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© 2011 Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D., J.D.
Accusations of planting false memories are in the news again. In the 1980s and 1990s ago, there were a spate of repressed memory claims by women who suddenly remembered that their fathers, step-fathers, teachers, or others had abused them and even subjected them to Satan rituals, and a number of accused perpetrators were convicted. Then in the early 1990s some of the accused fought back against the therapists, claiming these were false memories, and sometimes they won their cases and some patients retracted their claims, saying they had been swayed by the influence of their therapists to falsely believe something happened. Some patients even won million dollar verdicts against therapists for planting recovered memories. In fact, at the height of the interest in this topic, I wrote a fictionalized court case with two opposing attorneys, YOU THE JURY by Mark E. Roseman and William B. Craig, where one represented the victims claiming rediscovered memories and the other represented the accused claiming the memories were false. Then, the controversy seems to have died out for the past decade.
However, now the issue of repressed memories seems to have gained a new life, according to an ABC News Article about a woman claiming a psychologist hypnotized her into “believing she possessed multiple personalities and participated in satanic rituals.” And several others who were told they were part of a satanic cult may sue as well. As the article: “Therapist ‘Brainwashed’ Woman Into Believing She Was in a Satanic Cult, Attorney Says” explains, Lisa Nasseff, 41, of Saint Paul, Minnesota is suing her former therapist, Mark Schwarz, and the Castlewood Treatment Center in St. Louis, Missouri for creating this false memory. According to the suit, she went to the therapist there for 15 months to treat her anorexia, and when Schwarz hypnotized her to treat her depression and anxiety, she came to believe she had been involved in a satanic cult in which she participated in various criminal and other terrible acts. She even came to believe she had sacrificed her sister’s baby on Satan’s alter. Then she discovered other women treated at the facility who had similar stories of being in cults two or three years before but they didn’t know it until they remembered under treatment.
While the therapist and treatment center have denied doing any such thing, the False Memory Center, founded in 1992, supports the position that false memories can result from a variety of influences, such as the opinion of an authority figure, information repeated in a culture, and an individual wanting to please or conform. And creative imaginative people can find it especially easy to come up with all sorts of images in response to being influenced. So it is possible to possible to implant memories, including witnessing a demonic possession or being abused.
Well, assuming all of that is true about being able to implant all of these horrible memories, my question is what about the possibility of implanting good memories? Then, rather than wanting to sue their therapists or others implanting such memories, people might actually like to have such good memories, even if they are false, implanted in them. And the experience of these memories might be so powerful, that they might feel very real – or at least for a time, while they savor that great experience.
Then, if that’s the case, I could even imagine some entrepreneur creating a business of implanting good memories for someone to enjoy. For example, suppose one wants to remember a joyous experience of going somewhere with a romantic partner? What if one wants to recall wonderful childhood experiences with one’s friends or parents? Or what about recalling how one won the lottery and had a wonderful time going to fine restaurants and traveling to exotic destinations all over the world. One could even have exciting memories of past lives as other people. The possibilities are endless. Whoever is implanting the memories just has to find out what kind of positive memories someone wants to have and then use a deep hypnotic state to implant them, much like the therapists accused of planting false memories of abuse or ritual membership are supposed to have done.
In short, if it’s possible to implant harmful false memories, why wouldn’t it be possible to implant joyful false memories – and in that case, why wouldn’t many people want to do just that, and perhaps even replace their real memories of difficult times with happy memories that bring them satisfaction and joy.
So why not try it? It might be fun to remember the way you’d like things to be rather than remembering the way things really were – or at least you might like to enjoy the experience for a little while before coming back to reality and the way things are. Or then again, maybe it might be best to stay in touch with what’s really real. Or maybe not. I’m not sure. But sometimes I sure would like to pick and choose my memories. Would you? Or maybe not?
