Publishing Industry Continues to Consolidate

magazines, media companies, Men's Health, publishing
www.aws.amazon.com

Penguin Random House, a division of Bertelsmann, purchased the assets of Rodale Press. Rodale published such well-known magazines as Men’s Health, Prevention and Runner’s World. The deal is believed to be worth $225 million.

Headquartered in the thriving metropolis of Emmaus, PA, Rodale also published a number of bestselling books. Included in that list are An Inconvenient Truth (by Al Gore), Eat This, Not That (by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding), The Honest Life (by Jessica Alba) and Onward (by Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks).

Rodale had a good run. Founded in 1930 with an office in New York City, they launched the organic movement in the 40’s. Their mission was to “inspire health, healing, happiness and love in the world.” In 1947, JI Rodale started a farm to study organic agriculture. Located in Eastern Pennsylvania, the 333-acre farm revolutionized the food system, proving that healthy soil = healthy food = healthy people.

Young Blood

Maria Rodale was the third generation leader of the company. She was no doubt in a power struggle with Zinczenko, who was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Men’s Health when he was 30 years old. He later left and founded Galvanized Media. After he left, Rodale told the press, “It’s not Dave’s Health. It’s Men’s Health.”

During his tenure at Rodale – and beyond – Zinczenko managed to brand himself very well. In addition to Eat This, Not That, he has 13 other New York Times bestsellers. With over 10 million books in print, additional titles include The 8-Hour Diet and Men, Love & Sex. He even has his own publishing imprint at Random House called Zinc Ink.

People magazine recognized him in both 2002 and 2007 as one of the 50 most eligible bachelors. In 2013, he was named the Nutrition and Wellness Editor at NBC News. He’s appeared on Good Morning America, World News Tonight and Nightline. Before that, he appeared for 10 years on The Today Show, where he primarily featured Eat This, Not That. So, during this transition, it should come as no surprise that Zinczenko is being brought back as the interim director of Men’s Health.
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The Truth: Hearst

Bicycling and Runner’s World will comprise the new “Hearst Enthusiast Group,” which will remain in the Lehigh Valley (part of Pennsylvania near Allentown). Hearst bought Rodale’s Global Content Business in October of 2017.

Hearst has a stellar lineup of magazines, including Car and Driver, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Food Network Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar and Town and Country. They are very well diversified with 300 media brands across the globe. They’re the biggest monthly magazine publisher in the world. Two-thirds of their profits, believe it or not, come from print, claims David Carey, CEO of Hearst Magazines. He thinks there’s still plenty of money to be made in the print business. On a Recode media with Peter Kafka podcast, he questions the durability of digital media companies. Because of the low barriers to entry, Carey suggests, pure play (digital only) companies are headed for a crash.

The demise of Rodale is sad. I still have several of their books on my shelf. Since the 1990’s, The Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies: Thousands of Tips and Techniques Anyone Can Use to Heal Everyday Health Problems, has been my trusty companion. Russell Wild, who I met through my wife’s French class, is one of the editors. I remember one time I had a plantar wart on my foot. One of the suggestions in the book was to will it away, which, fortunately, I did.

Meet the Parents

Publishing continues to evolve. And media businesses will bifurcate even more.

The parent company of Hearst – and now Rodale – is Bertelsmann, a media conglomerate that operates in 50 countries. It includes the RTL Group (Europe’s leading entertainment network), Penguin Random House, Gruner + Jahr, the Music Company BMG, Arvato (“One Stop Everything”) and three other Bertelsmann entities. Penguin Random House comprises nearly 250 editorially independent imprints, including Doubleday and Alfred A. Knopf.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a content strategist in Western North Carolina.

The PINK Panther vs. The GREEN Hornet

assessments, books, Caliper, ,

One of the hottest thought leaders out there these days in Daniel Pink.

One of Pink’s claims to fame is he is a former speechwriter for Al Gore. He has also delivered a very popular TED Talk. And he has written five “provocative” books, including Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. He is now releasing a new book entitled When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.

Regarding To Sell is Human, I was in sales for many years. You can analyze the topic of selling until the cows come home. Libraries and bookstores are filled with books on what motivates people to sell effectively. As far as I am concerned, the best philosophy on selling is compiled in the book, What it Takes to Succeed in Sales: Selecting and Retaining Top Producers by Jeanne and Herbert Greenberg. You could make the argument that it isn’t so much a book about “how” to sell as much as it is a book about whether someone should be in sales or not. Nevertheless, it is a classic.

The Four Tenets

I also think it is easier to remember the Greenbergs’ four tenets than it is to remember Pink’s three tenets of selling. To Sell is Human, as I understood it when I read it six or seven years ago, distills selling down into three categories, which he contrasts with the Alec Baldwin character, Blake, in Glengarry Glen Ross. While Blake insinuates it is as easy as ABC – Always Be Closing – Pink says the ABC’s of selling are Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity. That may be true, but I think the Greenbergs make a better case.

