Nonfiction Ink

Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly had to say about Stephen Markley’s latest book Publish This Book: “It doesn’t matter what problems you’ve got with Markley’s sprawling, self-referential account of his efforts to sell a book about his efforts to sell the book he’s writing at that very moment—he’s already anticipated your criticisms, from the imperfect echoes of writers like Dave Eggers and Chuck Klosterman to the preponderance of dick jokes and other forms of frat boy humor. Of course, on a basic level, the book is a stupid idea, he admits early on; later, he concedes, I’ve just been winging it, and it shows. He might have been better off cutting down some of the more self-indulgent sections, like a mini-history of his tenure as a political sex columnist for his college paper or an exploration of the fake memoir phenomenon featuring made-up conversations with Chicago drug dealers and underprivileged high school students. But there are compelling, emotionally resonant passages, too: a reflection on what it’s like to shake loose the influence of a literary mentor, for example, or a best friend’s realization of just how much an unplanned pregnancy has changed his life.”

Q: What can you tell us about your current book Publish This Book?

Publish This Book was basically a bizarre post-post-modern concept born of my frustration at trying to get a novel or non-fiction book published. I felt as if I’d been banging my head against the wall for awhile trying to get a writing career off the ground, and so it was my way of venting some of that frustration. Or at least, at first it was because it grew into something far different. It’s a book not only for writers but anyone who has ever found him or herself at a juncture in life (especially when you’re young) that made no sense–where every route looks iffy at best. I feel as if it’s a deeply hopeful book masquerading as a cynic’s rant—which incidentally is the sanest way to approach life.

Q: Why did you pursue traditional publishing?

I definitely could never have been satisfied by self-publishing. Maybe I need the validation, but the way I look at it, self-publishing is kind of admitting that you’re not talented enough to break through. I know that sounds somewhat snobby and that there are plenty of examples of self-publishing success, but it’s like blogging: anyone can do it, so where’s the differentiation? Also, I clearly couldn’t self-publish a book called “Publish This Book” where the whole story is about me trying to attract the attention of agents and editors. Otherwise, it would have been one chapter of me sending a manuscript off to the bookbinder.

Q: What is your writing process?

PTB was unlike anything I’d ever written before because I was essentially just recording events two months after they happened. It was part diary, part literary endeavor, which at times made it incredibly complex to deal with emotionally. Most of the time when you write a memoir you have years to reflect on events and put them in some kind of context. I had to ferret out the context of a lot of things on the fly. I wrote it over the course of roughly two years, but most of the book got written in a four-month frenzy where I was staying up until two or three in the morning working on my little lawn chair or a mattress on my floor. I’d go to work the next day and be into my third cup of coffee before noon. It basically gave me a life-long sleeping disorder, I think. Don’t want to say too much, though, because this is a lot of what the book is about (with a lot more profanity).

Q: What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

Have people read what you’re writing. Don’t sit in a basement and try to hammer out genius by yourself because it will make you tired and bitter and crazy. It will be especially daunting when someone tells you what you’ve been working on all this time is not that good because he or she is the first person to have ever laid eyes on it. This was a mistake I made early in my life as a writer and one I have since corrected with a vengeance. Join a writing group and stick with it. Don’t take criticism personally. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt to have a small, manageable drinking problem. You’ll meet all the smartest people over beers.

Q: Are you working on your next project and can you tell us about it?

I’m always working on something. I certainly didn’t want to be a writer for the money (although, damn, that would really nice). I do it because it’s a compulsion, one that I still don’t fully understand. Because this project is still four-fifths existent entirely in my head, I’ll refrain from trying to explain. I will say that I hold out a very dim, very killable hope that PTB will be enough of a success that I can sustain myself on just writing books. That’s got to be every writer’s dream, right? To just be able to hole up in a log cabin, write whatever you want and ship it off to the presses? This is clearly stupid, but I’m going to go ahead and think of wistfully for a few more years anyway.

CONNECT WITH STEPHEN MARKLEY:
Website: http://www.stephenmarkley.com

Carma Spence-Pothitt has more than 20 years experience in marketing communications, as well as writing and editing, in the fields of health care, food and wine, computers, business, television, biology and agriculture. She can research, digest and write highly technical material while making this same material comprehensible to people unfamiliar with the topic. She has built her career on helping people understand something that is new to them, taking information—from dry facts to common knowledge to scientific research—and making it sparkle with life.

Q: What can you tell us about your latest book Home Sweet Home Page?

In my business I help creative professionals build a thriving web presence. Part of that is to make sure that my clients’ websites are effective and accomplish the goals they have set for them. And what I found was that many clients were making the same, simple mistakes … mistakes that I kind of took for granted. So, I wrote the book to not only help my clients, but to also get these simple fixes out to as many people as I could.

Q: Why did you pursue self-publishing?

I chose to self-publish because it was faster and served my goal of the book being a “big business card” better. I chose to publish through Lulu because I had used them before and found the process to be fairly easy. I pretty much do all the design and layout myself and Lulu makes that easy to do.

Q: What is your writing process?

Having an outline of what the five deadly mistakes were really helped me write swiftly. The content just flowed.

The part that took the longest was after I wrote it. I did a proof read on it. My husband started to then sat on it for a few months. Then I hired a proofreader and the sat on those edits for a few months. I think I had a mental block to publishing the book.

But once I overcame that, the marketing park took over and I gave myself about four to five months to get my virtual launch party all together.

Q: What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

Be very clear on the goal you want this book to achieve. Depending on what your goal is, you could create a quick and easy book, like I did, or something more complex. Your goal sets the tone of your book, and dictates much of the process you will go through to create it. Also, knowing your goal before hand will help you evaluate it’s effectiveness once it is completed.

