As a child, he had to take a remedial reading and writing class because he could barely write a full sentence. One editor told him his book would never be published.And yet Bryan is now a bestselling author whose books have been read by over 100,000 people and the book the editor said would never be published has been praised publicly by the foremost experts in the field.All writers doubt their ability. But Bryan's story shows doubt doesn't have to define your writing future.

    The Contemplative Writer helps Christians writers tap into their rich contemplative prayer tradition that includes meditation on scripture, spirituality practices, centering prayer, and fixed hour prayer (such as morning prayer and evening prayer). These practices offer a deeper connection with God’s love and a peaceful foundation for their creative callings. Those who minister through writing will thrive with the guidance provided by Christian spirituality and reflective Bible reading. The Contemplative Writer offers 10 simple practices every writer of faith can learn for daily prayer that cover the basics of Christian spirituality, such as how to pray, how to pray more often, and how to find peace with God. Chapters include topics such as: - Praying the Hours - Centering Prayer - Imaginative Bible Study - Finding God in Silence - Self-Reflection with the Examen This book builds on Ed Cyzewski’s previous books Pray, Write, Grow: Cultivating Prayer and Writing Together and Write without Crushing Your Soul by providing direction and application for contemplative prayer that any follower of Jesus can put into practice.

    Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart - to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; she is deeply moved by the brilliant characterization in George Eliot's Middlemarch. She looks to John Le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O'Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail. And, most important, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted.

    There are a thousand of those out there and you've read them all.What this book is: a mindset shift book. If you want to stay in this industry, there are some things you need to quit. And I'm not going to tell you "how", but I am going to tell you why.

    Writing fiction is a similar process. Sometimes it might take a while before the story gets some balance and moves forward. Sometimes the story takes off as if motor-driven, then crashes into something not foreseen or expected. Learning to be a writer is all about finding your legs, and doing your best to convince onlookers that you know what you're doing and where you're going.In Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds, acclaimed Southern story writer and novelist George Singleton serves up everything you ever need to know to become a real writer (meaning one who actually writes), in bite-sized aphorisms. It's Nietzsche's Beyond Good & Evil meets Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. It's cough syrup that tastes like chocolate cake. In other words, don't expect to get better unless you get a good dose of it, maybe two.Accompanied by more than fifty original full-color illustrations by novelist Daniel Wallace, these laugh-out-loud funny, candid, and surprisingly useful lessons will help you find your own writerly balance so you can continue to move forward.

    

    In this short guide, you will learn how to leverage the immense power of simple and cost effective Facebook Ads to add readers to your list. The book covers all the essentials including how you can harness the laser targeting offered by the Facebook Ads platform. You will also be given access to a three part video masterclass where the exact process that you need to follow to set up your first ads is explained in detail, with detailed screenflows and commentary.

    Impro for Storytellers aims to take jealous and self-obsessed beginners and teach them to play games with good nature and to fail gracefully.

    This is the book explaining how, with a few simple changes, I boosted my daily writing from 2000 words to over 10k a day, and how you can too."Expanding on her highly successful process for doubling daily word counts, this book, a combination of reworked blog posts and new material, offers practical writing advice for anyone who's ever longed to increase their daily writing output. In addition to updated information for Rachel's popular 2k to 10k writing efficiency process, 5 step plotting method, and easy editing tips, this new book includes chapters on creating characters that write their own stories, practical plot structure, and learning to love your daily writing. Full of easy to follow, practical advice from a commercial author who doesn't eat if she doesn't produce good books on a regular basis, 2k to 10k focuses not just on writing faster, but writing better, and having more fun while you do it.

