Product
Jumpstart Your Writing with the Four P’s
1
The Four P’s (Product, Promotion, Place, and Price) are components of the Marketing Mix, a planning model developed by Neil H. Borden in the sixties. The fact that it has been around so long is a testament to its effectiveness as a business tool. Writers, like it or not, must think like business managers if they want to sell their work. But, how do you adapt this model to your own situation?
In previous articles, I have described how writers can use this tool. See the article links at the end of this post. Rather than telling you how to use the Four P’s, today I will show you how I use it for Blog4writers. And, don’t forget, you take the customer’s point of view, not yours.
Product: Blog4writers is a free online collection of articles and resources for writers seeking to publish their work. Although it is targeted to Christian writers, those who write for secular markets will also find useful information here.
- Articles are less than 500 words and contain links to further information.
- Topics (categories) are marketing, websites and blogs, writers’ resources (online and print), “Get Organized,” and inspirational.
- In the marketing category, articles are marked with sub-categories Product, Place, Promotion, and Price.
Promotion: I use standard blog promotion methods, but word of mouth has worked best for me. The people who have met me, either online or in person, are most likely to subscribe. Here’s a list of my promotion methods.
- I post on Facebook and Twitter announcing new articles. I usually wait until after the subscription feed has been out a day or two. That way, I can tell whether traffic is coming from the feed or from the social networks.
- I belong to three online Christian writers’ groups. If someone on those groups asks a question, I check to see if I have an article on the blog that answers that question. I then post the link to the group.
- I ordered free business cards from Vistaprint promoting Blog4writers and carry them with me so that I don’t miss an opportunity to promote!
Place: In manufacturing, the Place component applies to the distribution—how the customer accesses the product. Users access Blog4Writers via the Internet. Also, I “place” the URL in my other blogs and in my e-mail signature to remind people that it’s available.
Price: Well, for Blog4writers, that’s easy. It’s free to anyone who takes the time to check it out. Maybe not exactly free, though. You do have to spend a little effort to search for the information you need.
Four P’s analysis can be used for projects large and small, for your entire writing effort or just for one part of it. It makes you think about what you’re trying to do, and it jumpstarts your creative thought processes. Try it, and let me know how it works out.
My previous articles:
Golden Rule Marketing for Writers
Marketing: Developing Your Brand
0
Writers often say that they know nothing about marketing. The truth is, we writers participate in marketing practically every day. When we go shopping or when we plug into our electronic media, we encounter marketing messages and techniques. Why not take note of the techniques that businesses use and adapt them to marketing our writing?
Branding is a concept that’s used to market everything from toothpaste to luxury cars. “Levi’s” means “jeans” to most people, although many companies produce jeans besides Levi Strauss. Similarly, Kimberly Clark Corporation owns the trademark to the word “Kleenex,” yet it has come to mean “facial tissue” in everyday language. When people hear your name, do they automatically think of your writing? For example, when you hear Rick Warren’s name, does “purpose-driven” come to mind? (more…)
Grammar and Style Link Roundup
0
For the past few weeks, posts on Blog4writers have dealt with grammar and style. This week, I’ve spent some time locating online grammar and style resources and tutorials. Keeping your grammar and style skills in shape is a necessary discipline for writers wanting to publish their work.
Tutorials and Resources:
General Grammar and Style Resources
Easily Confused or Misused Words
Clichés: Avoid Them like the Plaque
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) Style Handout
Free English Grammar Tutorials
Grammar, Usage, and Style Cheat Sheet
Blogs:
Blog for Writers. Kathy Ide, author of Polishing the PUGS, has a blog on her site where she posts grammar and style pointers regularly.
Daily Grammar Lessons. This one features a grammar quiz (with answers) in each post.
I recommend that you subscribe to both of these blogs. Neither offers e-mail subscriptions, but you can subscribe by RSS feed. If you need help with that process, see my article on the subject here.
Style Errors That Scream “Amateur”
4
Maybe a better title for this post would be “Grammar Rant.” Recently, I’ve noticed obvious grammar and style errors in both print and online publications. I wonder whether these publishers are short-handed in the editorial department or just not using editors at all. At any rate, here’s a list of grammar and style errors that are most common in the writing I’ve evaluated lately.
If you are trying to get your writing published, make sure your work is free of these marks of the amateur. (more…)
In-Style Writing
0
Recently, I posted a book review of Alpha Teach Yourself Grammar and Style. Read the entire post here. If you choose not to read the review, I’ll refresh your memory. Grammar, the mechanics of language, is not the same as style. “Style” means “a distinctive manner of expression,” according to Merriam Webster online dictionary. As you ground yourself in grammar, you should also work on developing a unique personal style that adheres to the style guides for your intended market.
Magazines and newspapers usually follow Associated Press style. Book publishers, however, use the Chicago Manual of Style. Check out the following style guides, and, if you’re not familiar with them, now’s the time to enlighten yourself. Public libraries might have some of them in their reference sections. (more…)
Marketing: Selling and Re-Selling
0
Writing for peanuts—that’s what you’ll be doing if you sell each article, story, or poem only once. You may be tempted to skip this article if you’re still trying to get your first piece published. Resist the temptation, because, once you do sell something, you can sell it again as long as you don’t sell all rights. Keep submitting according to publisher guidelines, and follow this plan.
