Cutting Edge, which recruits musicians and music for films, helps filmmakers save money on the nuts-and-bolts work of assembling a movie score.

There may be something to it – as publishers look to cut their advances for everyone except perhaps the most starry authors, more and more writers struggle to exist on their writing. I’m not only talking about creative writing, but all sorts of writing that might take more time than squeezing in an hour or two before or after work.

Already, some rock and pop singers now ask for donations via social media, and promise to include contributors’ names on the liner notes, and even pay them back when there’s a profit. It takes the pressure off the artist to search for a label (since so many more are self-releasing). And some artists are evening being inspired by sites like Facebook to create works of art.

Could the same thing happen with writers? As it’s becoming more likely that authors will be heading toward a world in which self-publishing is another option, rather than a last resort, getting backing for a project seems to make sense. It means, however, that an author has to structure his project as more than one where he waits for inspiration – he needs a plan.

Maybe a collective – perhaps funded by an angel fund that wants to offer some of its money to the arts at a time when a lot of funding, including government funding, is drying up (arts are the bane of politicians, despite the fact that arts contribute greatly to local economies – politicians loathe art as vampires fear the sunlight).

In order to attract funding, through donations or a collective, a writer needs to be able to utilize social media in a good way. We have seen the power of social media with the recent event sin Tunisia and Egypt, where Twitter has been the means of getting the word out about popular uprisings. Twitter is even the preferred method of getting in touch with airlines now for updates on cancellations.

Wouldn’t it work for proposals for donations for a project/ If you’re able to craft yor proposal in under 150 characters, it means you already have a good sense of where you’re going. Investors like that.

It means, though, that you have to be willing to be rejected. But writers are used to that. In any event, there are more and more options for getting funding – it takes a little creativity. And every writer worth his salt has that.

What does your client value?

If you have followed Michael Drew, for any length of time, chances are you have heard him talk about the use of personas in your marketing.  When I first heard about this concept, I knew that there was a ton of validity to it for the simple reason that it allows you to create a story centered around real people and what they value, fear, struggle with etc.

With values at the forefront of your mind, here are a few other things to consider when uncovering your clients’ values.

One important point right up front is to get out of your own head.  You are not your client and most likely don’t value things in the same way that they do.  Unless you are God, it’s difficult for the creator to put themselves in the shoes of the end user.  Put away the attachment to your assumptions and have real conversations with potential end users of your product or service to see what it is that they truly value.  This is one of the beautiful aspects of using social media correctly.  You can engage the public to find out what it is they truly want.

When you are creating a product or service, you can design the whole product or experience around your client’s values.  This can affect how your website is designed.  How your product is packaged.  How easy it is for your product to be used etc.  For instance, you are designing a product/service for a stay-at-home-mom like a make money from home course.  You wouldn’t put together a curriculum with long modules of information that would require the mom to sit in place for an extended period of time to get the information.  Moms don’t have time for that and they aren’t going to do it when their kids are in bed, so forget that notion.

You can enhance the experience by looking at what the end user values.  In a mom’s case, it may be time and time with the kids.  In other people’s cases, it could be the environment.  Is your packaging green enough?  They may be concerned with their self image.  Is this product or service going to make me look cutting edge and smart? All of these things center around values.

It all comes down to learning where your clients are spending time, and engaging them in meaningful conversation about what they want or perceive that they need.  The better you are at putting aside your own values and understanding what your end user will value, the more likely your product or service is going to be successful.

I ask again, what does your client value? Your business doesn’t have a more important question to answer.

In the swiftly evolving world of e-retailing (and e-reading), you can’t be sure.

I just got back from living in France for several months, and noticed just before I left that one of the big department stores there, Fnac, has begun selling its own e-reader, similar to Barnes & Noble’s Nook, just in time for the holidays. There the e-book is in its infancy (and in Europe, it’s still relatively rare; in Italy, for example, e-books are unheard of, as is e-retailing in general – Amazon.com doesn’t even exist there).

Yet, France remains a nation devoted to books. Writers are revered there, people read everywhere. Actual physical books. And while you can speak on the cellphone in the Paris Metro, more people are reading than talking. Yet slowly, steadily, e-books are beginning to emerge.

One of the reasons for this is the growth of e-readers. News stories in the French paper predict that more than a million iPads are likely to be sold in France this holiday season. And the iPad enables several e-readers. So rather than wait for the market to get restless, some retailers are meeting the market head-on with their own readers. But the iPad, and other similar if less noted devices, are relying a lot on the app market. And the app market is emerging as the real forum for new publishing ideas.

French newspapers have already developed iPad applications. Le Monde has a good one – you “turn” its pages as if it were the actual print edition – and given that a country such as France is already attuned to technological progress, you can be sure app developers had their eyes on what was happening in the U.S. with the tremendous growth of the iPad (close to 8 million of the devices have sold here already).

