The Writing Edge for Business Writers: 12/11/15

Dec 11, 2015 | Better Writing

You’re a businessperson. You may not think of yourself as a writer, but you know that writing well can boost your results and your career. Naturally, you want to do better. Every week I point you to articles and blog posts that I think will teach you something or spark an idea or two. Some weeks there are more pointers than others.

This week I’m pointing you to pieces on thinking like a novelist to tell your analytics story, using custom illustrations, and the 2015 Smashwords Survey.

From Evan Sinar: Think Like a Writer to Tell Your Analytics Story

“New writers are taught to consider 6 key elements before composing a story: Characters, Conflict, Setting, Plot, Point of View, and Theme. The best stories share these elements to keep you turning pages until the end, but this doesn’t happen by accident—the authors have taken the time in advance to make sure that all these elements are in place. Similarly, if you want an audience to sit up and your message to soak in when you’re presenting the outcomes of your latest round of business analytics, you need to think and plan more like a novelist and less like a scientist.”

From Joanna Penn: Using Custom Illustrations To Make Your Book Stand Out

“In a sea of ever-growing numbers of books, many of which use the same stock photography on covers, how do you make your book stand out?”

From Mark Coker: Smashwords: 2015 Smashwords Survey Reveals Insights to Help Authors Reach More Readers

“Welcome to the fourth annual 2015 Smashwords Survey. As long time followers of the Smashwords Survey know, we examine real sales data to extract potential insights about best practices that give indie authors and publishers incremental advantages in the marketplace.”

Sources I Check Regularly

I find the posts and articles that I share with you on The Writing Edge in many places. But there are a few that provide insightful pieces again and again. Here they are.

Digital Book World

Frances Caballo

jeffbullas.com

Joel Friedlander

Joanna Penn

Men with Pens

Merce Cardus

Problogger

Becky Robinson’s Weaving Influence