The late authors of What it Takes to Succeed in Sales were cochairmen and principals of Caliper Corporation, a Princeton, New Jersey – based HR consulting and psychological testing firm. Their thesis was that there are four elements: Empathy, Ego-drive, Service and Ego-strength – that are paramount in a salesperson’s motivation to succeed. They even concur with Pink that the “carrot-and-stick” approach doesn’t work any longer.

One of the reasons I feel the Greenbergs’ case is rock solid is, I confess, subjective. I remember the four things, even after six or seven years. So that you don’t think I have an ax to grind with Pink, I think Drive is a masterpiece. After all these years, I also remember Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. Perhaps it’s because my wife’s name is Pam. Or, that I realize that it ie is Pam. Or, that I realizered is a blogger, a runner and a golfer in Western North Carolina.

My favorite joke is “The Calipes good to have a MAP when you drive. And, it doesn’t hurt to be AMPed up to sell.
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Performance Improvement

Herb Greenberg, who passed away two years ago, was instrumental in the development of assessments in the HR industry. The Caliper profile has assessed the potential of more than 3.5 million applicants and employees. Pink, on the other hand, seems to be just hitting his stride. He is presently on a book tour to promote When. To incentivize you to buy the book (which I find ironic since he favors intrinsic motivators), he has been offering 1) a free T-shirt, 2) a 30-minute interview with he and Adam Grant, and 3) a PDF daily planner.

Pink has sold more than 2 million copies of his books. He combines psychology, biology and economics in his writing (he seems to like threes). In Drive, his seminal book, he defines Autonomy as “the urge to direct our own lives.” Mastery, he says, is “the desire to get better and better at something that matters.” And Purpose, he describes, is “the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.”

Perhaps A Sports Analogy Will Help

As an avid sports fan, I can see how true this is. I see teams win it all, then implode, primarily because they have lost their purpose (somehow, Bill Belichick hasn’t seemed to have gotten the memo). The owner then often has to gut the entire team to get the chemistry and initiative back. The players’ salaries are so astronomical that they are not motivated to the extent they were before.

I absolutely agree with Pink that it is better to be motivated intrinsically than extrinsically. After all, I often tell people my favorite joke is “How many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb?” The answer: “One, but the lightbulb has to want to change.”

As for getting around to reading Pink’s new book, I will do it when the time is right.

As a new resident of North Carolina, I am having trouble embracing their sports teams. Am I a Carolina Panthers fan? Not particularly. Am I a Charlotte Hornets fan? No. Nor am I either a Pink Panther or Green Hornet fan. But I wholeheartedly agree with both Dan Pink and the Greenbergs that whatever you do, it is better if you want to do it.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a blogger, a runner and an avid golfer in Western North Carolina.

An Author Who Chose an Interesting Road

Acres of Diamonds, Listen to Your Heart, Paulo Coelho
www.amazon.com

Paulo Coelho was confused when he was a boy. He wanted to be a writer, but his parents disapproved of that profession. His mother told him that his father was an engineer and that he was to become an attorney. Because he rebelled, Paulo, who grew up in Brazil, was admitted to an insane asylum three times and was subject to “shock therapy.” But he escaped each time.

After he got out of the mental institution, he gave up his quest to become a writer and studied law for a while. But he never lost his interest in writing.

In 1986, he walked the 500 plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela between France and Spain. While doing so, the seeds of The Alchemist were planted. After the hike, he wrote The Pilgrimage, an autobiographical novel, and then followed it up in 1987 with El Alquimista (The Alchemist). This latter book has been translated into 80 languages and has sold 84 million copies. It took off after he had written his book, Brida.

Along the way, he has become the most translated living author ever.

The moral of the story, The Alchemist, is similar to Acres of Diamonds, by Russell Conwell. You don’t find riches externally – you find them within. “Listen to your heart” is the theme that is repeated throughout the book. Or, as Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero With a Thousand Faces, would say, “Follow your bliss.”

The Spiritual Side

Coelho was born in 1947 in Buenos Aires and was brought up Catholic. He abandoned the faith but later came back to it. After he dropped out of law school, he lived as a hippie for a while, started using drugs, and was later arrested for “subversive” activities. At times, he was also involved with magic and the occult.

While walking the trail, he had a “spiritual awakening.” So he abandoned a lucrative career as a lyricist and became a novelist.

The Alchemist originally had a small run of 900 books. So he went to a publisher, knocked on his door, and told him that he had a book that wasn’t doing well but had a huge amount of potential. HarperCollins went on to pick it up in 1994 – and ran with it.