Some literary agents I know say that much of their negotiating time lately comes from maneuvering the world of e-rights and now, app developments. If you sell a book to a film company – and if it’s a children’s book, it’s more likely to sell to film these days – the film company in general retains visual rights. But the publisher retains graphic novel rights (in case the author wants to rework his ideas into that form). What about app rights, which often include graphic elements? That’s a sticky problem.

This holiday season, in the U.S., there are apps for a pop-up “Christmas Carol,” designed by pop-up artist Chuck Fischer. (Pop-up books are a challenge in any form – very labor-intensive to produce – but in app form, they’re as beautiful as the paper-and-cardboard version, and maybe more durable.) And there are cookbook apps that are said to be much better, and more user-friendly, than the e-book version of the hardbound book. In dictionaries, the app is much, much more user-friendly than the e-book dictionary (for example, my e-book copy of a French-English dictionary doesn’t allow you to search for words, which is, to put it mildly, a really stupid design flaw, while my English-French dictionary app is phenomenal).

Apps can be difficult to produce, yet once they’re up, they’re genuinely interactive, meaning they speak to the audience (anyone who has loaded apps on his or her iPad or other interactive touch-screen devices knows this – there are bug fixes and updates constantly). This is all based on the instant feedback that apps provide. This is different from the approach of traditional publishers, who take a long time to finesse the product, and don’t really speak to the audience directly.

If the future of publishing is the app, it’s because app makers, rather than publishers, speak to their audiences.

You can work and make money more efficiently through the use of technology and bringing your ideas to the market multi-dimensionally.  You don’t even have to love technology as much as my man Kip Dynamite to make this happen.

Seth Godin had a powerful quote about technology in his book Linchpin.  He basically says that we have all of the means of production right at our fingertips, and not to master them is a sin.  He’s talking about our ability to use technology that’s simpler and easier than ever before for the average person to master.

How does this help you again?

When you are developing your  idea for your business, keep technology in mind as you are working through it.  Ask yourself:

• How can I automate the idea so that I am not having to be involved with it at every point?
• How can I systematize so that the idea can be profitable whether I am there or not?
• How can I use technology to leverage the idea multi-dimensionally?

What do I mean by multi-dimensionally?  Basically I am talking about how you can take one outlet of your idea and turn the same content into multiple products.  For example you can do a tele-seminar for a group of people.  You can record the call, have it transcribed and turn that into a different product that you can sell later.  Look for ways that you can do that with all of your products.  Record every call, video every speaking engagement, and save every article that you write.

Make more money in less time! Make money while hanging out and having a drink!  These things are certainly possible if you use technology to structure your idea in the right way.  As for meeting your Soul Mate?  I don’t know how strong your game is so you may have to follow Kip Dynamite’s lead and find a chat room for that.  In the meantime, think about how you can make your current business ideas more powerful through the use of technology.

How have you been able to win with technology?

It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears

OK—now that we’ll all have that song stuck in our heads for at least the next hour, if not the rest of the day (“You’re welcome!”), take a look at the last 3 lines:

There’s so much that we share, That it’s time we’re aware, It’s a small world after all.

Now, when Walt Disney commissioned this song to be written back in 1964, it was intended to show children playing in a spirit of international unity and had a general theme of global peace.

Today, we understand exactly how small the world is.  We have technology and the Internet (not Al Gore) to thank for that. And in business, the world gets smaller with every review that’s written, every product praise that’s posted, and every text message that’s sent telling my BFF not to buy that thingamabob.

Case in point, it’s Thanksgiving evening. The kitchen’s cleaned up, Black Friday list is made, 3^rd football game of the day is on in the background, and I’m catching up with my Facebook friends.  One of my friends, who faithfully posts great “this day in history” videos, posts a different type of video tonight:  this one’s of a disgruntled HP customer.  And not just any ol’ customer:  this guy’s a member of our Armed Forces serving in Iraq.  Check it out.

Now, he’s got my interest.  You see, I’m from a military family: my husband, father-in-law, 3 brothers-in-law, step dad, and an aunt have all served—one paying the ultimate price.  I grew up in a military town, and have lots of military friends.  When you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.

Now, I’m not here to post about how bad or evil HP was or wasn’t for how they handled this soldier’s service request. There are 2 sides to every story (well, actually, there are 3, but that’s for a totally different discussion), and we’re getting only one side in the video clip.  But…we’ve got a video clip…that is going viral*…that may affect how others view HP’s products and services.  And I’m seeing this the night before I go out shopping for Christmas gifts?!  Hmmmm…

Now, what does this have to do with you and your business, you wonder?  (Am I driving to a point? Yes.)

While you can’t completely control how your customers react in a given situation, you can be proactive up front to prevent a situation. And if one comes up, then be transparent in how you handle and respond to it. Remember, we are fully in a Civic Cycle.  Corporate BS will no longer do.

First off, recognize that none of this would even be floating around if HP had taken care of this customer.  “You are our #1 priority,” has to be more than just lip service!

But, now that they have a problem speeding its way around the globe, what can they do?

