Everybody Writes

One of the four books I was able to read last month was Ann Handley’s Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content.

The best way for me to describe this book is as the “Chicago Manual of Style” for the digital publishing age.

While available as an eBook, you’re going to want to go ahead and get the hardcover version to keep within easy reach of your desk.

It’s that useful.

Everybody Writes contains six main parts:

Parts 1 (How to Write Better) and 2 (Grammar and Usage) cover some basic writing rules anyone producing written content should be aware of.

Part 3 covers the importance of telling a story through your content and how to do that most effectively.

Part 4 covers a long list of “Publishing Rules” where Ann discusses topics like fact checking, interview tips, and finding and properly citing sources.

I envision most online marketers wearing out and having to replace Part 5 of their books multiple times over the years.

In this section Ann covers “13 Things Marketers Write” and she gives tips for producing better blog posts, writing for social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, as well as covering tips for landing pages, headlines, and more.

Part 6 is also a great resource called “Content Tools” which points readers to some of the best research, writing, editing and productivity tools available today.

Go pick up your copy of Everybody Writes today.