It Was Written in the Stars

Have you ever wanted something so badly that your desire kept you going? Sure you have. That appears to have been the case with Coelho. He wrote, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.” After he wrote that, he knew he had to make his career as a writer a reality.
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For a guy who has sold over 210 million copies of his books, he’s not resting. Since The Alchemist, he has written a novel every two years. He blogs three times a week and is not naïve to the power of social media. He is the writer with the highest number of social media followers: 29.5 million fans on Facebook and 12.2 million on Twitter.

Coelho has written over 25 books in all. His books are fictional – although they are written from his life experiences. The writer was influenced by Kahlil Gibran, Henry Miller, Jorge Luis Borges and Jorge Amado. He loves walking and archery and is intrigued with “the mystery of being alive,” he says.

I love his quote “If a man understands that he is worthy of what he has struggled so long for, he will realize that he did not get there alone and must respect the Hand that led him.”

Hope Does Not Disappoint

This sounds similar to the bible verse in the fifth chapter of Romans. “…we glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.” Another bible passage that The Alchemist resonates with is “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6:21).

Many think The Alchemist is a mix of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Bible and 1001 Arabian Nights.

Coelho’s philosophy is that a book – or any piece of art for that matter – is a bridge. He has said that “Tears are words waiting to be written.”

Follow Your Dream. Listen to your heart.

Even though many people on Goodreads were underwhelmed with The Alchemist, it is rated 3.82 (out of 4) on that site. Many thought it was just inspirational literature dressed up as an adventure quest. When a book is that popular, there are bound to be some detractors. The bottom line is, the success of The Alchemist has allowed Paulo Coelho to continue to do what he wants to do – follow his heart.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a writer, publisher and marketer in Western North Carolina.

Creating Rivers of Revenue

marketing, public relations, Publicity
www.ingramspark.com

So, you’ve written a book, huh? I sure hope you have thought about channels of distribution.

Oh, so your publisher is taking care of it? Great!

What do you mean “They really aren’t?” The truth is, oftentimes publishers don’t market authors’ books very much. Unless you’re Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, John Grisham or James Patterson, that is.

If you are the publisher of your book, it’s even harder. It’s up to YOU to market it.

Sure, you could give me the line from the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it (if I write it), they will come.” It may’ve worked for Ray Kinsella, but how well do you think that strategy will work for you?

Another adage is “If (I) build a better mousetrap (write a unique book), the world will beat a path to my door.”

That’s highly unlikely. Unless they’ve already heard of it. Or you. In which case, you have a better chance of them buying it. If they know about the book, or brand, already, at least it has a fighting chance.

When I am interviewing someone to write a book for them, I ask them a series of questions. One of them is “How many books would you LIKE to sell?” A typical response might be anywhere from “10,000 copies” to “best seller.” Then, I follow it up with “How many copies do you REALISTICALLY THINK YOU CAN sell?”

That usually brings them back down to earth.

The Four Ps of Marketing

This post is about PROMOTION.

Promotion is one of the four Ps of marketing (the others being price, product and place).

What ideas do you have to promote your book?

How about skywriting? Now you’re talking!

Or, fly a plane over a crowd of people, pulling a banner with some kind of call to action – preferably other than “Buy my book.”

Another option is to align it with a similar product or theme. For example, if the book title is How to Remove Wallpaper, perhaps you can give a talk at a big box (or your local) hardware store. If you have a short video of your wallpaper removal process (hopefully it is unique), you might put a teaser or a clip of it up on social media, to whet the appetite of people with that need.

Somehow partner with realtors. Sellers may be concerned that buyers don’t want to buy a house where they’ll have to remove wallpaper. Likewise, buyers may feel the same way about the chore of removing it. These two groups are in your “target audience.”

Be a Showman

Here are some other suggestions:

  • Secure radio interviews (you can do them in your pajamas – over the phone – if you’d like)
  • Speak in front of an audience and sell your book in the back of the room. Many people recoup their travel and speaking expenses with the sale of books. Assuming your talk is engaging, audience members might be in a position to bring you in to their organization to have you present on the topic. This could lead to consulting engagements, training and/or coaching assignments.
  • Appear on local TV Shows
  • Arrange a book signing with your local bookstore, school or library
  • Have someone famous reference your book in some way
  • Add the book title to your email signature (even if it’s not finished. You could say “Author of the soon-to-be released book, …,” adding the book’s title. It creates buzz around its release).
  • Email your list of contacts telling them about it
  • Raffle off a copy of the book at an event
  • Employ remarketing techniques
  • Have local merchants display a copy of the book in their stores
  • Tell everybody you know
  • Get other people to tell their network
  • Have people with a large social media presence reference the book on their Facebook page (preferably with a link to it)
  • Insist bloggers allude to it
  • Join Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
  • Offer it in PDF format to anyone who promises to review it
  • Distribute autographed covers of it (give them out free – in exchange for people putting it on their social media site)
  • Put the title on your business cards
  • Create a T-shirt with the name of it on it
  • Have a student do a book report about it
  • Shout it from the rooftops!
  • Pen articles and mention the book in your byline
  • Have the local newspaper mention it – or the fact that you’ll be speaking somewhere nearby
  • Write a song about it
  • Do a book launch

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The Best Form of Marketing

As Emmy Award-Winning writer Gene Perrett, author of many books, including The New Comedy Writing Step by Step: Revised and Updated with Words of Instruction, Encouragement and Inspiration from Legends of the Comedy Profession , suggests, the first thing you want to do is write well. The second most important thing to do to sell books, even while you sleep, is to market them effectively.

