Some thoughts on protecting your author blog content

People can be jerks. I know that’s not really a news flash, but it’s important to remember, because if you’re posting your work on the Internet, some of those jerks are liable to steal it. Here’s the absolute truth: If you want to protect your content so that no one ever steals it, don’t publish it. Anywhere. Ever. Because all the protecting in the world is not going to stop someone who really wants to copy your stuff from doing it.

Am I in any way implying that this is OK? NO WAY. No. Not OK. Stealing other people’s content = bad. Really bad. It’s just that stopping the ones who are intent on doing it can be a pretty challenging endeavor. And it’s not just blog copy. I have a friend who was the dog daycare pioneer in Phoenix. She is a master marketer and had a website with very clever content. One day, she received a phone call from someone inquiring about a job opening advertised on her site. She asked where the person lived so she could give them directions to come in for an interview – and it turns out they lived in Maryland. No – they were not looking to relocate to Phoenix. They were looking at a site for a dog daycare in Maryland whose Web folks had stolen the entire content of my friend’s site – right down to the job descriptions. Only they forgot to change the phone number on this particular page.

My friend was understandably angry, but she chose not to pursue legal action, knowing the fight would be long, ugly, and expensive. Instead, she gave it up to the gods of “what comes around goes around” – also known as karma. I think she did the right thing.

All that being said, you obviously would prefer that people didn’t steal your content. So how can you protect yourself? Well here’s where I’m going to turn things over to someone who’s much more of an expert on this subject than I am. Awesomely Luvvie did a post about this very subject of protecting your content, and I HIGHLY encourage you to go and read it through, because it has tons of great information, including:

• Knowing your rights
• Monitoring your work
• Stating your permissions
• Registering your work
• Defending your work

This post has too much good information for me to even begin to synthesize, so please go read it! Just to give you a taste, here’s the opening of the section about knowing your rights:

Know Your Rights as a Content Producer

The first way you need you protect your content is by knowing your rights. The moment you press “publish” on a post, you own it. You don’t need to have your work federally registered to prove that you own the rights to it. Yes, having the official “copyright” from the government makes getting damages easier, but it isn’t necessary. So your blog post is yours.

Here’s my own last bit of advice on this subject:

What you think about you bring about, so don’t spend a lot of time worrying that someone’s going to steal your content. A number of years ago, a photographer took a famous photo of the full moon shining over a bluff in California that was made into posters and greeting cards. Then the Internet came along, and people who liked the picture began posting it on their sites. For a while, the photographer made his living suing people who had used his image without permission. All I kept thinking when I heard that story was, “Really? Why didn’t he just go take another great picture?”

It’s the World Wide Web. People share things. Sometimes they borrow inadvertently; sometimes they flat out steal stuff. Either way, it may happen to you. So what will you do about it? Get mad and drive yourself crazy, or get even by writing even more great content to share with the world?

MARCIE

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PREVIOUS POSTS

Friday, April 6 – Flag maps show Marcie’s connection to the rest of the world!

Wednesday, April 4 – Why is targeted traffic to your author blog/site so important?

Thursday, March 29 – Which came first, the book or the blog?

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Do your writing and book marketing projects have goal dates?

Whether it’s your writing process or your marketing plan, do you have goal dates attached to your projects? Do you have a timeline, a series of deadlines, a goal list, or some general thoughts that one day you’ll get it all organized? Timelines – even for those of us who resist discipline as a confining box – are our friends. Though the word may have something of a negative connotation, deadlines help us accomplish our goals. If it’s the word itself that causes you anxiety, change the word. Use timeline, goal date, or ADOC (anticipated date of completion) instead.

You may have heard of the concept of SMART goals:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Achievable

R – Relevant

T – Time-bound

The date aspect may be the most important, because a goal without a date is nothing more than a wish. Without a date attached to your goal, you’re not really committed.

This came up recently for me when I was sharing my progress on a project with my coach. I was fortunate enough to get an audience with a valuable expert on my topic, and at the conclusion of our conversation she asked when I expected to finish my project. The best answer I could offer in that moment was, “It’s still a ways off, but I’ll let you know.” My coach, of course, suggested that I set a goal date for completion of this project! What a novel idea.

When you set a goal with a date, it becomes an affirmation – a commitment to achieve the goal and see it through to manifestation or reality.

