You might be in one of the #HAHD challenges right now. Whether you are trying to publish 100 articles in 100 days or are trying to generate a large number of articles or other content to be ready to post at a moment’s notice, here are five tips to help you do just that. See which you can use as a treasure trove for yourself.

1. Previous articles you have written that were never published, but still have plenty of good content there. Look in your file cabinet and look on your hard drive. It’s surprising how much “good stuff” we never submitted and or we never tried hard enough to get published.

2. Course content you have developed. It is incredible when you begin to look at everything you have created for your classes, workshops, or other trainings and then start to think about how you can work with that content to create new articles, documents, or other written material. Take a look at what you have already amassed from your teachings.

3. Books (or other materials) you have written that have been published. There are so many publishing options and so many different copyright policies – so figure out whether you own the copyright (vs. the publishing company) and if it is you, well then, for heaven’s sake, start packaging that information into other formats. If someone else owns it, there are still many ways to re-view and re-write your information and see what you can generate.

4. Books you have written that haven’t been published. Wouldn’t it be nice to think that every single item that a writer ever wrote actually got published? Well, that’s not how it works. For whatever reason, you have books and other materials that didn’t make it to publication. Look at those with a fresh eye and see what you can mine.

5. Speeches you have given. Whether you have given speeches at conferences, conventions, Lions (or other service) clubs, commencements, or any other event, you probably wrote those out or at least had extensive notes. That is content you can use now for other writing you are doing. You’ll be surprised at what lurks in your file cabinet (physical and virtual).

I’m telling you from experience that you will be stunned by the amount of written material that you already have that can be revised, edited, repurposed or in some other way used to increase your published output.

Here are some places with some recommendations:

from the Life of E’s blog:

http://meggin.com/lifeofes/wordpress/2008/06/resources-for-publishing-ghost-writers/

From Speaker Net News (which is absolutely worth subscribing to, free) and they have questions and compilations of answers. This is from 3 years ago, but is still worth perusing:

http://speakernetnews.com/post/selfpublish.html

From LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/marketing-sales/writing-editing/MAR_WED/586989-11003738

Gini Cunningham, who is the person who teaches the 30 Articles in Just 30 Days class with me has used Lulu on several of her latest projects and is really liking that company. I have seen others who have used that service, too and their books turned out well.

My recommendation is to look at some other self-published books and see which ones are well done and which ones aren’t. There are some dreadful examples out there – poor quality, etc. and you don’t want that, of course.

Are you kidding me?  1001 ways….  And it’s true.  It’s quite the hefty book (704 pages) and it’s stunning the number of different ideas that are included.  Out of that number, any one of us can surely find at least…10 ideas we can use.  Or maybe even 100… 

If you love having books arrive FAST, be sure to sign up for Amazon Prime…free 2-day shipping for one flat rate each year (and you can have 4 family members all using it.  Such a bargain for those of us who want books NOW vs. later!)

Remember that you have knowledge that the whole world does not. Making an assumption that everyone already knows what you know will keep you stuck and be a barrier to developing information products. What would be your first question if you were a newcomer now coming to your own expertise?

Doesn’t that just get your brain going?  Start writing down those questions – and then start answering them!

Be sure to learn more about Paulette Ensign and her company Tips Products International and in particular, you may be interested in her Publishing Prosperity Mastermind, of which I’m a charter member.

Advantage Media Group is one of the companies that I talked with awhile back and actually interviewed a couple of their ghost writers.  They are a professional operation with quite a few resources. 

Posted by Meggin | 6/1/08