A Voice for Writers and Speakers – WriterSpeaker.com

Don’t let the awkward title discourage you from checking out WriterSpeaker.com: Internet Research and Marketing for Writers and Speakers. Normally I skip online research books because so many are out of date or lack substance, but WriterSpeaker.com surprised me with resources I never knew existed.

The book covers the business and promotional potential of the Internet for writers and speakers. The author, Carmen Leal, covering two overlapping fields, places her primary focus on using the Net to market yourself and your work. She begins with the basics of getting online and moves to using the web for research. From there she clearly and concisely handles Net communications and networking. She ends with a solid discussion of web marketing. At times she’s a bit simplistic, but the information is solid. Leal “eats her own dogfood” as they say in business. She has used the web effectively to launch her professional writing and speaking career from networking to get the seed money for her self-published first title to getting the rapid research done to complete this title in a few short weeks to meet an editor’s deadline. She’s alsoused her own techniques to find speaking opportunities and set up her own web site to promote herself and her books. And while, like all Internet resource book, some of her URLs were obsolete by publication, she uses her site to provide updated links — like a free software upgrade to her book.

Leal covers a plethora of marketing techniques including developing online business networks, building a personal e-mail list, effective online business correspondance, showcase opportunities, the pros and cons of personal web sites and much, much more. I’m still working my way through sections of the book. And it’s a small book…packed with a lot of information.

If you’re a writer or a speaker looking for more resources than you have time to explore, but where you can find ways to kick your career into higher gear, buy the report by Carmen Leal.