How to Plan a Program around Mystery Stories Several weeks ago I received an e-mail from an elementary school media specialist who was in search of a storyteller who told mysteries. They had planned a “Mystery Week” at one of the schools where she works. She had e-mailed me, not because I was known for telling mysteries, but because I am quite active in the Ohio storytelling community and should ...

The Recipe for Getting Published Got talent but no clips? Here's the recipe for getting published...   * Procrastinating When you've finally decided you have to put into writing the fabulous idea that just struck, you enter the first phase of the writing process. "I'll start tomorrow," "I'm not inspired yet" and "I just don't have the time" are some of the phrases that will form a part of you...

What Makes A Successful Speaker? C2004 by Sandra Schrift. All rights reserved   Successful speakers do not necessarily do all the right things all the time. They often take risks and risk bombing. But all highly successful speakers take action, mostly daily, to move toward their goals with lots of course adjustments. They connect with their audience quickly; usually in the first sixty seconds....

How to Market Your Unsold Books on the Internet: It's Easy Judy Cullins ©2004 All Rights Reserved.   Your book expresses your wondrous information, your creativity, and your genius. It's your dream come true. Or is it? You have already tried a few venues--maybe an expo, book signings, press releases, book reviews, distributors, wholesalers, speaking and book tours. Now, there is a new way to m...

Top Ten Ways To Prepare for Your Online Book Marketing Success Still marketing your book through press releases, networking groups, and talks to groups? If these methods have taken a great deal of effort and time and brought you only a few clients or product sales, you may now be ready for your virtual marketing machine, the Internet! To get ready to market your book Online use these ten tips:  ...

What If I Fall Flat On My Face? I hope you do. Sounds awful, I know. But I really think the best thing that can happen to you is for you to take a timid little leap and fall flat on your face. Then, I want to see you get back up, evaluate what you did wrong, and jump again. Keep on taking that leap of faith and learning from each and every mistake until you become used to jumping and used to fal...

Storytelling - The Great Motivator of People In a data-driven world, facts and figures are the order of the day in sales calls, employee meetings, board rooms, and political assemblies. Traditionally, when a person is trying to convince someone else to do something they use the logic of benefits and features - long the sacred domain of anyone in sales. What truly moves us as human beings, what p...

Hire a Proofreader Do not try to proof your own work. You are too close to the manuscript and will miss some typographical errors. You need a professional with fresh eyes to proof your work. Proof Communications writes, copy edits and proofreads successful tenders, proposals and awards submissions; we write interesting thought leadership, blogs and case studies; and we proofread annual reports, ...

ROI in storytelling ROI is generally defined as ‘Return on Investment’ and almost always concerns ideas of business and finance. Let me put a slant on this for you - have you ever wondered about how much ‘return’ you would get if you invested in acquiring knowledge from storytelling? Imagine having a wealth of stories to give examples when you are tying to explain something complicated? Imagine r...