Those who teach and subscribe to the Law of Attraction (the belief that what we focus on is what we create) often suggest adding a postscript to the end of your affirmations: “This or something better.” The thinking is that God/Spirit/the Universe is grander than we can even imagine, so what we, in our humanness, might think to affirm could be much less than what we might actually achieve/receive. So rather than limiting our affirmations to our human perceptions, we add “this or something better,” to make room for the grandest possible results.

Here’s to setting and meeting your deadlines!

Laura

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We welcome and encourage your thoughtful, courteous comments below.

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Visit the Write | Market | Design Facebook page to meet other authors and aspiring authors who have a sincere interest in writing, publishing, and selling the best books they can. And if you need a self-publishing consultant in your corner for anything from advice on structure to developing a marketing strategy, drop us a note at MarcieBrock@WriteMarketDesign.com or give us a call at 602.518.5376!

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Advice-giving can be a dangerous business

If you propose to speak, always ask yourself:
Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?
— Buddha
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A friend used to tease that my instincts as an editor must make life challenging for me because I see the errors or problems in so many situations. While that’s not an utterly inaccurate assessment, I prefer to view it as often seeing ways to improve things.

However, since I’m neither omniscient nor infallible, my way to improve things is usually just my opinion and/or suggestion. Unless, of course, it is a case of noticing something that is just flat-out incorrect.

Such is the situation with the current Infinity commercial, in which the announcer says, “If everyone accepted the status quo, the world would still be flat.” Actually, no. The world was never flat, so it could not still be flat. Even following the analogy they seemed to be attempting to its logical conclusion, chances are, by this date in 2012, someone other than Aristotle (384-322 BC; argued in his writings that the earth was spherical) or Columbus (1451-1506; reached India by sailing west from Spain because he knew the planet was round) would have long since proven the orbed nature of the earth.

Other frequent observations I make include people’s self-talk. Things like, “I’m always so broke,” or “You just watch. I’m sure I’m going to get fired.” This also goes for our blogs, Facebook posts, and the ways we interact with people. Since we empower the thoughts we give the most attention, why do we so often focus on the things we don’t want? Want to get in shape, publish your book, or find true love? It’s probably not going to happen if you focus on how fat you are, how much you don’t know about publishing, or how all the guys out there are jerks. (For more on this, I recommend two excellent books: Mike Dooley’s Infinite Possibilities and Sandra Anne Taylor’s Secrets of Attraction.)

Perhaps the most obvious observation comes with books: I can tell within a paragraph or two whether or not an author has had his or her work professionally edited. The worst thing is when the author is someone I know, and the subject matter is good but the book itself is terrible because they didn’t bother to hire an editor.

My challenge is: What, if anything, should I do about it?

Think about a little thing like having a grain of pepper stuck in your teeth or forgetting to zip your fly. Would you prefer to have someone tell you, or would your pride make that kind of comment too embarrassing to hear? Then amplify that a hundred-fold. Having someone tell you, “Your book really isn’t very good” is probably a lot like hearing “Your baby is ugly,” except in the case of the book, things can be done to improve it.

Quite a number of years ago, I was in a lousy relationship and bought a self-help program called Light His Fire, by Ellen Kreidman. She offered a money-back guarantee if the program didn’t help salvage your relationship, no matter how bad it was. Though my relationship turned out to be unsalvageable, I didn’t request a refund because I learned so many other important things from her program. One of those was a lesson that applies to this topic of advice. Kreidman’s suggestion: Unless someone specifically asks your opinion or advice, keep your mouth shut. And by and large, I think she is correct. We don’t do people favors by going around offering unsolicited advice or making them wrong. When they want your advice, Kreidman suggests, they will ask for it.

Hmmm… That still doesn’t really address my challenge. If I hear or see something I know could be vastly improved, what, if anything, should I do about it? Should I go my merry way, knowing a blogger is self-sabotaging her success or that an author is unlikely to find the publisher they’re seeking, given the current state of their book?

One suggestion from coaching circles is to ask, “Are you open to some feedback?” I think this works in certain situations — but it also can create an awkward impasse. What if the person really isn’t open to feedback but feels pressured to say they are? And what is the motivation behind my need to give the feedback in the first place? Is it really altruistic, or is it in some way intended to build myself up? In my situation as an editor, I would never want the person to think I’m ginning for business by insulting them, which is why I will probably never tell someone who doesn’t ask that their book really needs editing.