Q: Are you working on your next project and can you tell us about it?

I’m working on about four business books right now. The first three are based on transcripts of a teleseminar series I did about a year ago. I was supposed to have completed them by now, but again I’ve been working on blocks to the process.

The fourth book is an expansion of a blog post I wrote a few years ago that has been very popular. In the post I asked the question, “If public speakers were super heroes, what would their powers be?” I’m now interviewing several successful public speakers about their answer to that question and will be compiling them, as well as my own personal experience, into a book due out next spring.

I also intend to finish an anthology and a novel before five years is out. And, I have dreams of co-writing a celebrity biography.

CONNECT WITH CARMA

Book Website

Dragon Wyze Website

Twitter: @CarMap

Facebook

Facebook Fan Page

Kim Pearson is an author and ghostwriter. Her own works include Making History: How to Remember, Record, Interpret and Share the Events of Your Life; You Can Be an Author, Even If You’re Not a Writer; Dog Park Diary: The Social Round of Goody Beagle; and Eating Mythos Soup. She has ghostwritten more than 30 nonfiction books and memoirs, which tell the stories of a wide variety of people and cover a broad range of topics. Her new program “Living as a Ghost” teaches others the fine art of ghostwriting. To learn more about her books or services, visit www.primary-sources.com.

Q:  What can you tell us about your latest book, Making History: How To Remember, Record, Interpret and Share the Events of Your Life?

Making History is based on a class I began teaching in 2000, and still teach today. I originally started teaching the class in senior centers or retirement complexes, mostly to people in their 70s. They were being pestered by their children and grandchildren to “write it down” and share stories of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. I was blown away by the complexity, wisdom, and beauty in their stories; all the humor, all the tragedy – and the courage they showed in revealing their lives and the lessons they had learned. They motivated me to share my stories of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, when I was a child and young adult. I realized that my generation, we infamous baby-boomers, were the ones my class (and later on, my book) was targeted toward. Our elders are getting ready to leave, and we ourselves are coming up on old. We need and want our elders’ stories, and we need and want to tell our own to our children’s generation. One of the most common remarks I hear when people see my book is “I wish I had this book while Grandma/Grandpa/Dad/Mom/Aunt Susie/Etc., was alive.” Because the truth is, when you die your stories die too – unless you have written them down. Making History gives you the tools you need to remember and preserve your stories for future generations.

I think there are four main reasons it is important that we share our stories: 1) Our stories connect us to each other, to the future, and to the past. We are all a part of history; we are actors, not just reactors, and we are also witnesses. 2) Our stories pass along our wisdom; all good teachers know that the best way to teach someone is not to preach at them, but to tell them a story. 3) Our stories inspire each other – when we tell a story in which we (or someone else) acted with compassion, bravery, creativity, perseverance, dignity, etc. – then we have proved that it is possible, and we can inspire others to do the same. 4) Our stories heal each other – and ourselves – by enabling us to understand and forgive.

Making History provides a comprehensive, easy to use, fun method of finding one’s place in history. It covers: 1) how to remember one’s stories; 2) how to record stories; 3) how to interpret one’s stories; and 4) how to share stories.  Often people are daunted just by the sheer volume of their memories. To address this challenge, recent history (1930 to 1989) has been broken down into eight categories and two 30-year time periods.  A narrative describing styles and trends, plus detailed event timelines are provided in each of these categories and timeframes, which act as memory triggers. A series of questions is provided in each category, also designed to stimulate memory and a sense of time past. Many examples of stories relating to the categories are shared, from my own writing and from others.  Making History also contains a method for writing one’s stories, which non-writers and even writing-haters found fun and easy. Making History also shows how to give meaningful feedback to increase understanding and communication, and even how to conduct a class based on this book.

Making History’s purpose is to show how each individual helps to create history. Individuals are actors on the world’s stage, not just reactors. Each personal life, made up of actions, thoughts and feelings, has historical consequences. Making History asks: Where did you make a difference? What did you contribute? What did you witness?  Making History illuminates personal power. It provides an antidote to despair and apathy.

Q:  Why did you choose to pursue self-publishing?

Making History was originally written primarily but as an adjunct to my work as a ghostwriter of memoirs, and as a teacher of memoir writing. It was important to me to get the book into print as fast as possible, in order to sell it during classes, or have it as a reference in my class, and also to convince people to hire me to write their memoirs for them – in other words, as a marketing tool for my writing services.  At the time I wrote it, I did not envision it as a book that would sell elsewhere.  That is why I self-published it with Wyatt-Mackenie’s Imprint program, which has many of the benefits of self-publishing along with some benefits of working with a traditional publisher.

As it turns out, I was wrong about the book’s appeal. It has sold well to historical and genealogical societies, senior organizations, and the general public.  I’ve made some money, and the book continues to sell now, three years after it was published.

Q:  What is your writing process?

Because Making History was based on a class, it took me about 5 years to write it if I count the time I spent developing (and teaching) the class. Because Making History is not a true history book, but contains a compilation of historical events acting as memory triggers, it was not necessary for me to do a lot of in-depth scholarly research. Most of my research for the timelines was done via the internet and reading reference books, cross-checking facts, and so on. The rest of the book is based on many personal stories, my own and the participants in my classes. I taught this memoir writing class for nearly 5 years before I wrote the book based on the class, and the class itself evolved over time – more stories, more subjects, more facts gathered.

