Anne Janzer - Get the Word Out: Write a Book That Makes a Difference

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Advance Praise

Want to leave an enduring legacy? Get your book out of your head and into the world. Anne Janzer shows how to turn intentions into results in this inspiring guide. Read it and reap.

Sam Horn, author of POP! and Tongue Fu!

Becoming an author is a journey, and Anne Janzer is your indispensable guide. Regardless of whats stopping you, Get the Word Out is full of the tips and encouragement you need to get past those obstacles. Start with this book, and it will be a whole lot easier to achieve your purpose as an author: making readers happier, smarter, or better.

Josh Bernoff, bestselling author of Writing Without Bullshit and (forthcoming) How to Write a Business Book That Matters

Anne Janzer offers that ever-valuable combination of support and motivationwith the bonus of providing tips to help authors clarify their purpose, which really matters in this industry. The advice in Get the Word Out will encourage you to stop waiting for the gatekeepers to give you permission and to green-light your work.

Brooke Warner, publisher of She Writes Press and author of Write On, Sisters!

As writers, we have the ability to make a difference in the world with our books. If you have something important to say, the insights and real-world stories in Get the Word Out will inspire you to cross the finish line. This is a powerful book that every nonfiction writer should read immediately!

Stephanie Chandler, author of The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan and CEO, The Nonfiction Authors Association

The best thing about Get the Word Outthe fourth of Anne Janzers books on writingis its clarity. She knows how to break the writing process into steps, and how to motivate writers to work through those steps. She also understands and explains how todays publishers think. Shes a true writing Sherpa.

Holly Brady, past director, Stanford Professional Publishing Course

Get the Word Out

Write a Book That Makes a Difference

Anne Janzer

San Luis Obispo, CA

Copyright 2020 by Anne Janzer

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For permission to quote or bulk orders, contact info@annejanzer.com

Printed in the United States of America

Hardcover ISBN: 78-1-952284-01-4

Softcover ISBN: 978-1-952284-02-1

Kindle ISBN: 978-1-952284-03-8

Epub ISBN: 978-1-952284-04-5

Cover design by Laura Duffy

Cover/book illustration by Sergey YAkovlev/AdobeStock

I. The Difference You Make

1. Clarify Your Purpose

2. Meet and Greet the Gatekeepers

3. Pick Your Pond

4. Explore Your Expertise

5. Assemble Your Authority

II. Make Your Plan

6. Picture Your Book

7. Pick Your Publishing Path

8. Fill Your Buckets with Research

9. Curate Your Stories

10. Prime the Pump

11. Craft the Provisional Outline

III. Get the Words Out

12. Immerse Yourself

13. SPRINT to a Manuscript

14. Voice Is a Choice

15. Fix It in Post

16. Publication Day

IV. Spread the Word

17. Beyond the Book

18. Find Your People

19. Dealing with Detractors

20. Listen and Adapt

21. This is Not the End

The typical nonfiction book opens with a story to grab your interest and entice you into the pages that follow. Youll find many stories in this book. But right now, lets focus on the story that only you can tell: yours.

Why did you pick up this book? Maybe you want to write a book for business reasons. Youve seen the impact that a book has on someone elses career. Perhaps you want to contribute to your field, to be a thought leader and to make a difference by sharing ideas that are important to you. Perhaps your life experiences could offer important insights for others.

Many of us live on the cusp of doing something meaningful, without ever taking action. We wait or deflect responsibility, assuming that someone more expert than us will speak up. Youre reading this book because you dont want to wait any longer.

Why not act on that desire now?

This book is about using a sense of a purposethe difference you want to maketo inspire, guide, and inform the process of writing a book at every step. Its about starting with the positive impact you want to have for your readers, and then working your way to that point. Your purpose can be large or small, global or unique to your industry or interests. The key is to focus on the value your book delivers to its readers. By doing that, you will discover the lasting value of writing a book.

Servant Authorship

You may have heard of the term servant leadershipa philosophy whose main goal is for leaders to serve those they lead. Not all leaders are servant leaders, of course. But wouldnt you rather work for someone who embraced that principle?

This book is about servant authorshipserving the needs of your core readers.

Not all authors are servant authors. But wouldnt you rather read a nonfiction book or memoir by an author who follows this principle? Who puts your needs, as a reader, ahead of their needs for career advancement?

Yep, me too.

Writing to serve others sounds altruistic, but as I worked on this book I discovered that it was an effective strategy, not only for myself, but for others. A sense of purpose gives you a guidepost for making difficult decisions, like what to include and what to leave out. It keeps you going when the work is arduous or the end seems far away. And it supports your actions during the long phase of authorship that extend beyond publication dayeverything you do to get the ideas out into the world.

Dont just take my word for this. Throughout these pages youll find insights from dozens of authors of books ranging from business-oriented topics to highly personal ones and everything in between. In every case, these writers focused throughout on the difference they could make for their readers through their writing and related work.

I dont want to imply that the authors I interviewed have no ambition for their books or their careers. On the contrary, they understand that the more value they provide the world, the more value they create in their own lives. Many are well-known in their specific fields but are far from being household names. I wanted to share stories that you may not have heard of, and to highlight achievements on a scale that doesnt seem out of reach for someone still hoping to write a first book.

In addition to those interviews, more than four hundred nonfiction authors responded to a short survey about why they wrote, or planned to write, and whether the results of publishing a book lived up to their expectations.

To understand motivations for writing a book, the survey asked people to choose all their reasons from a list I supplied. These were the options:

Personal goal: Ive always wanted to write a book

Business goal: I want to build my business