You took the first step towards writing your book as an anthology author or perhaps you’ve been blogging or writing articles for newsletters and publications for a while. The good news is that you have all the material you need to write your book. If the only thing holding you back is knowing where to start, join Rebecca Barnes-Hogg, coauthor …
Getting Unstuck
There will be times in your writing where you’ll be . . . a little stuck. Maybe your outline is perfectly fine, but there’s a little catch in it somewhere and you just can’t express the idea correctly. You’re sitting there, mouth half-open, and you’re staring at the screen, waiting for your fingers to move. And they’re not moving. This …
‘Tis The Season
Seasonal blogs can have a role in your Blog2Book; after all, the target of 52 posts means one per week, and it could make sense to split up the book by “season” or theme. This is an especially good idea if you want readers to use your book as a tool they will pick up and think about each week, …
Ask Me About My Book – The Story of the Magic Button
I often give aspiring authors a button when I meet them for the first time. When I give it to them, I explain that it’s a magic button. Some laugh or smile nervously when I say that. “It really is a magic button,” I tell them, “but only when you wear it.” The button says Ask Me About My Book! …
Quantifying the Benefits of Authorship
What would being an author mean for your business? Many nonfiction authors who write books about their areas of expertise discuss the intangibles of having more credibility or visibility, a larger footprint in the marketplace, or being seen as a thought-leader. If you had to quantify the benefits, what would that dollar figure be for your business? I was discussing …
Choose To Write
Sometimes I feel like a petulant child when I sit down to write. “I don’t want to write,” the child complains. “I want to play games and have fun.” I’ve tried to discipline the child and tell her that this is for her own good, that she needs to buckle down and get her work done, but she protests even …
Don’t Be Original: Steal Like an Artist – a review
Over my long vacation, I had the pleasure of reading 11 books, 7 of them nonfiction, and most all of them of interest to authors and thought leaders. My next several posts will provide reviews of the best of these books. There is nothing new under the sun, states Ecclesiastes. And Austin Kleon seconds that motion is his excellent book …
The Handy Dandy Toolkit for Nonfiction/Business Writers
I’ve heard many speakers say that writing is so much harder than speaking. When you’re speaking, you can use vocal inflection, intonation, pitch, gestures and body language, and a whole host of other tools to effectively convey your message. But hold on a sec! As writers, we also have tools of the trade can we can use in writing our …
I Think I Can! I Think I Can! The Role of Self-Efficacy in Writing Your Book
“I think I can! I think I can!” said the little engine that could. The little engine believed that she could do it–that she had the smarts to figure it out, and the persistence to keep at it. She had a quality that social cognitive theorists call self-efficacy, and it’s the same trait that enables us to achieve our big …
Celebrating Victories Large and Small
It’s easy to finish something, put it down, and then jump straight to the next chapter, the next blank page—but that’s such a disheartening way to work. It can make you feel almost like you did nothing at all, like you didn’t actually accomplish any of what you just finished. Good leaders reward you, they pat you on the back …