Strategy/Analysis Archives - Page 30 of 48

Archive Mining: How to Get From Working Book Title to Rough Cut Content

September 25, 2006 by Liz

Bookcraft 2.0

When I left you in Find a Book in Your Archives the Way a Publisher Would, Phil Gerbyshak and I had agreed on two “working” book titles that can be built from posts in his archives and one “working” title that we’re going to write from scratch.

Phil and I chose one of the two “working” titles that drew from his archives. We made our choice based on these criteria.

the amount of content he felt sure was there
the success of his current book
what his readers would feel was a natural next step

With the working title in my head, I wrote a subtitle — the 25 words or less definition/premise of what the book would be about. That definition would be my tool for deciding what content to keep. Some folks call that statement the “elevator pitch.”

Armed with the premise as my tool, I could effectively mine Phil’s archives for relevant content.

Rough Cut Content Strategy

Rough cut mining for relevant content is what it sounds like, a systematic process of gathering the content that might be useful. Rough cut is the key term. I went to the archives to make a yes/no choice and move on. I used this criteria to gather the content to form the rough cut of the book-to-be.

1. The content is original.

2. The content ties to the premise of the book.

3. The content is of a size worth picking up.

4. The links are few and superficial (not integral to the point of the text.)

5. Quoted text is secondary to original content.

6. Link lists belong in an appendix, if anywhere. They are probably best left behind at this juncture.

The value of each point above changes depending on the type of book being built. The size of content chunk needed in Point 3 is larger, if the book will be running text and smaller, if the book will be a write-in work text. Point 4 changes completely, when my only goal is an ebook. Point 5 takes on new meaning, if the plan is to start each page with a meaningful quotation.

Rough Cut Content Tactics

I went right for the date archives and read them in order. I read to see whether each post meets the premise and the criteria set. Standard operating procedure for dealing with raw content is to get all content in pages of similar size and moveable form. So I also followed these procedures.

Print each post separately.

Make sure every print out carries the reference from where it came — in this case, the post date. If necessary, write it by hand. Captured keystrokes are valuable when the time comes to assemble the book.

The pile of pages on my desk is 140-150 pages deep. I’ll guess high and say that 30% won’t work. That would leave me with about 100 pages to play with. I can do plenty with that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Bookcraft 2.0: Find a Book in Your Archives the Way a Publisher Would

September 23, 2006 by Liz

Bookcraft 2.0

When his talk was over, the questions were answered, and so many copies of 10 Ways to Make It Great!were sold and signed, Phil Gerbyshak and I left the elegant Chase Tower, Chicago, for a restaurant. Through the course of the afternoon we dreamed up a service for bloggers and speakers, who wanted to put their hard-written content to work. It was a cool idea that fit my skill set. It got named Bookcraft 2.0 — a way to repurpose existing content into a book the way a publisher would.

Here is what you should know about this series/case study, Bookcraft 2.0, going in:

1. This series is crafted so that you can look over my shoulder as we repurpose content into a printed book.

2. Phil’s Archives will be the content.

3. I’ll identify approrpiate content that Phil approves, and we’ll make a book.

4. I’ll write a series about each step so that everyone can watch what we do. This, of course, is the first entry in the series.

5. The series centers on making a print book from existing content. A print version easily can be offered as an ebook. The reverse can be significantly harder.

6. I might forget to name or detail some decisions. If you have questions, please ask. I’m happy to explain what I do or how I do something.

Now let’s check Phil’s archives for book ideas. Think we can find one? two? three?

Checking Phil’s Archives

Bookcraft 2.0 began this week, and I’m delighted to report it’s progressing as expected. Here’s what has happened so far.
[Read more…]

Write a Book? Assemble the One in Your Archives!

September 20, 2006 by Liz

Turning One Kind of Content into Another

In July of 1995, I met with president and the major partner/owner of a company in trouble. The company had one product earning and was losing 10% a year. They laid out the problem and asked my solution. Thinking I had nothing to lose, I told them.

I’d get on a plane to the UK next week; find the best product they had to offer; repurpose it to perfectly meet this market; and get it out there earning as fast as I could.

My blood sugar dropped when the partner replied, “You’re going to London.”

We made new products by turning one kind of content into another.

Want to write a book? You probably have one almost done in your archives.
[Read more…]

7 Great Ways to Connect with Other Bloggers While You’re Out Reading Blogs

September 18, 2006 by Liz

Blogging Is Lonely Without Someone to Talk to . . .

It started in 1993, long before there were blogs. It was named “The Endless September.” That was when AOL unleashed masses of untrained users onto the Internet. Until then, it has only been a yearly advance of college freshmen.