I’d love to hear your opinions on this! Have you ever offered unsolicited advice? Do you appreciate when others tell you, “You know what you should do…”? Would you want someone who had an expert opinion to give it to you if you didn’t ask for it? Tell us what you think in the comment section below…

Laura

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We welcome and encourage your thoughtful, courteous comments below.

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Visit the Write | Market | Design Facebook page to meet other authors and aspiring authors who have a sincere interest in writing, publishing, and selling the best books they can. And if you need a self-publishing consultant in your corner for anything from advice on structure to developing a marketing strategy, drop us a note at MarcieBrock@WriteMarketDesign.com or give us a call at 602.518.5376!

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Interesting marketing (read, social media) stats authors might find useful

If you’re a metrics junkie, you love numbers and stats. If you’re a book marketer, though you might find statistics boring, they are immensely useful in understanding where your market is and how they want to be touched. The following are some of the more interesting (OK, interesting to me) statistics from a couple recent publications.

NOTE: The following statistics are borrowed from two sources:

HubSpot’s 100 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts, & Graphs and AdAge’s Book of Tens: Stats That Mattered for Media and Marketing in 2011.  Each cited its own sources in the original material — I have not reproduced those original citations in the following images.

http://adage.com/article/adagestat/stats-mattered-media-marketing-2011/231534/
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http://adage.com/article/adagestat/stats-mattered-media-marketing-2011/231534/
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx
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http://adage.com/article/adagestat/stats-mattered-media-marketing-2011/231534/
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http://adage.com/article/adagestat/stats-mattered-media-marketing-2011/231534/
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OK, that last one is probably more voyeuristic than useful, but you know who you are!

Even if none of these specific statistics speaks to you or your audience, you might want to think about going out to find stats that do apply in your situation. Who are your readers? Where are they? How much have they integrated social media into their lives? Where should you be if you want to connect with them?

Happy researching!

Laura

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We welcome and encourage your thoughtful, courteous comments below.

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Visit the Write | Market | Design Facebook page to meet other authors and aspiring authors who have a sincere interest in writing, publishing, and selling the best books they can. And if you need a self-publishing consultant in your corner for anything from advice on structure to developing a marketing strategy, drop us a note at MarcieBrock@WriteMarketDesign.com or give us a call at 602.518.5376!

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What YOU believe is real

The other day, I found myself pondering the phrase “How you do one thing is how you do everything,” and dismissing it, yet again. For instance, I’m incredibly organized in certain areas of my life – my computer files and blog, for example. Laundry, on the other hand, does not have the same priority, so it doesn’t get the same attention. How I do the laundry is not how I blog. I’ve never liked or believed this particular line of alleged motivational thinking.

Soon after, my mind flitted to a trip my husband and I want to take – and my thought was, “We’ve got to try to get that deposit in on time.” Immediately, I found myself tossing that idea aside, instead calling on Yoda’s famous line: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” You see, Yoda’s aphorism is one I believe.

So why is one saying believable for me, while I dismiss the other one entirely? The answer is quite simple: because I choose to believe one and choose not to believe the other. I CHOOSE. No one outside of me makes a phrase true or untrue for me. It’s really just another way of looking at the Law of Attraction, or the concept that whatever you think about, you bring about. What YOU believe is real.

What if … someone told the Wright brothers they were idiots for thinking humans could fly, and they’d believed that person? What if … someone close to JFK had told him that going to the moon was a fantasy and he should come back down to Earth, and he’d listened to that advisor? What if … someone told Oprah, Bill Gates, Bono, Steve Jobs, Madonna, or any other accomplished person that he or she would never amount to anything, and they’d believed the naysayers?

Who are you listening to? The people who support you and tell you your book is brilliant and that you will go far with it, or the people who are threatened by your desire for success and want to keep you in the small box they find so comfortable? What YOU believe is real.

If you’ve been making a habit of believing the wrong stuff, STOP. If that means you have to get new friends, get new friends. If your writers’ group is full of whining wannabes who will never take the steps necessary to actually publish their work, find another writers’ group. If your spouse or family is unsupportive, make whatever peace you can with that, but go out and surround yourself with people who do support you. Meetup groups are a dime a dozen these days. Facebook and LinkedIn have great group tools for you to find others with common interests. Use NearbyTweets if you prefer Twitter. Just find a support network. It’s out there waiting for you.

