They're an irresistible force that draw readers in to your author platform - the promise of getting great value content and building a valuable connection. That's what it's all about, after all - making meaningful relationships with your audience and having a direct line to your readers. I started using Reader Magnets a little over six months ago. I didn't even have a term for it back then. Since I put these measures in place, over 15,000 readers have signed up to hear from me about new releases and promotions - all in just a few months. My readers trust me with their contact details for good reason. I give them good content. In return, they buy my books. These guys are my fans. I appreciate every last one of them - and they're the reason I get to write for a living.

    If your query is weak, unfocused, or uninspired, an editor or agent won't even bother to request your article, novel manuscript, or nonfiction book proposal. But a well-crafted, compelling query sent to the right editor or agent is an essential sales tool for fiction writers and the most effective way for nonfiction writers to pre-sell your idea.In this book, professional freelance writer and magazine editor Wendy Burt-Thomas shares practical advice on how to craft persuasive letters that connect with editors and agents and ultimately generate sales for you. You'll learn how to:Conduct targeted research to find suitable editors and agentsHook an editor with a tantalizing lead and shape a summary that compels editors to buySelect the strongest slant for your book or articleUse research and interview shortcuts that keep your query prep profitableMake your query rejection-proof by weeding out subtle mistakes that can sabotage your projectCommunicate your author platform and sell yourself as the best writer for the subjectComplete with dozens of sample queries–some that landed article assignments, agents, or book deals, and others that never stood a chance–this book offers you a comprehensive strategy for presenting your writing ideas in a way that will increase your chances of publication. Though the title may lead some to believe it's strictly to be shelved as a reference manual, The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters is a smooth read from cover to cover.

    But, after developing the indie author mindset, he was earning $3,500 a day within a matter of weeks.The Indie Author Mindset shows you how simply changing your way of thinking about your writing business can revolutionise your career. Using Adam's personal experiences and examples, you'll be able to think differently about the business side of your writing career and lay down the foundations for long-term success.In The Indie Author Mindset, you'll discover: How to decide who to listen to — and who not to listen to How to unlock the power of residuals How to create more than half a dozen income streams from one book Lessons and advice from Bryan Cohen, David Gaughran, Brian Meeks and Mark Dawson Why almost every writer misunderstands profit and is doing advertising wrong And much, much more! This life-changing book is the motivational kick-up-the-backside all authors need. If you like a non-fiction book with a personal touch, practical tips you can apply every day and all the motivation you need to kick your career on to the next stage, The Indie Author Mindset is for you.

    It just gave me the validation as a writer that I've never had before. Seldom do I run across other writers in person and so reading Mark's book really was a confidence booster. I recommend this book to all writers especially those who are new. It's the added boost we all need to see our little "babies" rise from the literary crib to adulthood."~ 5-star Review by: Kathleen Morris on Sep. 27, 2012 at SmashwordsLearn the 30 secrets of the bestselling self-published ebook authors. Learn how to make your book more discoverable and more desirable to readers. Learn how to reach readers around the globe at Amazon and other major retailers.This updated 2013 edition of The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success has already helped tens of thousands of self-published ebook authors publish more professionally and with greater success.This ebook is a must-read for every writer, author, publisher and literary agent. Whether you're considering publishing a book for the first time, or you're a long-time veteran, this book will help you take your self-publishing to the next level.Includes a comprehensive glossary of e-publishing terms. No technical experience necessary!A great companion to Mark Coker's other popular e-publishing guides, The Smashwords Style Guide (how to format and publish an ebook) and The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (how to market any book for free).Share the secrets. Enjoy!Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionThe SecretsSecret 1: Write a great bookSecret 2: Pinch your penniesSecret 3: Create a great ebook coverSecret 4: Practice metadata magicSecret 5: Write another great bookSecret 6: Build reader trustSecret 7: Embrace your obscuritySecret 8: Spend your time wiselySecret 9: Maximize distributionSecret 10: Avoid exclusivitySecret 11: Give (some of) your books away for FREESecret 12: Understand the algorithmSecret 13: How retailers select titles for feature promotionSecret 14: Patience paysSecret 15: How books develop (the four behaviors)Secret 16: Trust your customers and supply chain partnersSecret 17: Platform building starts yesterdaySecret 18: Architect for viralitySecret 19: Tweak your viral catalystsSecret 20: Optimize discovery touch pointsSecret 21: Practice the never-ending book launchSecret 22: Think globallySecret 23: Study the bestsellersSecret 24: Develop a thick skinSecret 25: Think beyond priceSecret 26: Pricing Strategy: Unit volume is a lever for successSecret 27: Ebook publishing is easy, writing is difficultSecret 28: Define your own successSecret 29: Leverage preorders to increase salesSecret 30: Share your secretsAppendix I – Glossary of E-Publishing TermsAppendix II – Special acknowledgements for beta readersAppendix III – CreditsAppendix IV – Reproduction rights (how to distribute this book freely)