Before that time, such clue-lacking lusers were a small trickle every September when the college freshman hit the computers to which they got free access when they paid their college tuition. At that time, it was manageable with suggestions to lurk a while and observe how others behaved before jumping in with cluelessness, with polite, behind-the scenes education when nettiquette was breached, and with an occasional BOFH wielding a large mallet when the polite education didn’t stick.
The Endless September

I bring this up for a reason. . . . hinky un-blogger-like things have been happening around here. I see the pattern now and it seems that the Endless September is back on.

Ew, how embarrassing to wake up one day and realize that comments and trackbacks are like diamonds . . . they last.

Burned bridges and drive-by comments aren’t pretty.

Relationships, on the other hand, are what blogging’s about.

[Read more…]

Rehearsing My Writing . . . No, It’s Not Just a Liz Thing

September 16, 2006 by Liz

Musicians, Actors, Writers

Growing up, I learned early that it was imporant to sort the things I do that everyone does from the things you might call . . . um, er . . . “uniquely Liz stuff.”

Knowing the difference has saved me from looking foolish and made me a better teacher. . . . Unfortunately, knowing doesn’t come with immediate credibility on that self-same subject.

Sometimes I know that other folks do the same things that I do. Yet the idea is apparently so incredible that people hearing me say so assume I’m delusional and that the subject in question is . . . sshhhh don’t tell Liz, but we all know it’s . . . a “uniquely Liz thing.”

I’m writing this because I know I’m not the only writer who rehearses before writing.

Stop whispering.

I can’t imagine a person who hasn’t used the process, you included.

We all practice what we want to say when the conversation is really important.

“Mom, I don’t want to go to the party. . . . I need to. My entire life depends on it.”

“Sweetheart, when you talk that way, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

“In the past year, I’ve take on significant new responsibilities . . .”

Those aren’t words that just happened. We rehearsed them.

Actors rehearse improvisations.

Musicians rehearse jams and free-wheelin’ rock solos.

Writers rehearse before writing. Some prewrite. Some freewrite. That’s rehearsing too, but I mean thinking words before sitting down, typing, before having to look at them.

Here’s something of how my rehearsing goes.

I think about the words I might write.

I say them and listen. I construct and recontruct sentence as if I were preparing for an important conversation.

I think I might say this. I think about whether that statement makes sense and makes me want to pursue it.

A few words come that sound right.

I find a word I particularly like. That word begets another and there are two, three , and four.

Soon I have sentence, sentences — whew an idea is rolling — it’s a paragraph!

I walk and practice and play with words until I feel ready to write jazzed about what I want to say.

Rehearsing is more fun than sitting at my computer.

I hear some folks rehearse in the shower, . . . That’s okay for writers. It’s not a good idea, if you play electric guitar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with a problem you’re having with your writing, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Finding Your Frequency in Business and in Life

September 8, 2006 by Liz

I’d known him for 7 years when, in 1995, I hired him as my “partner-in crime,” and my intellectual sounding board. Officially he was a consultant on an internaltional venture.

That week he’d introduced me to my counterparts in the UK — 23 meetings in 10 days. After the last meeting, he suggested a leisurely lunch on the next day, before I left for Heathrow. . . .

We’re close friends, but I didn’t know about lunch.

Finally, I said, “Only if you show up. I don’t want to see the guy who’s been with me all week — I want the person I know.”

Lunch was at a small bistro. The fruit crème brûlée was spectacular. The wine was wonderful. The conversation was even more than I’d hoped for.

My friend had one way to be in business and another in real life. I suppose that’s not so uncommon. . . .

But that doesn’t mean it’s the best way. Does it?

Steve Farber, was working for Tom Peters way back then. Now he’s a leadership coach and author of Radical Leap and Radical Edge, a two-book narrative on extreme leadership and personal growth. He’s got words for what I was thinking and where I want to go.

In Radical Edge, the characters — Steve, himself, is one — call what I’m thinking of finding your frequency. They say these things about it in a scene over dinner.

“The first thing we have to do is find our frequency, find our station, the one thing that clearly expresses who we are at our core.”

“You have no business, no money no life without yourself right at the center.”

“I don’t know how much of that I could have accomplished if I hadn’t found my frequency.

Steve wrote the book, and he questioned the idea, “Human beings are more complicated than than that.”

He got this answer.

“Yes they are, But it’s not about finding your frequency by ruling out everything else; on the contrary, it’s about finding the frequency that includes all those other important values and ideals. The very act of trying to wrap it all up is what’s really important, because in order to do so, you have . . . define them, think them through, understand them to their core, and evaluate your life against each one.”

I can’t quit thinking about how much sense that makes. It’s the extreme added-value of relationships to really “show up” at the table. It’s the “authentic voice” of leadership, of being who I am I could argue that it’s what my gene pool was designed for.

Talk about finding a way to make a life, change the world, and have no regrets that you’ve used what you’ve got.

If you know what you value, you value what you have to offer.

I’m tuning out the static, to home in on my signal.

Can you hear me now?

Is this better?

Imagine what we can do when we can actually hear each other.

Liz's Signature