After I decided to write the book, it took about one year of intense writing of introductions, conclusions and stories. The book closely follows the structure of the class, interspersed by the personal stories my students shared during the class (and which I was smart enough – or lucky enough – to write down as I heard them.)  I devoted about 5 to 10 hours a week to writing Making History, depending on how much client work I had at the time.  I solicited feedback from other book professionals, especially publishing and marketing strategists, after the book was written – and of course a copyeditor to catch those pesky typos. (I swear they breed in the night, like maggots.)

Q:  What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

When I was writing only my own “stuff,” I couldn’t make enough money to quit my day job and be a writer full time. It wasn’t until I started writing for other people that I was able to go out on my own. There’s a lesson in there somewhere – I think it is this:  “It’s not about you.”

Virtually everything I write, whether it’s my own fiction or ghostwriting non-fiction for others, is based on Story. (With a capital S.) I believe everything important is contained in our stories, and that Story is the primary vehicle for us to share ourselves with others. We tell our stories in order to discover our truth. We listen to stories for the same reason. In fact, I think we create truth by means of stories.

Even when you write your own stuff, it still isn’t about you – it’s always about your readers. If there weren’t any readers, there’d be no point in writing. Writing is just another way of communicating; but writing allows you to communicate without the restrictions of time and space. I think if you keep “it’s not about you” in front of you all the time, you can’t go far wrong.

My other piece of advice is “Don’t give up.” I was nearly 50 when I started this new career.

Q:  Are you working on your next project and can you tell us about it?

I am busy ghostwriting two books currently, but I’m also working on my own project, another novel. It’s about the meaning of identity and how storytelling helps us define who we are. It has elements of memoir, suspense, and the traditional folktale. I hope to finish it within the next year, despite the challenge in writing that many books at once.

CONNECT WITH KIM:

Website

Primary Sources Blog

Facebook Page

Twitter: @StoryKim

Susan Daffron is the president of Logical Expressions, Inc., a book and software publishing company in Sandpoint, Idaho. You can read more about her at her website SusanDaffron.com. The author of 11 books, Susan is also the Founder of the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals and the President of the Small Publishers Artists and Writers Network (SPAWN).

Q: What are your two current books Publishize: How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book That Promotes Your Expertise and 101 Fundraising Ideas for Humane and Animal Rescue Groups about?

If you are a business owner, coach, author, or speaker, writing a book is the best way to demonstrate your expertise. Getting a traditional book-publishing contract is difficult and time-consuming, so many people opt to self-publish. If you’re new to publishing, the process can seem complex. Publishize details a cost-effective method to quickly self-publish a book. In Publishize, you will find information on all the ins and outs of print-on-demand printing (without the subsidy press stigma) and get an overview of the latest online book marketing methods.

The information in Publishize will help you find the time to write a book and run your business at the same time; deal with the often misleading and confusing terms surrounding print-on-demand printing and “self-publishing” companies; devise a mouthwatering book title that “hooks” exactly the right readers; and understand layout and design issues, so you end up with a professional book. Publishize also includes online marketing information, such as the six key elements of a book Web site and an overview of the latest methods for marketing books on the Web.

Publishize explains everything from social media marketing to podcasting and video book trailers. Unlike most publishing books, Publishize focuses on the publishing industry from the business owner’s perspective. With a focus on earning more profits and smart outsourcing, this book is a hands-on guidebook for entrepreneurs who want to add a new revenue stream to their business.

My latest book is Funds to the Rescue: 101 Fundraising Ideas for Humane and Animal Rescue Groups. The book starts off with “The Hows and Whys of Fundraising” and follows with 101 entertaining and creative ideas. Among the fundraising ideas you’ll find:

• How one humane society laughed themselves all the way to $43,000 with a fun comedy fundraiser.
• How working with restaurants can net big profits, like the shelter that told everyone to “Eat for Pete” (who is a cute dog, by the way).
• How you can creatively ask for money using a simple letter-writing campaign instead of a bake sale, picnic, or dog walk. One SPCA made $980 the first day they used this tip.
• How to use the power of “small change” to your advantage. A few pennies can turn into a lot of dough!
• How to use nothing more than card stock and your printer for a quick and easy fundraiser.

As an aside, I just found out this morning that Funds to the Rescue is the winner in the “How to” category of the Indie Book Awards. I’m thrilled!

Q: Why did you pursue self-publishing?

I have been traditionally published in the past, had an agent and so forth, but about 4 years ago, I started self-publishing my work. We have published 10 books so far. My publishing process is described in my multi-award winning book Publishize: How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book That Promotes Your Expertise (http://www.Publishize.com). My approach is to use Lightning Source with a short discount and sell books exclusively online.

The reason I switched to self-publishing is because instead of making about .25 or .50 per book, I make around on $10 every book I sell. There also is no waste because books are printed only when they are ordered. With the “Publishize” approach, I also didn’t have to come up with $5,000 or $10,000 to do my first print run and I don’t have a garage full of books either. If I get a big order, I can switch to offset, but until then, I simply have books printed as I need them.

Q: What is your writing process?

My writing process is somewhat unusual because I use a software program we developed to write my books. Our IdeaWeaver writing and creativity software (http://www.IdeaWeaverSoftware.com) lets you see your entire book outline on one screen and rearrange your ideas at will. The program helped me get past major “stuckness” on two book projects that had been languishing in Word files for literally years.

A detailed case study of how I write my books is online in this article: Get Your Book Done!

Q: What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

Despite some “get rich quick” claims you see online, writing a book (or a good book anyway) is going to take some effort on your part. You need to make a commitment and set aside the time to write. However, books are amazing credibility boosters and can open up doors that you’d never have imagined.

