Lisa Tener

Book Writing Coach

Writing Courses

Writing, Publishing and Platform-Building Tips from #Harvardwriters2017

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writers at the harvard medical publishing course
Dr. James Zender; Alan Rozanski, MD; Lisa Tener, MS; Candyce Ossefort-Russell, LPC-S
It’s a high moment.
We sit around the oak table in the Oak Room in Boston’s Fairmont Hotel, Copley Square. Harvard Medical School’s CME writing and publishing course has just ended and the air seems charged with enthusiasm and insights.
I am with three clients—Dr. James Zender, expert in auto accident recovery; and two participants in my Bring Your Book to Life® Program, grief expert Candyce Ossefort-Russell and Alan Rozanski, MD, pioneer of Behavioral Cardiology and author of over 200 academic articles and research studies.
We share the takeaways, the shifts, the new ideas.
We brainstorm on the structure of Alan’s book. Alan could write a dozen books and still have more research to share. His challenge? To pare it down to the one theme of this book, yet give readers all the tools they need to implement—and stick with—the health strategies he offers.
James shares the new platform-building initiatives he is planning after speaking with an interested agent.
With Candyce Ossefort-Russell at Harvard Medical school publishing course

Candyce shares how she’d been working on her book on and off for five years until the aha moment swimming at the Y when she realized that if she died that day her only regret would be not having written and published her grief book.

If you missed the course, I hope to share a few insights during the next few days. Today, Candyce, Alan and James offer their takeaways:
Alan Rozanski, MD found himself inspired, “to be among a sea of like-minded individuals in  the health field.”  Alan returns home clearer on “the need to build a platform and develop a strategy for developing a social media presence.” He now plans to develop both a website and blog. His takeaways:
  •  “It’s important to put yourself in a situation where you need to pitch your book. It helps you refine the idea.”
  • “I learned from Rusty Shelton that a website needs to gives visitors a clear action step. I’m now working on a short ebook that helps readers assess and improve their current vitality.”
  • “I realized how important it is to connect with people in the book industry in order to develop an action plan for success. In addition to my book coach, Lisa Tener, there were agents, publishers, a publicist and many types of editors. Just from my 70 second pitch, an agent requested to see my proposal when it’s done.”
Candyce Ossefort-Russell shared this:
  • “I learned from Dr. Julie Silver that I need to be able to describe my book in one sentence. This challenge forced me to become extremely clear in my own mind about what I’m writing about, which makes my book writing more focused; and having this powerful sentence makes it much easier to share with anyone what my book is about.”
  • “Rusty Shelton made it clear that social media is not just about numbers. It can be used to build relationships with people I find interesting. Kristin Meekhof expanded on this idea by saying she used gentleness and gratitude to build her online relationships. The idea of building relationships with gentleness and gratitude makes the whole prospect of building my platform a positive challenge instead of a necessary evil.”
  • “Kindra Hall presented a novel way to think about anecdotes. The typical writing advice is to show instead of tell. By giving us the storytelling basic formula of Normal ->Explosion -> New Normal made the idea of showing come alive in a new way.”
Dr. James Zender’s favorite tips:
  • “Our brains are wired to connect to stories so the best lectures and writing utilize that structure. Easy to say and easy to forget, but critical to drawing in readers.”
  • “With the extreme highs and lows one can experience writing a book and book proposal, having a book coach can be a better mood stabilizer than Lexapro!”
I first met Dr. Zender at the conference two years ago. In addition to working together on his book proposal, he has been working assidously on his platform as an author. He developed a new website for auto accident survivors and other audiences, became a blogger for Psychology Today (publishing 18 posts, half  of which were featured as “essential reads”), developed a lecture series, keynoted at a conference and spoke at several others, applied to speak at several other national and international conferences, and was interviewed for a series of podcasts by McGraw Hill’s Professional Insights Blog.
If you attended the course for the first time this year, let Dr. Zender be an inspiration to you. List your planned activities for the year. Prioritize them. Implement them. Check them off. From building a website to blogging to writing a book proposal, you can do it!
But you can’t do it all at once. Make a plan that’s do-able. Figure out what you’ll give up to make the time for this. Schedule specific times to work on your book, proposal and platform, each individually.
Course attendees: Share your takeaways and aha moments!