These are just a few of the myriad ways you can promote your book. You are only limited by your imagination.

Or, to put it another way, “The sky is the limit.”

Start writing. And promoting.

In fact, here’s the dream process in a nutshell: write, market, repeat.

Because – an interesting thing happens if you don’t promote your book – nothing.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a ghostwriter in Western North Carolina. He writes speeches, blog posts, articles, and books. He can be reached at 828.595.2485, @fjfelsburg, or via email at frank@spokenandwrittenwords.com.

Punctuation Matters

book recommendations, grammar, linguistics, punctuation
          www.funnysigns.net

Grammar Nazis say that commas save lives. Take, for instance, the sentence, “Let’s eat grandma.” Surely, the author who penned it meant “Let’s eat, grandma.” Or did he? No doubt he (or she) did – and don’t call me Shirley!

Language is changing before our very eyes (and ears). Our vocabulary is changing daily. Words like “meme,” “troll” and “cryptocurrency” are now part of the vernacular. People are getting lazier and lazier with their writing. It’s embarrassing. English teachers who check out Twitter must cringe when they look at their mobile devices.

Have you been on Twitter’s site lately? Most tweets leave out all punctuation – to the detriment of the tweeter – and the English language. And, they who post, write in the most casual way possible. Obviously, there is little discipline that goes into tweeting.

It’s the Technology, Stupid!

We can blame the demise of the literary world on our smartphones all we want. And some of that blame is warranted. With their small chicklet keys, it can be painstaking to craft legitimate sentences.

But linguist John H. McWhorter, author of Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music, and Why We Should, Like, Care, often talks about dying languages. He insinuates that people generally take the easy way out when communicating. One example that he uses is people pronounce the double “T” in bottle as if it were a “D.”

Fortunately, the autocorrect feature on our phones, we are told, is getting better. Apple’s new iOS 11 will include “smart punctuation.” This from a company whose slogan is “Think different.”

Words, Words, Words

Mark Twain said “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – it’s the difference between lightning bug and the lightning.” Well, not only do words make a difference, but so do the way they are presented.

There’s a story about a teacher writing words on a blackboard in front of her class. She wrote: “A woman without her man is nothing.” She then asked a boy in the class to add punctuation to it. He did so and it read “A woman, without her man, is nothing.” The teacher then changed it to “A woman: without her, man is nothing.”

For some reason, this reminds me of the Groucho Marx line, “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas, I’ll never know.”

The Humble Apostrophe

Last week I wrote about what are called “apostrophe books” – an expression that was coined regarding books that have Tom Clancy’s name on them – but weren’t written by him.  This week I want to mention apostrophes themselves.

The apostrophe came into existence in the mid-16th century. It has Greek roots. It was important enough to find itself on the earliest typewriters. Other symbols, however, that are in common use today, didn’t make the cut. That goes for #, $ and !. Back then, however, you could get creative and type an apostrophe, then back space over it and type a period. This would get you your exclamation point.
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The apostrophe is the Rodney Dangerfield of the English language. Many consider it optional. Try explaining that to Shaquille O’Neal, Bill O’Reilly or former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor, each of which would probably take umbrage – or give you an argument – if you said your computer doesn’t have their dinner reservation in the system.

There is hope

Fortunately, a number of books have come to the rescue. You can get them for your favorite uncle for Christmas. You know, the one who writes like he never graduated from third grade.

Here are a few that are at the top of my recommended list:

  1. Lapsing into a Comma: A Curmudgeon’s Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print – and How to Avoid Them, by Bill Walsh
  2. The Elephants of Style: A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English, also by Bill Walsh
  3. Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss
  4. The Girl’s Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can’t Manage Without Apostrophes, by Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons
  5. Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults Upon Our Language, by Richard Lederer

And, here are a few that are for the serious writer:

  1. On Writing Well, by William Zinsser
  2. The Careful Writer by Theodore M. Bernstein
  3. The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

If something isn’t done soon, you may find yourself saying something like “Sadly, the days of using proper English are went.”

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a content strategist living in Western North Carolina.