    His approach is especially helpful to people who get stuck or blocked in their writing, and is equally useful for writing fiction, poetry, and essays, as well as reports, lectures, and memos. The core of Elbow's thinking is a challenge against traditional writing methods. Instead of editing and outlining material in the initial steps of the writing process, Elbow celebrates non-stop or free uncensored writing, without editorial checkpoints first, followed much later by the editorial process. This approach turns the focus towards encouraging ways of developing confidence and inspiration through free writing, multiple drafts, diaries, and notes. Elbow guides the reader through his metaphor of writing as cooking: his term for heating up the creative process where the subconscious bubbles up to the surface and the writing gets good. 1998 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Writing Without Teachers. In this edition, Elbow reexamines his program and the subsequent influence his techniques have had on writers, students, and teachers. This invaluable guide will benefit anyone, whether in the classroom, boardroom, or living room, who has ever had trouble writing.

    His advice is good, couched in brassy prose that is easy to read. He anticipates every conceivable question and issue, including typical charges, marketing oneself, types of available work, and dealing with deadbeats. There are great common-sense tips, too, in the psychology of handling clients who think they're writers, those with limited budgets, and others demanding creativity. Personal anecdotes make the life of the freelancer real; the author includes samples of cold-calling scripts, thank-you notes, and a story or three about starting a writers' group and partnering with other professionals. Book Description Dream of being a well-paid freelance writer? Long to carve out an enviable lifestyle with plenty of freedom, flexibility AND healthy income? But wait a minute…aren't the words "starving" and "writer" forever joined at the hip? Not anymore. How about a writing direction with plenty of work, strong and growing demand for good writers, hourly rates of $50-100+ ($60-75 average) and where all time is billed? No flat fees with vast, open-ended commitments of time. Translation? Less time working to pay bills and more time pursuing your writing passions. We're talking about freelance commercial writing - writing for business entities, large and small - the subject of The Well-Fed Writer, and quite possibly the answer for all aspiring writers who want to turn their love of writing into their living. The book was a triple-book-club-selection (Book-of-the-Month, Quality Paperback Book and Writer's Digest) and earned several prestigious awards in 2001: 1) Second place in the ForeWord magazine Book of the Year Awards (Career Category) 2) Honorable Mention in the Writer's Digest magazine National Self-Published Book Awards 3) Finalist in the Publisher's Marketing Association Ben Franklin Awards (Best First Book). Why commercial writing? In the past decade, two huge trends have sculpted the corporate American landscape: downsizing and outsourcing. Corporations are doing more with less: fewer people, less resources and smaller budgets. The workload is growing - especially with the exploding Internet - and many organizations rely heavily on freelancers to help them handle it. Why do corporations hire freelancers? For good solid economic and creative reasons. With a freelancer, corporations don't have to pay salary, benefits, and vacation time. But they will pay a freelancer $60-80 (average) for their time. In addition, they pay only what they need when they need it. And with a network of freelancers, they get a broad spectrum of fresh talent (hard to get with in-house staff writers used to writing about the same topics day after day) which they can form-fit to their specific writing needs. What's "commercial writing"? Marketing brochures, ad copy, newsletters, direct mail campaigns, video/CD-ROM scripting, speeches, sales sheets, proposals, web content, and so much more. Veteran commercial freelancer Bob Bly, known as the freelance writing "guru" for his 35+ writing titles, says of commercial freelancing: "I know of no other arena of writing so lucrative yet so easy to get started in." The Well-Fed Writer will take you step-by-detailed-step through, indeed, everything you need to know to quickly get your share of this exciting and highly lucrative arena of freelancing.