For example, because of my latest book Funds to the Rescue, I was invited to speak at a huge animal conference. This type of opportunity would never have happened if I hadn’t written the book.

Q: Are you working on your next project and can you tell us about it?

I have four or five books in various stages of development that I hope to return to this summer. Right now, I’m working on our Self-Publishers Online Conference, which is May 12-14, so I can’t think about anything else until that is over.

Plus, I used up my first block of 10 ISBNs, so I need to go buy more before I can release any more titles!

Connect with Susan:

Website: Logical Expressions

Blog: Logical Expressions Blog

Twitter: @SusanDaffron

Author Jo-Anne Vandermeulen is the owner of Premium Promotional Services, a company that supports and markets fellow writers. She produces and hosts a live weekly Blog Talk Radio show, “Authors Articulating,” where she shares marketing and promotional tips with other writers and answers questions from her extensive and ever growing list of followers. Her latest book is Premium Promotional Tips for Writers, released in December 2009.

Q: Tell us about your current book Premium Promotional Tips For Writers.

Premium Promotional Tips for Writers is a book filled with practical ideas how authors can market themselves. The writers learn how to build an author platform, create massive exposure, and drive traffic back to their site where their books are sold. The topics include: Creating Massive Exposure, Building An Author Platform, Targeting An Audience, Blogging, Driving Traffic, Social Networking, Marketing and Promoting, and a Glossary.

Q: Why did you pursue self-publishing?

I found it very difficult to break into the traditional publishing route. Time seemed to be ticking, so I ventured forth and discovered a small publishing firm called Laurus Books. I knew the editor and publisher from clients I had previously represented in my business, Premium Promotional Services. I was very impressed with her professionalism. After connecting with her, I soon discovered that she was a fabulous person to work with…someone who is really there for the author.

I hired her to edit, page layout, and publish my books… and have never looked back.

Q: What is your writing process?

Premium Promotional Tips for Writers came together from published articles on my blog. The ideas/tips were just too good to remain in my blog and I soon accumulated them into a full length book.

I wrote Premium Promotional Tips for Writers in a 9-month timeframe. I wrote two articles a week. After 60 articles were written, I submitted them to my editor/publisher, Nancy Williams from Laurus Publishing.

Before writing my book, I took my University English Major skills and my passion for writing and literally immersed myself in online writing workshops. And I read everything I could get my hands on about writing skills.

My editor, Nancy Williams, was the best! She included me on all the decisions. She was careful not to deflate; but, able to put the truth about changes that needed to be done. We communicated a lot. We worked as a team—a winning team.

Q: What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

Ask yourself: What is your niche?

Have patience, persevere, be open to any and all opportunities. Watch for the open doors and walk through. Look for the positives in everything.

Get ready to rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite. Hire a professional editor. Find a professional publisher. Market, market, and market. If you don’t know how or don’t have the time, hire a professional marketer to bring exposure for you and your book. (okay…that’s me…lol. At Premium Promotional Services where *You Write – We Promote*

If you don’t have a blog, start one. It is never too early to start building your author platform. Get your ‘voice’ out there and soon, the viewers will follow and become your fans.

Promote yourself physically and virtually:

• Physically, get yourself out into your community. Call the papers, shake hands with book sellers, start book signings or book talks. You need to become a publicist and distributor by delivering your books to the sellers.

• Virtually, create relationships through social media networks. Exposure will generate more opportunities and an audience that will soon follow you.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish with the your current book?

I’m busy promoting my new release. I’ve gone both the physical and virtual route…constantly building my author platform.

I continue to write in my blog. Submitting marketing tips. Now I’m realizing that the Internet marketing tips can be applied to an even larger audience than authors. Basically, my ideas and tips can be used by anyone who has products to sell online. With this growing audience, I am researching more information and creating my articles in a broader sense.

Opportunities keep coming forth. What door will open next? Only God knows, but I’m ready to walk through.

CONNECT WITH JO-ANNE:

Blog: Conquer All Obstacles

Website: Premium Promotions

Twitter: @ConquerAll

Roger C. Parker is an author and writing coach. He  runs Published & Profitable, a service that helps entrepreneurs build a brand by writing a book as quickly and efficiently as possible. His latest book is Book Title Tweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Compelling Article, Book, and Event Titles.

Q: Tell us about your latest book Book Title Tweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Compelling Article, Book, and Event Titles and what inspired you to write it.

Titles play a make or break role in the success of a nonfiction book! The right title not only targets the market and promises readers an obvious benefit, but it also creates a lasting brand for the author, one that pre-sells future books and opens doors of opportunity.

Although an essential part of nonfiction success, and a lot of interest in them, judging from my Published & Profitable weekly teleseminar calls, there has been relatively little written about nonfiction titles. There are numerous books about writing a nonfiction book, but there’s never been about the characteristics of successful nonfiction book titles and how to choose the right title.

Book Title Tweet is a simple book intended to spark ideas and provide a context for evaluating existing nonfiction book titles as well as jumpstart ideas for new nonfiction book titles. It contains 140 ideas and examples, each idea and example communicated in 140 characters. Like other books in its series, it’s a practical and inexpensive quick-read that can make a lasting difference in the reader’s ability to choose the right book title for their nonfiction book.

Q: How did you land your book deal?

There wasn’t much “negotiation” involved. I was familiar with both the publisher and the series editor, Rajesh Setty, who originated the 140-topic/140-character THINKaha book format. I had interviewed Rajesh on several occasions, and am a regular guest contributor to his ActiveGarage blog.

