Resonate abroad
In the Wall Street Journal magazine, superagent Andrew Wylie recently wrote, “Fifty percent of American writers’ sales should be outside the U.S.” (See Wylie’s article by clicking here.) This notion would sound familiar to business people. For many years, business leaders have been saying their companies should reap 50 percent of their revenues from abroad. So what does that mean to the author during idea development and writing? What does it mean that many potential sales will come from abroad? Here are a few thoughts:
1) Choose a mix of content from varied geographies. Good examples, anecdotes, case studies, and survey materials should come from all over. It’s not much more effort to sound like the Urbane American, instead of the Ugly American.
2) Feature experts, if applicable, who hail from around the world. Don’t come across like American car makers did in the 1980s and 1990s—as if the best ideas come only from the U.S.
3) Choose metaphors and figures of speech that travel well. Not everyone sees the sense in expressions like “three strikes and you’re out,” “doing an end run,” or “inside the beltway.”
4) Use diverse cultural references. In one of my recent books, we featured Christian, Buddhist, and Muslim thought. If you have a universal message—and on some level all good books do—make it resonate in any cultural setting.
All of this will please your readers. It’s easy to lapse into being parochial, but with a little forethought, you can easily demonstrate a broad world view.
You never know how this will pay off. I worked with one author whose book, about an American business subject, attracted a lot of attention from business people in Guatemala. He ended up making several trips there to speak and build his business. He had no idea this would happen beforehand. Prepare your book to take advantage global rewards.