What Does Your Muse Want You to Know About Writing a Book?

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connect with your readers says Lisa TenerWriting a Book: Your Muse Can Help

As you think about writing your book, have you consulted your inner muse for clarity?

I spoke with many aspiring authors this past weekend and guided them through my “meet your muse” visualization for them to get clarity about their books and the best way to get them written:

  • “Is it time to write my book?”
  • “Is this the right book?”
  • “Do I have what it takes to write my book?”
  • “Is Bring Your Book to Life® the best fit as a program or path to get my book written?”
  • “How do I find the money to pay for the book writing program?”

It’s a fun and inspiring process to facilitate and to witness.

I love how the inner muse knows just what you need. Here are some of the responses we got from people’s muses:

  • “If you want to write this book, you’d better make it fun. Add humor so you and your readers feel light, encouraged and happy.”
  • “Write the book while you teach it as a program, so you can bring in income and also get great ideas for the book!”
  • “Trust.”
  • “Heavens, no. Not now. You have too much on your plate. Once you finish these other projects you can work on the book.”
  • “Show me some commitment first. Work on your book idea for a few hours this weekend. If you do that, you can take the program.”
  • “You need to create an inspiring space to write.”

Do any of these messages resonate for you? Do you wonder what your muse would say about your book, the timing, your ability to write it, whether one of my programs could be a great vehicle to get it written?

You can set up a free exploratory call here. Or try connecting with your muse on your own with this free guided visualization. And please comment below: Share what guidance your muse provided, as well as any insights, inspiration or shifts in perspective you got from the visualization exercise. Or share an exercise you use to connect with your creative source.

5 Fixes to Transform Medical Writing into Blogs, Books and Other Writing for the Wider Public

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book coach Lisa TenerAre you comfortable writing for a specific audience, such as an academic or medical audience, and a little nervous branching out to write for a more general public or just a different type of reader than you are used to? If so, know that you are not alone.

In fact, as I prepare for next week’s course on Healthcare Leadership and Publishing through Harvard Medical School, I’ve been jotting notes and feedback on some of the submissions from doctors, therapists and other healthcare professionals who will be in my writing workshops–and a common theme has emerged. In a nutshell, these writers need to play to their transferrable strengths, such as reasoning, ability to articulate complex ideas, and–in many cases–keen observational skills, while learning to write in a more conversational and accessible style for the public.

If you’re used to writing for an academic audience and want to expand to writing blog posts or a book, you’ll need to:

Psychiatrist Bruce Dow majored in English in college. in book writing class he had to re-learn the tools for strong writing and let go of the more academic style he'd picked up in medicine. The result is a book filled with compelling stories that draw readers in and help them apply the tools to their own lives.
Psychiatrist Bruce Dow majored in English in college. In book writing class he had to re-learn the tools for strong writing and let go of the more academic style he’d picked up in medicine. The result is a book filled with compelling stories that draw readers in and help them apply the tools to their own lives.

Play up the Stories: It’s true that you need to adhere to HIPAA standards and be careful of divulging patient information. However, you can weave together several patients and their stories and make them into a composite. Stories make the medical information come to life for your readers and draw them in to read more. Many medical professionals have keen observational skills. Use them to bring these stories to life.

Show; Don’t Tell: In an academic setting you may use statistics or studies to paint a picture; you can do that for a broader audience, as well. Just be sure to keep it accessible and understandable. In addition, you can employ all the senses (not all at once, though) in your writing to bring it to life.

Use Dialogue: Several of the writing samples I read last night did an excellent job of using dialogue to immerse the reader in a scene. In most cases, adding a few subtle actions will break up the dialogue and make the scene even more real. One of my pet peeves? Read your dialogue aloud and make sure it sounds exactly like something that person would say. Use contractions 99% of the time, since that’s how people truly speak. Only put quotations in quotation marks. If you’re summarizing someone’s points, that should not be in quotation marks.

book cover arts awareness
In several rounds of editing, Dr. Pat Hoy dug deep for the quirky details that brought her anecdotes to life. She also came up with questions for reflection and exercises that help readers of Arts Awareness apply the tools and techniques of artists and performers to use in their own lives.