So, getting started was a matter of fleshing-out a proposal and signing a contract.

Q: How did you start writing and what is your process?

As readers of my Published & Profitable daily writer’s tips blog know, I’m a big advocate of planning. Having written over 30 books with a worldwide circulation of 1.6 million copies, I’ve learned that planning is the essence of nonfiction writing success. Planning reduces the stress associated with writing by creating a structure that permits short, productive, daily writing sessions.

I devoted two working sessions, each about two hours long, to planning. During the first session, I created a mind map identifying the 140 topics I wanted to include in Book Title Tweet. (Luckily, MindManager, the mind mapping software program I use, automatically numbers topics.) During the second planning session I “drag and dropped” the 140 ideas into chapters and sessions (see example).

With the map of the book’s contents in front of me, it was easy to complete the writing. With the mind map showing the 140 ideas and examples in front of me, I could productively add to my book in working sessions as short as 10 minutes.

Writing Book Title Tweet was never the issue it had been with previous books, when I didn’t have any organized structure to guide my writing. In fact, I really enjoyed writing to Twitter’s 140-character limit. It forced me to make every word count, and I enjoyed the “game” of communicating every idea and example in fewer than 140 characters.

Q: What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

You really have to do it! But, you have to change your perception of writing. Writing doesn’t have to be as hard or as stressful as your well-intentioned grammar school and high school teachers taught. Writing, when you have a structure to follow, and don’t aim for perfection, is an absolute joy…and a highly profitable joy.

Writing is the best way to enhance your visibility and drive qualified traffic to your blog or website. Writing builds your credibility and opens doors of opportunity you can’t achieve in any other way; it creates the “hub” of your social media marketing efforts.

Best of all, writing becomes easier and easier as you realize the first draft is only a prelude to the final manuscript. Once you have a created a structure for your book, and you have created the habit of constant, daily progress, your momentum will increase…especially when you review your progress.

Q: What are your goals for your book?

Although Book Title Tweet is at the printer, I’ve already achieved most of my goals. It has already:

• Rekindled relationships. Book Title Tweet has rekindled relationships with peers as well as sparked conversations with clients and prospects I’ve contacted for feedback.
• Multi-media content. Book Title Tweet has provided topics for numerous free teleseminars, blog posts, and articles. I’m currently creating a YouTube video about book titles.
  
• Relationship marketing. I’ve created a landing page for Book Title Tweet readers which will contain several bonuses, including articles and worksheets.
  
• Presentations. Given the urgent need for information about nonfiction book titles, I now have a focused, specific topic that I can approach others with for teleseminar, webinar, or in-person workshop presentations.
  
• Content. As always, authors benefit from books as much as readers. Writing a book makes it easy for authors to update and reorganize their ideas and expertise, creating better-informed authors as well as better-informed readers.

I’d like to close by encouraging every subject area expert to explore today’s new options for book publishing success and thank Laura Cross for the great community she’s creating and the work she puts into sharing her expertise with the world.

Connect with Roger:

Website: Published & Profitable

Blog: Published & Profitable Daily Writer’s Tips

e-mail:  Roger@PublishedandProfitable.com

Facebook Fan Page: RogerCParker

Twitter: @RogercParker

LinkedIn: RogerCParker

Guests posts: Other blogs where I post

In her ground breaking book, Blast Off!, life and business strategist Allison Maslan will not only inspire you at your soul level, she shares her insight, strategies and techniques to break through your limiting fears and beliefs, then guides you step-by-step to launch a completely new personal and professional path filled with astounding passion and meaning.

Q: Tell us about your latest book Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality and what inspired you to write it.

I’ve helped thousands of people one-on-one for over 15 years to lead happy more fulfilling lives while developing nine businesses of my own. I could only reach so many people working directly with me. I knew writing a book would impact so many more people, help making their impossible possible.

Millions of people give up on their dreams, settle for less and become complacent, stuck and feel held back in their life circumstances. I know. I have been there! I was divorced, a single mom and had seriously hit bottom. Now I cannot wait to show you the simple process I developed to help myself and thousands of others attain joy, love, success and prosperity. Through the powerful insight I inherited, and using the groundbreaking flight plan I developed, I went on to build nine successful businesses with absolutely no money and no encouragement from others. I even applied this winning Blast Off formula to find and marry the man of my dreams.

As you read this amazing story, get ready for your life to be transformed. I will teach you how to tap into your soul’s purpose and guide you to create a Big Picture Vision for your career, personal life, finances, relationships, health and spiritual life. Then I will show you how to apply my easy-to-achieve daily action steps to make your success in these areas a sure thing. I am so excited to teach you the principles and actions of this life changing system so that you can finally blast off to the passion-filled and abundant life that you are truly meant to live.

Q: How did you land your book deal?

I knew the publishing industry was really hurting and I wanted to get a mainstream publisher, but I wanted to get their attention beyond a regular book proposal. So I did self-publishing. Three months later I got an agent and my book was signed immediately after.

Q: How did you start writing and what is your process

Five years ago I was approached to write a book for HCI, which does Chicken Soup for the Soul. After a year of working with them, it turned out the book they wanted me to write wasn’t me, it wasn’t my voice. I always wanted to write a book, it was a dream of mine, but I said no to HCI out of integrity. The day my daughter went to college I said now is the time to write a book, and I started writing it that day. I set a deadline for myself of February 2008 and I sat down and wrote the outline in one day because I already knew my message. I gave myself the deadline of writing one chapter a week, but sometimes it ended up being two weeks. I have a full-time business so I wrote every weekend from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and sometimes until 1 a.m. I knew if I didn’t fully commit myself I would never get the book done. So I sacrificed a lot of time with my husband. Once I got into the zone, I really loved it. If it’s something you really want to do, you always have the time. I wrote the book in three months, then I put it away for a month, and then I picked it up and did five full edits, which took a couple of months. The hardest part of the entire book was writing the first paragraph.

