Punctuation is weird. I know. That doesn’t make it unimportant, though. As an entrepreneur, why should you care? Because good punctuation helps with clarity. And whether you’re writing for your business blog, your email newsletter, or your book, clarity is obviously important.
Read MoreIn an ideal world, anyone writing a book would have uninterrupted time, a beautiful space to write, and flowing ideas to make the most of your time. But you and I don’t live in an ideal world, do we? You might not have a dedicated writing space, but I can help with the other two.
Read MoreProofreading is not the same as copy editing, as far as the type of work being done as well as when the work is being done. Proofreading is done after a book has been typeset; copy editing is done before a book has been typeset.
Read MoreWriting 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.
Read MoreRepurposing is a buzzword in the online marketing and online business world these days. Create something once and use it over and over again. Makes sense, right? Bloggers often ask me if there’s any way to repurpose content from a blog into a book — and if so, how to do so. The short answer is YES! Chances are, you won’t have everything you need in blog post form, but I bet you’ll be surprised by how much you DO have once you take inventory. Here are some ideas to get the wheels turning.
Read MoreWriting is like a muscle. Use it or lose it! That means you need to write regularly to decrease the chances of facing such a block. Establishing a regular writing routine and practicing your craft regularly (preferably daily) is so important to good writing.
Read MoreIf 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.
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