*****
Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books and a speaker/seminar leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional development, and writing and publishing books. Her latest books include THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING; WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; and USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF. She also helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She has a publishing company Changemakers Publishing and writes screenplays, both her own and for clients. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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There’s a new trend to rent instead of buy — a way to save money by renting what you only use once or occasionally rather than buying it. And you can make money, too, if you have items to rent. As described by Rob Baedeker in “Rent My Life” in the November 28th Newsweek, a growing number of Americans are becoming “rentrepreneurs” who are finding ways to make money by hiring out their personal belonging. It’s a movement being fueled by new startups dedicated to what some call “collaborative consumption”.
Baedeker describes how he tried out the approach by listing a camping trailer and then threw in an air mattress in his office, which he borrowed from a friend. Fortunately, everything went well when he rented to a man in town for a computer-programming camp, and he had a great experience with a second rental guest who just moved to the area to work as a customer service rep. He then rented out a few other things, including a wagon, blender, weed wacker, and other tools, making about $600 for the two weeks he did this.
I subsequently checked out some of these sites myself, including Rentalic.com and SnapGoods.com, which zero in on people renting things in your own area. Rentalic seemed to be the larger site with 2689 people and 1669 items to rent in the Oakland area, including surrounding cities, such as San Francisco, Hayward, and Berkeley, while SnapGoods only had about 150 people listed. Generally, people include photos of what they are renting, but not always.
When I looked at the variety of items and prices, I was especially intrigued by some of the more unusual items, which I thought might make great props for a film or costumes for a party, such as a gorilla suit for $10 a day or a parrot costume for $10 a day. I could even rent a ping pong table for $5 a day.
Yet, this idea of renting from private individuals rather than picking up most of what one wants from stores in town or the local shopping mall raised a number of concerns. First, as a consumer, would I really want to take the time to travel several miles renting a variety of items from different people who live miles apart from one another, even if they are within 5 or 10 miles from me? And then it would take even more time traveling back to return the items.
I can understand how people might want to rent larger items, such as renting a bike for $10 a day or renting unusual hard to get items like the gorilla suit or parrot costume. But people also were offering books for $1-3 a day, such as What the Social Classes Owe Each Other, 20th Century Fashion, American Humor, and Twitter Power. Would it be worth spending perhaps an hour or more renting and returning such books, versus finding them in a local library or going online and simply buying them?
My other concern is as a renter. Would it be worth the time of placing ads, fielding calls, and meeting with prospective rentees to make a few dollars for a book or other small item? Even if Baedeker made about $600 in two weeks, that’s only about $300 a week, and it seems like a serious investment of hours to earn this. For many people, the time spent for earning that amount of extra income wouldn’t be worth it.
Another concern is the potential problems that could occur both for renters and rentees using this approach. For example, even if people are required to have accounts on these services to rent out items or become renters, people can always create online identities. So I wonder how safe this process is, especially for the renter, who has strangers coming to his or her house. There have been reports of Craiglist posters getting robbed by people responding to their ads to sell items or by the people posting to ads finding they have been lured into a trap. This could be a problem for renters using this service, as well.
Then, too, what happens if an item which is rented gets damaged? I read a comment by an insurance agent that there wouldn’t be coverage for renting out property in this way. At least, SnapGoods has an agreement that all parties sign indicating that the company is providing insurance for damages. But if it’s a small item, the time for making a claim might not be worth it.
In short, I think this might be a great service for renting out larger items one isn’t using, as long as one checks out the person who is coming over to rent the item or the person doing the renting. And rentees might find this a great way to get some specialty or larger items. But for the small items, I’m not so sure renting makes sense. It seems like the amount of money earned and the time spent might make this a not very effective way to either earn money or find the items one wants. But at least it might be a great way to meet one’s neighbors, while being cautious that one isn’t meeting a robber or worse.
********
Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books and a speaker/seminar leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional development, and writing and publishing books. Her latest books include THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING; WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; and USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF. She also helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She has a publishing company Changemakers Publishing and writes screenplays, both her own and for clients. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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TURNING YOUR ANXIETY INTO CREATIVITY
I just read this article about how the anxiety everyone experiences from time to time can be good for you as well as destructive. As Alice Park describes in “The Two Faces of Anxiety” in the December 5th issue of Time, not all anxiety should be battled. Instead, sometimes you should embrace or even celebrate it, because “the hormones that drive anxiety can be powerful stimulants, arousing the senses to the fullest.” She also points out that besides the ordinary feelings of anxiety we all experience, various types of anxiety disorders affect about 40 million adult Americans — about 18% of the population.