Avoid all rights and work-for-hire. If you’ve never been published, and an editor wants to buy all rights, you may decide to agree just to get something in print. There’s no shame in that, but you won’t be able to re-sell that piece, ever. Work-for-hire pays pretty well, but, again, you give up any and all rights to your work.
Submit until you’re accepted. Sell first rights or non-exclusive rights only. Once the first-rights piece has appeared in print, you can sell any number of reprints to others. Some publications will accept simultaneous submissions, but you must inform them when you submit. If it’s a first-rights piece that’s being considered, you can sell first rights to the first editor who responds. Then you should notify the others that first rights are no longer available.
Sell reprints (as-is or piecemeal). Once the piece is eligible for reprint, submit it to other editors with no changes. I’ve found that this is not impossible but definitely difficult. Rarely will you find two publications whose guidelines are exactly alike, but you can find publications that are similar enough that you can submit with minimal changes. Most editors want to know when and where the reprint article has appeared, mainly to be sure a competitor has not used it. In the Sunday School papers market, for example, most readers will not see any paper other than the one published by their denomination.
A 1500-word article might be divided into three 500-word articles and sold separately or as a series. Each smaller article would qualify as a single reprint. Usually, you don’t get paid as much for reprints as for first rights, but this approach might soften the blow a bit. Again, you will have to tell the editor when and where the article(s) appeared.
Submit regularly, and always be on the lookout for markets for your reprint sales. You won’t get rich quick writing for publication, but you don’t have to write for peanuts.
This is the last of three posts on crafting your product for the marketplace. Previous posts were “Editing Your Work” and “Who Is Your Customer?”
Other Resources:
Details on the various types of rights
Marketing: Editing Your Work
4
This is the second post in 3-part series on crafting your work for the marketplace. See the previous post here.
What does editing have to do with marketing? Well, since the quality of your product will affect its “saleability,” you need some quality control measures. Publishing houses just don’t have the resources to do extensive edits on the mountain of submissions they receive. They routinely reject manuscripts that are shot through with spelling, grammar, and usage errors. So—don’t handicap yourself by submitting your work without thorough proofreading and editing.
Self-editing is the only way to make sure you submit your very best work, short of hiring a proofreader. Here are a few of the methods I use to edit my articles.
- Use the features of your word processor. I use MS Word 2007 which includes a plethora of editing helps that go way beyond the standard spellchecker. Settings appear on the Microsoft Office Button menu under Word Options, then Proofing. You can choose grammar and style as well as readability statistics. My last post on this blog rated 7.0 on the Flesch Kincaid readability scale. That means the reading level is 7th grade. Check here to find out how this is calculated. If you use a different word processor, explore your help section or search online for help on how to use the features you have.
- Perform a screen edit. The spelling and grammar checkers will not catch some errors. For example, I recently caught an error where “pane” was used instead of “pain.” Spellings of people’s names are rarely in the spell-check dictionary. As you read through your work on-screen, sometimes it occurs to you that you should re-order a sentence or shorten run-on sentences. Reading out loud can help you catch awkward constructions, too.
- Print a hard copy. Once you’ve corrected the errors you’ve found, it’s time to print it out. This is a good time to let the document sit overnight, if possible. I was taught to “let it rest” in my high school English classes, and it’s one of the most useful things I learned there. Mark the errors you find on the hard copy. Read it aloud again, and mark revisions to transfer to the electronic file.
If you think this might be more time-consuming that the original writing, you’re right. A familiar writers’ adage is “writing is rewriting.” Resist the temptation to send your first draft after you’ve run the spellchecker. A thorough self-edit might cost you some time but it will earn the editor’s attention when you submit.
Online Helps:
Marketing: Who Is Your Customer?
0
This is the first in a series of marketing posts dealing with crafting your product for the marketplace. Subscribe to the blog feed to get the updates as they are posted.
You are a writer. You’d like to get your work published. If you are a beginning writer, your best chance to get published quickly is to submit short pieces to magazines. You might produce articles, short stories, puzzles, and poems. If you’ve had your work published, but you’re not getting regular acceptances, perhaps you need a fresh approach.
Think of yourself as a manufacturer. Most writers think of themselves as artists. If you write for your own purposes, there’s no need to worry about what others think of your work. However, if you want someone to publish it, you enter a different realm, the world of business. Imagine yourself as a manufacturer of a physical product. As you plan and manufacture it, are you thinking about your customer? Are you building something you like, or are you creating a product that people need or want?
The publisher is the retailer. Because publishers can’t accept every piece of writing that is submitted to them, they only buy products that they know will interest their readers. You are the producer, and you have to sell your product to the retailer. Publishers have to know their customers—what they need and want. They will not buy your work if it does not fit the specifications for what their typical reader likes. As manufacturer, you have to craft your product to impress two customers, readers (end users) and the publisher’s representative, the editor.