Avoid Jargon; Be Conversational: When you’re immersed in a culture or environment, sometimes it’s hard to even realize which terms will sound foreign to someone from outside of that environment. You may find a beta reader or two who is not in your field who can tell you which terms are unclear. In general, write in plain language that an eighth grader can understand. One trick is to pretend you are writing/talking to a patient unfamiliar with medical terms and medicine. What would you say to them? Write that way. You may even find it helpful to picture a specific person.

Keep Your Audience in Mind: Identify your core readers and keep them in mind as you write. What metaphors would resonate for them? What stories or examples can they relate to? What are their dreams, desires, fears or problems as they relate to material in your book? Be sure to address concerns of fears they may have that would keep them from benefiting from your information. Think about things that would help them to integrate or apply the information to their lives. Would exercises help? Questions for reflection? As in the previous point, imagining a specific reader and writing to that person can help make the material resonate better for your readers.

5 Fixes to Transform Medical Writing into Blogs, Books and Other Writing for the Wider Public

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book coach Lisa TenerAre you comfortable writing for a specific audience, such as an academic or medical audience, and a little nervous branching out to write for a more general public or just a different type of reader than you are used to? If so, know that you are not alone.

In fact, as I prepare for next week’s course on Healthcare Leadership and Publishing through Harvard Medical School, I’ve been jotting notes and feedback on some of the submissions from doctors, therapists and other healthcare professionals who will be in my writing workshops–and a common theme has emerged. In a nutshell, these writers need to play to their transferrable strengths, such as reasoning, ability to articiulate complex ideas, and–in many cases–keen obervational skills, while learning to write in a more conversational and accessible style for the public.

If you’re used to writing for an academic audience and want to expand to writing blog posts or a book, you’ll need to:

Psychiatrist Bruce Dow majored in English in college. in book writing class he had to re-learn the tools for strong writing and let go of the more academic style he'd picked up in medicine. The result is a book filled with compelling stories that draw readers in and help them apply the tools to their own lives.
Psychiatrist Bruce Dow majored in English in college. In book writing class he had to re-learn the tools for compelling writing and let go of the more academic style he’d picked up in medicine. The result is Dream Therapy for PTSD (published by ABC-CLIO), a book filled with captivating stories that draw readers in and help them apply the tools to change their dreams and transform their experiences.

Play up the Stories: It’s true that you need to adhere to HIPAA standards and be careful of divulging patient information. However, you can weave together several patients and their stories and make them into a composite. Stories make the medical information come to life for your readers and draw them in to read more. Many medical professionals have keen observational skills. Use them to bring these stories to life.

Show; Don’t Tell: In an academic setting you may use statistics or studies to paint a picture; you can do that for a broader audience, as well. Just be sure to keep it accessible and understandable. In addition, you can employ all the senses (not all at once, though) in your writing to bring it to life.

Use Dialogue: Several of the writing samples I read last night did an excellent job of using dialogue to immerse the reader in a scene. In most cases, adding a few subtle actions will break up the dialogue and make the scene even more real. One of my pet peeves? Read your dialogue aloud and make sure it sounds exactly like something that person would say. Use contractions 99% of the time, since that’s how people truly speak. Only put quotations in quotation marks. If you’re summarizing someone’s points, that should not be in quotation marks.

book cover arts awareness
In several rounds of editing, Dr. Pat Hoy dug deep for the quirky details that brought her anecdotes to life. She also came up with questions for reflection and exercises that help readers of Arts Awareness apply the tools and techniques of artists and performers to use in their own lives.

Avoid Jargon; Be Conversational: When you’re immersed in a culture or environment, sometimes it’s hard to even realize which terms will sound foreign to someone from outside of that environement. You may find a beta reader or two who is not in your field who can tell you which terms are unclear. In general, write in plain language that an eighth grader can understand. One trick is to pretend you are writing/talking to a patient unfamiliar with medical terms and medicine. What would you say to them? Write that way. You may even find it helpful to picture a specific person.

Keep Your Audience in Mind: Identify your core readers and keep them in mind as you write. What metaphors would resonate for them? What stories or examples can they relate to? What are their dreams, desires, fears or problems as they relate to material in your book? Be sure to address concerns of fears they may have that would keep them from benefiting from your information. Think about things that would help them to integrate or apply the information to their lives. Would exercises help? Questions for reflection? As in the previous point, imagining a specific reader and writing to that person can help make the material resonate better for your readers.

