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7 Trends for Business Writers in 2020 (Part 1) · The Daily Writer

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, welcome to episode 122 of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Kent Sanders, and this is the show dedicated to helping you share your message, increase your impact, and grow your business to the power of writing.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably heard it said that there are two things in life that are certain death and taxes.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'd like to add a third thing to that mix that's certain, and that is constant change in the writing and publishing world.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or you might say that the only thing that never changes is the fact that things are always changing.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is the case in nearly every part of life and society today.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: We live in a time of upheaval and change, and this is especially true in the world of writing, publishing, and content creation.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Since we're here at the beginning of a new year, I thought it would be helpful to look at some trends I see on the horizon for the coming twelve months.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: If we're going to be effective in our communication, writing, and our marketing, we have to keep up with changing times and be willing to do things differently.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: But rather than seeing these trends as a threat or in some other kind of negative way, I believe these trends represent opportunities for reaching people in new and interesting ways.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And like most things in life, our attitude and our perspective will determine whether we embrace these changes and continue to grow, or whether we will ignore these changes and become increasingly irrelevant.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in seven trends for business writers in 2020.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's a fair warning.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm breaking up this topic into two episodes.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I am committed to keeping these solo episodes a little bit shorter to respect your time.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're going to do is look at the first three trends on this episode, then in the next episode we'll look at the final four trends.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Trend number one storytelling needs to be a major part of our communication and marketing.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, this is nothing new.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Humans have love stories as long as humans have been able to communicate.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's the way we process information and pass along our values.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Stories are embedded in the way we make sense of the world and how we view our place in history.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: For example, have you noticed that many times when you're watching a commercial, it's all about a story, but you only see the brand mentioned at the very end.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, I think back to the commercials that I remember watching as a kid.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: There was one with the little kid in Mean Joe Green, who is a football player, and that featured Coca-Cola.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or the Maxwell House commercial that features the adult son coming home on Christmas morning, and his family's all there and they're all greeting him, and it's kind of a very warm, fuzzy type of feeling.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, those commercials are great, but they don't actually feature into a large part of the what am I trying to say?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, those commercials are great because they don't place the focus on the product, they place the focus on the story.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So the next time that you watch television, notice that much of the time the commercials are telling stories that aren't related so much to the actual product.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a reason for this, and it's because stories engage our emotions.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: This has a couple of implications for us as writers.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: First, we need to get better at telling stories.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And second, we've got to include stories in our communication.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Did you notice how I just mentioned those commercials I watched as a kid?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: That was an example of including a story in this point in this podcast.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm kind of getting very meta with you here a little bit, but that's the whole point is to tell stories to engage people and to keep them connected.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of great books on business and storytelling, but two essential ones are these.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is called The Story Factor.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you get the updated edition.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the author is Annette Simmons, and she talks about how to influence and persuade people through storytelling.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: The second book I'd recommend is called Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller, and in that book he gives you a story-based marketing framework.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Both of those are excellent, and I'll have links in the show notes.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Trend number two, self-publishing options are getting better and more sophisticated.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Ten years ago, self-publishing was really still in its infancy stages.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Most self-published books were not very good.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: You would get a self-published book that maybe a friend or a colleague gave to you, and it might be in a three-ring binder, or it might have a lot of typos, it had a horrible cover, or otherwise just looked really unprofessional.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: But Amazon, through KDP print, has created a great opportunity for writers because you can easily make a high-quality book available to the whole world.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And their service doesn't actually cost anything to use.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now it does cost for you to do editing and cover design and all those things that you would normally do with any publishing or writing project.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: But Amazon itself doesn't charge you to use their service.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can also use companies like Ingram Spark, which many self-publishers use, or you can go with a hybrid publisher such as Morgan James, which gives you distribution to bookstores and other traditional outlets, but also allows you to keep your intellectual property, which is a pretty cool arrangement.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So in essence, the stigma of self-publishing is quickly disappearing.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you do it right, a self-published book can be virtually indistinguishable from a traditionally published book because you can self-publish at such a high quality today.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Additionally, and I think this is an interesting development, the terminology has started to change.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of self-publishing, I actually prefer the term independent publishing, which really gets to the heart of why so many people prefer that route.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's because you are independent of somebody else having control over your creative work and your intellectual property.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, that's a high value, having control over your work.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's not to say I would never take a traditional publishing deal at all.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'd be very open to that.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: But it just depends on the situation and a lot of other factors as well.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: But all things being equal, I think there is a great value in having control over your creative work and your intellectual property.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we can self-publish at a very high level today if you do it right because there are so many great options available.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Trend number three, authors must begin thinking like author entrepreneurs.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what do I mean by the term author entrepreneur?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, some people use the term authorpreneur.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: What I mean by this is that it's not enough for you just to publish a book and put it out there in the world.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to think of yourself not just as a writer, but as a business owner and an entrepreneur.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this means you need to think about creating a personal brand where books are only one part of your overall business or your message.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a lot of writers are not comfortable with this.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: They just want to write books and leave the marketing and the business stuff to other people.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want to impact people in the deepest way possible, you must embrace marketing and all the opportunities that we have to build a business.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to come back to this theme many times in future episodes, by the way.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not going to dive into it too much here, but I just want to plan this idea in your mind of being an author, entrepreneur, and not just a writer who puts books out there or other content into the world.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to think much, much bigger than that, where books and content is just one piece of your overall strategy for connecting with people and changing lives and making a huge impact.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So let me recap these first three trends.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: They are number one, storytelling is a huge part of communication and we've got to get better at it.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, self-publishing options are expanding and getting better.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And number three, authors must begin thinking like author entrepreneurs.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: In the next episode, we're going to look at the four final trends that I see on the horizon for 2020 for business writing.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And those include the rise of audio and its importance in writing, the importance of AI and VR, or if you're not familiar with those terms, artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about why email marketing is still really important.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we're also going to talk about the importance of LinkedIn.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the four trends we're going to dive into in the next episode.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, those are my thoughts, but I'd love to hear what you think about this episode.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: What trends do you see on the horizon?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And which of the trends that I mentioned are you excited about and which ones are you scared about?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: What intimidates you?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: What excites you about these trends?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear what you think, and you can do that by heading over to KentSanders.net slash one twenty two and leaving a comment on this episode.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that's also where you will find the show notes and the links for this episode.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd also be grateful if you'd consider heading over to Apple Podcasts and leaving a rating and a review for the show.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a preview of what's coming up next.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: On episode 123, we're going to be looking at part two of these trends for 2020 for business writing.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And on the following episode number 124, I'm going to have an interview with Dr.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Wayne Purnell on his magnificent book called The Significance Factor, and I think you're really going to enjoy that.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey guys, thank you so much for listening.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.