Q: What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

They can utilize my book to get clarity about what it is they want to create. And, just do it! You will really never find the time to go out in the woods and have two months alone to write a book, so just do it!

Q: What are your goals for your book?

Right now I’m traveling around promoting my book and teaching its content. I also continue to do life and career coaching. When people want more out of life but they don’t know what they want, I help them realize what their passionate about and turn it into a whole new life or business. I also invented and developed Blastation, an interactive life coaching software program. And, I am presenting a three-day entrepreneurial intensive that will help people face their fears by flying on a trapze. The event is May 21-23 at the Center For Healing and Empowerment, which is across from the beach in Encinitas, California. During the three-day instensive, I will personally guide people to:

• Learn my strategic, step-by-step success formula to catapult your passion into a prosperous business (even if you have no idea what that could be!)
• Tap into your passion, then design and shape it into a prosperous business or hobby while gaining more free time, rejuvenating your soul and getting back to enjoying life!
• Gain the clarity, certainty and strategy you’ve been searching for to finally take the leap in your own fulfilling dream career.
• Attain a whole new level of confidence and courage to succeed.
• Face your fears, swing to new heights and break through personal barriers on the flying trapeze!
• Discover how to create your own security rather than depending on a job.

Connect with Allison:

Website: My Blast Off

Facebook Fan Page

Twitter: @AllisonMaslan

YouTube Interview

Your Success Recipe Interview in San Diego Magazine

Emily Bennington is the coauthor of Effective Immediately: How to Fit In, Stand Out, and Move Up at Your First Real Job. She is a contributor to The Huffington Post and a frequent speaker to college students and organizations on the topic of career success. Emily is dedicated to giving young professionals the resources needed to achieve their highest potential, and she is particularly passionate about volunteerism as a means of leadership development and advancing the skills of young women in the workplace. Emily also hosts Professional Studio 365, a popular career blog which helps new professionals successfully navigate their first year in the workforce. She is a member of the CAREEREALISM team of experts and regularly guest posts on career sites including the Personal Branding Blog, Young & Successful Network, and CareerRocketeer.

Q: Tell us about your current book Effective Immediately: How to Fit In, Stand Out, and Move Up at Your First Real Job, and how it came about.

Effective Immediately helps new graduates transition from college to the workforce. The idea came from my own experiences as a career newbie because, when I graduated in 1999, I was completely unprepared for “the real world.” Having just returned from two semesters in Europe and with a five-figure credit card debt, however, I needed to figure it out pronto.

So I went to a local temp agency to see if they could help me land at a marketing firm when, in a complete stroke of luck or fate, a firm called while I was in the temp office and needed someone who could start the next day.

I got the job.

I wound up staying at that agency for almost eight years, but my first 12 months or so were a case study in unprofessional behavior. Despite this, however, I had a talent for marketing and a passion for the work that didn’t go unnoticed by the firm’s management. When our company merged with a new agency, I found myself under the direction of Skip Lineberg.

Skip became my first mentor and his belief in me shaped my career in profound ways. (See: http://wvexecutive.com/featured/where-have-all-mentors-gone-how-pay-it-forward) Because of the significant leaps I made in my own professional development, I began to have a persistent desire to share what I’d learned. I began keeping a notebook of career lessons and observations that I hoped would one day benefit other newbies.

Long story short, I have seen first-hand the transformative power of mentoring and leadership development , and I want to be for others what Skip was for me.

Q: How did you land your book deal?

The first thing I did to get published was really believe I could do it. When we started writing the book that eventually became Effective Immediately in 2003, a lot of people (including Skip) were skeptical about our odds of success. My own family even called it “the project” for years, i.e. “Are you working on ‘the project’ today, Emily?” They couldn’t even admit that it was a book because it seemed like such a pipe dream.

I was determined, however. I bought stacks of publishing books – anything with the word ‘agent’ or ‘book proposal’ in the title – and I became obsessed with finding teleseminars from industry insiders. I was especially zoned in on Rick Frishman’s seminars at the time and I would always make a point of asking questions on the call. Eventually, he came to know my name.

Even though I was learning a lot on the calls, our book proposal (which took six months to write and was about 40 pages long) kept getting rejected by agents. After a few dozen “thank you, but…” letters, I sent an email to Rick and requested a personal consultation. (Note: I had to pay him and it wasn’t cheap!) At the end of our discussion though, he gave me the name of one of his agent friends interested in career titles. I contacted her right away and made sure to drop Rick’s name in my query. She liked the proposal and, after 2 years of trying to land an agent, she signed us just like that.

This was June of 2005. Our book finally sold to Ten Speed Press (now a division of Random House) in September of 2008. In the meantime, I received a stack of rejection letters from publishers to match the stack I had saved from agents. Overall, we must have received 50 total from publishers who turned us down. We did have a few really

close calls, but they always fell through at the last minute for one reason or another.  (I became very accustomed to seeing the word “Alas…” in emails from our agent.)

Regardless, I always knew this book was going to come out, and so I used the “downtime” to write. In fact, by the time it finally sold, Skip and I had already written well over half of the text. We also used the time to continue to build our platform (e.g. speaking, blogging, social media, etc.) which has really helped us now because we are relying on these networks to help us with promotion.