Will the Real Author of Tom Clancy’s Books Please Stand Up

fiction, ghostwriters, military fiction
marccameronbooks.com

I don’t get this whole Tom Clancy thing. Did he write his books – or did someone else? And, how can there be a “new release” when the author has been dead for four years? To me, it’s a combination of “Who’s on First?” and “I really didn’t say everything I said,” the latter being the subtitle of The Yogi Book by Yogi Berra.

Tom Clancy is well known for a number of high-tech espionage thrillers, including The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. You could argue that he invented the genre of military fiction. His books were made into movies featuring such actors as Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, Sean Connery, Harrison Ford and James Earl Jones. His most famous fictional character is Jack Ryan. The second most famous was John Clark. As far as I’m concerned, both characters could each run for President of the United States with names like that because American voters like to elect candidates whose names are easy to spell (with Eisenhower being about the only exception).

Clancy hit it big in 1984 with The Hunt for Red October. He thought he would sell 5000 copies of it. It sold over 45,000. Then President Ronald Reagan endorsed it, calling it “a great yarn.” It sold over 50,000 copies in hard cover and over 300,000 in paperback. The book was acclaimed as being very accurate and afforded him meetings with high ranking officials in the U.S. Military.

It appears, however, that there are several Tom Clancy’s. Or, at least, a number of people who write for him. Here are a few of them:

Mark Greaney 

Greaney collaborated with Clancy on his final three novels. He continued the Jack Ryan character and “Tom Clancy universe.” The story goes that it was the publisher’s decision to feature Clancy’s name at the top of the cover in massive letters and Greaney’s name in smaller letters at the bottom. Greaney’s comment on the matter was “It really feels like a humongous honor to do it. I get a pretty good billing. The Tom Clancy name is one thing you can put on your book that will make it stand out from across the room.”

So there you have it. It’s about branding. No surprise there.

Greaney stepped down in 2016, perhaps feeling like his name was appearing in teensy-weensy print while Clancy’s was HUGE. When Greaney’s editor, Tom Colgan, asked him for a replacement, he gave him the name of Marc Cameron, because he was presently reading Cameron’s book, Field of Fire.

Marc Cameron 

Marc Cameron, a former uniformed police officer, mounted (horse patrol) officer and detective who lives in Alaska, took over the brand from Greaney last year. Although he’s been around some pretty foulmouthed villains in his life, he tries not to use salty language in the books because his mother reads them aloud to her husband (the author’s father has glaucoma). Clancy, too, had challenges with his eyes and his nearsightedness kept him out of being a soldier. Anyway, he said he couldn’t bear the thought of hearing his mother utter those profane words.
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Grant Blackwood

Blackwood penned three books in the Jack Ryan series, including Duty and Honor. He also used the alias “David Michaels” when writing Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Checkmate and Splinter Cell: Fallout.

Mike Maden 

Known for his Troy Pierce series, including last year’s Drone Threat, Maden has also written for the Jack Ryan series.

Dick Couch 

The book, Out of the Ashes, says on its cover “Created by TOM CLANCY and STEVE PIECZENIK,” and then, on the line below it, “Written by DICK COUCH and GEORGE GALDORISI.”  

So, we know Clancy invented what have become known as “apostrophe books.” While he was living, he didn’t give many of his actual writers credit for writing the books. But he did acknowledge them in the headnotes for their “invaluable contribution to the manuscript.”

Clancy graduated from Loyola University in Maryland in 1969 (back when it was known as Loyola College). He was on the chess team and was very much interested in ROTC. There was an urban myth that an English professor there, Dr. Abromaitis, failed him. That never happened, she insisted.

Clancy later became part owner of the Baltimore Orioles. He once owned a home in Calvert County, Maryland, which had 24 rooms and featured a World War II-era M4 Sherman tank. It was a Christmas gift from his first wife. Not only did he make a lot of money off of his books but off of videogames, too, which also had his name on them.

Clancy was well known to have employed a bevy of ghostwriters – but those listed above actually got cover credit. Seventeen of his books are bestsellers and there are more than 100 million copies in print. The latest book is Power and Empire, which Cameron wrote. So, I guess the brand still has legs. And, even though Clancy, who died in 2013, isn’t around anymore, the spy-thriller novel he invented, is.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a writer in Western North Carolina. He can be reached at frank@spokenandwrittenwords.com.

Are There Ghostwriters in the Music Industry?

music, songs, words
www.youtube.com

There have been many great pop songwriters over the years. Cole Porter, Hank Williams, Irving Berlin, Kris Kristofferson and Stephen Sondheim are a few notable ones. Many of them also worked in pairs. George & Ira Gershwin, Rogers & Hammerstein, Goffen & King, Ray & Dave Davies and Lennon & McCartney come to mind.

With the exception of the latter two and a half duos (Carole King, the Davies’ with the Kinks and Lennon & McCartney with the Beatles) many of their songs were sung by other artists. Have you ever considered that quite a few of the most popular songs of all time were written by someone other than the singer?

