Technology says that isn’t a valid excuse any more.

The Japanese are using cell phones to write and deliver full length novels. Got a cell phone? Start texting that novel!

A Tokyo-based wireless service began by offering 150 books and in 2003 saw interest in this delivery method grow. They now have about 50,000 subscribers.

Read the full article from Wired.

Start writing that novel and text your finished chapters directly to your author’s assistant for safe keeping!

Happy writing!

I want to publicly thank Melanie O’Kane for having me as a guest on her BlogTalkRadio Show, MODCOM Radio, this morning.

You can listen by clicking here.

We had in informative discussion about becoming a certified author’s assistant and just how those services fit perfectly with Virtual Assistant services.

Again, thanks Melanie for a great opportunity and great interview! For more on Melanie and her virtual assistant business go to www.mad-typing-and-consulting.com.

Now that you’ve finished the manuscript, read it, edited, proofed it, edited some more, you feel a wave of satisfaction - it’s done. But before you send it to the editor for final polishing you read it one more time.

Wait, that last quote, was that the original source you noted or was that the secondary source? You can’t remember and your notes aren’t clear. Better check that. Oh, wait, what about this statistic? Was it really 30% or 40%? Was that a typo or did you get that number from your notes or the primary source?

These are things that a certified author’s assistant can help an author with - research and fact checking. The author’s assistant can go through the entire manuscript and note all of the quotes, facts and statistics then research the original source and accuracy. The author is free to move on to other tasks related to getting the book finalized for publishing and promotion.

Fact checking and research are only two tasks an author’s assistant can handle. For a complete list please read a previous post titled What’s an Author’s Assistant?

There is nothing worse for an author than staring at a blank page. Writing a book means you are facing lots of blank pages everyday.

An author’s assistant can help you fill those pages easily by organizing your materials, your intellectual property. Author’s have files, paper and electronic, filled with notes, clips and ideas. An author’s assistant can take all that information and create an easy to search electronic filing system or even a hard copy notebook for handy access to this information.

Author’s have intellectual property in the form of -

• Client documents (proposals, presentations, emails, memos, etc.)
• Interviews of themselves (audio recordings and transcripts)
• Tele-classes, seminars, webcasts
• Articles
• Workbooks or handouts
• Bogs
• Podcasts
• Special reports or white papers

All of these materials can be organized by the author’s assistant to help them begin filling those blank pages through simply cutting and pasting of the information.

The author’s assistant can even research these materials to identify what is truly the author’s original material, what is public domain and what materials may require permission for inclusion in their book.

For more information about working with a certified author’s assistant please go to http://www.eOffice-VirtualAssist.com.

An author’s assistant is another great niche for a virtual assistant!

Author’s assistants utilize the same virtual tools and methods but choose to focus on supporting authors in their efforts to publish a book. Writing the book is easy part; getting published and promoted is the hard part. That’s were a certified author’s assistant can come in handy.

Author’s assistants can provide the following support for authors:

• They understand the publishing process – all the steps, time, budget
• How to oversee the publishing process
• Managing a virtual team, working with other professionals, contracts
• Keeping a project on target
• Permissions – when you need them and how to get them
• Assisting with the book proposal
• Doing competitive research
• Doing audience research
• Self-publishing, step by step: including
• Getting an ISBN, bar codes, filing the copyright
• Pricing/Handling volume purchasers
• Selecting a printer
• Getting on Amazon.com
• Other products – ebooks, CDs,
• Marketing funnel/platform
• Distribution and shipping
• Executing a marketing plan and schedule marketing events
• Must have’s: web site, media kit, sales sheet
• Creating Amazon.com and other email campaigns
• Creating and expanding media and prospect lists
• Making follow-up calls
• Coordinating back of the room sales
• Coordinating book launch events around publication date
• Ecommerce (merchant accounts, shopping carts, etc.)
• Tracking publicity

Many coaches, speakers and trainer have a book in them to write but just don’t know where to start. If they can get the book written an author’s assistant can help walk them through the manuscript development through the publishing process and the promotional steps.

For more information about working with a certified author’s assistant please go to http://www.eOffice-VirtualAssist.com.