Well, that discussion of anxiety got me thinking. If anxiety is so universal and can become severe enough to becomes a mental illness for nearly a fifth of the U.S. population, perhaps it could be mobilized in a positive way. After all, since it has the ability to stimulate the senses, some anxiety can contribute to evoking a good performance in whatever one seeks to do.
For example, successful performers on stage use that anxious feeling before they go on to do a great job, whereas their performance might be just ordinary without that charge of adrenalin produced by anxiety. This positive power of anxiety is the phenomenon psychologists call “challenge stress” which can fire up our competitive juices, so we give a peak performance, whereas if we feel overly anxious, that can undermine what we do. As psychologists and biologists point out, this experience of anxiety is actually a survival instinct, so we are poised to act in response to experiencing danger by flight, fight, or otherwise acting to protect ourselves.
In short, the ideal is to embrace and celebrate the challenge stress that fires you up to respond positively, when you feel you can effectively deal with a difficult situation, because you know what to do and have the resources needed to take action. By contrast, if you feel threat stress, when you don’t feel you can manage the situation, you can act in a destructive, non-productive way, such as if you feel panicky or feel frozen to act.
However, in either case, whatever you experience challenge or threat stress, you might be able to tame and transform it by directing it to creative ends. Then, as you take action, that can help you to overcome or reduce any feelings of stress, much like happens when a nervous performer steps on stage and suddenly performs at his or her peak. With too much anxiety, the actor can freeze, forget lines, or otherwise stumble. But with practice performers learn to manage any feelings of anxiety, so they smooth over the rough spots. So can you.
For example, say you are feeling anxious about something. One way to deal with it is to do something else to distract your attention. Such a response can be a form of escape, such as going for a walk in nature, going to a movie, calling friends on the phone, going to a party, or whatever brings you a sense of relief.
An alternative is to seek to do something creative, so you not only reduce or overcome feelings of anxiety, but you channel it into a creative project. For example, think of all the comedians who turn something they are anxious about into a subject of humor. Many writers turn their anxieties into a poem or story about what bothers them. Scriptwriters and filmmakers may use their anxiety to spark the beginning of a script or film. Artists and craftspeople may turn their feelings of anxiety into a painting or sculpture. You might even turn your anxieties into a making a great recipe for a dinner or a cake.
In turn, since everyone experiences some anxiety at some time, you will often find that others can relate to your story, art work, or other creative project, because they can see a reflection of their own anxiety there. Then, that awareness can help them experience a sense of release through sharing a common experience, with the result that they feel better too
In short, if you’re feeling anxious about something, you might productively channel those feelings into some kind of creative project. The result is you will not only feel less anxious and less stressed, but feel even more contented and happy because of experiencing satisfaction with whatever you have produced.
******
Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books and a speaker/seminar leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional development, and writing and publishing books. Her latest books include THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING; WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; and USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF. She also helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She has a publishing company Changemakers Publishing and writes screenplays, both her own and for clients. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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After I wrote my last post on “ghost posters” – writers who post in the social media for someone else, I got mostly supportive comments both to my own post and to the idea of ghost posting as a sign of the times, although a few considered any form of posting for others unethical and a form of fraud and deception. The remarks ranged from some writers who felt they had another career option to pursue to those who wanted to hear from the real writers or not at all.
My own view is that ghost posting is much like writing a book, speech, articles, blog, or even answering letters for others who don’t have the time, interest, or ability to write the material for themselves – though ghost posters commonly write only short paragraphs or 140 word Tweets to post on the myriad social media sites. I even wrote a song about all this called “Ghost Poster” which is being recorded in a few days, and here’s the link. Ghost Poster Song I’m planning to animate the song in a video, too.
Here I wanted to cite some of the mostly positive reactions I got that were posted in LinkedIn. First some of positives:
“Ghost Poster! A new career path. How ingenious.”
