This past week, we covered: writing a book, selling your books, repurposing your words, freelance writing and copywriting, and self-publishing.
Blog Your Book: How to Get Started
The big benefit of blogging your book in some way is that it promotes your book while you’re writing it.
Write a Novel: How to Pick a Genre
You have an idea for a novel. The idea may be flimsy.
Perhaps you can see an image. A woman, standing at a graveside, with a smile on her face… A bright summer’s day, with two armies confronting each other… a small, tidy home, with smoke trailing from the chimney…
Repurposing: Make Your Words Pay Off Over and Over
In 2013 and beyond, VOLUME is important. Therefore, I urge you to think “repurpose” with everything you write. This means turning blog posts into ebooks, articles for Web sites into articles for print, and then turning those articles into videos and presentations.
How to Be Creative: A Lesson from Frankenstein and Treasure Island
Want to be more creative? You can be as creative as the writers Mary Shelley (she wrote Frankenstein) and Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island.
Want to Sell Books? Write Them
Want to sell books? You need to write them first. Sounds obvious, of course.
However, once you’ve written a book, the push to SELL can grab hold of you. You have expectations. More importantly, you need validation. Yes, you’ve written a book, and have uploaded it to Amazon. It’s now available for the world to buy. Or not.
Currently Reading: Wired for Story
Currently I’m reading Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence on my iPad.
Although I love books about creativity and consciousness, I didn’t know quite what to expect from this book. I looked at it several times, before I bought it, because it made me nervous. Would it destroy my pleasure in reading, I wondered? I value my ability to lose myself in books above everything else.
Writing Your Novel: Conflict Essentials
Over the weekend, I received a couple of messages from Fiction Frenzy students, who were unsure about conflict, and how to create it.
Here’s the thing about conflict: the conflict in your book must be related to your story question, and it must escalate. No unrelated conflicts, please…
12 Writing Challenges Revisited: How Did You Do?
How are you doing with the challenges? Over the past week, I’ve had several messages from writers who did brilliantly at the start of the year, then something happened. Now that we’re looking toward 2013 (and the holiday season is upon us), they want to kickstart their career again.
Copywriting Cash: Special Offering — New Magazine
If you want to make great money, even as a beginning writer, you need to become a copywriter. Copywriting is writing to sell, basically, and it’s very well paid because your writing makes money for others.
Freelance Copywriting Helps You to Become a Better Writer 5 Ways
I’ve been a freelance copywriter for over 30 years. My copywriting career started purely by accident. Then I realized the power of persuasion. Copywriting has been pure FUN for me ever since.
Aspiring Copywriter? 5 Easy Tips You Can Use Today
I’ve had several “how do I get started?” questions from aspiring copywriters, so here are five easy tips you can use today.
Marketing You Never Thought Of: Book Clubs
You’ve written a book. You don’t have a clue how to sell it. You’ve created a Twitter account, and now you’re fresh out of ideas.
Here’s an idea I never thought of: book clubs.
Is the iPad Mini Suitable As a Writing Tool?
I’ve had a couple of questions about the iPad Mini, and whether it’s a good investment for a writer. Christmas is coming up. :-)
Yes, You Can Become a Copywriter
I fell into copywriting completely by accident, mostly because I’m bossy and curious. (Bossy and curious, it turns out, are great attributes for a copywriter to have.)
Self-Publishing’s Major Benefit: You Won’t Feel Bad in the Morning
Way back in the mind–1990s I interviewed the CEO of a big, traditional publishing house. That house had just gobbled up a smaller publisher. We talked about that, and I mused aloud about huge publishing conglomerates and publishing itself turning into a giant black hole.
Content Marketing: Tell Me Why, What, And How, Then Tell Me Who and Where
I’ve been helping a couple of clients to create content marketing campaigns, but I had to sort out a mess first. They’d got into a tangle because they made it too complicated.
Platform and Presence: 5 Tips to Being YOU Online
In my coaching, I emphasize that no matter where a writer is in his career, it’s often one small thing which will make all the difference, and will take the writer’s career to a whole new level. It’s very hard to spot this “one small thing” on your own. We’re all blind, when it comes to seeing ourselves.