This new Second Edition includes the appendix text "Is Virtual Speaking Here to Stay?"

Speakers are sought every day by event organizers. Those who get the call typically fill a specific need and boast appropriate credentials and experience. The Speaker's Edge shows how to land such speaking engagements, including ones that pay.

This comprehensive book covers all manner of means for locating and winning speaking engagements. Its clever, innovative tactics are practiced by the most successful speakers, e.g.: Position yourself as the go-to thoughtleader in your field of expertise; Acquire effective tools to highlight your speaker value; Consider the full range of speaking opps, i.e., panels, breakouts, keynotes; Locate attractive venues; Intelligently leverage your formal proposals; Consider pro bono gigs as ways to practice and auditions; Negotiate great deals, including higher fees, expenses, and in-kind options; Maximize your speaking experience via selling products, arranging follow-up gigs, and soliciting referrals.

By employing the recommendations in this book, you'll elevate your speaking business to new heights in our "new normal" speaking world.

REVIEW FROM ONLINE BOOK CLUB ... January 2023

The Speaker's Edge by Ken Lizotte is, at its core, a comprehensive guide on how to become a successful (and well-paid) public speaker. However, unlike most other books that fall into this category, Lizotte's novel focuses much more heavily on learning how to land speaking engagements and how to engage in proper marketing rather than how to effectively deliver speeches. Bringing in the opinions and strategies of a variety of experts, this book offers far more than a one-size-fits-all approach to reaching success; instead, readers are offered multiple different methods to achieve each goal, and are able to pick and choose what will work for them. In short, it is a highly useful book for those who are willing to explore and utilize the tips and strategies it outlines.

My favorite aspect of this book was the fact that it was so engaging. The author appears to readers to be interesting, likable, and experienced in the field of his expertise. His "voice" in writing is smooth and articulate; it simultaneously brings forth the positive aspects of his personality. The book has a logical and well-organized structure, and the concepts are well-explained to the extent that beginners and experts alike can engage with the content outlined by Lizotte. Overall, this book has an excellent flow that pulls readers in and holds their attention until beyond the very last page.

Aside from one minor punctuation error, there were very few aspects of this book that I felt needed improvement. My only suggestion would be to combine the survey answers from experts into more author-explained sections rather than having the quotes "speak for themselves" on such a regular basis; I would also like to see the author provide more of his own experience and expertise at times rather than relying so heavily on the responses of others. However, while following these suggestions would likely strengthen this book, they are by no means required. In fact, the "lack" of consistency of these aspects did not detract from my reading in any way.

In the end, I decided to rate The Speaker's Edge by Ken Lizotte 5 out of 5 stars. Although there are certainly a few ways to improve the book in my eyes, these improvements are merely suggestions rather than solutions to actual errors. As a result, I felt that this book was worthy of a perfect rating.

I would recommend this book to anyone in the field of marketing and/or public speaking, as well as anyone who might be interested in these fields. There is no one in particular that I would not recommend this book to; even people without an interest in these topics would likely find this book interesting.