Frank Sinatra, who many think is one of the greatest crooners of all time, wrote very few of his own songs. The same goes for Elvis Presley and Rod Stewart. So who wrote them?

The Lyricist Behind the Scenes

Rod Temperton grew up in England listening to the radio at night. His father would put a transistor in his crib rather than read him bedtime stories. Temperton wrote Give Me the Night for George Benson, Always and Forever for Heatwave and Yah Mo B There for James Ingraham and Michael McDonald. His work with Heatwave attracted the attention of Quincy Jones. Temperton, along with Jones and Lionel Richie, collaborated on the song Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister) for The Color Purple. The song was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar.

But Temperton’s biggest claim to fame is that he wrote songs for Michael Jackson. He wrote three songs, including the title track, for Jackson’s album, Thriller, the best-selling record of all time. He also won a Grammy Award for his work on Birdland, a track on Jones’ album entitled Back on the Block.

From Bach to Rock

In 2011, readers of Rolling Stone picked their Top 10 songwriters of all time. Bob Dylan, who came in first, wrote over 600 songs. Neil Young was also on the list – at number six. Paul Simon was #8. What many people don’t realize about Simon is the melody to American Tune was taken from a Bach chorale.

Similarly, Procol Harum’s song, Whiter Shade of Pale, attributed to Gary Brooker and Keith Reid, was inspired by Air on a G-String, once again by Johann Sebastian Bach. Or, so we thought. Forty years after the song was released, we found out that the band’s organist, Matthew Fisher, went to court to claim a share in the royalties. He insisted he was at least partly responsible for the melody.

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Many famous musicians had writers behind the scenes making them famous. Boyce and Hart wrote for The Monkees – as did Neil Diamond and the Goffin/King team. Paul Anka wrote for Frank Sinatra. And Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics for Elton John. We are told that Elton and Bernie were never in the same room during the process.

Hip-Hop Gets Into the Act

Several years ago, Forbes had an article about rap and the writers behind the voices. Here it is. It may or may not surprise you.

Noisey/Vice contributor Dan Wilkinson, in 2013, wrote “Ghostwriting is and has always been an integral part of hip-hop. It the hip-hop apprenticeship, a way for young talent to learn their craft and bring new life to fading stars. And when Dre finally releases Detox in 2019, I’m fine with the fact he might not have scribbled all the lyrics himself.”

Which, based on the timeline referenced, to me says that sometimes the writing just doesn’t come. Sometimes it gets in the way of the brand or the productivity/creativity. Writers block happens. Writing takes time. And, rather than letting things slow to a crawl and losing momentum, it’s better to ship. When you ship, you are moving forward – although perhaps not quite as creatively as you would like.

Very few people can do it all themselves. You are putting product out there that the market may or may not like. You are putting a stake in the ground as if to say “This is what I do. And I plan to keep doing it. I need your help to sustain me.” And the more they like what it is you do, the more you can continue to do it. They benefit because they can keep listening to your songs.

Time is money and if you let things come to a standstill, you may as well look for another line of work.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg writes for himself and others, aiding people in getting their thoughts and ideas down and published. He also helps them sell the finished product.

Leave a Lasting Legacy

influences, marketing, self publishing, writing

A memoir is a compilation of one’s human existence. It’s a chronicle or depiction of a lifetime, written in a personal way.

Perhaps you have contemplated one about your life. If so, you might consider setting a New Year’s resolution to have one completed in 2018. I mention this because many people say to me “Someday I am going to write a book.” I remind them that days turn into months, months into years and years into decades. And decades add up. My reminders are not always all that well received.

WHY WRITE A MEMOIR?

Many people ponder the idea of writing a memoir – but never seem to carry it out. They say to themselves, “Is it worth it?” Other thoughts include “Will my family approve of it?” or “Where do I begin?”

Some people liken it to child birth – very painful going through it – yet joyful when the baby is born.

WHAT IF NO ONE READS IT?

There is good evidence that, even if no one reads your memoir – it will have been worth your while. For one thing, it is therapeutic, especially if there have been challenges in your life. And we’ve all had challenges. It can shed light on a situation that may have been left unresolved. It can help you make sense of your time on this earth – and give it more purpose.

If you have had a traumatic event happen in your life, working through it (processing it cognitively) can be cathartic. As they say, “hindsight is always 20-20.” In other words, it can put the experience in a positive light and make the event more objective, thereby fostering personal growth.

HOW DO I GO ABOUT IT?

There are several ways to go about writing your life story. One is to “Just do it!” Easier said than done. It is overwhelming, especially when you are consolidating decades into several hundred pages. And, when you consider that those pages can be consumed in several hours – it is a daunting task. You might want to invest in resources like those that Writer’s Digest puts out, like this webinar on memoir writing.

