A celebrated writing coach with a sense of humor and a gentle touch, she’s also a master writer herself with a long and distinguished career in both teaching and practicing the art of writing.The Book on Writing contains 25 chapters in three sections: A dozen essential but easy-to-apply guidelines to good writing, from the importance of clarity to the value of a conversational tone. Paula LaRocque believes learning is easier and more successful when we are not only told but also shown. So her Book on Writing is chockfull of actual writing examples that supplement and illustrate principles that apply as naturally to fiction as they do to nonfiction.How to tell a story—from building suspense, to effective description, to the uses of metaphor and literary devices. Paula LaRocque also deals with the narrative “engine” and the value of the archetype in plotting and characterization—as well as with pace and speed and leveling what she terms writing’s “speedbumps.” A clear and concise handbook that deals with common problems in grammar, usage, punctuation, and style—the kind of problems that often trouble even wordsmiths. The handbook also debunks pesky language “rules” that are actually myths. The Book on Writing is one-stop shopping for writers. Read it once, and you’ll be a better writer. Read it often, and you’ll be among the best.

    Full of nitty gritty how-to's for getting nearly free publicity, Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. Carolyn Howard-Johnson is award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction and former publicist for a New York PR firm and a marketing instructor for UCLA's Writers' Program. THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER tells authors how to do what their publishers can't or won't and why authors can do their own promotion better than a PR professional.

    In fact, amazement is a habit that anyone can master--and Shep Hyken knows the tricks to making it your own.In Be Amazing or Go Home, Shep shares the secrets behind making his motto "Always Be Amazing!" an everyday lifestyle and shows how you too can become exceptional in business and in life. Drawing on the routines of incredible people, Shep demonstrates simple practices that can elevate your game, including: Showing up ready to amazing Being proactive Craving feedback Taking responsibility Embracing authenticity Focusing on excellence Turning misery into magic Once you master these habits, you'll be able to create trust, build stronger relationships, make sales, advance your career, and more. Now is the time to step out of the ordinary and step into amazing.

    Bernadette Jiwa helps us learn how to create the change we seek to make in the world." —SETH GODIN Every one of us—regardless of where we were born, how we were brought up, how many setbacks we’ve endured or privileges we’ve been afforded—has been conditioned to compete to win. Ironically, the people who create fulfilling lives and careers—the ones we respect, admire and try to emulate—choose an alternative path to success. They have a powerful sense of identity. They don’t worry about differentiating themselves from the competition or obsess about telling the right story. They tell the real story instead. Successful organisations and the people who create, build and lead them don’t feel the need to compete, because they know who they are and they’re not afraid to show us. How about you? What do you stand for? Where are you headed and why? What’s been the making of you? What will make your career or company great? You must be able to answer these questions if you want to build a great company, thriving entrepreneurial venture or fulfilling career. Whether you’re an individual or you’re representing an organisation or a movement, a city or a country, Story Driven gives you a framework to help you consistently articulate, live and lead with your story. This book is about how to stop competing and start succeeding by being who you are, so you can do work you’re proud of and create the future you want to see.

    It requires analytical flair and creative panache, the patience of a saint and the vision of a writer. Transforming a manuscript into a book that edifies, inspires, and sells? That’s the job of the developmental editor, whose desk is the first stop for many manuscripts on the road to bookdom—a route ably mapped out in the pages of Developmental Editing. Author Scott Norton has worked with a diverse range of authors, editors, and publishers, and his handbook provides an approach to developmental editing that is logical, collaborative, humorous, and realistic. He starts with the core tasks of shaping the proposal, finding the hook, and building the narrative or argument, and then turns to the hard work of executing the plan and establishing a style. Developmental Editing includes detailed case studies featuring a variety of nonfiction books—election-year polemic, popular science, memoir, travel guide—and authors ranging from first-timer to veteran, journalist to scholar. Handy sidebars offer advice on how to become a developmental editor, create effective illustration programs, and adapt sophisticated fiction techniques (such as point of view, suspense, plotting, character, and setting) to nonfiction writing.   Norton’s book also provides freelance copyeditors with a way to earn higher fees while introducing more creativity into their work lives. It gives acquisitions, marketing, and production staff a vocabulary for diagnosing a manuscript’s flaws and techniques for transforming it into a bestseller. And perhaps most importantly, Developmental Editing equips authors with the concrete tools they need to reach their audiences.