“That poem is funny!! It would only be a matter of time, I guess, before ‘ghost’ posters began to emerge and make money, because there are so many social media sites. It’s almost impossible to remain constant and visible on all of them for folks who need to remain active. Only thing…seems like it would be a very boring job.”
“I don’t see a thing wrong with ghost posting as a way to earn a living because you’re right – it is no different from the work being done by myriad ghostwriters and speechwriters out there. As you stated in your blog post, it’s only academic ghost writing that should really be frowned on….So I say to you a hearty…do whatever you have to do to earn a living as long as it’s legal and moral and right for you.”
“Interesting…I’m playing with all that too and am thinking the easiest way would be to write a series of contributions and have them posted for me, but then make sure I tap in at least once a week maybe?! Exploring possibilities…definitely want to keep it ‘real’!”
“A girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do when a girl’s got to do it. All you can do is offer and the folks who think it’s a good idea will be happy to pay you, no doubt.”
“Companies hire social media people all the time to get their message out on social networks. Why shouldn’t a busy individual?…The important thing for both company and individual is that the voice and ideas reflect the goals and personality of the company and individual.”
“I think it’s fascinating to see the new types of work that are being generated by the revolution in publishing…This is the first time I heard about ghost posting and I think it is wonderful! Let there be as much creativity and innovation as can be in this new climate of publishing.”
“It is common practice in small businesses (about which I know a lot) and probably in large corporations (about which I know little) to assign the “social networking blog” job to an employee who devotes their business hours to it…Just another form of ghost writing, but certainly it is in wide practice.”
And now the negatives:
“I have to agree with those who cry sham and fake. At least to a point. Twitter and other social media like them, I expect most of them to be ghostwritten. Yet it is somewhat of a disappointment to know you are probably not dealing with the real deal…There are a lot of areas where ghostwriting is the norm. Such as speechwriters and celebrities. And why not. A lot of the celebrities didn’t gain their fame by writing.”
“What a terrifying idea. While it may work to sell books, it is totally destructive of the underlying best purpose of social media, to create authentic interpersonal relationships that would otherwise be unavailable. Were I to learn that one of my fellow authors were doing something so basically disingenuous, I would do my best to tell others to not buy that writer’s work as it could no possibly have either good art nor good karma, only craft(iness).
“This controversy is very interesting…I have always said that unattributed ghosting is unethical although it’s an accepted practice in the book biz. Now ghosting has reached the outside world and ordinary people agree – there is something inherently deceptive about ghostwriting…There are many companies that hire bloggers but that’s different. You’re writing for a faceless corporation, not an individual.”
So there you have it. The many different types of responses I got so far to my blogs and postings on LinkedIn about this subject – mostly positive, but some very strong negatives.
So what do you think? I haven’t done any ghost posting myself yet and probably won’t, since I specialize in writing books, articles, and scripts for myself and clients, though I was considering hiring someone to post what I’ve written in different places.
******
Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books and a speaker/seminar leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional development, and writing and publishing books. Her latest books include THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING; WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; and USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF. She also helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She has a publishing company Changemakers Publishing and writes screenplays, both her own and for clients. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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When I wrote up my thoughts about ghost posting as something writers might do for employment at time of shrinking jobs for writers or for gaining more visibility by hiring others to post on the social media for them, I never imagined how controversial this topic would be. While some writers thought of this as a new kind of job they hadn’t considered, other writers and some publicists for them were appalled. They felt that readers wanted to hear from the real writers, not their stand-ins, and they decried the fakery of someone posing as that writer.
Yet, in thinking about ghost posting, I wondered how is this very different from the ghostwriter who pens a non-fiction book or novel for someone else or from the speech writer who writes what a politician, business person, or other speaker has to say. In fact, ghostwriting is a widely accepted profession today, and there is even an association of ghostwriters of which I’m a member. So how is ghost posting different? The posts may be shorter and there are many more of them are scattered widely on the social media. But in essence all of these writers are preparing copy to be used by someone else, and generally they are not recognized, since the client presents what they have written as their own.