A more practical way to go about having a book with your name on the cover is to hire a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter is familiar with the writing and publishing process and can guide you in the endeavor. Ghostwriters essentially help people find the words to communicate their ideas. You want to see your book in print? This might be your best option.

There are several approaches you can take when working with a ghostwriter. One is to compile as much information as possible, digitize it, and send it (or turn it over) to the ghostwriter. Another is to sit down with the ghostwriter and tell stories. People like stories, and a good ghostwriter can make them come to life. The ghostwriter can record your stories using a recording device and then transcribe the words into print.

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HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO GET HELP?

The previously mentioned (Writers Digest) webinar is $89. Writing coaches generally charge anywhere from $65 to $250 per hour.

Hiring a ghostwriter isn’t inexpensive. Ghostwriters generally charge anywhere from $40,000 on up for a 200-250 page book. If you have a publisher (which is rare for a memoir), the charge might be 30% of the advance, plus 30% of your royalties. If you want short and simple, the fee would probably be lower. A lot depends on how much research he or she has to do or how much time it will take them to put the book together.

Writing a book – especially one that spans decades – is very time consuming. For many people, the biggest challenge is that they are perfectionists. And they want it to be their Magnum Opus.

WHAT SHOULD THE THEME BE?

Two key themes that make a memoir palatable to readers are resilience and gratitude. People don’t want to read a bitter memoir or the memoir of a curmudgeon – unless it is written tongue-in-cheek, or in some other humorous way.

It may be best not to put pressure on yourself by assuming the book will be widely read. Even if it’s just “for your eyes only,” it can be a rewarding experience. But telling yourself it has to sell a certain number of copies could set you up for disappointment. You might not sell (or even give away) that many copies, and, as a result, feel that your life was inferior or uninteresting. It could also change the way the book is written. You might want to heed Guy Kawasaki’s advice and “Do not write to impress others.” If you do, you will have difficulty remaining true to yourself. “Write what pleases you and pray that there are others like you.”

A memoir can be seen as one’s legacy. It can be passed down from generation to generation. It can help grandchildren understand their family history, and possibly even break ageist stereotypes. To learn that “granddad” used to SCUBA dive in shark-infested waters might help them appreciate someone they didn’t properly respect.

And, it could also help them comprehend some of the traits that they might have inherited.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frank Felsburg is an author, publisher and entrepreneur. He helps people convey their value through writing, speaking and marketing. He can be reached by text at 484.680.0962, phone at 828.595.2485, twitter @fjfelsburg or email frank@SpokenAndWrittenWords.com.

 

A Movie in Your Head

books, digital books, reading, ,

The slogan “A Thousand Songs in Your Pocket ” introduced the iPod. It was a breakthrough technology that really caught on. The slogan even made sense. It explained the problem that it solved – portability – or the lack of space. Of course, Apple put its marketing muscle behind the campaign.

Imagine if books had a slogan. What would it be? “Books don’t need a slogan,” you might say. “Everyone understands their benefit.” Well, yes, most people do, but slogans often make the case better (for proof, see “Yes We Can” or “Make America Great Again”).

While most would agree on the benefits of books, there is ongoing debate about which format – digital or print – people prefer to read them in.

Why would anyone want to read a digital book?

Some people argue that digital books are overtaking print books. For example, Neilson reported that 50% of all fiction sales are in e-book format. I wondered about this and other similar claims and contemplated whether they are hype or reality. To put it in the vernacular, “Is it fake news?”

My wife has an e-reader but we never use it. We recently moved and we don’t even know where the device is. It is most likely still in a box in the workroom. But we don’t miss it.

I read a report that said that E-book sales plunged nearly 20% earlier this year. And sales of e-readers declined by more than 40% between 2011 and 2016. Then I realized that many people are reading e-books on tablets and smartphones, rather than dedicated e-readers – so there are a significant number of people that pick digital over print. Some people just prefer multi-functional devices to e-readers such as Kindle and Nook.

In Defense of Print

“I like to hold the product” was the reason most people prefer printed books. Many admit that print books are a break from electronic devices or social media. Some people feel print books are the new vinyl.

I recently read a study that indicated that 65% of Americans reported reading a printed book in the last year or so – vs. 28% who read an e-book.

And, while I couldn’t help but wonder if e-readers were more hip, I now find out that younger readers are driving the appetite for print.

My Own Research

I recently sat down with a 72 year old avid reader, and asked him why he liked e-readers. Not surprisingly, his answers were mostly financial. He had downloaded the Kindle app onto his laptop.

I came away from the discussion realizing that, like many other things, preference often comes down to price. People don’t want to pay $19.95 for a book anymore. Especially when they can buy a used copy on Amazon for $1. Or an e-book version of it for $5.99-$9.99.

It is just a matter of preference. Some people like vanilla ice cream while others fancy chocolate.