    Copy veteran Constance Hale is on a mission to make creative communication, both the lyrical and the unlawful, an option for everyone.With its crisp, witty tone, Sin and Syntax covers grammar’s ground rules while revealing countless unconventional syntax secrets (such as how to use—Gasp!—interjections or when to pepper your prose with slang) that make for sinfully good writing. Discover how to:*Distinguish between words that are “pearls” and words that are “potatoes”* Avoid “couch potato thinking” and “commitment phobia” when choosing verbs* Use literary devices such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, and metaphor (and understand what you're doing)Everyone needs to know how to write stylish prose—students, professionals, and seasoned writers alike. Whether you’re writing to sell, shock, or just sing, Sin and Syntax is the guide you need to improve your command of the English language.

    This book provides all the information, guidance, and advice you need to write great science fiction to captivate your readers. It will help you understand how the genre works, the big dos and don'ts - as well as giving you the inspiration and motivation you actually need to write. Written by a leading Science Fiction novelist and a Professor in Creative Writing at the University of London - you'll discover how to let your creativity flow, create incredible worlds, and get your novel finished.ABOUT THE SERIESThe Teach Yourself Creative Writing series helps aspiring authors tell their story. Covering a range of genres from science fiction and romantic novels, to illustrated children's books and comedy, this series is packed with advice, exercises and tips for unlocking creativity and improving your writing. And because we know how daunting the blank page can be, we set up the Just Write online community at tyjustwrite, for budding authors and successful writers to connect and share.

    Her exuberant, critically acclaimed teaching guide takes instructors, writers, and general readers into the very heart and intensity of life and the craft of expressing what one feels through the written word.

    And now Jon Franklin, himself a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and undisputed master of the great American nonfiction short story, shares the secrets of his success. Franklin shows how to make factual pieces come alive by applying the literary techniques of complication/resolution, flashback, foreshadowing, and pace. He illustrates his points with a close analysis and annotation of two of his most acclaimed stories, so that the reader can see, step-by-step, just how they were created. This lively, easy-to-follow guid combines readability and excitement with the best of expository prose and illuminates the techniques that beginning journalists—and more experienced ones, too—will find immensely helpful:Stalking the true short storyDrafting an effective outlineStructuring the rough copyPolishing like a proand the tips, tools, and techniques that will put your stories on the cutting edge

     Johnny Truant and Sean M. Platt -- owners of the Sterling & Stone Story Studio and authors of the how-to-publish cornerstone Write. Publish. Repeat -- have spent the last eight years learning the ins and outs of professional storytelling. Between just the two of them, they've written 100 books. The studio as a whole, in 2020 alone, will publish nearly 200 more. To write and publish that much quality, reader-pleasing fiction, you can't just wing it. You need a formula to keep things streamlined and on-target. With a formula, you can be sure you're writing books that will sell. That you're enjoying writing them, and are doing so without writer's block. When you use the fiction formula, your success becomes predictable -- not a matter of luck. In their 2014 bestseller Write. Publish. Repeat, Platt & Truant showed a generation of indies the path to self-publishing success. In this long-awaited follow-up, they'll show you what they've learned since, plus all the fiction-specific stuff they didn't include the first time around: You'll learn: How to choose a genre that's commercial AND fulfilling The Sterling & Stone planning process that helps you write better books, faster. The complete start to finish path from idea to fully launched books and series Creating an author business that can withstand marketplace changes and last for years to come. The Fiction Formula will help you build a thriving indie publishing career no matter what type of writer you are ... so long as you're willing to do the work. If that's you, welcome aboard! The Formula could be your next step toward the author life you've only dreamed of before.

    The contributors include Pat Conroy, Norman Mailor, Rick Moody and David Foster Wallace.

