Gary Provost has a light-hearted style, but his message is clear and strong: Make Every Word Count.

    This is not the stuff of theory, it is the product of hard-earned experience.

    The secret to getting a 'YES' to your guest post request. How Cheater Posts can keep you from burning out as a blogger. Why people aren't commenting on your blog posts and how to compel them to do so. The trick to using your older content to help generate new ideas. How blogging for 30 minutes a day can get you 6-pack abs, whiter teeth, and healthier hair. (I'm kidding...please don't sue me for false advertising.) ...and many more.In addition to the blogging knowledge, you'll also get a steady dose of the humor and nonsense that has made Bryan's blog a favorite among people who like to spit out mouthfuls of coffee while laughing, at no extra cost to you!This will be the funniest book on blogging you'll ever read. At least until Jerry Seinfeld and Louis CK co-write one of their own.If you're frustrated because it feels like you're no closer to achieving your blogging goals than you were 3 months ago, the principles and strategies in 31 Days to Finding Your Blogging Mojo will help you make progress like never before from Day 1.It's time to focus your content and your voice on the things that move you. It's time to extend the reach of your blog. It's time to build a strong community with readers who resonate with you and your message.

    

    You can be successful with either. Publish your books in a way that brings you the most readers.Put the experience of over one hundred book launches to work for you. Right here. Release Strategies. It’s how successful indie authors get ahead. Plan. Prepare. And Execute. With checklists, recommendations, and candid discussion, you’ll find everything you need to determine your best publication strategy. Implement it and keep your foot on the gas. It’s time to take the ride of your life. Release Strategies. The book you didn’t know you needed.

    This popular book marketing primer has helped over 100,000 authors and publishers dramatically improve their book marketing results. The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide contains practical, easy-to-implement advice on how to market any book. 41 simple, do-it-yourself marketing tips explain not what you can do to market your book, but also explain the context and thinking behind each recommendation. The marketing techniques apply equally well to both ebooks and print books. Here's what you'll learn in the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide:Table of ContentsIntroduction: About the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide Background on SmashwordsSetting expectationsHow Smashwords helps authors and publishers market booksAdopting a proactive marketing mindsetMarketing starts nowHyperlinks help readers discover booksThe importance of authors helping authors41 Marketing Tips (all free to implement!)Tip #1 – Update your email signatureTip #2 – Post a notice on your web site or blogTip #3 – Contact your friends, family, co-workers and fansTip #4 – Post a notice to your social networksTip #5 – Update your message board signaturesTip #6 – How to reach readers with TwitterTip #7 – Publish more than one book to create a multiplier effectTip #8 – Advertise your other books in each book you publishTip #9 – Make it easy for your readers to connect with youTip #10 – Issue a press release on a free PR wire serviceTip #11 – Join HARO, Help-a-reporter-online for free press leadsTip #12 – Encourage fans to purchase and review your bookTip #13 – Write thoughtful reviews for other booksTip #14 – Participate in online forumsTip #15 – Experiment with couponsTip #16 – Write a blogTip #17 – Write guest columns for blogsTip #18 – Invite other authors to post to your blogTip #19 – Do Q&A interviews of other authors on your blogTip #20 – Join the conversation on blogsTip #21 – Organize a blog tourTip #22 – Use Google Alerts to discover where the conversations are taking placeTip #23 – Leverage YouTube videos to reach readersTip #24 – Print up business cardsTip #25 – Encourage your fans to become affiliate marketers of your bookTip #26 – Create a reader’s guide at the end of your bookTip #27 – Insert sample chapters from your other booksTip #28 – Do a sample chapters swap with another authorTip #29 – Invite other authors to join you at SmashwordsTip #30 – Promote your book to the top ebook listing sitesTip #31 – Read the Secrets to Ebook Publishing SuccessTip #32 – Upgrade your cover imageTip #33 – Share these marketing tips with your fellow authors! Tip #34 – Create an online calling card with About.meTip #35 – Create a presentation and upload it to SlideShare.netTip #36 – Join LinkedIn, post links to your booksTip #37 – Do a presentation at your local library on ebook publishingTip #38 – Tweak your Viral Catalysts to make your book more discoverable and desirableTip #39 – Link to every retailer to reach more readersTip #40 – Distribute your book as a preorderTip #41 – Publish a Smashwords InterviewOther Kindle Books by Mark Coker Smashwords Style Guide (how to format and produce an ebook)

