Copyright and Permissions for Author-Entrepreneurs

As an author, you are expected to obey copyright law and obtain permissions as needed for your book. What does that mean, exactly? Just as you hold the copyright to your work, others hold their copyright. The exception to this is when a work is in the public domain, meaning most likely that the author of the work has died and copyright has expired. The term of copyright is defined as the life of the author plus 70 years. What do you need to know to keep yourself on the right side of copyright law?

WritingAllieDanae WalkerFebruary 17, 2021Book Writing, Writing Tips, Writing ProcessComment

Plan Now to Write a Book in 2021

As business owners think about their “big rocks” for a year or a quarter, writing a book often comes up. This makes sense, as writing a book isn’t a small goal that can be completed as quickly as, say, planning a webinar or crafting a quarterly content plan. If writing a book to serve your business this year is on your radar, here are your first steps

WritingAllieDanae WalkerJanuary 6, 2021Book Writing, Writing Process, Publication PlanComment

Book Copyright 101

Imagine this: You’re scrolling the internet one afternoon and you read something that resonates with you. Those words seem so . . . familiar. When you reread the paragraph, you realize you have heard those words before. In fact, they’re your words. You’ve been plagiarized.

Before we dive into specifics, a quick disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, so this post does not constitute legal advice. I don’t pretend to know everything about copyright law. I do, however, know some basics that every book author should know.

PublishingJodi BrandonJune 6, 2019Self-Publishing, Book Writing Comment

3 Tips to Get Your First Draft Written

There’s a lot to manage when it comes to writing and publishing a book. Breaking down the process into stages is helpful in preventing overwhelm — AND allows you to check items off the list as you move your book project forward. We all love checking off completed tasks, am I right?

WritingJodi BrandonJanuary 23, 2018Book Writing, Writing Tips, Writing ProcessComment

Your Book Might Need (but You Probably Forgot) These 3 Things

In my 20+ years in book publishing, I’ve never seen an author forget the table of contents. I have, however, seen these three elements of a book forgotten more times than I can count. You might not want or need any of these, but if you do, make sure you don’t leave it (or them) out!

WritingJodi BrandonOctober 27, 2017Book Writing Comments

Making Space in Your Life to Write a Book

Most creative entrepreneurs and bloggers don’t challenge the idea that writing a book could help their business growth. They know that a book can bring credibility, visibility, and authority; a book is almost like a business card as you establish and grow your platform as an entrepreneur. Finding the time to not just write but also learning the ins and outs of book publishing are usually the sticking points that cause them to hesitate. “I’ll write a book someday” is something I hear often. I won’t lie: Committing to writing a book is huge. The process can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be if you make space for it in your life and in your business beforehand.

All told, I recommend allowing four to six months to research, write, and publish your book comfortably. Can you do it in less time? Sure. But that pace will be a bit frenetic at times, and you might not always be producing your best work. Not all of this blocked time requires you to be actively working on the book. There will be chunks of time when the manuscript is with an editor or formatter, for example. (You thought I meant you’d be writing for six months, didn’t you? You can admit it.)

Still not convinced? Let me show you how it’s possible.

WritingJodi BrandonOctober 24, 2017Book Writing, Writing Tips, Writing ProcessComment

Why I Don't Recommend Writing a Book in 30 Days

Writing a book in a short time frame — whether it’s 30 days, six weeks, whatever — is about quantity over quality. It’s about putting your head down and getting words on paper. Is it possible? Sure. Is it a great idea? Not so much, in my opinion. You’re interested in quality over quantity.

Please don’t misunderstand: Can you write a FIRST DRAFT in 30 days that you’ll then spend at least that amount of time revising and improving? Absolutely. But writing a draft in 30 days and then putting that book into production (that is, having it edited and formatted) is almost impossible if you’re publishing a high-quality book.

WritingJodi BrandonOctober 17, 2017Writing Process, writing tips, Book WritingComment

S.M.A.R.T. Goals and Book Writing

Surely you've heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals and why they are beneficial to your business. S.M.A.R.T. goals are:

Specific.
Measurable.
Achievable.
Relevant.
Time bound.

Let's take the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals and apply it to book writing so that your book serves your business in the way you want it to.

WritingJodi BrandonOctober 6, 2017Writing Process, Book Writing Comment

5 Things to Know Before You Start Writing Your Book

If you've been following the blog this month, you've seen me refer to my master checklist of self-publishing to-dos. You can grab that here. Writing obviously precedes publishing, but there are tasks that need to be done even before you sit down to type (or write, if you’re old school) the first word of your manuscript.

Back to that checklist for a moment: If you read the blog post that accompanies it, I talk about pockets of time. There are times during the publishing AND during the writing processes during which you’ll have pockets of time to move the big-picture process forward. Knowing when these are coming can be helpful.

WritingJodi BrandonSeptember 29, 2017Writing Process, writing tips, Book Writing, Publishing PlanComment

Working with a Book Writing Coach

Editing has been, for my entire career, my bread and butter. However, I received so many requests to enter the writing process earlier over the last few years that I added coaching to my services in addition to editing. When you hire a copy editor, your manuscript is written. You can still make big changes to its structure, but that’s often easier to do before or during writing. Or what if you want someone to help you flesh out the contents before you start writing? Or what if you need help defining your goals for writing a book to make sure that your writing supports said goal (or goals)? Or what if you need help knowing how to approach beta readers and obtain reviews? Maybe you need help with all of that, or maybe just one or two or those things. Enter a book writing coach.

WritingJodi BrandonAugust 15, 2017Writing Process, Book Writing, EditingComment

Resource Roundup: Book Publishing Posts

MiscellaneousJodi BrandonAugust 8, 2017Book Writing, Editing, Book Design, Self-PublishingComment

Creating a Writing Habit

Let’s call a spade, a spade: A book is A LOT of words. Even if you, say, blog a couple times a week, a couple thousand words at a time, you're producing 5,000 or so words a week. A book, on the other hand, is tens of thousands of words. In other words, it’s a lot more words than you’re used to writing. That said, you’re producing 5K words per week (good for you!), so you’re in good shape to build a daily writing habit. It doesn’t matter WHAT you’re writing. It just matters that you ARE writing.

WritingJodi BrandonFebruary 15, 2017Writing Tips, Book WritingComment

Plan Now to Write a Book in 2017

WritingJodi BrandonJanuary 11, 2017Book Writing, Writing TipsComment

The Importance of a Writing Routine

WritingJodi BrandonJuly 6, 2016Book Writing, Writing TipsComment

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