The writers world has undergone a revolution in the last decade. With 30 million bloggers (in the US alone), many of whom consider themselves to be writers, blogging has brought the fiercest competition to the writing profession, but it is also something that a good writer, with a little guidance, can turn fully to their advantage. Blogging for Writers shows you how. Opening the door on this exciting world, it profiles the best and most imaginative writer-driven blogs and details how you can start your own blog and see it flourish. From which platform to use (Blogger, WordPress, etc) to setting up the perfect blog; from layout and design to getting the tone right; from social networking and getting noticed to finding a readership and liaising with publishers, Blogging for Writers lays out the fundamentals and then digs deeper, advising how to make your blog and your skills stand out from the pack and, essentially, bring the customers your way.
Transform Your Blog into a Book! The world of blogging changes rapidly, but it remains one of the most efficient ways to share your work with an eager audience. In fact, you can purposefully hone your blog content into a uniquely positioned book--one that agents and publishers will want to acquire or that you can self-publish successfully. How to Blog a Book Revised and Expanded Edition is a completely updated guide to writing and publishing a saleable book based on a blog. Expert author and blogger Nina Amir guides you through the process of developing targeted blog content that increases your chances of attracting a publisher and maximizing your visibility and authority as an author. In this revised edition you'll find: • The latest information on how to set up, maintain, and optimize a blog • Steps for writing a book easily using blog posts • Advice for crafting effective, compelling blog posts • Tips on gaining visibility and promoting your work both online and off • Current tools for driving traffic to your blog • Strategies for monetizing your existing blog content as a book or other products • Profiles of bloggers who received blog-to-book deals and four new "blogged-book" success stories Whether you're a seasoned blogger or have never blogged before, How to Blog a Book Revised and Expanded Edition offers a fun, effective way to write, publish, and promote your book, one post at a time.
Each year writers and editors submit over three thousand grammar and style questions to the Q&A page at The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Some are arcane, some simply hilarious—and one editor, Carol Fisher Saller, reads every single one of them. All too often she notes a classic author-editor standoff, wherein both parties refuse to compromise on the "rights" and "wrongs" of prose styling: "This author is giving me a fit." "I wish that I could just DEMAND the use of the serial comma at all times." "My author wants his preface to come at the end of the book. This just seems ridiculous to me. I mean, it’s not a post-face." In The Subversive Copy Editor, Saller casts aside this adversarial view and suggests new strategies for keeping the peace. Emphasizing habits of carefulness, transparency, and flexibility, she shows copy editors how to build an environment of trust and cooperation. One chapter takes on the difficult author; another speaks to writers themselves. Throughout, the focus is on serving the reader, even if it means breaking "rules" along the way. Saller’s own foibles and misadventures provide ample material: "I mess up all the time," she confesses. "It’s how I know things." Writers, Saller acknowledges, are only half the challenge, as copy editors can also make trouble for themselves. (Does any other book have an index entry that says "terrorists. See copy editors"?) The book includes helpful sections on e-mail etiquette, work-flow management, prioritizing, and organizing computer files. One chapter even addresses the special concerns of freelance editors. Saller’s emphasis on negotiation and flexibility will surprise many copy editors who have absorbed, along with the dos and don’ts of their stylebooks, an attitude that their way is the right way. In encouraging copy editors to banish their ignorance and disorganization, insecurities and compulsions, the Chicago Q&A presents itself as a kind of alter ego to the comparatively staid Manual of Style. In The Subversive Copy Editor, Saller continues her mission with audacity and good humor.
A step-by-step guide to crafting a compelling scholarly book proposal—and seeing your book through to successful publication The scholarly book proposal may be academia’s most mysterious genre. You have to write one to get published, but most scholars receive no training on how to do so—and you may have never even seen a proposal before you’re expected to produce your own. The Book Proposal Book cuts through the mystery and guides prospective authors step by step through the process of crafting a compelling proposal and pitching it to university presses and other academic publishers. Laura Portwood-Stacer, an experienced developmental editor and publishing consultant for academic authors, shows how to select the right presses to target, identify audiences and competing titles, and write a project description that will grab the attention of editors—breaking the entire process into discrete, manageable tasks. The book features over fifty time-tested tips to make your proposal stand out; sample prospectuses, a letter of inquiry, and a response to reader reports from real authors; optional worksheets and checklists; answers to dozens of the most common questions about the scholarly publishing process; and much, much more. Whether you’re hoping to publish your first book or you’re a seasoned author with an unfinished proposal languishing on your hard drive, The Book Proposal Book provides honest, empathetic, and invaluable advice on how to overcome common sticking points and get your book published. It also shows why, far from being merely a hurdle to clear, a well-conceived proposal can help lead to an outstanding book.
"These are the rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story."—Elmore Leonard For aspiring writers and lovers of the written word, this concise guide breaks down the writing process with simplicity and clarity. From adjectives and exclamation points to dialect and hoopetedoodle, Elmore Leonard explains what to avoid, what to aspire to, and what to do when it sounds like "writing" (rewrite). Beautifully designed, filled with free-flowing, elegant illustrations and specially priced, Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing is the perfect writer's—and reader's—gift.