Have you been working on shifting from a more academic or business tone to writing for the public, or what we in publishing call a “trade audience”? Do you have any tips or challenges to share? I’d love to get your comments below!

Target Market for a Book: Do I Go Broad or Niche?

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book coach Lisa Tener
I’m often asked about identifying the target market for a book. Here’s my answer, in a nutshell.

Do you want to impact the greatest number of readers possible? Does it seem to you that your book could benefit just about everyone?

That was my orientation when I co-authored The Ultimate Guide to Transforming Anger. I soon learned from my more experienced co-authors and several literary agents that the audience needed to be narrowed down. While people outside a defined market may well read your book, you still need to target to a defined market. That’s how you reach them.

Writing a Book for “Everybody”

In a phone consultation with a client in my Bring Your Book to Life Program the other morning, I found myself in what is for me a familiar conversation. The writer has medical and scientific information that can help people with virtually any health issue, people of all ages, all demographics, preventatively or even if they have some kind of health condition.

And, of course, wanting to help as many people as she can, it’s tempting to make the audience as broad as possible.

The problem is, people tend to buy a nonfiction health-related book based on one of two things:

  1. I think this book will help me solve my problem.
  2. I think this book will help me reach my goal.

Sure, sometimes curiosity or inspiration fuels a book sale, but, by far, the majority of sales, particularly for a health-related book come from the above two motivators.

If the title is too broad, it’s going to be hard to get the reader’s attention. A diabetic is looking for a book about diabetes. A pregnant mom looks for pregnancy books. A parent with an autistic child will look for a book with “autism” in the title and will likely search for  “autism” on Amazon or in a bookstore.

While some broad titles do make it big, it’s much easier to go niche, especially if you do not already have a big following or mailing list.

Know Your Book’s Market

Amazon dominates book sales. If you want your book to do well in that dominant market, you need to think about what keywords readers will type in to find your book. And, in general, the more specific the keywords, the more likely that readers will find you on Amazon.

While your book’s title will attract core readers to the book, researching your book’s market and knowing your core audience will also help you write to that audience in a voice and tone that resonates for them. Knowing your target audience will also help you market and sell books, because you’ll know–or can research–where such readers “hang out” online and offline–news sites, websites specific to a disease or problem or goal, association websites.

Are there ever reasons to go broad? Absolutely. I always counsel my clients to educate themselves on the market and then listen to their inner promptings. If the inner voice counsels differently, don’t ignore it. Explore it.

What questions do you have about writing a book? Ask away.

How Did She Write a Book in 75 Days? Author Spotlight on Kimber Simpkins

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headshot_k-simpkinsDo you spend more time fretting about writing a book than actually writing it? Do you wonder how some people can write a book fast? Then you need to meet Kimber Simpkins, author of the Nautilus Award-winning memoir, Full: How I learned to Satisfy My Insatiable Hunger and Feed My Soul and 52 Ways to Love Your Body.

Lisa: Kimber, your first book, which you self-published, got picked up by New Harbinger even before it won the Nautilus Award and you share that story in an earlier interview about publishing Full. I’d love to compare the two experiences.

Lisa: In your interview with Charlotte, you talked a bit about the trailer for Full, which went viral and was picked up by Self magazine and mindbodygreen.com.  Can you say a bit about how that experience has informed your understanding of your market and if, in any ways, it inspired some of what you write about in 52 Ways to Love Your Body?

Kimber: Recording the video in the park in Oakland, we talked to about 20 different women about their body image and I was struck by how universal the experience of feeling uncomfortable about our bodies is. All these random women on the street had excellent self-awareness and critiques of body image culture, but it’s hard to access that wisdom on a day to day basis. 52 Ways to Love Your Body is meant to help us live into and embody the truth we already know: that no one has the right to tell us our bodies aren’t worthy of love.

kimber's bookLisa: When I met you, you’d already been working on your memoir for several years, and you spent a total of eleven years writing it. By contrast I think you said you wrote 52 Ways in 75 Days. What was it like to write a book so much faster?

Kimber: I honestly didn’t know if I could do it. The publisher gave me a 105 day deadline to write a book about half the size of Full. That included editing time, so I knew I actually needed to finish the book in 75 days so that the editor could get back to me with changes to add in. It was intense, but I brought together all the materials I’d been using for my love your body blogs and workshops and classes and retreats, edited some of that material and added brand new material too.

