TELL ‘EM WHY YOU'RE WRITING, AND WHAT YOU EXPECT TO HAPPEN

Surveys of top executives made by the American Management Association have repeatedly found the most important expectation of memos and reports is -- Why are they written and what result is expected?

It is also the rarest approach. How many times have you received a memo that does not reveal its purpose until the last paragraph, or the last line? Or ever? Nothing is more disconcerting, or irritating, than to read a nasty surprise sprung at the end. It seems a rule of thumb that the more hesitant the writer is to state his/her purpose, the lengthier the document. State your purpose and expectations right up front. Say them first. ["This is to report on the shortage of whatsits in Kelowna, and to request authorization for emergency funding...."]

Don't waste everyone's time by "throat-clearing" before you get to the point. It helps readers to know right off the bat whether the memo is for info only, requests an opinion, or requires some form of action. If you adopt this straight­forward style, people will start noticing memos from you over others', and appreciate your professionalism. Most of all, it says you respect the reader's time.

BOOK COVER DESIGN FOR AUTHORS.
by Sidney Allinson.

In your quest to self-publish your novel or short story, you may run into a little trouble with how to design a book cover. There are several ways to make an attractive cover for your book, but most writers fail in this particular area because they can't afford the photo editing software or don't trust their artistic abilities enough to do the work themselves. Making a book cover graphic is a simple process that anyone can do with a little guidance and effort.

You do have an artistic ability as a writer; it's mostly with words, but this artistic ability can also be manipulated toward graphic design. Your goal with self-publishing is to do so in a way that is most cost effective for you and at the same time look professional enough to make the sale. If you learn how to make your own book cover, you will greatly reduce the cost to produce your novel or short story.

Creating a book cover isn't as hard as it seems. The first thing you should do is gather ideas at your local bookstore; look at several new stories in your genre and compare styles, formats, graphics, and layouts. One thing you will find in common with almost every book out there is that they have a title and author's name on the cover. Your main focus will be on the book's title; this is what captures the reader's attention and makes them want to pull your book off the shelf.

The title of a book gives a basic description of what your book is about. It should fascinate your reader to the point they have to pick it up. Your title is a simple word or phrase that represents the primary focus of your book. Overall, what is your book about in five words or less? To choose a proper title, brainstorm the content of your book and create a word or phrase that sums up everything for your reader. Your title is the book's first impression, so this is a crucial stage when you design a book cover.

Once you have a satisfactory title for your book, open your word processing program or photo editing software and type it out along with your byline. Play around with different fonts and font sizes as well as locations on the page. You are looking for a layout that will automatically make your potential readers focus on your title. Don't use plain fonts; try to use a font that fits the era or time frame of your story. Make it a legible font that will give your reader a good feel about your book, but at the same time subconsciously tells them a little bit about your book. When playing around with your font types and sizes, ensure you make the byline smaller than the title as to not distract from your primary focal point.

Now think of a color that corresponds with your book's theme. A books theme is the main picture people get when they read your book. Examples of themes are love equals red and death equals black. Each theme should have a corresponding color. The theme color you choose will be your background color for your cover.

If you have some creativity in you, and I know you do, try to choose a particular scene in your book that has a corresponding picture (a barroom, a mountain, a river...) that you can use to design a book cover background instead of just a plain color. Pictures tend to give your reader an image of a scene within your book so when they do read it, they can get a better picture in their mind about what's going on around them. Don't choose a picture that will distract all attention away from your title.

After you have a title, font, and background, choose a complimentary color for the title and byline font of your book. Making your title and byline stand out from your background is a key ingredient of designing your own book cover. Play around with different color harmonies to see what presents the best mood as you look at it. If it looks good, you're done. Have others look at it as well to give you constructive feedback to make it even better.

Learning how to design a book cover can take a little time and effort on your part, but will ultimately pay off when you present your book to the world. You don't have to be a full-fledged artist to make this work; all you need is a little creativity to effectively create a great book cover.

About the Author

Sidney Allinson is a professional author, with over 30 years' experience as an ad copywriter, and was creative director at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising International. He is author of six published printed books, plus countless magazine articles, advertisements, TV commercials, and direct mail campaigns. Sidney offers free answers to copywriting questions at allsid@shaw.ca You can see the result of one of his own book covers at: http://tinyurl.com/6cwl3a

POINTERS TO TELL WHETHER YOU'RE THE "CREATIVE TYPE"...
Ever wonder if you're the type who is creative, an idea- producer? If so, than size yourself up by some criteria agreed on by the Chicago Graduate School of Business:
* You have few close friends.
• You are independent, dominant.
* Little interest in interpersonal relationships.
• Conventional morality.
• Preference for things and ideas over people.
• High regard for intellectual interests.
• Get less satisfaction from detail work,
• Skeptical, critical, capacity to be puzzled.
• Stubbornness, originality.
• Open to new experiences; adventurous.
• Enjoy analyzing things, situations.
• Can think "sideways; view problems differently.
• Responsive, emotional, enthusiastic.
• Anxious, complicated as a person.

PRINCE CHARLES PRATTLES IN GOBBLEDEGOOK TO PROMOTE CLEAR BASIC ENGLISH
The heir to the British throne recently wrote the foreword to 'A Decade Of Jargon & Gobbledegook.' Book is published by the Plain English Campaign to emphasize some of the worst examples of officialese during the past ten years.
Prince Charles' contribution was to write in deliberately verbose language that took forever to say that he backs more plain English and less nonsense in bureaucratic writing:
"Due to a frequent regrettable inability to prevent my presence in other locations, I find that I must convey to you my goodwill in a correspondence format", he wrote. "How many of us, I wonder, when faced with pretentious gobbledegook and empty jargon, experience a kick-start into despair mode? My feelings to you all are, attitudinally, those of enormous encouragement...."
Which confirms absolutely that pompous prose really does give a Royal pain.

TELL ‘EM WHY YOU'RE WRITING, AND WHAT YOU EXPECT TO HAPPEN.
Surveys of top executives made by the American Management Association have repeatedly found that recipients' most important expectation of e-mails, memos, and reports is -- Why are they written and what result is expected?
It is also the rarest approach. How many times have you received a written message that does not reveal its purpose until the last paragraph, or the last line? Or ever? Nothing is more disconcerting or irritating, than to read a nasty surprise sprung at the end, “out of the blue”. It seems a rule of thumb that the more hesitant the writer is to state his/her purpose, the lengthier the document. State your purpose and expectations right up front. Say them first. ["This is to report on the shortage of widgets in Chicago, and to request authorization for emergency funding...."]
Don't waste everyone's time by "throat-clearing" before you get to the point. It helps readers to know right off the bat whether the memo is for info only, requests an opinion, or requires some form of action. If you adopt this straight¬forward style, people will start noticing memos from you over others', and appreciate your professionalism. Most of all, when you get to the point straight away, it says you respect the reader's time.