What does the reader want? Find a one or more copies of your target publication. Use the table of contents to summarize the number and subject matter of articles. Read some articles to get a feel for the preferred style. Find the writer’s guidelines for the publication to get specifics on what the publication wants. Usually, you can find guidelines on the publisher’s Web site. If not, you’ll need to find the listing in the market guide and write or e-mail to request guidelines.
What does the editor want? First, be sure that you follow the guidelines to the letter. Some editors toss every piece that does not comply with guidelines. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by ignoring guidelines. Next, make sure you offer a quality product. Editors do not exist to re-work your writing. Their job is to find pieces that fill their need with the least amount of editing. New writers, consider finding a freelance editor to critique or edit your work before you submit. You might have to pay for the service, but consider it part of your education as you learn to write for publication.
Yes, a writer who is in business to get published must consider his or her customers from beginning to end of the creative process.
Previous posts on on product quality here.
Next post: Editing Your Work
Product Quality
0This post updated 6-1-2010.
The first step in developing your marketing plan is to define your product. Once you’ve identified your specialty, you’ll need to compare your product to competitors’ products. When you try to sell your articles, books, or editing services, you will be competing with others for customers. A piece of writing has product features that publishers (and the agents who serve them) expect to see in work they buy. While there are many sub-categories, the publishers look for content relevant to their target market, writing that needs little editing (style), and writers who adhere to their stated guidelines (professionalism).
Content
Look to Writers Market or Sally Stuart’s Christian market guide to be sure you are submitting your work to a publisher that wants your subject matter and genre. If you don’t have the market guides, sometimes you can find writers’ guidelines by searching for a publisher online. Of course, you have to know the name of the publisher. In the Christian market, you must consider theology also. The various denominations have very different views of doctrinal issues, especially if your work is nonfiction.
Style
Different markets use different style guides. If you write or edit for magazines, you need to know Associated Press style. Book writers and editors should be thoroughly familiar with the Chicago Manual of Style. There are preferred dictionaries for the different markets, too. The recommended manuals for the secular or Christian markets are listed in Kathy Ide’s editing course.
Book publishers (or authors of books or short stories that will be included in books, fiction or nonfiction):
- The Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition, published in 2003), online subscription available for $35/year, new print edition coming soon.
- Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition, C 2003), also online. The dictionary search is free, and premium services include access to the unabridged dictionary and Encylopedia Britannica.
- The Associated Press Stylebook, updated every year. Online subscription for $25/year.
- Webster’s New World College Dictionary (C 2004)
Some Christian publishers (books or articles):
Academic writing may require the use of one of the following guides:
- A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) by Kate A. Turabian.
- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
- MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.
If this list is not familiar to you, now’s the time to check out these resources. Choose the ones that are used for the genre you have chosen as your product. Writers who want to be published cannot rely on their knowledge of English from high school or college. You stand a better chance of selling your work if you know and conform to the style guides the publishers use.
Professionalism
Every publisher has established guidelines instructing you how to submit your work. Some publishers only take submissions through agents. Agents often have their own guidelines for submissions from prospective clients. Here’s an example. Regardless of whether you’re selling direct or through an agent, nothing screams “amateur” like a submission that does not adhere to guidelines. If you won’t take the time and effort to submit your work in the requested format, you’re telling the publisher or agent that you might have a problem following directions. You are selling your writing, but you are also selling yourself as a professional. Always, always, always…adhere to the guidelines.
Next post: Promotion: First, A Tagline
Defining Your Product
1What are you selling? You might say you aren’t selling anything. You are a writer/editor, not a salesperson. Think again. You may be a crafter of great stories, but someone must sell the stories to a magazine or the books to an editor. You may be a crackerjack editor, but how will you get clients if you don’t sell your services?
Notice I used the word “selling” rather than “marketing.” Somehow, in our society, we have come to think of selling as manipulative or dishonorable. Marketing, however, is less offensive because it evokes images of a farmers market or flea market. Buyers cruise among the sellers and choose what they want without pressure, but the vendors who step out of their stalls and interact with prospective customers sell more product. Selling is the end result of marketing. In the words of business writer/speaker Harvey Mackay, “There are no jobs until someone sells something.”
If you’re a freelance writer, editor, or writing coach, someone must sell your product or service. That means you need a marketing plan. If you haven’t read my article on applying the Marketing Mix approach to your marketing plan, take a minute to read it now on the Marketing Mix page. Now, the first step in developing your plan is to define your product.
What Is Your Genre Specialty?
Writers and editors often specialize in one or two genres. It’s hard to achieve excellence in all of them. Within the fiction genre, there are a number of sub-categories. See a list here. The same goes for nonfiction, ranging from simple how-to books to “heavy” academic publications. Take a sheet of paper and mark off four columns, one each for product, promotion, place and price. In the product column, list the genres that you prefer. You might even want to list them in order of your preference. For example, I write and edit articles and devotionals, but my favorite genre is how-to. I would list that first.
Once you’ve identified your product specialty, the next step is to define the quality of the product you offer. The subject of the next post will be Product: Quality Control. If you aren’t already subscribed to this blog, do so now so that you won’t miss the follow-up.