The one type of ghostwriting that is frowned upon and may sometimes be illegal or result in severe consequences if discovered is academic ghosting, where a student presents someone else’s work as their own. However, this is a different situation in that someone is getting graded for a course or being judged qualified to receive a degree based on someone else’s work. So they may not really be worthy of that degree and may even harm someone by their lack of qualification, such as the doctor or lawyer who earned his degree by someone else taking his or her exams. By contrast, when a ghostwriter is hired for a book or a speech, this type of writing contributes to the client’s celebrity or presence and is widely accepted.
In any case, it seems like the use of ghost posters has been growing today along with the social media, and more and more writers are finding this a new type of career niche. I was even inspired by the controversy to write a song about this. So here it is. I call it: “Ghost Poster”. I’m still finalizing it, but I’m making arrangements for someone to write the music and record it, and there may even be a video for it in a few weeks. So here it is. I welcome your comments.
VERSE
I once worked as a writer.
Until money got tighter.
Now celebrities rule the day.
My old boss fired me.
But famous people hire me.
As their voice while they work and they play.
CHORUS
I don’t care what you say.
At least ghost clients pay.
And ghost posting is what more and more people do. I don’t care if it’s a sham.
A ghost poster’s what I am.
And who knows, you could be a ghost poster, too.
VERSE
So now I’m a ghost poster.
A social media ghoster,
I speak for others instead.
I’m their voice on Twitter.
Their Facebook babysitter.
I write like a ghost from the dead.
REPEAT CHORUS
So…
VERSE
Many don’t like my work.
They say I’m being a jerk.
It’s amazing how mad some folks feel.
They say it’s all fake.
Like a fraud on the take.
When a writer should be the real deal.
VERSE
But they’re fine with ghost writers,
And press or speech writers.
Who write the words others speak.
Yeah, it’s a crying shame,
If you don’t have the fame,
But at least you get paid for the week.
BRIDGE
So why not be a ghost poster if that’s what it takes.
To survive in a time of more and more fakes?
REPEAT CHORUS
So….
Copyright Gini Graham Scott CHANGEMAKERS MUSIC
6114 La Salle, #358. Oakland, CA 94611 (510) 339-1625 . changemakers@pacbell.net www.songworks.net
******
Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books and a speaker/seminar leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional development, and writing and publishing books. Her latest books include THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING; WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; and USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF. She also helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She has a publishing company Changemakers Publishing and writes screenplays, both her own and for clients. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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Writers often say they are overwhelmed by the social media. How do you keep up with all of the different networks to follow or be followed by your connections, friends, followers, or whatever they are called? There are so many of these social media sites now — LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Tumblr, and many more. Even Google+ recently started up with its circles upon circles. And new social networking sites, especially those targeted to a particular industry, keep popping up all the time.
One problem in keeping up is if you just drop in occasionally to post an announcement about yourself or your business is that the regulars on these networks don’t like it, and they might post a critical response putting you down. Sometimes they may simply call you out as an interloper, or they may find something to criticize about whatever book, service, or product you mention. Their reaction might be totally inaccurate or off the wall. But they have the benefit of being part of the ongoing conversation, and as a newcomer, you are likely to get drowned out. I know a number of writers who have turned tail after such a barrage of criticism, never to return to that particular group again.
Yet, if you manage to stick around and take the time to join the conversation, you could find prospective contacts or clients who might be drawn to what you do. However, it’s so hard to tell which of the social media sites will be really valuable to invest your time in, particularly when you only have a limited time, since you have to balance any time spent in marketing and promotion with writing or running your business.
So how does one find the time to have an ongoing social media presence? Well, perhaps you might do what many celebrities and businesses do — they hire someone to represent their voice and post for them, including responding to both those initiating posts and respond to their own. For example, I read about one woman, Anne Colbert, who has been posting for three or four celebrity clients at a time for several years, spending a few hours a day for each client. And many others have become surrogate posters, too. Of course, which clients one posts for is totally hush hush, because their followers, connections, and friends want to think they are communicating directly with the person they are following. In effect, these are ghost posters — a new kind of ghost writer, and if they are very good, they will accurately speak in their client’s voice, so you won’t even know they are there.
