Authors
need an elevator speech. They will use
it to summarize an upcoming book, a current one, and their writing brand. So just what needs to be done to get it
right?
At
the very least, the elevator speech is factual – it’s an abbreviated summary of
your writing career and books. It’s a
way to encapsulate your core message. It
must be brief – say it in 20 seconds.
Your
elevator speech should reveal key benefits of your solution to an issue. Highlight what you bring to the table. You essentially must answer the unstated
question: Why am I interesting,
important or entertaining?
Your
elevator speech showcases who you are and why one should read your book. It seeks to differentiate your voice, your
story, your history. But it doesn’t
merely delineate accomplishments or sound like a resume. It’s your advertisement, your chance to give
shape and depth to you as a writer.
Imagine
being a voice in someone’s ear while in a bookstore. What would you whisper that would make one
feel like they want to take your book off of the shelf. What would lure them in? What would get them to be curious to want to
know more?
The
process of crafting an elevator speech will:
·
Force
you to achieve a true clarity of yourself.
·
Help
you understand the value that you offer.
·
See
why you are better/different from other authors.
·
Tend
to shape your marketing efforts.
The
best elevator speech says something memorable with an economy of words. It sells without sounding like a
commercial. It describes in a way that
colors and shapes things. It helps you
transform not only how others see you but how you see yourself.
6 Great Blogs for Indie Authors
Source: www.BookWorks.com
The printer is the
friend of intelligence, of thought; he is the friend of liberty, of freedom, of
law; indeed, the printer is the friend of every man who is the friend of order
– the friend of every man who can read.
Of all the inventions, of all the discoveries in science or art, of all
the great results in the wonderful progress of mechanical energy and skill, the
printer is the only product of civilization necessary to the existence of free
man.
--Charles
Dickens
“The introduction of
printing into England is undoubtedly to be ascribed to William Caxton a modest,
worthy, and industrious man, who went to Germany entirely to learn the art, and
having practiced it himself at Cologne, in 1471, brought it to England two years
afterwards. He was not only a printer,
but an author; and the book which he translated, called the Game and Player of the Chesse, and which
appeared in 1474, is considered as the first production of the English press.”
--William Keddie, Anecdotes Literary and Scientific
“William Makepeace
Thackeray wrote his great novel Vanity
Fair, for Colburn’s Magazine, it
was refused by the publishers, who deemed it a work without interest. He tried to place it with several of the
leading London firms who all declined it.
He finally published it himself in monthly parts. The first volume of
Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales
was declined by every publisher in Copenhagen.
The book was brought out at the author’s own cost.”
--William
Andrews, Literary Byways
“There are many of
the forces of Nature which tend to injure Books; but among them all not one has
been half so destructive as Fire. It
would be tedious to write out a bare list only of the numerous libraries and
bibliographical treasures which, in one way or another, have been seized by the
Fire-king as his own. Chance conflagrations, fanatic incendiarism, Judicial
bonfires, and even household stoves have, time after time, thinned the
treasures as well as the rubbish of past ages, until, probably, not one
thousandth part of the books that have been are still extant. This destruction cannot, however, be reckoned
as all loss; for had not the “cleansing fires” removed mountains of rubbish
from our midst, strong destructive measures would become a necessity from sheer
want of space in which to store so many volumes.
“The Invention of
Printing made the entire destruction of any author’s works much more difficult,
so quickly and so extensively did books spread through all lands. On the other hand, as books multiplied, so
did destruction go hand in hand with production, and soon were printed books
doomed to suffer in the same penal fires, that up to then had been fed on
manuscripts only.”
--William
Blades, The Enemies of Books
“Of all forms of
theft,” says Voltaire, “plagiarism is the least dangerous to society.” Not only that, it is often beneficial. In mechanics all inventions are plagiarisms. If inventors had not borrowed ideas from
their predecessors, progress would come to a standstill. Shall I refuse to own a timepiece because my
watchmaker is not original?”
--William
S. Walsh, A Handy-Book of Literary
Curiosities
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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and
interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of
his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2018. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in
Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and
IBPA’s Independent. This was named one of the best book
marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs.
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