    They are called "pantsers," because they write by the "seat of the pants." Other writers plan and outline and know the ending before they start. These are the "plotters." The two sides never seem to agree with each other on the best approach. But what if it's not the beginning or the end that is the key to a successful book? What if, amazing as it may seem, the place to begin writing your novel is in the very middle of the story? According to #1 bestselling writing teacher James Scott Bell, that's exactly where you'll find your story's heart and heat. Bell's "Mirror Moment" is the secret, and its power is available to any writer, at any stage of the writing process. Bringing together years of craft study and personal discovery, Bell presents a truly unique approach to writing a novel, one that will stand the test of time and serve you all your writing life. "I need three things before I tackle a new novel: Diet Coke, a laptop, and my dog-eared copies of James Scott Bell's books on writing craft!” - Kami Garcia, #1 NYT Times & International Bestselling author

    The romance arc is made up of its own story beats, and the external plot and theme need to be braided to the romance arc—not the other way around. Told in conversational (and often irreverent) prose, Romancing the Beat can be read like you are sitting down to coffee with romance editor and author Gwen Hayes while she explains story structure. The way she does with her clients. Some of whom are regular inhabitants of the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Romancing the Beat is a recipe, not a rigid system. The beats don’t care if you plot or outline before you write, or if you pants your way through the drafts and do a “beat check” when you’re revising. Pantsers and plotters are both welcome. So sit down, grab a cuppa, and let’s talk about kissing books.

    At once a memoir, meditation on the artistic process, and advice on craft, Still Writing is an intimate and eloquent companion to living a creative life.Through a blend of deeply personal stories about what formed her as a writer, tales from other authors, and a searching look at her own creative process, Shapiro offers her gift to writers everywhere: an elegant guide of hard-won wisdom and advice for staying the course. "The writer's life requires courage, patience, empathy, openness. It requires the ability to be alone with oneself. Gentle with oneself. To be disciplined, and at the same time, take risks." Writers--and anyone with an artistic temperament--will find inspiration and comfort in these pages. Offering lessons learned over twenty years of teaching and writing, Shapiro brings her own revealing insights to weave an indispensable almanac for modern writers.Like Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, Virginia Woolf's A Writer's Diary, and Stephen King's On Writing, Dani Shapiro's Still Writing is a lodestar for aspiring scribes and an eloquent memoir of the writing life.

    The Complete Guide to Article Writing provides a compass for freelancers and students of journalism looking to write successfully on a wide variety of topics and for many different markets -both in print and online. From researching and interviewing to writing features, reviews, news articles, opinion pieces, and even blog posts, this one-stop guide will illuminate the intricacies of article writing so you can produce entertaining, informative, and salable articles.- Learn how to write coherently, cohesively, and concisely.- Choose the proper structure for the article you want to write.- Weave narrative and fact seamlessly into your pieces.- Develop your freelance platform with the latest in social media outlets.- Pitch your ideas like a pro.- Develop a professional relationship with editors.- And much more!Modern journalism can be a treacherous terrain, but with The Complete Guide to Article Writing as your companion, you'll not only survive the journey -you'll be able to write pieces that inform, entertain, inspire, delight- and sell!

    She is the author of Coffee House Lies: 100 Cups of Flash Fiction. www.carlyberg.com

    In her groundbreaking first book, she brings together Zen meditation and writing in a new way. Writing practice, as she calls it, is no different from other forms of Zen practice--"it is backed by two thousand years of studying the mind." This edition includes a new preface and an interview with the author.

    Why? If a novel or short story has a bad beginning, then no one will keep reading. It's just that simple. Hooked provides readers with a detailed understanding of what a beginning must include (setup, backstory, the inciting incident, etc.); instruction on how to successfully develop the story problem; tips on how to correct common beginning mistakes; exclusive insider advice from agents, acquiring book editors, and literary journal editors; and much more.

    Drawing from her popular blog, the Newbery Honor author answers readers' questions and dives into how to make a story come alive. If you're interested in writing prose and poetry or just want to be a better and more rounded writer, this book will help you on your creative journey.With her trademark humor and vast writing knowledge, Gail Carson Levine reveals the tricks of her trade, writer to writer.

    According to author and acquisitions editor W. Terry Whalin, this approach is backwards. About 80% to 90% of nonfiction books are sold from a book proposal. This mysterious document called a proposal contains many elements that will never appear in a manuscript―yet these details are critical to publishing executives who make the decision about publishing or rejecting an author’s project. In Book Proposals That Sell, Terry reveals 21 secrets to creating a book proposal that every author needs in order to create one that sells.