Via their newly-hired non-fiction editor Cheryl Morgan comes news that the consistently excellent Clarkesworld Magazine is once again open to fiction submissions.
If you don’t read Clarkesworld already, you really should do; it’s one of the sites that I hold up as an exemplar of quality fiction on the web, and they set a high bar to measure up against. And all at no cost to you, the reader – so drop in a donation or buy a physical copy while you’re there, why don’t ya?
[How to Communicate More Effectively is a series of guest posts from Gareth L Powell. In case you missed ’em, here’s part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.]
Making your audience want your product is one thing, convincing them to actually put their hands in their pockets is quite another. You have to get over their natural reluctance to buy or act. This can be done in a number of ways, the most common being the testimonial and the product comparison.
Testimonials are short quotes from celebrities or satisfied customers endorsing the product. Including one or more of these helps to reassure the reader that their decision to buy from you or use your service is a wise and sensible decision.
Comparing your product with a more expensive option also helps to encourage the conviction that the decision is correct.
Similarly, if you’re in a position to offer any sort of guarantee (“Your money back if not 100% satisfied) then this is the place to do it.
[How to Communicate More Effectively is a series of guest posts from Gareth L Powell. In case you missed ’em, here’s part 1, part 2 and part 3.]
Having shown the reader that your product (magazine subscription, book, story, etc) can do something for them, you need to inspire in them the desire to take the next step.
If you want them to download your podcast or subscribe to your magazine, you have to make them want to do it. You have to make the product look desirable. You have to make them want it. It’s no use having a crappy black and white sketch in your advert, you need an image that reflects what the readers want from a magazine – you need something that looks stylish and professional and good value for money. You have to offer them a discount or throw in something extra.
You have to show them how your product will fit into and enhance their lifestyle – how reading your book will make them the kind person they really want to be.
Some common things to tell people to make them want to buy or use your product include:
[How to Communicate More Effectively is a series of guest posts from Gareth L Powell. In case you missed ’em, here’s part 1 and part 2.]
Once you’ve caught your reader’s attention, you have to keep it. If you’re trying to sell them a subscription or get them to download your latest story, you need to get them interested in what you’re offering, or what you have to say. In order to do that, you’re going to have to show them that your product will bring them immediate and tangible benefits. Don’t just list your magazine’s contents and expect them to get excited. Tell them why those contents are so exciting.
For example:
The inevitable New Year’s Resolution wear-off has begun: I resolved to write more and spend less time procrastinating by (amongst other things) surfing the web.
As ever things haven’t quite worked out like that but whilst procrastinating on Lifehacker I saw this article from Cory Doctorow, science fiction writer and Internet panjandrum, on how to avoid getting distracted by teh webz whilst writing:
Researching isn’t writing and vice-versa. When you come to a factual matter that you could google in a matter of seconds, don’t. Don’t give in and look up the length of the Brooklyn Bridge, the population of Rhode Island, or the distance to the Sun. That way lies distraction — an endless click-trance that will turn your 20 minutes of composing into a half-day’s idyll through the web. Instead, do what journalists do: type “TK” where your fact should go, as in “The Brooklyn bridge, all TK feet of it, sailed into the air like a kite.”
It’s all good stuff.
Now if only I could make good on my resolution to end all blog posts with a snappy and/or incisive comment…