as if the celebrity wrote those words? Or has this rock star written about an “ameliorating effect” or a “problem with which I wrestled”? The ghostwriter and, later, the copyeditor are responsible for retaining the voice of the expert or celebrity whose name is on the book.

 

A ghostwriter will look at any material you’ve written in the past and talk to you about the voice. It may be that you basically like how you sound in your blogpieces but want to be sure your voice sounds energetic and commercial throughout your book. In that case, the ghostwriter can look carefully at the elements of your voice in those blogpieces and make sure to retain your catchphrases and rhythms.

 

If you’re ever unhappy with what a ghostwriter has written for you, even if it’s just a simple word choice, speak up! It’s important that you feel comfortable with the voice your ghostwriter creates for you.

Ghost Writer For Hire: Help Writing Your Book

One of my hats is ghostwriting, and I made a little promotional video about this service. (For those of you thinking of creating videos of your own to promote your work, I made this using iMovie software, stock photographs, and royalty free music, for under $20: check out www.FootageFirm.com for music and video clips, and www.istockphoto.com and www.bigstockphoto.com for photographs. I began with a script, looked for photographs to illustrate my core ideas, and found appropriate music from my collection.).

Ghostwriting is a skill that requires you to be attuned to your client’s voice. When I ghostwrite, I fuss over transition words (would that client say “then too” or “moreover”?), adjectives, sentence structure, first- versus second- or third-person, and the rhythms of a person’s spoken voice. I read samples of their past writing and talk to them about what they liked or didn’t like about their voice in those samples. I have no defensiveness when they tweak my writing, and I encourage them to tell me, “I wouldn’t use that word” (oops, my bad!) or “I wouldn’t say it quite that way; there’s a nuance I have to explain to you.” I remember one client telling me years ago, “I am gentle with my readers because they have a great deal of embarrassment about their situations, so I never say ‘You should’ or start a sentence with ‘Don’t.'” Wow, was that helpful feedback!

 

I think that to be a good ghostwriter, you have to have a firm grasp of voice in your own writing.

 

Who is your audience, and how would you like them to perceive you? Voice should reflect the relationship you want to create between you, the writer, and your reader. It is not simply about what you want to say and how you want to say it. As a developmental editor, I’ve been known to point out places in an author’s book where I think his tone is a little off and needs to be tempered. I know some people think that if you write books using your own voice, you can’t successfully switch over to writing in someone else’s voice. This simply isn’t true. It’s really a matter of setting aside your ego and tuning in to the other person’s energy, personality, and styles of speaking and writing.

One of the advantages of having me ghostwrite their books, my clients have discovered, is that when they are suddenly asked to write something short-form on a deadline, I can jump in easily to do it for them, not just because I know their ideas and material but because I know how they like to sound on the page or screen. For a busy professional running workshops and seminars, having a ghostwriter available can be an incredible asset even after the book is written. Jumping in to that role when you don’t know a person and his voice well is much harder, I am sure!

Need ghostwriting help? Contact me at info@nancypeske.com

 

Book publishing tips, the editorial process, and more on Let’s Talk About Books

Did you miss Let’s Talk About Books today? I addressed:

–getting over the perfectionism that keeps you futzing endlessly, and why this will trip you up

–why you should NOT try to get instant feedback on what you’ve written

–the stages of book production in a traditional publisher: How many changes can you make before “it’s a wrap”?

–using YouTube in your publicity efforts and to sell yourself to TV producers

–why you don’t have to be a celebrity or have a huge platform to sell a book these days

And more!

You can listen to the archive at LET’S TALK ABOUT BOOKS on Blogtalk Radio at any time; it runs 30 min.

“You Can’t Edit Your Life”–or can you? Thoughts on Memoir Writing

A client reported to me that a professional in the industry had made this observation after reading the book proposal for this client’s memoir: “You can’t edit your life.” I told her, “I disagree. Don’t we all do this every day?” Did you tell your spouse about that parking ticket you received, or did you just pay it? Did you reveal to your child that you, too, hated practicing the violin, or did you “edit out” that bit of information?