    Almost everything you've read about formatting pictures for Kindle is wrong. The advice offered by Kindle experts and even Amazon itself can give images that are tiny, blocky, noisy, or wildly inconsistent on different Kindles. Aaron Shepard, author of acclaimed books on both Kindle and print publishing, brings his years of experience in book design, webmastering, and photography to bear on a single question: How do you make pictures look great on the Kindle? He answers that question, while also providing beginners a basic course in picture editing. Along the way, he discusses how to keep Microsoft Word from sneakily degrading your pictures; how to adjust HTML code to show images at their best; how to make part of a picture transparent against colored backgrounds; how to boost the power of your cover image as a marketing tool; and how to create anything from children's books to photography books to poetry books within minutes with the Kindle Comic Creator. Nowhere else will you find such in-depth info on working with Kindle images. Whatever kind you're using -- photos, paintings, drawings, diagrams, tables, screenshots -- you'll find -Pictures on Kindle- an essential guide. ///////////////////////////////////////////////// Aaron Shepard is a foremost proponent of the new business of profitable self publishing, which he has practiced and helped develop since 1998. He is the author of -Aiming at Amazon, - -POD for Profit, - -Perfect Pages, - and -From Word to Kindle, - Amazon's #1 bestselling paid book on Kindle formatting. ///////////////////////////////////////////////// REVIEWS -Far and away the best resource I know for self publishers who plan to include photos or other graphics in their Kindle books. From tips on taking photos, through sizing, optimizing, and placing, this book wastes no space in giving you exactly the information you need. Highly recommended.- -- Joel Friedlander, TheBookDesigner.com -A detailed, comprehensive guide to getting the best out of your images on Kindle. From taking photos, to scanning, to optimizing, Aaron covers every possible step in making sure your images display well in Kindle format. In addition, he provides very useful explanations of the Kindle's image handling, for those of us who like to understand the reasons behind the steps. I for one will be adding this to my list of reference materials.- -- Jim Brown, JimandZetta.com (ebook services) ///////////////////////////////////////////////// CONTENTS Getting Started 1 PICTURE BASICS File Formats Resolution Color Mode Color Space 2 PICTURE SOURCES Photography Scanning 3 PICTURE EDITING Cleanup and Repair Cropping Contrast, Brightness, Tint Sizing Sharpening Transparency Lines and Letters 4 PICTURE HANDLING Positioning Pictures in Word Pictures in HTML Fixed Format 5 PICTURE PUBLISHING Submitting and Previewing Cover Images Production FAQ

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    HP demonstrates: * What is the best approach to take when creating book covers* How to optimize your book's description page* Choosing the category of your book* The question of pricing your book* The importance of Social Media and, more specifically, Facebook, Twitter and Blogging* How to get reviews including interviews with leading Review websites such as Dear Author* What to feature on your website* The importance of Search Engine Optimization* A Q&A with the people from Pubit!, the self publishing platform of Barnes and Noble* The seven steps of self publishing success from the owner of Smashwords, one of the largest and most well known self-publishing platforms* Tips and tidbits from Goodreads, the world's largest online book club website* And so much more!

    And yet the success of any novel can depend on its pitch. What’s an author to do? In this short, instructive ebook, Libbie Hawker takes the pain out of pitch-writing and shares the secrets of a perfect fiction pitch. Whether you’re an indie writer seeking to improve sales of your self-published novels or an author hoping to hook your dream agent with a can’t-resist query letter, GOTTA READ IT! Is the ebook for you. Learn which features signify great story to the subconscious mind, how to sort through the details of your plot to find the core of your novel, and how to write pitches for books with one, two, or many primary characters… all in five simple steps!