So for writers, this might be a new kind of career path. Master the many different social media and provide your services as a ghost poster. Alternatively, if you want to promote your own writing, services, or products, hire your own ghost poster.
Besides the more expensive established posters, you might find lower cost posters in various ways. One is through outsource services like Guru and Elance, which specialize in freelancers all over the world. Or you might find part-time employees, including students at local colleges and universities, closer to home. Figure the cost might be as little as $5-10 an hour, and if you can find someone you are comfortable speaking for you, the service might be well worth it.
You might start by familiarizing whoever you hire with yourself and your business and the key messages you want to convey. You might also provide some initial copy and talking points. Then, let your ghost poster take it from there, while referring any potential clients directly to you for your personal follow-up.
So, whatever route you take, good luck in pitching your services for ghost posting or in having someone act as a ghost poster for you.
And if you need help creating a ghost posting campaign, I can help. For more details on writing services, visit Changemakers Publishing and Writing at www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com.
*****
Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books and a speaker/seminar leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional development, and writing and publishing books. Her latest books include THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING; WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; and USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF. She also helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She has a publishing company Changemakers Publishing and writes screenplays, both her own and for clients. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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As you seek to promote your book or yourself, you may have speaking engagements or interviews. People may call you to ask you questions about your work before they book you as a speaker or ask you to be a guest. Well, this is a great opportunity to expand your reach even more by turning whatever you say into articles, blogs, or even a book. Plus, if you are speaking or doing a guest interview, you can videotape or record that — or get a copy of the video or audio recording — and post that on your website, blog, on Facebook, and on other video sharing sites.
A good way to start turning what you say into what you write is to make a transcript of the recording. Then, you can draw on the ideas expressed in that transcript to write an article, blog, or section of a book.
Normally, just transcribing a transcript isn’t enough, because we speak differently than we write. In speaking, you may ramble, have asides, digress to another topic, and of course, add in placeholders like “uhmmm” and “you know”. So you have to organize, edit, and polish up whatever you say. But it’s a good starting point, since you have laid out your ideas in your talk or interview.
In creating a transcript, figure on about 4 to 5 hours of typing to produce about 12 to 15 single spaced pages for each hour of speaking. So, a 15 to 20 minute talk or interview might take an hour to an hour and a half to type up, resulting in about 3 to 5 pages of copy. Then, when you reorganize and polish up your transcript, that could result in up to 2 or 3 articles of about 500-700 words — the ideal length for most articles today — depending on what you have said and how well this lends itself to one or a series of articles.
To turn your talk or interview into a transcript, set up a recorder next to your computer and preferably use earphones and a foot pedal, so you can more easily stop and restart the recorder while you continue to type. But just pushing the pause button — or starting and stopping the recorder — will work, too. To save time, forget about recording extraneous comments like “you know” and off-topic digressions. Just focus on what you want to include in your article or series of articles.
If you don’t have time for transcribing your recording, hire a typist, and to keep costs down, you might find a student at your local college to work at a low hourly rate or as a volunteer intern. Craigslist might be another source of a local typist.
Then, use your transcript to create your article. Depending on how much rewriting you need to do, you can reorganize and edit the file with your transcript — or use your transcript as a guide to write your article. Whichever way you do this, a good way to start is to think of the main themes in your talk or interview and use that to create your title. Or if you have talked enough about different themes, divide that up into separate articles.
Next, reorganize your talk or interview as necessary to create a good flow of ideas. Finally, rewrite, edit, or polish what is there. And voila! You have one or more articles you can use in various formats — from a stand-alone article or blog to a section of a book.
*****
Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books and a speaker/seminar leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional development, and writing and publishing books. Her latest books include THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING; WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; and USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF. She also helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She has a publishing company Changemakers Publishing and writes screenplays, both her own and for clients. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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Since platform and promotion has become so important today for selling books or getting a book deal with a publisher, the big question that many have is how do you do this? How do you gain that visibility in a time when there is so much clutter from millions of self-published books and celebrity has become the coin of the realm?
Here are some suggestions on what to do.
