How Long It Takes to Write a Booklet - and then what.

I had a conversation yesterday with someone who promotes the idea that a booklet can be written in a day. Actually, I'm not convinced it was really a conversation. It may have been two parallel monologues. You've had those with people, haven't you?

And yes, of course it's true that literally, a booklet CAN be written in a day. How complete it is, how thoughtful it is, how representative of a person's expertise it is -- well, I think all of that is up for debate.

Then we moved on in this parallel monologue situation to the idea of ok, let's say a booklet is written in a day. Then what? What about producing it so it looks like something? And then once it's produced, where does selling get handled?

Well, this same person is not big on utilizing the services of a graphic designer and prefers to get the booklets printed from a Word document. Ok, I'm not a graphic designer and I don't play one on TV. Even so, I am well aware that the difference is like night and day with even the most simple design and layout done by someone who knows their way around a desktop publishing software package like a graphic designer does.

Back to the parallel monologues -- The Word document gets printed, 1,000 booklets get delivered from the printer, and THEN what? Well, we THEN talk about marketing and selling booklets. I sighed. The output looks unnecessarily amateurish, and many buyers are stopped in their tracks right then and there. Besides, many booklet authors love to write and write and write and never have to concern themselves (yourself?) with selling.

I thought back on the experiences of delivering some full day workshops in the past couple years, where 75% of the day was focused on marketing and it still wasn't enough. How well is this other person serving anyone's best interests?

By now I'm sure you've gathered what my opinion is on the matter. And I promise this is far from sour grapes of any kind on my part. As the saying goes, it's a big world out there, and big enough for everyone to do their own thing. Yes, you can write a booklet in one day. It's only part of the deal though. Take whatever time you need, and do it in a way you feel good about doing. It's not necessary for it to take lots of money or time. There are ways to put out a good product without robbing any bank to do it.

Until next time,
Paulette - who believes in spending money and time when and as appropriate
http://www.tipsbooklets.com