    We've been taught to market to others in ways we hate being marketed to (cold-calling, flyers, ads, etc.). So why do we still keep trying the same stale marketing moves?UnMarketing shows you how to unlearn the old ways and consistently attract and engage the right customers. You'll stop just pushing out your message and praying that it sticks somewhere. Potential and current customers want to be listened to, validated, and have a platform to be heard-especially online. With UnMarketing, you'll create such a relationship with your customers, and make yourself the logical choice for their needs.Shows how to create a mindset and systems to roll out a new, 21st century marketing approach Marketing expert Scott Stratten focuses on a Pull & Stay method (pulling your market towards you and staying/engaging with them, leading them to naturally choose you for their needs) rather than Push & Pray Redefines marketing as all points of engagement between a company and its customers, not just a single boxed-in activity Traditional marketing methods are leading to diminishing returns and disaffected customers. The answer? Stop marketing, start UnMarketing!

    Filled with thought-provoking questions, ideas and solutions, this book will help you stay positive while dealing with life’s disappointments and the negativity that encompasses our society. Whereas, you can’t change the people and circumstances that try to get your goat, Hide Your Goat will help you stay positive when negativity surrounds you. The book focuses on six core principles.• The Courage to Recognize Who You Are• The Strength to Accept Where You Have Been* The Wisdom to Discern Where You Are Heading* The Knowledge to Acquire What it Takes To Get There* The Awareness to Exclude Who Is Stopping You* The Power to Change What Holds You BackHide Your Goat makes you aware of how your daily life intersects with a diverse group of people from different backgrounds, opinions and personalities. This book will make you think about yourself and dive deep below the surface to uncover feelings, thoughts and emotions that expose your goat. Regardless of its origin, the expression “gets my goat” is something that resonates with all of us. The fast-paced and stress-filled schedules we maintain “open the gate” to allow people and circumstances to “get our goat.” It’s time to discover, herd, teach, feed, gate, exercise and in the end, Hide Your Goat!

    A five-pack of the 32 page ShipIt Journal, a workbook designed for groups of people (or individuals) who want to do work that matters.Share them with your team, fill them out together, surface the issues and then ship.

    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.

    There is no magic to successful blogging; with this book you'll learn the techniques to attract and keep a large audience of loyal, regular readers and leverage this popularity to achieve your goals. Become more influential and earn extra money by blogging. Whether you want to create a popular technical blog from scratch or take your blog to the next level, this book shows you how. Technical blogging expert Antonio Cangiano shares his extensive expertise with you, sparing no details and laying out a complete step by step road map to help you plan, create, market, monetize, and grow your own popular blog. Antonio will guide you through all the choices you have to make in setting up a successful blog, teach you the key things you need to know to write blog posts that get read, and give you the tools to produce content regularly You'll learn how to promote your blog, understand traffic statistics, and build a community. And once you've built it, you'll learn how to benefit from it: advance your career, make money from your blog, use it to promote your products or company, and take advantage of your blog to the fullest. And when your blog takes off, Antonio will show you how to avoid the pitfalls of success.Technical Blogging is the only guide you'll need to create and maintain a successful technical blog.

    Each was used by a Harvard student on his or her application and is followed with analysis by the staff of the Harvard Crimson, who help give perspective on what works well, what is a necessary evil, and what detracts from an otherwise compelling essay. With pointers on avoiding common essay pitfalls and stepping back to evaluate strengths applicants never realized they had, Fifty Successful Harvard Application Essays is an inspiration for every student trying to find the one thing that sets him or her apart from the crowd.

