Write Nonfiction NOW!

What Does Publishing Success Look Like to You?

Quite often I speak with my clients and to audiences about successful books. I have to remember that every author has a different idea of success. For some, success means having a book become an Amazon best seller or a New York Times Best seller. For others, it means selling more than the average number [...]

Focusing Your Memoir…or Any Book

Yesterday I was working with a client on focusing her memoir. To me the beginning middle and end of her story seemed so clear. The symbolism was all there, even in her title, and it carried all the way through. She couldn’t see it. That’s why I ask my clients to take the time to [...]

Are You a One Book Author?

Some of the best-selling authors on Smashwords.com are multiple-book authors. As Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, says, they write a good book, and then they write another good book. They also give away a good book for free. Recently I connected with a women on LinkedIn. I didn’t realize she and I had graduated from [...]

Does Your Book Have a Message or a Purpose?

Before you begin writing your book, short book or booklet, blogged book, or e-book–any type of book–you must know why you are writing it. If you don’t know that, your reader won’t know why they should read it. A book should have a purpose, a reason to exist. Often this rises out of the message [...]

How to Guarantee You Write a Successful Book

As the number of books published each year increases, the number of people who buy them decreases. The average nonfiction book sells less than 250 copies per year and less than 3,000 copies over its lifetime. Yet, millions of aspiring nonfiction authors continue to dream of self-publishing or traditionally publishing a nonfiction book. If you [...]

9 Ways to Make Sure Your Nonfiction Book Succeeds

Today…a commercial break. Here’s a plug for a workshop I’m giving in the N. CA Bay Area. I hope some of you can attend. There is still room and you can pay at the door. If you are a California Writers Club member, it’s a real deal! This will also give you a taste of [...]

Going Through the Proposal Process: The Overview

One of the most useful sections of a book proposal is found in the first section, or Introduction. The Overview is exactly what it name implies, an overview of the book itself. And to write an overview, the aspiring author must know exactly what will lie within the pages of the book he or she [...]

Birthing Your Book

Many people feel pregnant with a book. Giving birth to that book doesn’t have to take years. You can give birth quickly, easily and effortlessly—in nine months or so (sometimes even less)—if you do your publishing pregnancy exercises diligently and conscientiously start to finish. Going through the early “stages” of a book pregnancy mimics the [...]

Do You Know What Your Book Is About or If It's Viable?

I once was told, “If you can’t write the subject of your book on the back of a business card, then you don’t know what you’re writing about.” So, try this simple test. Take a business card and turn it over, or cut out a piece of paper the size of a business card (2” [...]

Why You Shouldn't–or Should–Blog a Book

I came across an interesting blog post not long ago and bookmarked it. If you are considering blogging a book, you might want to read it–just to get a different perspective than mine, since I’m a big advocate of blogging books.  If you didn’t know this, check out my other blog, How to Blog a [...]