What YOU believe is real. Isn’t it time you make it so?

Laura

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We welcome and encourage your thoughtful, courteous comments below.

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Visit the Write | Market | Design Facebook page to meet other authors and aspiring authors who have a sincere interest in writing, publishing, and selling the best books they can. And if you need a self-publishing consultant in your corner for anything from advice on structure to developing a marketing strategy, drop us a note at MarcieBrock@WriteMarketDesign.com or give us a call at 602.518.5376!

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Written and audio AFFIRMATIONS can help make your book dreams a reality!

I was listening to my MP3 player the other day, when all of a sudden a voice began speaking. I have several

Samples of my handwritten affirmation cards.

audio books on this device, but this was not an audio book. It was my voice, speaking affirmations I’d recorded a number of years ago. Due to the number of songs/recordings and the way they cycle through the MP3 player, it’s been quite a while since I’ve heard this recording. The most interesting thing about listening to the recording now was how many of the affirmations on it have already come to pass.

I won’t be so audacious as to tell you what you should do to manifest the goals in your life, but I will share with you the steps that have worked for me around these affirmations.

It all began when I read the book, Secrets of Attraction: The Universal Laws of Love, Sex, and Romance, by Sandra Anne Taylor. Although I was already very familiar with the concepts of the Law of Attraction (what you think about, you bring about), this book was quite useful in reinforcing those concepts. One thing it suggested was writing down your affirmations on a set of index cards, and repeating them throughout the day. So I did that.

But because I know how images can help strengthen the power of the written word, it occurred to me that writing them down might be made even more powerful by attaching images to them. So I took a lot of time to collect images from my hard drive and the Internet, printed them out, cut them out, and added them – along with colorful backgrounds – to the index cards. I stored all of the cards in a nifty plastic box which I covered with stickers that also carried the same types of positive messages. Now, when I repeated the affirmations, my mind was also imprinting positive images that represented these thoughts. I repeated this process for a number of months.

The next thing I did was put the box on the shelf, where it sat for nearly 5 YEARS.

This little box sat on a shelf for nearly 5 YEARS!

I woke up one day when things weren’t going so well in my life. I wasn’t motivated about work, the bills were piling up, I was in the relationship doldrums – in short, I was in a rut. A little angel spoke to me and encouraged me to pull that box of affirmations off the shelf and begin using them again. So I did that.

By now, though, I was beginning to appreciate the importance of audio as a tool in the affirmation process. But not just any audio. I was starting to learn how powerful my OWN voice was. So, I took my little box of index cards and recorded them. I listened to that recording day in and day out for about 3 months, and in that three months’ time, everything in my life did a shift. It was like magic. Eventually, I transferred the recording to my MP3 player, which was where it sat when I came across it the other day.

At the time I recorded these affirmations, I was still single, and several of the intentions had to do with meeting my soul mate. Well, yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 6-month anniversary! Am I saying it wouldn’t have happened without the affirmations? Of course not. But I will tell you that the affirmations helped me shift my mental space to one where I could allow the things I wanted to come into my life. By focusing all of my attention on what I wanted, I was able to stop focusing on what I didn’t want – because the Law of Attraction (what you think about you bring about) works no matter what you believe, and no matter what you think about. So if you constantly think about what you don’t want, you will find yourself creating more of that.

Of course, you must also pay attention to the last part of the word ATTRACTION. You’re definitely not going to manifest your dreams or goals by sitting in a room and waiting for them to come to you. John and I met through the Craigslist personals – but I was out there meeting people for nearly 5 years before we met each other.

If you want a book, stop thinking about it and start writing it. And while you’re writing it, begin to develop your marketing plan so that when the book is done, you are ready to take the next step to get it out into the world.