Reality TV shows are popular because they don’t depict reality in its raw, unedited form. That would be boring. Instead, they depict a very carefully directed and edited reality. The template for their narrative is very predictable. A memoir, too, has a carefully constructed narrative. It takes the reader on a journey through a story about the writer’s life. There are many ways to tell any story, and many stories you can tell. At your next family gathering, bring up an incident from twenty or thirty years ago and watch how everyone argues about the storytelling!

We unconsciously edit our lives, too. Our memory plastic and selective because our brains are wired that way. We recall the stories and details that support the narrative we’ve unconsciously chosen for ourselves. Think back to your earliest childhood memory. What is the theme of this snippet of your life? Now ask yourself, does that theme play out in my life? My first recollection is of being a toddler, watching my older brother take pots and pans out of a kitchen cupboard and bang them together, then seeing my mother rush in to quiet him. In my professional life, I loved to be a ghostwriter and developmental editor, which requires stepping back to make keen observations about others. Is it any wonder that I recall this particular moment of being the observer?

A memoirist faces the challenge of finding and weaving together stories that form a cohesive narrative with one key theme and several sub-themes. If she adds in every incident that she recalls, she’ll end up with an autobiography with an exhaustive amount of detail that may fascinate her offspring or her best friend, but which has limited appeal to anyone who doesn’t know her. Her challenge is to know what story she wants to tell and consciously select the memories that support it. Then, her challenge is to write about these incidents in such a way that they resonate for the reader. An ordinary story about the first day at kindergarten, or the first time she ate an oyster, can have tremendous depth and emotional charge, even if on the surface such incidents seem mundane.

So yes, you can edit your life. You can edit the stories of family members, ex-lovers, and friends, and even leave them out of your tale if you like. No, you can’t make up details, and you absolutely should question your motives in writing about other people in your life; are you getting back at someone, or writing about this person in order to make sense of it all? It’s okay if you’re writing a memoir to work through your feelings. Just be sure that when you get to the step of seeking publication, you reflect on whether this is the story you want to tell others—and why you wish to do so.

Making decisions about what to reveal can be very difficult, but the process of making these choices can be extremely empowering. To tell your story your way, and yet find the universal elements that will cause a complete stranger to find your memoir compelling, takes courage, craft, and commitment. It also takes editing your life

 

Platform Building and Community Building to Sell Your Book (And Build Your Brand)

Whether you self-publish, work with a small publisher or hybrid publisher, or get a book deal with a major publisher, you’re going to need a following of fans and an author platform to get the message out about your nonfiction book and your work. (Fiction is a bit different–if it’s a great read, you can be a nobody from nowhere but a platform and following can definitely help.) When it comes to how to build a platform, you’ve got more choices and opportunities than ever before. Don’t become overwhelmed! I can help you start strategizing how to build your platform and do community building.

Here are some ideas for author platform building and community building to sell your book and build your brand:

Embed into your email signature links to your website, blog, and social media pages. You never know who might want to check out what you do and take a look at your books, products, and services!

Write an article or be a guest blogger on a site that has a following. It’s good to have a lot of your writings out there. Be sure to ask the Web site owner to provide a live backlink to your site. I like to put it into the bio (for example, http://www.NancyPeske.com rather than simply typing in NancyPeske.com which won’t convert to a live link).

Come up with a free tip sheet, audio file (a guided visualization or perhaps an instructional audio), eBook (a PDF is fine), or other giveaway to entice people to sign up for your email list. Of course, this assumes you have an email list! Connect up your website with Constant Contact, MailChimp, or another newsletter service. Have a pop up sign up and another that’s worked into your Web site design.

Get an active community going on Facebook. My eBook 25 Powerful Ways to Get Engagement on Facebook can help. Keep in mind that a closed group will allow you to show posts to far more of your followers than a business page will. My Facebook closed group is called Nancy Peske’s Nonfiction Authors Community. 

Looking for even more ideas? Visit my site, sign up for my newsletter, and contact me if you’re ready for a one-hour consultation call to help you get your plan together for writing and publishing your book. I’m at info@nancypeske.com