     Those that have just set up their first blog and are now struggling with the next steps and where to go from here. It was written in response to feedback I received from my first book, which teaches the technical set up to complete beginners. I noticed patterns of what people were struggling with - often just even deciding what topic to focus on - and how blogging works in general. This book will take you by the hand and guide you through the next steps - the solid, basic techniques that every successful blogger started with. If you are looking for advanced techniques, this book will not be for you! - It is meant for Beginners. There is no magic pill to suddenly attract thousands of followers - although there are a few techniques that can speed things up and we will cover them. Another area that is often underestimated is learning the WRITING STYLE OF BLOGGING, including how to format your posts. This book goes into detail and provides resources for further training as that is obviously not something you will learn overnight. We will also look at the characteristics of Viral blog posts, but - once again - don't expect a magic pill! Blogging is hard work and becoming a good blogger - a good blog writer - takes training and time, even if you are already experienced in writing. People read blogs differently than books and unless you adjust to that, you will have a hard time attracting an audience - no matter how experienced a writer you are. Finally, we wil go over the basic monetization strategies that are available to bloggers. If you are new to blogging and are willing to put in the necessary work - and do so consistently - this book will give you a good basic start and take out much of the confusion new bloggers face. Of course, blogging also involves the powerful marketing techniques of SEO and Social Media and they are discussed in depth in part 3 and 4 of this series. I have personally found Kindle Publishing to be another great way to grow a blog following quickly - faster than any other technique actually - and so it is included as part 5 of this series. Once again - if you are looking for advanced techniques, this book will not be for you - it is specifically aimed at beginners who have just started their first blog. __________________________________________ STEP-BY-STEP: A Proven, Easy-to-Follow System for Taking your Blog form Zero to Successful You have started your blog, but don't know what to do next? You wonder how to attract readers and subscribers - and how to set up your blog for optimal conversion. You would also like to earn some money with your blog and promote your services and products. This book will teach you how to start a cool blog the smart way - no prior experience is necessary - and you might even have fun along the way…. Building a Foundation for Success This is what we'll cover: YOUR FREE GIFT - How to pick a Marketable Name for your Blog CHAPTER 1 - Finding a Blog Topic that People Actually Want to Read...

    WRITING FICTION FOR ALL YOUR WORTH contains the best of James Scott Bell's articles and blog posts on writing, easily searchable under these headings: The Writing World, The Writing Life, and The Writing Craft. You'll learn about the 6 critical success factors for bestselling fiction, how to write un-put-downable action scenes, and how to capture the interest of an agent. The keys to a dynamic opening page are revealed, and just as important, what NOT to do in the opening. There's plenty of inside information on what agents and editors say they're looking for and detailed instructions on how to write a stress free query. You'll learn what to put on your LAST page, when to use italics, how to write with courage. And a whole lot more.And you'll get never before published material, including an first-ever look into Jim's secret writing notebook, the manual he put together over the years for his own use in writing numerous bestsellers. For the first time he's sharing a glimpse into the notes he compiled on his way to publishing success.Plus, a special module on getting into e-publishing, which you must read if you want to have a career selling e-books successfully. ADDED BONUS: Interviews with some of the top writers working today: Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, Brad Thor, David Baldacci, Carla Neggers, David Morrell, Alex Kava, Michael Palmer, Eric Van Lustbader, Steve Martinia, plus debut authors Sarah Pekkanen and Boyd Morrison. You will be inspired and instructed by these consummate pros as they share their writing secrets with you. What they're saying about James Scott Bell:"I needed advice before I tried to write a novel. The usual axiom — write what you know — wasn't helpful. So I turned to James Scott Bell. He taught me how to structure a great entrance — the equivalent of gliding down a spiral staircase in a wedding gown — and how to keep the next 400 pages from becoming as hopelessly tangled as the crumpled papers and wads of gum in my old desk. My novel sold." – Sarah Pekkanan, author of The Opposite of Me"I read PLOT & STRUCTURE in a single sitting, gasping and trying not to scream, while trapped in a flooded hospital all alone with a serial killer. Okay, not really, but after reading James Scott Bell's book, I can't help thinking that a good blurb should grab the reader with an interesting character and a compelling situation. I am inspired by Bell's enthusiastic approach, and am impressed with his numerous, helpful insights into the craft of storytelling. I recommend his book highly — especially the ending, where it turns out I WAS the serial killer." - Bill Marsilii, screenwriter, Déjà vu"If Jim Bell is teaching and I'm within a hundred miles, you can bet I'll be there! His commitment to the craft of writing is surpassed only by his enthusiasm for passionate storytelling." – Angela E. Hunt, bestselling novelist