Event Description
| If you consider yourself an expert at anything, telling your readers how to do it might be the best way for you to make serious money as a writer. |
| A Panel Discussion with Q&A |
Tues. April 30 at 6 PM Pacific
Readers snatch up how-to tips and tricks in any field and in any format, including advice, instruction, or simply motivation. Our guest panelists bring experience as authors in business management, digital media skills, and nutrition. They’ve also been successful using their books to promote their professional services in those areas.
In a full and frank exchange of views in our Zoom session, we’ll ask our guest wizards:
- Comment on this publisher’s advice: “We don’t hire writers. We hire experts.”
- Who is your audience, and what are they looking for?
- Do you design your books to be read cover-to-cover?
- Did you work under a publisher’s contract or self-publish? Describe the editorial process in your case.
- In what ways are you an expert, and how much research do you have to do?
- Do you cite case studies from your personal experience?
- Did you or your publisher beta-test the book?
- In what ways have you leveraged your books to generate professional income? Speaking engagements? Seminars?
- Have you used a sales-funnel approach in your marketing that links related products
- Have you had success marketing to schools and libraries? Professional groups? Have any of your books been adopted as courseware?
- What advice would you give writers who want to monetize their instructional skills?
Meet Our Panelists
Woody Woodhall
Woody Woodhall, CAS, is an award-winning supervising sound editor, sound designer, and rerecording mixer. Woody authored the college textbook, Audio Production and Post Production, which is used at universities across the world, and he writes the Sound For Film column for Provideocoalition.com. Woody also heads the Los Angeles Post Production Group (LAPPG), where he shares his filmmaking expertise alongside other working professionals on a monthly basis for the postproduction community. His current projects include the Prisoner of the Prophet series for Discovery+, the comedy series Sexpectations, Plan C about medical abortion counseling, and the family-focused feature film Identity Crisis. Find Woody at the control board of alliedpost.com.
Damian Andrew
Damian Andrews claims he slides elephants through the eyes of needles. He will join us from Melbourne, Australia. He’s a CEO, international speaker, philanthropist, and father—not necessarily in that order. His business management books include Startup Success, Get the Cheese, and Get Sh*t Done. In his casual tone, he uses anecdotes in these accessible guides to demystify the simple, easy life, along with business steps to growing revenue and profit. His professional background includes experience in the Australian Army – Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), Corporate Recovery Specialist, Construction Commercial and Contracts Expert, and Operational Efficiency Professional. His business expertise spans manufacturing, property holdings, IT, retail, professional services, large retail fitouts, apartments, commercial, civil, infrastructure, road, rail, and renewable energy. Damian is also a congenial podcaster. Get your cheese at damianandrews.com.
Ruth Frechman
Honored IWOSC member and perennial Reads-Its-Own host Ruth Frechman says, “Everything I needed to create the multi-award winning The Food Is My Friend Diet was because of IWOSC!” Ruth is a registered dietitian, nationally recognized health and wellness expert, nutrition writer, and owner of her consulting practice, On the Weigh. She is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and an ACE Certified Personal Trainer. Using her experience Ruth self-published The Food Is My Friend Diet Quick & Easy Cookbook and Fresh Start Weight Loss, a five-module online course. She also wrote The Easy Arthritis Diet Cookbook for a traditional publisher. Her mission is: Say YES to Healthy Eating! Find out more at ruthfrechman.com.
Our Host – Gerald Everett Jones
Long-time IWOSC member Gerald Everett Jones recently published his fourteenth novel, but for many years in his checkered writing career, he wrote mostly business and technical books for publishers such as Sybex, Peachpit, and Wiley. He is the author of How to Lie with Charts, a cautionary book about business presentations, which continues to be listed as courseware at institutions such as SUNY Empire State. His best-selling, hands-on, how-to books were Excel for Windows Quick & Easy and Digital Filmmaking for Teens. As the announcer introduces him on the GetPublished! Radio show: “Here he is—the guy who has the answers—because he’s already made all the mistakes himself!” Gerald writes the Thinking About Thinking blog on Substack @geraldeverettjones.