Q: What is your writing process?

After we found a publisher, keeping deadlines was easy because Ten Speed set them and – being newbie authors – Skip and I were determined to make a good impression. Plus, it would have just looked bad to write a book on how to succeed in business (with a chapter on keeping deadlines), and miss them ourselves. So we were very aware of that and bent over backwards to make sure we kept our commitments to the publisher. There were m-a-n-y nights where I’d put on a pot of coffee at 10 or 11pm and just dive into the text. Skip and I also learned through this process that we are both night workers so we’d often exchange emails at midnight or later on copy.

At the beginning of the project, we didn’t have as much of a need to work late, but it still took the same kind of discipline to keep writing. Especially after all of the rejection, sometimes it was hard to stare at the blinking cursor… again. One thing that helped me though was creating a “Book Completion Table.” It was pretty simple, really, just a 1-page document with a stack of 20 blocks that listed word count from 20,000 to zero (e.g. 20K, 19K, 18K, etc.). I posted this table beside my computer and used it as a motivational “countdown.” I have pictures of this (and other behind-the-scenes photos of the making of Effective Immediately) on our Facebook page.

Q: What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

Be your best. Do work best. Work hard. Never give up.

Are you working on your next project and can you tell us about it? – OR – What do you hope to accomplish with the your current book?

My next project is a guide for young women looking to establish themselves as leaders at work. I’m writing the proposal now and just hoping it doesn’t take three years to sell this one!

Connect with Emily via:

Her Website: Professional Studio 365

Twitter: @EmilyBennington

Facebook Page:  Effective Immediately Fan Page

For twenty-seven years Linda Joy Myers has been a therapist in Berkley. Using this experience and her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College, Myers offers memoir writing as healing workshops around the country.

Linda’s personal memoir work has taken many forms. She portrayed her life in paintings, collages of family photos, and poetry before deciding to embark on a prose memoir. The decade long journey led to her memoir Don’t Call Me Mother and ultimately to The Power of Memoir.

Q:  Tell us about your current book The Power of Memoir.

The Power of Memoir presents an innovative step-by-step program to help people use memoir writing for healing and personal transformation. Drawing upon the turning point and timeline techniques, the writer uncovers the most significant, life-changing stories to create a basic structure for the memoir. In another chapter, psychological issues are addressed such as family dynamics, roles, and rules, the psychology of writing a memoir, the inner critic, and balancing dark and light stories. Skills such as building scenes and creating the narrative arc are useful not only to write well, but to facilitate the healing process. A discussion about agents and the publishing process gives readers practical tips for taking their completed memoir to the next level. There are chapters on meditations, and affirmations, and suggestions for how therapists can use writing to help clients to heal and understand themselves better.

My inspiration for the topic of writing and healing came from the research by Dr. James Pennebaker on the healing power of writing stories.  After I found the research, I began teaching therapists how they could use writing to help clients, amazed by the stories that emerged from people who were not “writers.” These stories and my curiosity about how writing helps to create change and resolve psychological issues and trauma, eventually led to my first book Becoming Whole—Writing Your Healing Story. I discovered that the concept and practice of writing to heal appealed to many people. Now that I’m traditionally published, the word will go out to even more people. It’s exciting to be sharing this wonderful research about the power of writing to heal.

Q: How did you get started as a writer?

I didn’t intend to write a memoir, a book. I just wanted to capture the stories of my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, and other people in my life who had loved me or saved me. The thought of writing a book was terrifying. I knew stories of 19^th Century life from my great-grandmother, and I’d heard  my grandmother’s stories and knew only a little about my mother’s. I spent time writing fictionalized stories about them, until one day a mentor said that I should be writing my own story. I nearly fainted. What—expose myself like that? I’d been taught that children should be seen and not heard, and not to air the family laundry! So it took a long time to find myself and give myself permission to write my own story.

I’d first begun my autobiographical stories through painting and etching, then moved into poetry and prose. I realized that the deeper story was falling through the cracks of the other art forms, and prose integrated the things that were not being said. I wrote my memoir by focusing on the individual stories and chapters. My inner critic was pretty vicious, so quite a few times I stopped writing, trying to give it up, but, the darn book idea would chase me and refused to leave me alone. Finally, I faced the demands the book was making on me, and got brave enough to finish it! It was very healing for me to complete it and finally have it published. It completed my healing process.

Q: How did you land your book deal?

My first two books—Becoming Whole and my memoir Don’t Call Me Mother were self-published. Two friendS and I created a publishing company, and determined to create books that people would respect. We learned about the publishing business, marketing, and distribution. I hired people to edit my books, investing quite a lot of money for this step, as I wanted to create high quality books; I hired design and layout people to help the books come into full flower. I belonged to a self-publishing group and a forum, where I continued to learn more about the publishing business.

Last year, thanks to my continued work in the writing as healing area, and founding The National Association of Memoir Writers, an agent took an interest in Becoming Whole and wanted the ideas in it developed and published. So I wrote The Power of Memoir and it’s now published through Jossey-Bass publishers! I’m thrilled to have an agent and a publisher after all those years of doing it on my own. However, it’s useful for authors to understand how the publishing business works. All authors need to understand how their book fits into the book world so they can have realistic expectations about what happens when looking to be published and afterward. It’s a long journey that involves hard work, but I enjoyed it all. It helped me when my book was published by a large publisher to be aware of how to behave and respond to the demands of an editor, the publicity department, and other people involved in a publishing company. Publishing is a business and writers need to understand that.

Q: What is your writing process?

