I can work with material at any stage, from idea to early drafts to pieces that need editing or a final polish. Gathering material from interviews or teleconferences with your experts and structuring and shaping raw material into publishable content are among my specialties.
Writing Services
• Whitepapers, executive bulletins, and point of view pieces
• Articles for magazines, newsletters, and Websites
• Marketing/sales copy and client cases
• E-books, training materials, and client deliverables
• Business book proposals, books, and booklets
• Odd jobs, repairs, and troubleshooting
Training & Consulting Services
• Customized training in effective business writing
• Editorial process design and style guidelines
• Publishing strategy design and oversight
• Orientation to business book publishing
If your needs fall outside these categories and you believe you could benefit from professional writing services, please contact me and let's talk it over.
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Whitepapers • Bulletins • POVs
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Written pieces that provide real value to clients (rather than sales messages) are powerful business development tools. Usually ranging from 1,500 to 4,000 words, whitepapers and bulletins enable you to flag issues, establish credibility, open doors, and start conversations. They also engage you in a productive search for fresh solutions to your clients' problems, and fresh language to describe those solutions.
I have written scores of whitepapers and bulletins for hardcopy and Web publication. Subjects include leadership, risk management, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, outsourcing, international financial reporting standards, financial services restructuring, Lean and Six Sigma, cost control in supermarkets, college and university marketing, healthcare cost containment, the long-term care industry, and Web-based marketing of pharmaceuticals, among others. Let me take a load off your partners and experts while improving the result.
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Articles for magazines, newsletters, and Web-based publications form the backbone of a good public relations program. Not because everyone will see it, but because you can send them the piece or a link to it as part of your ongoing contact program. You can also thereafter point out that you've been published.
If you have a publishing opportunity and you have no PR professionals on staff or your PR firm is stretched too thin (or is too expensive), please get in touch. I've worked with editors and PR pros to produce pieces for, among many other publications, Directors Monthly, Financial Executive, CFO, Pharmaceutical Executive, DTC Perspectives, Business Marketing, Velocity (Strategic Account Manager Association's quarterly), Wall Street Journal Online, and the New York Times.
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Marketing/Sales Copy & Client Cases
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In marketing and sales communications, most businesses mistakenly focus primarily on their capabilities rather than on their clients' needs. Yes, you must tell people what you do. But you must also get them thinking about their problems and how you can help solve them.
Most of the marketing and sales copy I've written in recent years has been for the Web and includes materials for a new natural energy-drink launch, for services of Sales Performance Improvement, Inc., and for an invention and product development firm, the latter including hard copy materials.
Client case histories can truly showcase a consulting or professional services firm's capabilities. I've written quite a few successful ones, including many for a boutique strategy consultancy in Chicago, a sales and marketing consulting firm in Atlanta, and a marketing strategy firm in the Bay Area.
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E-Books • Studies • Client Deliverables
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People pay well for informative e-books, surveys, and studies of markets, issues, and industries. By "studies" I mean off-the-shelf, multi-client, or single-client deliverables in hardcopy or online formats. Some vendors think that writing quality isn't important in these kinds of documents. Mistake! It's true that slick covers usually aren't needed and can even detract from the perceived value of such products. But unclear writing, muddled analysis, dull discussion, and poor grammar can erode both perceived and actual value.
If you sell — or want to sell — information or instructional products or written client deliverables, we should talk. My quick Editiorial Evaluation will tell you what's working and what's not in your documents, and provide easy fixes and improvements. Improving the clarity, style, and impact of client deliverables is a strong sub-speciality of mine.
I got my start as A Writer creating industrial reports for Find/SVP and wrote DRI/McGraw-Hill's multi-client study of the EU when the euro was a gleam in the eyes of bureaucrats in Brussels. (It was so successful that DRI hired me on staff for the next five years.) I've since written and edited over a hundred studies, surveys, and client deliverables to extremely good effect, including many for US and foreign government agencies. Try me on just the executive summary of your next key document and you, and your clients, will see the difference.
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Business Book Proposals, Books & Booklets
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Having a book published by a recognized publisher is the Holy Grail of communication coups for most consultants, but it is also the most difficult to pull off and no guarantee of increased business. However, writing a book is almost always gratifying and certainly can launch its author(s) to new levels of prominence and success.
Book proposals and book publishing are so complex that I wrote and published a book on the subject, the award winning Writing the Breakthrough Business Book. It's based on my experience in writing, ghosting, and collaborating on more than 15 published business books. You can learn more at Tom's Books. There you will also find examples of shorter, 100-page books, which businesses are increasingly using to get their messages out.
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Odd Jobs, Rewrites & Troubleshooting
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I receive many calls about projects that suddenly skyrocket in priority or that have frozen because the authors-of-record became too busy or conflicted to finish them. Many authors and editors have me evaluate book proposals or manuscripts. Adams Media commissioned me to write a series of four books that they conceived in house.
I've also written, evaluated, and rewritten many business plans, direct mail packages, press releases, and survey questionnaires. In the early 2000s, I wrote an excellent corporate history of one of the world's three largest credit card companies, based on 80 interviews and six boxes of archival material. And I've been engaged to write several senior executive speeches.
In business, there is no end to the need for clear, engaging writing. When you next need such writing, please contact me so we can discuss your project. If I cannot help you or price the project within your budget, I may well know someone who can.
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Training & Consulting Services
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Training: If you want written communications training that focuses on the documents and situations that your staff grapples with, please contact me. My workshop quickly reviews the fundamentals of clear, powerful business writing, then addresses the larger challenges your staff faces. These challenges usually stem from the demands placed on them by the material and the audience, and from the process they are using — as individuals and as a team — to produce the documents. This training boosts effectiveness and efficiency, at a reasonable fee.
Editorial Process Design: Sound editorial process calls for procedures and standards that have been carefully developed, clearly communicated, and regularly employed. It also employs style guidelines specifically crafted for the writers, material, and audience. It's alarming that many companies producing thousands of documents per year lack such a process. As a result, they waste huge amounts of time, often that of senior executives and staff. Contact me if you are wasting time, talent, and money producing documents of inconsistent (or consistently low) quality.
Publishing Strategy Design: It's also alarming how many firms lack a publishing strategy. Although not as widespread a problem as it once was, too many firms still underuse the written word or use it to poor effect. A publishing strategy engages your team's creativity, expertise, and client experiences to develop processes, positions, trademarks, brands, and other intellectual capital to enhance your reputation and develop your business in targeted, measurable ways. Stop throwing documents out there and hoping for the best, and take a strategic approach to communicating with your prospects and clients.
Orientation to Business Book Publishing: Developing a book proposal, finding a publisher, and writing the manuscript represent a tremendous investment of time, effort, and money. In my 90-minute or three-hour orientation, I can explain the current business book market, evaluate the pros and cons of your book idea or proposal, answer your questions, and provide direction on next steps. (I'll also tell you when to scrap or postpone the project.) Virtually no literary agent makes time for this, and few writers can give you the benefit of my experience in business book publishing. If you have a book idea, outline, or proposal and you are serious about taking the next step, do contact me.
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