    “As a first-time author this book made a huge positive impact on my ability to write and publish my own book.” –Amazon Customer THE SINGLE BEST TOOL EVERY ENTREPRENEUR NEEDS TO BUILD, BOOST, AND GROW THEIR BUSINESS. Beyond technology, software, social media networks, even advertising and marketing campaigns, the biggest and best tool you’ll ever have in your belt is a business book with your name on the cover. Authority and Credibility—Nothing establishes your authority faster or better, making it easier to attract investors, clients, and customers. Brand recognition—Nothing makes your name and your brand easier to recognize, giving you greater reach with no additional overhead. The ultimate business card—We’re hard-wired to hold on to books, to keep and care for them, and to share them with others. When’s the last time someone did that with your business card? You Must Write a Book introduces you to these concepts and digs further—revealing not only the benefits of how a book can help you to build and grow your business and your brand, but how you can put your ideas on the page. You’ll learn: Why a book matters to your business Pre-planning and strategic thinking, before putting even the first word on the page How to write your book by committing to only a few words per day How to hire ghostwriters or other professionals to get your ideas on the page, without writing a word The steps for launching your book like a champ Marketing plans—both for your book, and using your book to market yourself and your business You’ll also learn from the masters—gain insight from some of the most advanced thinkers in publishing, so that you can skip level one and build from their success. Get in on the wisdom from thought leaders such as Hal Elrod, Bryan Cohen, Pat Petrini, J.A. Huss, Steve Scott, James Altucher, Kevin Tumlinson, and many more. Honorée Corder is the author of Tall Order!, Prosperity for Writers, and many more volumes, and Hal Elrod’s business partner in The Miracle Morning series. She is a coach and consultant working with high profile entrepreneurs and businesses, guiding them into some of the best decisions they’ve ever made. In You Must Write a Book, she has culled together some of the finest examples of publishing and marketing wisdom available, from some of today’s most successful and influential masters. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A SINGLE TOOL TO ACHIEVE NEXT-LEVEL SUCCESS, PICK UP YOUR COPY OF ‘YOU MUST WRITE A BOOK’ RIGHT NOW!

    No more interruptions. No more feeling you're not good enough to be the writer you long to be. No more conflicts with family. No more writer's block. Awareness + Solution = Mind Hack Rather than "feel good inspiration", 47 Mind Hacks for Writers takes you through the simple steps you need to shift your mindset so you can write on your terms.We asked over 100 writers what their biggest obstacles were around writing. This book gives you a mind hack for each one. DISCOVER 47 Mind Hacks that Will Make You a More Productive Writer The book will help you: Put an end to writer's block… forever Uncover the real reason you're procrastinating and start writing today Discover a fun way to get your family to help you reach your writing goals Stop feeling like you're not good enough Shut down the overly-critical self-talk that holds you back Karen & Steve Dimmick have been using belief change techniques, coaching and Neuro-Linguistics since 2004, and have been helping authors since 2007.You know what life hacking is, now it's time to hack your mind, get out of your own way and be the writer you know you can be. DOWNLOAD 47 Mind Hacks for Writers, today, and get back in control of your writing life!

    Acknowledged by the publishing industry, authors and would-be writers as the indispensable companion to navigating the world of publishing, it appears for the first time as an e-book and in print. The 80 articles are reviewed and updated each year to provide inspirational and how-to guidance on writing for newspapers, magazines, scripts for film, radio and TV; advice on writing and submitting plays, poetry, non-fiction and fiction of all genres - from fantasy to thrillers to romance; how to contact publishers and agents; managing finances as a writer; negotiating legal issues, such as copyright; understanding the editing process; self-publishing and conventional routes; digital and print.Every single one of over 4,500 listings of who to contact, where and for which disciplines across the whole media, are reviewed and most updated, with new listings added every year. The combination of up-to-date listings information and expert advice, make the Yearbook a topical and reliable resource; the perfect gift for every writer every year.New articles for the 2014 edition include:Foreword by Martina Cole Writing successful erotic fictionWriting as co-authors by Louise Voss and Mark Edwards authors of thrillers Catch Your Death and Killing CupidHow to be a writer by novelist (The Harbour) and screenwriter Francesca BrillWriting for newspapers by journalist Kate MeadWriting short stories by Tania Hershman Being an agent in the digital age by literary agent Gordon Wise Writng flash fiction by Peter BlairMarketing, publicising and selling self-published books by Ben Cameron, Smith PublicityWhat to look for in a self-publishing provider by Jeremy Thomspon of MatadorArticles from experts and authors, include:Bernard Cornwall on writing historical fictionWilliam Dalrymple on writing about travelDavid Eldridge on writing for the theatreKatie Fforde on writing romantic fictionNeil Gaiman on writing cross-over fictionClaire Tomalin on writing biographiesSimon Winchester on writing non-fictionBenjamin Zephaniah on writing poetry

    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.