- Set up speaking engagements with a local group or create your own speaking engagement by inviting some friends to a conference room, meeting room, or banquet room in a local restaurant. Plan to talk about a topic featured in your book and arrange for a local videographer to film you from different angles as you speak. If you can’t afford the prices of local videographers (commonly about $50-125 an hour depending on where you are located and the videographer’s experience), you might contact a local school or media training center and you might pay a much lower price (say $15-35 an hour) or even get a volunteer to do this. Include the video in a 3-5 minute promotional video about you.
- If possible, arrange for two or preferably three speaking engagements, so you can cut them together in your video. Whoever is editing this should cut from you speaking to audience reactions, and perhaps even include cut aways of whatever you are talking about, such as a busy street if you are talking about life in the city.
- Post your video on YouTube and other video sharing sites, and also burn it on a CD or DVD and add in an attractive label. Then, use this video — or a series of these – to get other speaking engagements or interest the local media in doing an interview with you.
- Look for ways to tie whatr your book is about to the current news. Sometimes the media will find you when they are looking for someone to talk about a particular topic and your book pops up in search engines or on AMAZON. Or take the initiative by calling the local press, creating a press release and sending it out, or do both. In contacting the media, explain how you can comment on a current news topic because of your expertise on the subject, as featured in your book. For example, since one of my books is on lying, I was asked to comment on how and why people lie so much after some politicians were caught in lies or called others liars.
- Contact book fairs, literary clubs, and other organizations that might be interested in your topic to talk to them.
- Create a blog about your topic, such as through Word press, and ideally run your blog off your Website, so after visiting your blog, people might also explore your main Website.
- Write about 400-700 words for your blog, and turn each blog into an article which you can post on article sharing sites, such as ezinearticles.com.
- As you get more speaking engagements and articles published, add these to your bio and to a flyer listing all you have done. Also include this information in any proposals you send out to pitch your book.
- Create your own events that are tied to the topic of your book or future book. For example, have a book launch party and create a theme party around the book’s topic, such as I did when I had a “Bad Bosses Party” to celebrate the publication of A Survival Guide for Working with Bad Bosses. I invited members of the business community, including the head of the local Chamber of Commerce who introduced the event, and I created some Bad Boss games. The result was some local articles about the event. So think of what you might do to attract an audience and increase awareness of your book. Then, later add this to your bio and press kit.
And if you need help with creating your platform and promotion, that’s what we do — everything from strategizing your campaign to writing your promotional materials to contacting the media and creating a social media promotion for you. Details at www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com for writing and publishing, www.prandnetworkingconnection.com for doing a PR campaign using the traditional or social media.
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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books and a speaker/seminar leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional development, and writing and publishing books. Her latest books include THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING; WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; and USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF. She also helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She has a publishing company Changemakers Publishing and writes screenplays, both her own and for clients. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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One question that I frequently hear from new authors is how do you get published by a mainstream publisher? Sure, anyone can get published these days through various print-on-demand and e-book publishing platforms, where you pay anything from nothing if you format your book properly to about $500 with many companies to set up and publish your book. You just have to write about 50 or more pages on something, put it in a Word document or PDF, and you are ready to go.
But the big divide comes between those books that sell well, say 10,000 or more copies — a very tiny percentage — and most of the rest which average around 150 copies. The other big divide is between the traditional or mainstream publishers and the vast majority of self-published books (or maybe more accurately self-printed books, since often the service printing your book becomes the publisher, since you use their ISBN number, rather than your own).
For many people the dream is how do you bridge that divide? How do you find a mainstream publisher? It isn’t easy — and it’s become more competitive than ever, since agents and publishers are looking for authors with a platform — some way that these authors already stand out, such as by speaking, acquiring a large following in the social media, getting stories about them in the news, being a regular guest on TV shows, and the like. But many new writers don’t have that kind of platform. So what do you do?
I’d like to suggest a series of steps to break through.
1) Write a good book that’s sufficiently new and different from what’s already on the market. Plus write it well — and if you aren’t a professional or naturally good writer, ask a professional to write and polish a proposal for you with a couple of chapters, which is what I do for clients.
