(Welcome to guest blogger Rita Lewis, my editor extraordinaire!) It’s spring! It’s what you’ve all been waiting for… National Poetry Month! I can hear the eyerolling now. Nonfiction writers who want to change the world may find poetry a bit… irrelevant. Rhyme? Compressed language? Alliteration? Poetry can be all that—but so much more. It requires […]
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Print vs Digital: Three Strategic Reasons to Publish Paper Books
I love books. I have shelves and shelves of books in the basement—not to mention assorted “pretty” books on display in the living room and stacks and stacks of to-be-read books in my office. Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to get rid of them and read everything on Kindle. And then I […]
Revision: You Mean I Don’t Have to Get It Right the First Time?
When I first said, “I want to be a writer,” I took oodles of creative writing classes that incorporated “workshopping,” a process in which each student shares a draft and the group critiques it. After all the students had offered feedback, the instructor invariably would say, “I think your story starts on page three; cut […]
Opportunity Cost: What’s the Trade-off for Your Book?
“You have one dollar,” our teacher said. “You can spend it on a comic book or on candy—but not both.” She let us think about our choice. “If you choose candy, you can’t have the comic book. And if you choose the comic book, no candy. Whichever item you don’t choose is your ‘opportunity cost.’” […]
Trouble Getting That First Draft on the Page? Speak Your Book
When new acquaintances learn that I help business professionals write books, they often remark, “I have so many good ideas, but when I sit down to write, they just don’t come out the way I want them to!” After asking a few questions, I often suggest that instead of writing their initial content, they speak […]