Developing Quality Technical Information

 

 During a recent conference call with a new author team, the topic of “how to write” came up.  The folks wanted to know if we had guidelines, do’s and dont’s etc….  Well we do and we don’t.  We have them in different forms – like Powerpoint presentations and Word documents – but we don’t have a comprehensive document.  My colleague has spent the last couple of days pulling that together.  I just remembered that we have an IBM Press book on the subject.  While it doesn’t address business books – it’s a great resource for creating technical documents.  Sometimes things are right under your nose! Here’s the skinny on the book:

 Developing Quality Technical Information

Direct from IBM’s own documentation experts, this is the definitive guide to developing outstanding technical documentation–for the Web and for print. Using extensive before-and-after examples, illustrations, and checklists, the authors show exactly how to create documentation that’s easy to find, understand, and use. This edition includes extensive new coverage of topic-based information, simplifying search and retrievability, internationalization, visual effectiveness, and much more.

Coverage includes:

• Focusing on the tasks and topics users care about most
• Saying more with fewer words
• Using organization and other means to deliver faster access to information
• Presenting information in more visually inviting ways
• Improving the effectiveness of your review process
• Learning from example: sample text, screen captures, illustrations, tables, and much more

Whether you’re a writer, editor, designer, or reviewer, if you want to create great documentation, this book shows you how!

 

Book Marketing

 At IBM Press we are in the process of creating an author marketing kit.  It is a comprehensive guide to help authors market their book.  That’s right authors need to market their book.  I strongly encourage authors not to leave all of the marketing up to the publisher.  While they are instrumental to getting your book out the door and into the channels there is still more to do.

Here are 5 tips:

1. Start a blog.  But don’t wait until your book comes out.  Start the day you sign the contract with the publisher.  This will help to build an audience for your book and you can get great feedback by sharing ideas about your book.
2. Apply for speaking opportunities.  Conferences love authors.  Speaking in front of 20, 200, 2000 people provides a great audience a book purchasers. 
3. Here’s an easy one.  Does your email signature include a link to your book?  If not, add it.
4.  Do you have a blog on Amazon?  This is an author blog for you to communicate with book purchasers.  It accepts from your blog – so you only have to write to your blog and it will upload to Amazon. Click here to sign up.
5. Send bloggers your book and ask them if they would be willing to write a review. Exposure, exposure, exposure.

 

Author Podcasts

In 2007 we introduced a series of author podcasts into the marketing of IBM Press books.  We are starting to see momentum in the amount of times they are accessed.  If you are a book author and have not recorded a podcast, I strongly urge you to consider doing so.  Podcasts provide great content for FREE and can be used to increase book sales.

Here’s some tips:

• When you are thinking about who will interview you – aim high.  Look for well known names connected to your book topic.  Chances are they will promote the podcast too and this gives you much greater exposure.
• Develop a tight, well thought out script.  And then read it.  Outloud.  I cannot stress enough how much reading it outloud will help you refine and add to the quality of your responses.  However, don’t read from the script.  Use the script as your talking points.  You want your podcast to sound like a conversation.
• If your podcast is going to be long – consider breaking it up into sections. 

If you want some additional information on book proposals and submitting a proposal to IBM Press check out the IBM Press podcast.

Here you will find podcasts from two of our popular book authors:

Mike Moran – Do it Wrong Quickly – How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules

Mining the Talk – Unlocking the Business Value of Unstructured Information with Scott Spangler

 

Book Proposal Advice

 

At IBM Press we get lots of proposals.  The majority of the proposals state that their is no other book in the market like the one the author is prosposing.  Oh really?  There are lots of books out there.  Understanding your competition is very important when evaluating the viability of your book in the marketplace.  You can easily research titles by spending some time on Amazon, reading published books on your topic and understanding how well books on your topic are selling.

Remember the publisher takes on all the risk and the costs for producing the book.  The more homework you do the better chance your proposal has.  Here’s a few tips for understanding the marketplace for your book.

• Don’t just look at the “published” books on your topic – look at what will be publishing in the future.  Publishers often feed books to Amazon up to a year out from publication date.  If you are writing a book on “podcasting”, sort the list on Amazon by “publication date” and see what is being planned.  Someone may have beat you to the punch.
• Look at the sales of books.  Amazon rankings just give you a snapshot for a moment in time.  A great tool is found at titlez.  This is a free site that allows you to look at Amazon rankings over a longer period of time.  For example, type “podcast” into the title field and it will list all books on podcasts.  It will show you sales ranking for the last 90 days and lifetime average.  You can compare books and see which have been the best sellers.

“When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: ‘Only stand out of my light.’ Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.”
-John W. Gardner