2) Build up a platform to show you can play an active and high-profile role in promoting your book. Look for speaking engagements, pitch yourself to the media as an expert on a topic so journalists and TV and radio show producers will ask you for your opinion on that topic — and keep a record of all your speaking engagements, quotes in the news, and TV/radio show appearances.
3) Before or while you are pitching your book to mainstream publishers and agents, self-publish your book (assuming it’s a good book as noted in #1), and use that book to build up a good track record for sales and promote yourself for speaking engagements and to the media.
4) Send out a query letter about your book to multiple agents and publishers and only describe it briefly with some information about you and how you can help promote it — keep your query to about 300-400 words and no attachments. You can send the proposal and some chapters later to those who want to learn more. (And if you need help knowing who to send it to, I can help you do that, too).
5) If you don’t immediately get a mainstream publisher or agent, use your self-published book to build your platform, and eventually you may do so well that you may find it more profitable to keep selling your book yourself. Or you may find a publisher interested in taking over your book — and you’ll get an even better deal, since you have shown there is a market for your book and you have built a great platform for yourself.
Should you need help with any of these steps, that’s what I do — help writers write, publish, and promote their own books through both the traditional and social media. See details on writing at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and on promotion at http://www.prandnetworkingconnection.com.
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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books and a speaker/seminar leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional development, and writing and publishing books. Her latest books include THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING; WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; and USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF. She also helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She has a publishing company Changemakers Publishing and writes screenplays, both her own and for clients. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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Now, after about a year, I’m starting this blog again. Primarily, I’ll be focusing on writing, publishing, indie filmmaking, and the film industry, as well as anything else that I happen to find interesting.
First, I’ll start with something of a diary to bring everyone up-to-date. The last year has been filled with uncertainty because of all the transitions in the publishing industry. Like many other business professionals and freelancers, I’ve been searching around for new directions with the collapse of the economy and transition in the publishing industry to high-profile celebrity authors.
Meanwhile, things have gotten worse and worse for most writers. With the growth of e-books and reduced sales of books generally, royalties and advances from traditional publishers have gone down. At the same time, there has been an explosion of self-published books, which has created a tremendous clutter in the market place, and increased difficulty for writers in promoting their own books. Plus most recently, I’ve read about new rental programs, so instead of buying a book, readers can now rent a download of it from a library or online rental service. So that means even less sales for writers, unless some formula can be found to pay writers each time a book is rented or downloaded — perhaps like the music industry has done in the face of massive piracy.
Another problem for writers is that somehow you need to get that news story or something to attract public attention for people to buy your book. Using the social media can help, if you can get information about your book in a news feed or in a group interested in your topic. However, I have found this process takes a tremendous amount of time, and just posting announcements often doesn’t work, in contrast to sending a press release to the traditional media which blasts it out if your release is of interest — and sometimes a reporter or TV or radio producer may call to invite you to be a guest.
By contrast, with the social media, your news announcements can quickly disappear in news feeds or in wall postings, as others add their own announcements. Also, if you post in a group, such as LinkedIn, you get the best reception if you build up a relationship with the other group members by repeated postings and commenting on other posts. If you just make an announcement, it can often be ignored, or sometimes one of the long-time denizens of the group may blast you as an intruder, and then others in the group may join in the chorus putting down whatever you are trying to promote. So, while the social media can be very important, it can backfire as well as being time consuming. But even so, like climbing a mountain, it can be worth doing, and eventually, you may figure out how to climb more quickly and get to the top, which I’m still doing. In fact, after updating my websites on publishing and promotion, I’m planning my next blast.
More tomorrow — and if you want more information on how I can help you write, publish and promote your books through both the traditional and social media, my Website is www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com. See you on the top!
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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books and a speaker/seminar leader, specializing in social trends, work relationships, professional development, and writing and publishing books. Her latest books include THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING; WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; and USING LINKEDIN TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS OR YOURSELF. She also helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and find publishers and agents through Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She has a publishing company Changemakers Publishing and writes screenplays, both her own and for clients. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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