    These tales gain their power through plots that connect with the audience on both an emotional and intellectual level.Inside, Ronald B. Tobias details these 20 time-tested plots. Each is discussed and analyzed, illustrating how a successful plot integrates all the elements of a story. Tobias then shows you how to use these plots effectively in your own work.Tobias then goes to the next level, showing you how to choose and develop plot in fiction. He shows you how to craft plot for any subject matter, so that you develop your work evenly and effectively. As a result, your fiction will be more cohesive and convincing, making your story unforgettable for readers everywhere.

     Since the invention of writing, the written word has fueled humanity’s astonishing progress. Thus, the ability to write effectively and beautifully has long been revered and rewarded. And yet in the digital age, people have begun to believe that this talent is somehow obsolete: that writing is something unworthy of study beyond the basic mechanics of vocabulary and syntax and grammar, that mediocre prose is acceptable in a world crying out for clear and precise communication. Peter Yang believes otherwise. The Art of Writing is Yang’s highly practical treatise on the four key principles of dazzling, effective writing—economy, transparency, variety, and harmony. Far from your garden-variety style guide, the principles in this book apply to everyone, whether you’re writing an inauguration speech or a letter home to Mom. Great writing is a skill, and this book gives you the tools to make your words shimmer on the page (or the screen). Packed with real-world insights and advice, The Art of Writing is your ultimate guide to transforming your writing and unleashing your inner artist. Fans of The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., On Writing Well by William Zinsser, The Little Seagull Handbook by Richard Bullock, and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott will love this book. This book is for anyone who likes reading about: How to write Writing nonfiction Writing fiction How to be a better writer Writing style Business writing Writing a book

    The Marshall Plan technique is the industry’s #1 go-to novel-writing method for anyone who wants to write a commercial novel—fast.In this unique guide, agent, editor and novelist Evan Marshall provides an easy-to-follow plan which simplifies the complex process of designing and writing successful commercial fiction. Now revised, this book includes these topics: Choosing the perfect genre for you. Shaping your story idea . . . with Hollywood in mind. Developing strong main characters for your story. Word-length ranges for the most popular fiction genres and subgenres. NovelMaster, which takes the guesswork out of structuring your novel. How to interweave plots and subplots. How to lay out all of your novel’s scenes. Mastering the five fiction-writing modes. How to handle story research so it doesn’t slow you down. 50 easy-to-implement fiction-writing techniques from the pros. A complete manuscript self-editing guide. How to format your manuscript for submission. How to approach agents and editors. Developing a fiction proposal, including the long and short synopsis. Self-publishing your novel. REVIEWS OF THE MARSHALL PLAN FOR NOVEL WRITING3.7 average rating, 440 ratings, 55 reviews, added by 954 people, 336 to-reads, 87% of people like it—Goodreads4.1 out of 5 stars (88 customer reviews)—Amazon“A down-to-earth approach to completing a novel.” —Boulder Planet“The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing is a master plan for aspiring novelists. Evan Marshall is brilliant.” —Bobbi Smith, New York Times bestselling author“A comprehensive manual to writing a novel for all writers—from the beginner to the more advanced looking for polishing tips. Savvy and concise.” —Bill Contardi, literary agent“Finally, a practical how-to manual for all aspiring authors, written with wit and wisdom. A delightful read!” —Maureen Walters, Vice President, Curtis Brown Literary Agency“An invaluable tool for the aspiring novelist. An upbeat, easy-to-follow guide that takes the mystery out of writing.” —Alicia Condon, Editorial Director: Fiction, Kensington Publishing“Evan Marshall has the scoop on making book—from beginning to end and everywhere in between.” —barnesandnoble.com ABOUT EVAN MARSHALL Evan Marshall is president of The Evan Marshall Agency, an independent literary agency which specializes in adult and young-adult fiction. He has held senior positions at Houghton Mifflin, Ariel Books, New American Library, Everest House and Dodd, Mead, where he acquired national and international bestsellers. The Marshall Plan For Novel Writing is now in its 4th edition. Evan is the author of 10 commercially published mysteries including Manhattan Mysteries and Jane and Winky Suburban Sleuths series, named “Miss Marple Lite” by Kirkus Reviews. His novels appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich, Lilian Jackson Braun, Agatha Christie and Alexander McCall Smith. To learn more about The Evan Marshall Agency, please visit www.evanmarshallagency.com. Visit his author page at www.evanmarshallbooks.com.