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Welcome to the latest issue of Write for You
News & Notes
with some words of wisdom on
writing, business, and life. If you'd like to
share any books or favorite links with our
readers,
send us an
email. And be sure to check
our website
for ways that we can help you
with your
business. On paper or online, when you need words that work for you, I can write for you!
Nancy Passow
| Another E-mail Rant |
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Periodically I go on an e-mail rant -- you've read them before. Reminders to use "bcc" for the e-mail addresses if you're sending to lots of people; don't hit "reply all" unless everyone really needs to know; don't forward chain e-mails to people's business accounts; use a descriptive and compelling subject line so people open and read your e-mails.
It's that last reminder that fuels the latest rant. Why do people use the subject line for the first line of the e-mail? Or, even worse, put the entire e-mail in the subject line. Or put the first half of the first line in the subject line. Trust me, unless you're someone I really want to hear from, seeing "If You Have a Chance" in the subject line is not going to make me want to open the e-mail. It will make me hit the delete button. The subject line is just that -- the subject of the e-mail. The actual message, even if it's short, goes in the body of the e-mail.
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| Remembering a Writer -- Ray Bradbury |
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A wonderful writer, Ray Bradbury, died on June 6. The NY Times described him as "a master of science fiction whose lyrical evocations of the future reflected both the optimism and the anxieties of his own postwar America. . . ." I am not a big science fiction fan (well, yes, I watched Star Trek and Star Wars and technically the fantasy books I enjoy like Lord of the Rings and Last Unicorn fall under that genre), but I enjoyed reading Ray Bradbury.
Two books in particular stand out for me. The first, which I know we read and discussed back in high school, is Fahrenheit 451. The title refers to the temperature at which paper burns and the book tells about a future time in an authoritarian US when books are burned. My favorite book is Dandelion Wine, an autobiographical novel (with a touch of fantasy), covering the summer of a twelve-year old boy.
Bradbury never went to college but read as many books as he could. And apparently he only wrote about technological marvels and adventures -- he never learned to drive and preferred trains to planes.
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| Keep in Touch with Your Customers |
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There's no better way to keep in touch with customers (and potential customers) than by providing interesting information -- like this e-letter. Whether it's monthly or quarterly or somewhere in between, let people know you're there.
Are you interested in trying e-mail marketing? I am a Certified Constant
Contact Expert and a Constant
Contact Solution Provider. Which means I can
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whether it's helping with set-up, writing the
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can set up your contact lists, help you
choose a template (and customize it with your logo and website colors), and develop your e-mail
schedule. To learn more, click
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E-mail marketing is a way to stay in front of your customers. Whether it's an e-letter, notice of a special event or sale, or just a holiday greeting, e-mail marketing should be a part of your marketing package. Let me help you get started.
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Book of the Month . . . Summer Reading Follow-up |
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As you can see from the photo, I made it to the beach (that's a seagull looking for food). Some of my books from the June book column made it to the beach too. First, none of the business books got opened. (Oh well.)
Donna Andrew's Some Like It Hawk arrived about a month before our trip to the beach, so I read it before we went. It is another amusing story worth reading (just as an aside, this past weekend I met a female blacksmith who does wonderful ironwork for the garden!) Gail Tsukiyama's new book A Hundred Flowers arrived the day before we left for the beach. I didn't get to read it immediately, as my daughter (who came up from Virginia for a few days) snagged it. Luckily it's a quick read and she passed it on to me two days later. It was a lovely look at not only what happened in China during the Chinese Cultural Revolution but also how small and big things affect families.
My one disappointment has been Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I haven't made much progress with it as I've found it really hard to get interested in. I've been trying to decide if it would be better or worse if I didn't know anything about the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
Quote of the Month: "If you don't like what you're doing, then don't do it." -- Ray Bradbury
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