OK, so here’s a recap of my Affirmation Steps:

1. I wrote them down on index cards. I’d advise writing (or printing) them by hand instead of using a word processor, because in the process of putting the words on the paper, you are further imprinting them on your mind.
2. I wrote them in the positive and present tense. “I am fearless,” as opposed to “I will be fearless.” Sandra Anne Taylor makes the recommendation that if you are not yet to a place where you can believe the affirmation in the positive, hedge it a bit and write, “I am ready to be fearless.”
3. I added images that represented each affirmation, along with colored paper to make them vibrant so I would enjoy reading them every day.
4. I covered the cards with contact paper so that they would withstand lots of use.
5. I found a perfect sized plastic box, which I also adorned with positive messages, in which to keep them. I placed that box next to my bed, so the affirmations were the last things I said to myself every night before going to sleep.
6. I recorded the affirmations on my digital recorder.
7. I transferred the recording to my MP3 player.
8. Whenever I went to the track to work out or rode my bike for exercise, I played the recording of my affirmations. Your brain is in a hyper-alert state while you’re exercising, so make sure the language you’re using with yourself is positive and reinforcing.

If these ideas are helpful for you, try them out! If this gives you another idea for a way to use affirmations, try that out. Whatever you do, you must be in a frame of mind to know you will succeed! If you have affirmation success stories of your own, please share them in the comment section below!

Laura

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We welcome and encourage your thoughtful, courteous comments below.

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Two things you can do next: (1) Visit the Write | Market | Design Facebook page and “LIKE” it if you like it. (2) Visit Laura’s other blog.

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“Am I tough enough to succeed in the cut-throat business world?”

“Am I tough enough to succeed in the cut-throat business world?”

I was on a Webinar today where I missed the audio because of a simultaneous client call. One quick line flashed across the screen, though: “Create a competitor wall when trying to close new business.” Hmm … what exactly is a competitor wall?

Now I’m not sure MY presenter had the same thing in mind, but a search on the Google lead me to the concept of a poster you hang on an actual wall with all your competitors on it: their branding, logos, missions, clients … you get the picture. Every detail you can unearth about who your competitors are and how they distinguish themselves from each other and from you.

Here’s an interesting segment from an article titled “Never Stop Looking Over Your Shoulder,” about keeping tabs on your competitors:

When you find something [your competitors are doing that] you can do easily, that’s great. But be really interested when you find something that would be hard to do. It might be hard because of technical or practical difficulties. Or hard to do because it would destroy businesses (or revenue) that you already have. But that’s what makes it attractive as a strategy. It won’t be easy for the competition either. 

The point of this – and all the other talk of competition? To motivate you to stop at nothing to climb over those competitors, conquer them, and land the next client. This idea might really be resonating with some of you. Other than that single passage, the concept didn’t resonate with me … at all. In fact, in not resonating with me, it led me a direction I don’t usually travel … to wonder if I’ve really got what it takes to succeed in business, because I have NEVER resonated with that message of “Conquer your competitors before they conquer you!”

Here’s my problem with belief in competitors: it comes from a place of lack. This whole idea of competition stems from the belief that there is a finite amount of business to be had, and if I don’t CONQUER the others in my industry, they will TAKE something from me. I have always believed that we live in an abundant universe, which means there is more than enough for all of us. The challenge in the business/marketing world is that this puts me at odds with the “never stop looking over your shoulder” mentality.

I’ll admit my way is NOT for everyone. But it’s the only thing that works for ME. And that’s what I encourage you to do – find the way that works for YOU. We can have all the clever names (SBM/Savvy Book Marketer) and cute cartoons in the world … but at the end of the day, the only marketing that will work for you is marketing that works for you.

If I tell you to blog, blog, blog, but you can’t/won’t/don’t blog – for whatever reason – blogging is not going to work for you. Video works great for some people/businesses; others never get it off the ground. Find the marketing strategies that work for your book, and use them to your best advantage. Please note the word strategIES. As we’ve mentioned in the past, a diffuse approach really works best, because certain segments of your market will respond better to certain marketing approaches, while other segments will be more aligned with something else altogether. Underneath it all, though, your marketing plan has to work for you.

So, in answer to my own question, it’s not about being too nice or too tough. It’s about being focused, committed, strategic, action-oriented, and comfortable in your own skin. I may look around regularly to see what others in my industry are doing – both to learn from them and to take note of where I fall in the offerings, but I will never take the anxiety-prone approach of always looking over my shoulder to see who’s gaining on me. I’ve got too many things in front of me that need my attention.

Happy marketing!

Laura

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We welcome and encourage your thoughtful, courteous comments below.

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Two things you can do next: (1) Visit the Write | Market | Design Facebook page and “LIKE” it if you like it. (2) Visit Laura’s other blog.

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