Lisa: How did you write it that fast?

Jump Start Your BookKimber: It was a huge help to have taken your Bring Your Book to Life® program. I realized it was a real life scenario of writing my book in ten weeks and that I already knew how to divide my time up and get and stay organized and on track. It wouldn’t have even occurred to me it was possible to write a book in 75 days except for Bring Your Book to Life®. I seriously couldn’t have done it without you. I basically wrote a chapter a day, taking the occasional day off. Fortunately, they were short chapters, and having a table of contents to work from was a tremendous help.

Lisa: I feel so honored and pleased to have been a catalyst. I agree that having that structure ahead of time can make a book go so much faster and also have it really hold together and flow effectively. How might you compare writing a memoir to writing a self-help book. What’s similar and what’s different?

Kimber: Writing from a table of contents was a revelation for the second book. So much easier than writing the memoir, which unfolded more organically, and was very disorganized at first. The memoir required a tremendous amount of editing, while the self help book was much simpler.

Lisa: I love the exercises in 52 Ways. They’re so creative–like “Couples Counseling for You and Your Body.” Had you been using most of these exercises in your yoga classes? Or teaching workshops, or did you have to come up with a boatload of new ideas quickly?

Kimber: I’m so glad! All the exercises in the book are ones I tried out and found effective for me. A lot of my process around learning to love my body was trial and error: does this practice lead me towards more love or away from it?

Lisa: I love the exercise to cheer yourself on which came out of a conversation with your son. Did that idea come right away or did you access it days or weeks later?

Kimber: It was an idea that percolated for a while, a thought I kept returning to, letting me know there was something important there about how I could treat myself differently.

book signingLisa: How did you tap into creating these new ideas for exercises? Do you have a writing ritual or process? Or do ideas come to you throughout the day just living life and teaching yoga?

Kimber: Anything can spark an idea…a book, a video, a conversation with a friend, a moment on my yoga mat when I suddenly see where I give myself a hard time. I listen to a lot of dharma talks too, and there’s often a lot of wisdom to be applied to my body and heart. My writing process is different right now than when I was writing the books. When writing a book I like to write a little every day. Right now I write when an idea strikes me or when I have time to sit with my notebook.

Lisa: In terms of book sales and reaching readers, what did you do the first time around that was most effective?

Kimber: I think the most effective and rewarding thing is making personal connections with other people in the field of body image awareness and eating disorders. My friends and colleagues in this area have been wonderfully supportive of the books and have opened many doors for me. I’m so grateful to be doing this work with other amazing people, making the world a safer place for all bodies.

Lisa: Any book writing tips for authors?

full bigKimber: Take Lisa’s class. Do what she tells you to do. You’ll be thrilled with the result.
Lisa: Wow. Part of me is all “Aw, shucks” and part of me is beaming right now–huge smile and, “Yes, it is empowering. Great books come out of this program.” It kind of relates to loving one’s body, doesn’t it? Just taking in the compliment and agreeing instead of feeling we have to discount it with the equivalent of, “I’m too fat.”  Any promotion advice you’d like to share with our readers?

Kimber: Find your tribe and collaborate with them.

Lisa: You’ve done such a great job of that–from playful ways you invited your yoga students to spread the word (that Bingo card you made where people could win prizes) to engaging the woman on the street! What’s the response you’re getting from readers of 52 Ways?

Kimber: People seem to be getting a lot out of it! It’s not your run of the mill body advice. It goes right down into the core issues of our unworthiness and starts the healing process.

Lisa: Dear Reader, I have a copy of each book to give away. The most insightful comment AND the most insightful question each win a book. Ask your question or share your comment below!

Kimber Simpkins is a writer and yoga teacher transplanted from the Midwest to Northern California. Her successful shift from hating her body to loving it surprised no one more than herself, and it continues to inspire her students and readers everywhere. When not on her yoga mat or thinking up ways to treat her body as a friend, Kimber may be found playing, meditating or hula-hooping in her backyard garden. 

Update: Oh my! I completely forgot to mention I have two of Kimber’s books to give away for the two best comments or questions! Ask your questions or make comments below and you may win one of these two inspiring books!

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