I have two ways to approach writing—one is the inspirational one, where I tune into what is arising in me, the ideas that beg for me to write them down. I grab my journal, an envelope, or scrap of paper to capture them! Ideas can come from anywhere at any time, and as creative artists, we need to be alert to all the possibilities. Some people audio tape their ideas while driving.

The other method is to sit down and focus my mind on writing. This does not mean the idea comes out the way I was thinking about it, but it is a draft, a place to start. An author said at one of the book readings I attended that we do not have anything to react to, nothing to develop until we have our first words on the page. I used to get stuck, feeling that each precious word had to lead somewhere meaningful and important. Once I relaxed that expectation, I found myself being even more creative. I could let go and be freer in my creative process.

Now, I totally believe in being okay with the “bad first draft” concept. When we are too concerned about every word, and edit before we even know the flow of our ideas, we block the flow of creativity. We need to discover what methods work for us. I’m used to being in tune with the creative flow thanks to my background in music and art. I also wrote poetry for several years. Journaling can also lead to useful pieces that can be edited and entered into the computer as a whole new idea or story. There are so many ways to write!

As I mentioned in the previous question, I do use an editor along the way. I have a friend who’s an editor and I’m part of a writing group that meets once a month. Each person offers different kinds of feedback, but having the group helps with deadlines.

Q:  Are you working on your next project and can you tell us about it?

I’m putting together ideas for a book that will help young adults write a memoir. My agent has created a wonderful organization called “Capitol City Young Writers” that presents programs for young people to help them learn about writing and give them a head start. A long time ago, I worked I with families in crisis, and I enjoyed working with the youth in those families. I found them to be creative, awake, and turned on by life, and they were the ones who saw beyond the myths of family, something I discuss in The Power of Memoir. Young people already have lots of stories. Even a ten year old has stories. I hope to offer a foundation of ideas and skill that will encourage young writers.

And I have written a novel about World War II called Secret Music. I took the basic emotional truths from my own life and interwove them into characters and situations that interested me. In this case I wanted to learn more about the Kindertransport children, the 10,000 children who were rescued from Germany and Czechoslovakia in 1938-39 and sent to England. I’d always been interested in that era, so I enjoyed the research in the library, online and in Germany and England. It’s good to love what you are writing about, as writing a novel takes a long time. It’s different from memoir, in that you don’t know the plot yet! When the young adult book is done, we’ll see about getting Secret Music into the world.

BOOK GIVEAWAY:

Leave a question for Linda Joy in the comments section (by 5:00pm Friday, April 2nd) for a chance to win a free copy of her latest book The Power of Memoir. The winner will be selected by random.org.

Dana Lynn Smith, the Savvy Book Marketer, is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer series of books for authors and publishers. She has 15 years of publishing experience and a degree in marketing.

Q: Tell us about your latest book The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide To Successful Social Marketing.

I write and publish a series of books to help authors and independent publishers learn how to promote their books effectively. My books focus on specific how-to details in addition to book marketing strategy. In March, I released a revised edition of The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Successful Social Marketing, incorporating some recent changes in Facebook and Twitter.

Q: Why did you pursue self-publishing?

I have independently published all of my books as ebooks in PDF format. Most of my books are about online marketing, so this format allows me to include lots of screen shots and to make updates as necessary. I am also able to spin off sections of my longer books into separate, shorter ebooks.

Ebooks are easier and less expensive to produce and have a higher profit margin, which is important because I am publishing a series of books on niche topics. They are also more environmentally friendly. The downside of ebooks is that they aren’t available in retail bookstores or for back-of-the-room sales, and some people think an ebook doesn’t have the same prestige as a printed book.

Q: What is your writing process?

When writing a book, I start with a list the topics that I want to cover, then arrange them in a logical order to form the chapters for the book. I make notes about what points to cover in each chapter and then write one chapter at a time. I think it’s more efficient to get all the information down and then go back and do revisions, but I have a hard time resisting the urge to revise as I go along.

I have a lot of writing experience and some journalism training, so writing comes easily to me. The hard part is finding time to do it! I have tried setting aside an hour a day to work on my books, but that doesn’t work very well for me. I find that I’m more productive if I can devote larger blocks of time so that I can really get my head into the project. I think it’s important for authors to figure out what writing method and time of day is the best fit for them personally.

Q: What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

The first priority is to have a clear vision of what you hope to accomplish with your book and exactly who the target audience is. Understanding the characteristics of your audience helps you tailor the book to their needs.

As soon as you decide to write a book, start working to build or enhance your expert reputation and following. Ideally, by the time your book is published, you should have a following on online networks, contacts with influencers and bloggers in your field, and a good list of opt-in subscribers for your mailing list.

It’s important to invest some time (or hire a consultant) to gain an understanding of the publishing industry so that you can make intelligent decisions on how best to publish and sell your book.

If you aren’t an experienced writer or don’t have time due to the demands of your business, get help from a writing coach or ghostwriter. If you are submitting proposals to agents or publishers, learn the proper format and what these folks are looking for in a proposal. If you are publishing independently, be sure to have your book edited by a professional book editor.

Q: Are you working on your next project and can you tell us about it?

I’m working on my fourth book right now:  The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Blogging for Authors. It’s designed to help authors plan for a successful blog, choose the best blogging platform, write great content, and promote their blog. I’m a big fan of blog-based websites, so the book will also explain how to create an author website using a blogging platform.

YOUR TURN: Leave your comments and questions for Dana in the comments section.

Here’s how you can connect with Dana:

Book website: www.SavvyBookMarketer.com

Blog: www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com

Twitter: @BookMarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DanaLynnSmith