Impact. That’s what you want to achieve with your nonfiction writing projects. I don’t care if you write an essay, a blog post, an article, or a nonfiction book. If your work doesn’t positively or meaningfully impact your ideal readers, those people in your target market, that piece of nonfiction writing fails to do its job. You fail to do…
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For years I kept a journal. I wrote in it religiously. In fact, I still have many of those journals on a shelf in the closet of my office. I would sit down in the morning and, as part of my morning routine, after exercise and meditation, I’d write in my journal. I also tried doing this as Julia Cameron’s…
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Humans have had an inclination to write down their experiences almost since the beginning of time, it seems. We’ve kept diaries and journals, writing in them regularly, mostly for our own purposes and doing so, for the most part, with the express intention of keeping them private. The advent of the Internet Age, however, changed that. Suddenly it became possibly…
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By Helen Sedwick (@HelenSedwick) Today lawyer Helen Sedwick cautions writers about using self-publishing service companies, also known as subsidy publishers. Writing a book is a romantic adventure complete with hope, excitement, anxiety, and frustration. Perhaps that’s why writers are so vulnerable to cads promising literary fame and fortune. Specifically, I am talking about self-publishing service companies such as Author Solutions…
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Most writers I know compose a proposal for a nonfiction book for one reason and one reason only: to sell that project to a publisher. They want to become traditionally published authors. That’s not the real reason you should want to put together a nonfiction book proposal. Write a proposal because you want to prove, first, to yourself and, second,…
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The foundation for all author promotion and platform building revolves around an author website. Today, however, you only need a blog because this type of content management system serves all your website needs and it’s easily managed by most writers once designed and “live.” Yet, your author website must work for you; it must accomplish your goals. If it does…
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If you are like most aspiring authors, you see you work from a biased perspective. Maybe you hired an editor for a more objective viewpoint on your manuscript. However, the most important perspective from which to see a book idea—and even yourself—is through the eyes of an acquisitions editor. If you seek a traditional publisher for your book, an acquisitions…
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By Frances Caballo (@CaballoFrances) As writers, we grow attached to the paragraphs of text we create. But do you know what draws the eye to a page more than the lines of black text we write? Images. Pictures of sandy beaches, fields of red poppies, or a rising full moon will trump our words any day, regardless of how beautifully…
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If you want to publish your work, you must know your readers. Whether you write articles, essays, blogs, or books, this first step, called a market analysis, is essential to your success. Without it, you might produce work that attracts totally different readers than you expect or no readers at all. Skip this analysis and you might find it difficult…
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