As Bly points out, Dan Poynter teaches that you can write as an expert or as a journalist. Writing as an expert gives you more credibility and a much better chance of being published.

What is your expertise? What do you know that others (potential readers!) need to know?

Sometimes talking through the possibilities with a coach brings new possibilities to light. Contact me if you’d like to learn more about scheduling a brainstorming session.

Meanwhile, read Bly’s list of 10 sources for book ideas and write down everything you can think of that could possibly be a topic for YOUR book. You may be amazed at what you come up with!

After 4 days of learning more about publishing and marketing books and networking with authors and publishers, I’ll have a day and a half to explore the city. I plan to stop by the Strand Bookstore to browse their 18 miles of books. What a delightful opportunity for writers and readers!

I’ll be sure to share highlights of the events with you. Meanwhile, get busy writing!

The article is long, but worth reading for a behind-the-scenes look at some of the realities of publishing and bookselling today.

Best quote: “Publishing exists in a continual state of forecasting its own demise; at one major house, there is a running joke that the second book published on the Gutenberg press was about the death of the publishing business.”

To paraphrase William Faulkner, I decline to accept the end of publishing. I believe the book will endure…because readers endure.

(Note: if you buy the book directly from author Shel Horowitz, you’ll get some great bonuses! Tell Shel I sent you.)

Be sure to check out John Kremer’s excellent site as well.

Buy these books. Put one on your desk or nightstand and read a few pages every day. Pick one action item to implement every day.

Now get back to writing that book!

Check out the Great Books Week Blog Tour for readers’ stories of how books have affected their lives.

As a writer, how do you hope to impact your readers? Do you write to inform, instruct, inspire, educate, entertain, encourage, motivate, or some mixture of these reasons?

Lev Grossman says the key to the 21st-century novel is “the ongoing exoneration and rehabilitation of plot.” He spends a good bit of time slamming the early 20th-century Modernists for being too difficult to understand.

Does it really have to be an either/or choice between the challenging Modernist novel and the easy-to-read plot-driven novel?

I think there’s a place for both. That’s why both Faulkner and Grisham have a place on my shelves.

Take a look at the article and let me know what you think.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574377163804387216.html

We hear it all the time. But the fact is that books ARE judged by their covers. A cover can make or break a book’s sales–regardless of the content. (As a content specialist, it’s hard for me to admit that . . . but it’s true.)

Check out Jacqueline Church Simonds’ autopsy of a book cover:

http://smallpressworld.com/blog/?p=166

Very informative!

On May 28, I attended Rick Frishman’s Author 101 University in New York. I highly encourage you to attend this fantastic event next time it rolls around. Rick is hosting 3 this year.

Meanwhile, I’ll post highlights from my notes to jumpstart your thinking.

Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul series and host of Mega Book Marketing University, shared the following:

Writing helps you know you.

Oprah says 2 things made her successful:

1.         journaling every day

2.         reading 2 books a week

Being an author gives you:

1.         instant credibility (opens doors)

2.         fortune (defined any way you want)

3.         fame

Writing is crystallized thinking.

marketing x exposure (PR) = sales

greatest risk = greatest opportunity

Buckminster Fuller: real wealth = ideas x energy – RW = I x E

3 skills of infopreneur:

1.         find addicts / hungry fish (find an itch no one else is scratching)

2.         tap into a universal want or need

3.         create lifetime customers

Keys to your WOW (World of Wealth) factor:

1.         goosebumps

2.         happy tears

3.         weak in the knees

4.         change in perception

5.         instantaneous behavioral change (for nonfiction)

Dream team – co-author with someone who does the stuff you can’t do.

Have goals that thrill and scare you.

Set your goals as if you have unlimited time, money, and contacts.

My biggest takeaways:

“Writing is crystallized thinking.” It’s easy to think in a vague, amorphous way. Putting our thoughts into writing forces us to be clear and specific–to choose one word rather than another, to put one sentence before another. Thinking without writing and writing without thinking are both incomplete.

“Have goals that thrill and scare you.” Getting out of my comfort zone is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur, and I’ve worked to teach this to my four sons. I’m on the brink of some thrilling but scary major new projects, so this was a timely reminder.

Which of these nuggets from Mark resonates most for you?

Be sure to sign up for their Children’s Bookshelf Newsletter while you’re there.

I’ll be sharing my own reflections in the days ahead, but meanwhile, here’s a great place to get the scoop from Publishers Weekly:

http://tinyurl.com/r5a4uc