Gordon Burgett S Newsletter
Gordon Burgett’s Newsletter
for writers, speakers, publishers, and product developers
May 4, 2010
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A new way to display your book or newsletter.
My friend Dan Poynter sent me information I wan some eye-opening
FlipViewer Software for Newsletters and Books.My friend Dan Poynter sent me information about a great new process for sharing newsletters and books that I want you to see.
Using the all-new Global Speakers Network Newsbrief as the model, you can see the new software, called flipviewer, in action while you pick up some speaking-related tips.
Here is the 1 May issue of the all-new NewsBrief.
It is a member-benefit of the Global Speakers Network.
Now in its fourth year, the NewsBrief has undergone a revolutionary makeover.
This time, we are not only bringing you the very latest information on international speaking, this NewsBrief demonstrates FlipViewer® software.
To see the newsletter, click on
For comparison, or if you have any difficulty with this URL, a PDF version is attached.
Follow the links. Especially, the new Global Speakers Federation theme song on page 3.
Just click on the link to see and hear it.
To turn the pages, use your cursor and mouse to drag them to the right or to the left. You may also click on the edge of the pages to turn them.
If you click on the center of the page, the page will grow larger.
This may make the pages easier to read if you have a small screen. And t
Test the icons on the left side and the top of the screen.
See the Share icon second down on the left.
If you like this newsletter, you may use the Share feature to forward it to colleagues.
You can help to build Global Speakers Network and international speaking by showing colleagues this member benefit.
Do it now. Other speakers will appreciate your thoughtfulness.
Save. See the icon 5 down on the left.
You may use it to save this newsletter to your hard drive for future reference.
While you will not have to be online to read the newsletter, you will note that some of the icon choices will be missing.
Imagine your newsletter and books available in FlipViewer®.
Disclosure. All of my publishing books are available as FlipBooks. I'm also using FlipViewer® for my newsletters. I love the technology.
For more information on this “fabulous technology,”says Dan, see Get more information and see another demo.
Contact the company at
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Some informative ancillary publishing house organs
If I look at house organs (here, the digital monthlies published by the affiliate publishers) at all, it’s fast and with my usual newspaper-writing skepticism. But there are a couple that regularly have good information that will help you in your quest to sell your book(s).
I particularly like Mark Coker’s smashwords monthly. Not that I think I’ll get rich from their sales of my tomes (I’m not giving up hope!) but because he is working so hard at setting that firm up right—and he gives us lots of insight along the way. Like the April issue where he discusses the IRS quest to get our withholding money. (Don’t worry, we will get 1099s, but if you aren’t a U.S. citizen and are publishing there you should contact him about possible withholding reductions.)
And Create Space’s monthly is particularly good on social networking. The latest issue has a short article by Richard Ridley that describes some large but little known sites worth investigating, like Cafemom, flixter, LinkedIn, Tagged, Ning, hi5, Yuku, Orkut, Affinity Labs, and LiveJournal..
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Take the cure before you get the disease…
The disease is writing your book (or almost anything else) three or four times from inception to publication. Mind you, it could be worse, like the bubonic plague or the shingles that found my grandmother in her 80s.
But if you write something four times we miss out on being able to read at least three times more information from you. And you waste a ton of needless time and energy doing something that can be done once, then improved when you have the whole book in mind.
About three months back I was reviewing a near-ready book through my Pathfinder program. The gentleman could write well enough, the text was very well proofed, and the format (style) was clean. Except that the book made little sense—and had completely missed any buyers. Instead of providing any usable information or steps, it was 80% the author’s complaints and whimsical, vague thoughts about what might have been in his field if only, I guess, life had stopped in the 1940s or if innovations hadn’t thoughtlessly occurred or if his dumb colleagues saw things his way.
Even sadder, he told me that it had taken him months to write each of the nine chapters. He said he had rewritten every sentence at least five times before it was “ready.” Could he hear my groan?
What’s the cure?
Simply ask what you want your book to do. Specifically, in one sentence or two. And for whom? What will those target readers get from your words? Will they eagerly rush to buy your new book to get those benefits?
How can you know what they will buy? Find out what they need (or seriously want) to know but can’t get in an up-to-date, clear, step-by-step fashion. Read the newsletters and journals in the field. Ask 15 (or 30) people in the core field what one thing they would pay $25 to know if a book answering that specific need existed. (The answer is yes, I’ve done it. It’s a pain, shocking, and the best advice I ever received or give.) Be an interested journalist writing a trade article, ask the question, and keep quiet as you write down the answer. Then ask the person to explain their reply a bit more.
You say that they will always pick something you know little or nothing about. Precisely, and that’s the book that will sell best. All you have to do is ask more questions to those who know the answer(s), add research that roots in and expands, organize the new knowledge in easy-to-apply fashion, find a grabber title and a clarifying subtitle, and (if your book is in a niche field) conduct a market pre-test before you actually write the text.
That’s the first half of the cure. The second half comes after your book is fully outlined and most of the fact-finding and interviewing is finished. I call it one-step writing.
If you’ve created a workbook in which you are segregating your facts, clippings, taped interviews, and thoughts by chapter, you are ready to one-step write. Go to any chapter, start writing it, and don’t quit or go backward until it’s done. No editing, no changing, just get everything down. If you think of something on page 14 that should be inserted on page 11, write it and put EARLIER at the beginning or end, then keep going.
In an ideal world, you create the entire book in just that fashion. (It’s how professional writers write. There are exceptions—slow book-writing ones—but most writers become professionals only because they learn this technique and discipline.)
Then you go back and have your way with each chapter. Cross out what doesn’t work, insert better words, stronger or more believable examples, a chart or a checklist. Maybe move items to other chapters, or delete chapters altogether. (I much prefer to print out the first draft and handwrite all changes on the paper. If there is a major insert, I type it out and paste it in.)
Then you read that corrected second draft, and perhaps ask knowing readers to review a chapter or two. Acknowledge them in the book later, and give them a signed copy or two in gratitude. Any changes in this third reading are inserted, and off it goes to a no-nonsense proofreader. Make the proofing changes, and the book is ready to print.
The virtue of this not-very-unique process, the cure first, is that you now have buyers who, once they know your book exists, will eagerly purchase their own copy. And what you write will make sense from the outset, be far easier to put on paper, provide the questions that your interviews and research will answer, and will be a valuable addition to the needed literature in your field.
That’s it. I guess if you’re writing poetry or novels you can sit at the keyboard and let the book flow through you. That’s sort of what my client did, and when the flow made little sense he reworded and reworded until he was out of words or he just had to move on. He struggled mightily to get the disease.
Incidentally, if you’re empire building, there’s one major change. You find a field you care about and want to champion, then zero in on one starter core topic where you can become the expert. You move out from that core, laying out the means you will use to share your expertise. Mostly, though, it’s the same cure: you know from early on where you’re going, why, and who will join in your parade.
I know, I’m sucking out all the charm and magic from book writing! It’s really the reverse. There’s no magic in useless drudgery and very little charm in writing or printing books that nobody wants.
[You don’t even want to hear Dr. Burgett’s other cure: remove two adjectives and one adverb and write, don’t call, in the morning.]
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The archives of past newsletter issues are hiding at And my blog is at
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Finally, my bio is at
Best wishes,
Gordon Burgett
P.O. Box 845
Novato, CA94948
(800) 563-1454