Once upon a time a jealous girl stole a magical artifact from a museum to eliminate her competition. In the Rocky Mountains, a man studies a woman raised by wolves, but soon watching won't be enough. Tonight, you might find yourself in a fairy tale of your own. Will you answer magic's call?
Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford shares his secrets for creating killer plots, fleshing out your first ideas, crafting compelling characters, and staying sane in the process. Read the guide that New York Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs called "The best how-to-write-a-novel book I've read."
“Extraordinary and wide-ranging . . . a literary feat that simultaneously builds and excavates identity.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club Pick • Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize • An acclaimed writer goes searching for the truth about her complicated Southern family—and finds that our obsession with ancestors opens up new ways of seeing ourselves—in this “brilliant mix of personal memoir and cultural observation” (The Boston Globe). ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, NPR, Time, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Esquire, Garden & Gun Maud Newton’s ancestors have fascinated her since she was a girl. Her mother’s father was said to have married thirteen times. Her mother’s grandfather killed a man with a hay hook. Mental illness and religious fanaticism percolated Maud’s maternal lines back to an ancestor accused of being a witch in Puritan-era Massachusetts. Newton’s family inspired in her a desire to understand family patterns: what we are destined to replicate and what we can leave behind. She set out to research her genealogy—her grandfather’s marriages, the accused witch, her ancestors’ roles in slavery and other harms. Her journey took her into the realms of genetics, epigenetics, and debates over intergenerational trauma. She mulled over modernity’s dismissal of ancestors along with psychoanalytic and spiritual traditions that center them. Searching and inspiring, Ancestor Trouble is one writer’s attempt to use genealogy—a once-niche hobby that has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry—to make peace with the secrets and contradictions of her family's past and face its reverberations in the present, and to argue for the transformational possibilities that reckoning with our ancestors offers all of us.
Learn how to take your work to the next level with this informative guide on the craft, business, and lifestyle of writing With warmth and humor, Paulette Perhach welcomes you into the writer’s life as someone who has once been on the outside looking in. Like a freshman orientation for writers, this book includes an in-depth exploration of all the elements of being a writer—from your writing practice to your reading practice, from your writing craft to the all-important and often-overlooked business of writing. In Welcome to the Writer’s Life, you will learn how to tap into the powers of crowdsourcing and social media to grow your writing career. Perhach also unpacks the latest research on success, gamification, and lifestyle design, demonstrating how you can use these findings to further improve your writing projects. Complete with exercises, tools, checklists, infographics, and behind-the-scenes tips from working writers of all types, this book offers everything you need to jump-start a successful writing life.
"I own every writing book ever written, and Linda Sivertsen has done the near-impossible: given writing itself a personality . . . Her stories are cinematic, hilarious, heartfelt, and pitch-perfect—with energy and punch, so often lacking in nonfiction." —Terry McMillan, #1 New York Times bestselling author "A page-turning beach read doubling as how-to. Magic." —Jenny Lawson, #1 New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and blogger at The Bloggess "An engaging manual that offers writing advice with a big, broad, sunny worldview . . . fans of Sivertsen's podcast will devour this companion volume." —Kirkus Reviews 2023 International Book Awards Winner & 2023 Firebird Book Awards "Speak Up Talk Radio" Winner Imagine you're at a dinner party with some of the most successful authors of our time. "Book Mama" and Beautiful Writers Podcast co-creator Linda Sivertsen is the host. As she shares her story of the many hilarious, outrageous, and practical things she did to launch her bestselling writing career, your favorite writers chime in with their own anecdotes, leaving you enlightened and newly inspired. The wisdom in these pages will nourish anyone who appreciates the art of storytelling and dreams of living a creative life. Beautiful Writers is a love letter to reading, writing, and everyone who reads and writes. It's the book Linda wished she had when she was starting out. In it, she shares—and expands on—the best of advice and storytelling from her podcast and follow-up interviews with literary greats, including: Terry McMillan Cheryl Strayed Tom Hanks Van Jones Jenny Lawson Steven Pressfield Elizabeth Gilbert Anne Lamott Mary Karr Seth Godin Abby Wambach Martha Beck Marie Forleo Lee Child Patricia Cornwell Dean Koontz Maria Shriver Dr. Jane Goodall Sabaa Tahir Tomi Adeyemi Ann Patchett Dani Shapiro Danielle LaPorte Tosca Lee Joy Harjo Deepak Chopra This heartwarming, how-I-made-it writing memoir from a working writer you've never heard of with inspiration and advice from the legends you love will help aspiring authors avoid common pitfalls and energize career writers with a treasure trove of writing insights from their peers—the details you don't often hear but make a world of difference. Beautiful Writers is destined to become the evergreen companion for creatives everywhere, answering the burning question, "How did they bust through all obstacles to deliver, day after day, year after year, book after book?"
