Looking to improve your writing skills on your own?  You have thousands of books, weblogs, style guides, podcasts, and content gurus at your disposal – and, chances are, they’ll all tell you something different.

content resources

 

 

It’s not easy to sort through all the noise, so we’ve done the work for you.  Here is a quick reference guide to some of the best resources – both traditional and non-traditional media – to help you help yourself become a better, more sales-effective writer:

Sales Effective Messaging

Escaping the Black Hole by Bob Schmonsees:  A fascinating look at the marketing-sales disconnect from a nationally recognized sales effectiveness expert.

Customer Message Management by Tim Riesterer and Diane Emo:  In this comprehensive guidebook, CMM Group founders Riesterer and Emo teach you how to create sales-effective messaging and conversations that support customer buying decisions.  

Business Writing and Content Development

Edit Yourself by Bruce Ross-Larson:   This slim volume packs so much useful information into a mere 100 pages it makes other reference guides seem bloated and wasteful by comparison.  It contains hundreds of wonderful tips on everything from cutting fat to improving consistency to adding “punch” to every word.

The Dictionary of Concise Writing by Robert Hartwell Fiske:  Even if you think your content is already tight and well-constructed, you’ll be stunned to learn how much leaner it could be – minus all those redundancies, circumolocutions, and prepositional phrases, that is. 

Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson:   A must-have resource for anyone who works with PowerPoint (and who in sales communications doesn’t these days?) that provides terrific advice about combining text and graphics to tell compelling stories that resonate with customers.

Why Business People Speak Like Idiots:  Sharp, witty, and overflowing with cringeworthy examples of self-congratulatory business-speak, this invaluable guide should be required reading for every senior executive.

Web Resources and Newsletters

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing:  A handy podcast for the time-challenged writer looking for fast, easily digestible answers to such time-tested questions as  “What’s a comma splice?” and “Do I use an apostrophe to pluralize an acronym?”

The Chicago Manual of Style Online:  The definitive resource for serious writers, this website augments a comprehensive collection of style fundamentals with an entertaining and enlightening Q&A section.

Publication Coach:  One of the most useful business writing resources on the web, offering fantastic tips to help corporate communicators work faster, smarter, and more effectively.  Make sure to sign up for the weekly newsletter, “Power Writing” – no matter how busy you are, you will want to open this email the moment it hits your inbox.

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