In my mind, there is no doubt that the debate will continue. What isn’t debatable is that people still like to read. Pew Research ran a study and the results showed that 26% of readers indicated that they do so for three main reasons: learning, gaining knowledge and discovering information. Other reasons people read are:

  • 15% escaping reality
  • 12% relaxation
  • 6% the variety of topics
  • 4% spiritual enrichment
  • 3% mental challenge, and
  • 2% physical properties of books (feel and smell)

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If you’re big into digital, check out Digital Book World October 2-4, 2018. Next year’s conference will be held in Nashville, TN. Score Publishing, the producer of the iBA Conference, acquired Digital Book World’s event from F+W Media. The event will be held around the time the company normally holds its iBA conference. Score Publishing is best known for VoiceFirst.FM, a media network centered around voice technology such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant and Apples’ Siri.

If you prefer print, a better conference for you might be BookExpo, to be held at the Javits Center in New York City, May 30-June 1, 2018. I hope to see you there.

By the way, the best slogan I have seen for books is “A movie in your head.” The slogan holds up – regardless of whether you have a print, or digital, copy of it in your hands.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg ghostwrites books, articles, blog posts and whitepapers. He can be reached at frank@spokenandwrittenwords.com, 828.595.2485 or @fjfelsburg.

“Terrible” Writing Takes Time

author, books, marketing

There’s a novelist who has become very wealthy in the cut throat world of publishing. His name is James Patterson. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. He is presently writing a crime fiction book with Bill Clinton.

What you may or may not know about Patterson is he worked his way up in the advertising industry from junior copywriter to become CEO of J. Walter Thompson North America. JWT was one of the premiere ad agencies in the world with accounts like Kraft Foods, Burger King and Toys ‘R’ Us.

Patterson has written nearly 150 novels. He has been the world’s best-selling author since 2001 (ahead of J.K. Rowling, John Grisham – and even Dr. Seuss), with over 300 million copies of his books in print. He has a team of co-writers, several TV deals and an annual income of nearly $100 million. His total income over a decade is estimated at $700 million and Forbes lists him as the wealthiest author.

Humble Beginnings

Out of high school, Patterson worked at a psychiatric center and read books while there, to pass the time. He went to Manhattan College for his undergraduate degree and then Vanderbilt University for his masters.

His first book, The Thomas Perryman Number, about a Nashville newspaperman on a murderer’s tail, was rejected by 31 publishers before Little, Brown published it in 1976. He wrote it while he was working at J. Walter Thompson. It sold about 10,000 copies. He moved up from junior copywriter at JWT to become the youngest creative director in the firm’s history.

Breakthrough

Patterson’s breakthrough book, Along Came a Spider, was the first of his Alex Cross books. Alex Cross is an African American homicide detective in Washington, DC. The author promoted it using advertising, which was unheard of in the publishing industry.

The ad rolled out in three thriller markets: Washington, DC, Chicago and New York. The book debuted at #9 on the best seller lists and rose to #2. The #9 ranking afforded it favorable shelf location near the entrance of the store. This prime physical position is probably the biggest single factor affecting book sales. There are now over 5 million copies of Along Came a Spider in print. Alex Cross became a booming franchise.

He changed the model

His books include short chapters and reminders of what happened prior, in case readers put the book down the night before. And the books also include a bonus “free preview” of another book he has written. He knows what’s going to grab people. His books beckon the reader, as if to say, “Buy me, read me. I’m not Ulysses!”

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These days

He is very involved in the designing, marketing and advertising of his books. His target market is largely women, who are Patterson’s faithful readers. The writer works with a special staff at Little Brown, which is owned by Hachette, and is believed to account for 30% of their revenues.

He now produces a dozen to 20 books a year. He writes seven days a week, 365 days a year. His books are published in 38 different languages. At 67 titles, he has the most NY Times bestsellers. One out of every 17 novels bought in the United States is one of his.

He owns a home in Palm Beach, which he paid $17.5 million for, and is now worth much more.

Nearly all of his books are published several times – first as traditional books, then as pocket-sized, mass-market paperbacks. It reminds me of the Beatles’ White Album (formally called The Beatles). It is their only two record album. The rumor was that if you played it backwards, you heard someone say “Paul is dead.” Those who bought into that myth and tried it had to go out and buy another copy of the group’s most expensive record because playing it backwards ruined the grooves. That’s some pretty astute marketing.

Patterson has written in just about every genre – science fiction, fantasy, romance, graphic novels, YA and non-fiction. His fastest growing category is YA.

Stephen King called him a “terrible writer.”

About the Author

Frank Felsburg works with professionals who want to communicate their value through writing, speaking and marketing. He does this in a number of ways including ghostwriting books and helping Subject Matter Experts create, prepare for and deliver speeches – and positioning them so they stand out in a noisy world. He turns speakers into authors and authors into speakers.