Take responsibility…and not just from a CYA, “gotta fix the PR mess created by this video” perspective, but to really want to take care of the issue.

“There’s so much that we share” – like how happy or disgusted we are by the service we receive;

“That’s it’s time we’re aware” – Wake up—word travels to thousands and hundreds of thousands with the click of a Send button;

“It’s a small world after all” – and getting smaller by the nano-second.

Can you relate?  I’d love to hear your stories—both you as a customer and/or you as the transparent business owner.  Just post them below.  Let’s help to make it a better “small world”—one cyber step at a time!

* A short post-script:  While looking for the video so I could embed it here, I discovered that this video was actually posted in 2006!  FOUR YEARS AGO! What a shelf life!

Here are three tools that are easy to implement and really effective at the same time:

Mind Mapping-  Mind mapping is a tool that we have used a ton to flesh out ideas.  Mind Mapping is the process for starting at a center point, in this case your idea, and building out several legs of your idea through the map process.  This is where you map out who’s involved, how the idea will be distributed etc.  A great free tool that we use is Free Mind.

Drawing it on a white board-  If you are ever in my office, you will see this tool used all over my walls.  I don’t use a white board but I do use the large sticky note pads that fit on a white board that way I can stick them anywhere on the walls when we are drawing out ideas.  It’s not as green of an option, but it allows us to fold them about and keep them for later reference.

Sticky notes-  In the book, Business Model Generation, they talk about the use of sticky notes throughout the idea vetting process.  Writing concepts and steps on sticky notes allows you to arrange them and play with them easily while giving you a visual representation of what’s happening.

If you are stuck in ideas and you are not using visual tools to help you move your idea forward, then I would suggest implementing this technique into your next idea meeting with your team.  Seeing something represented visually makes it real.  Making it real brings you that much closer to success.

Where have you been successful with using visual tools in your business?

The reason why successful people manage to be successful is that they employ a great team to help them fill in the holes where they may be weak or uninspired.

With that being said, imagine this:

You have a great idea that people are going to love and that will make you a lot of money.  Well sit back and relax and consider your idea done.

Yeah done.  That’s the beauty of building the right team behind your idea.  You may have beat yourself up in the past for not being very detail-oriented or not completing projects on time.  OK you’re right.  Saying the projects were late is being kind because most likely you never finished them at all.  You don’t have to be a rugged individualist to be successful.

Instead of killing yourself mentally over things you aren’t getting done, focus on what you are exceptional at and then hire people to do the work that they are exceptional at.  Forget about overcoming your weaknesses.  That’s crap, and also extremely unproductive.  Getting past this hurdle is how successful people look like geniuses.

You have a great idea that’s going to make you look smart.  Stop sweating the details.  Details are for other people.  They are not for you.  Get a team behind your idea and watch them turn your dream into a reality.

None of us is as smart as all of us. – Ken Blanchard

Give me a time where you have tried to do it all yourself and failed?  When has it been a wild success?

It really shouldn’t be the kind of question we have to ask ourselves, but publishers, like movie studios again, feel that the gift-giving season is the one chance to recoup, the big chance to get back what they spent the rest of the year on underperforming books that failed to find an audience.

It says something that the surprise hit of the holiday season is the first volume of Mark Twain‘s autobiography. The University of California Press, which published the autobiography – a century after the great author’s death, as per his wishes – didn’t realize (in all its ivory-tower naïveté) that Twain’s trenchant musings on his life, his work, his era, were just the thing to appeal to readers today, and to gift-givers at the end of the year. Why? We want what’s real. And Twain was nothing if not real.

So far, the publisher has had to go back to press a few times, and there are now something like 600,000 copies in print. What does this say about today’s readers? It says that Twain is indeed timeless – that he appeals to the contemporaries today as much as he did people of yesteryear – but it also says that good writing speaks to generations whatever the time of year.

Twain engaged with his readers. He was a man of his time and ahead of it – he published one of the first presidential memoirs (U.S. Grant’s), and started his own publishing company, and did what he could to engage his audience. He wasn’t always successful – who is? – but he was memorable

You can be too – if you listen to your audience, if you dare to make a stand, if you speak, like Twain always did – the truth.

More than the greatness of his writing, it’s the transparency of his thinking that makes Twain a man for our age. And a man for the gift-giving season. I doubt that the University of California Press thought it had such a big hit on its hands – it was probably wishful thinking that it published the book toward the end of the year and hoped for a few thousand copies to be sold. But Twain probably knew better a century ago: he wanted to be heard, but more than anything he wanted to be connected, and be honest. He probably felt it would be better to wait a hundred years, before people were ready for his brand of truth.

You don’t have to wait that long. You can connect with your audience, too. If you speak the truth. At any time of the year.

This call is being webcast by Thomson/CCBN and can be accessed at Barnes & Noble, Inc.’s corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com/webcasts. The webcast of this call will be archived and available at www.earnings.com.

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