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How do you like them eyeballs? Hah! I was obviously feeling a little goofy!

I have been playing around with different banners and this one struck my fancy.

I am meditating about thinking about possibly working on my WIP, my 4th novel, which I know should’ve been finished by now.

One of these days Alice…

The post One of these days Alice appeared first on Catherine Burr, Bestselling Author.

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Book Publishing - How to Construct Your First Book for Long Term Royalties

Guest Post by By Neil Harland

First you'll have to make a list of all the topics that are of interest to you, or have expert knowledge of. There's no point in planning on a book that you are not going to be able to write about, as you'll simply lose interest and not be able to focus on getting the project complete.

Now don't go thinking you'll make a load of money from fiction books. Yes the author's of fifty shades of grey and Harry Potter may have made millions from it, but much harder for the small fry startup to achieve.

So from your list of interests, pick out the one you love the most, and if it's something you do regularly in your job, etc, then even better. Now before you can begin writing, you'll need to do loads of reading up and revision on the subject, so over to Google or get down to the local library and get stuck in. This gets the brain loaded up with all the ammunition you'll need to conquer the task of writing the book.

Even if you're outsourcing the writing part, you still need some background knowledge of the subject so the instructions you give your ghostwriter must be clear cut and thinks must be accurate if your book is to become a big hit.

So when reading up on the subject and getting ideas for your book, jot down loads of notes as you go along. And brainstorm your own ideas and ways you can make it as original as possible, as if you don't your cover will be blown and people will know it's just a re-hash of someone elses work.

Next step is to decide on chapter names. Then look over your notes and estimate how many pages you are going to have in the book. I would aim for a minimum of five to ten pages per chapter.

So in your favourite word processor, start out with your list of chapter names all in order, with bold typeface. Then you can get stuck into the writing part. And if you have a passion for the subject that won't be much of a problem, unless you're not a fast typer. In that case you should hire someone from a freelance site, just do a Google search for 'freelance ghostwriters' or 'content' or 'article' writers. You'll find some quite talented people for great price too.

Then once your chapter text has been written up, time to do the Contents table. Most word processors these days have an automated feature that will generate the list. However for ebooks, it's a good idea to link each item in the contents list with the corresponding Chapter title. This is fairly easy to do, you just use the same method as for linking to a web page, but instead link to an 'anchor' or 'section' marker point within the document.

Finally, you'll want to proof read your new masterpiece. Look out for typos, bad grammar, and of course double check any facts you've used. It would also be a good idea to have someone else read it before publishing, and get a bit of feedback too.

So at this stage you have all the text ready and checked. The cover is next, and most importantly, the book title. If your graphic design skills are good, go ahead and design your own front cover. For an ebook you can get one done quite cheaply on a freelancers hiring site. The main thing here is the title - it must read like a headline of a sales letter and attract the perosn into buying your book.

Then onto ebook formats. When they first came about, many software programs popped up that would generate an executable file as the ebook. However some devious people were implanting malicious code into them, and virus scan software would then detect the ebook as a bad file, resulting in people not opening the ebook at all. So the format I suggest for your final ebook is the cross platform PDF file format. It works on Apple Macs, iPads as well as Windows systems. You can even set opening and editing passwords to protect from fraudulent copying of your ebook.

Now for the big question. How do you set this up for ongoing royalty payments? Well, as most will know it is very hard to get your book into stores like Easons or Barnes & Noble and the like. Well the answer is Amazon. They will even print it and market it on their site for you, although they do take a fair percentage, but you don't have to lift a finger once you get up and running.

Thenk the Kindle publishing platform is even better again. You simply upload your ebook file, write a description, set your price and that's it. But you'll get paid less per sale, although chances are more units will sell than the hard copy versions.

Enjoy this article? Want more detail on each step discussed here then get over to this page on the fiverr site. You'll find out ten more ways you can profit from self publishing books, plus lots of tips for marketing your masterpiece. Click Here for Books Blueprint.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7388133

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MORE ON WRITING

Ebooks are a Must
Writing an Ebook – What’s Stopping You? Part 1 of 4 Part Series
Building an Writer’s Portfolio

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Today’s tip of the day comes from Setting and Keeping Goals, a chapter in Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. Here she discusses how to write the book you were meant to write.

If you are aware ahead of time that you may be working on a story that is not in line with who you are as a writer—say, if you’ve been contracted to write in a genre you’re unfamiliar with—then you can compensate for it not only by giving yourself more time to complete the story, but also by recognizing blocks and resistance as they come up. That way, you will understand why you feel blocked, and you can then either write the story anyway or give yourself permission to shape your storyline so it fits better with who you are as a writer. It’s called slanting your project, tweaking it a bit to get more of “you” into it. Many writers who work for hire do this. They will take any writing job they are offered, but they immediately pick through the idea and inject their own ideas and themes into it. This is what makes us unique, what adds style to our work. Knowing what projects not to become involved in, as well as what projects to pursue, is the biggest key to a fabulous writing career.

Do you think Nora Roberts and Barbara Cartland would have been so prolific if they wrote in a vastly different genre and topic area? Most likely, they would have slanted any book they wrote into the mold of who they were as writers. This is why you can take any story idea, give it to ten different writers, and get back ten different versions of it! Who you are as a writer will always come through your work. Accept and embrace that.

Now that you know who you are as a writer and what is important to you, take that information and turn it into an overall career goal in first or third person. For example:

• I want to write X stories with Y and Z. (I want write sensual stories with suspense and intrigue.)
• X and Y are what writer Z is all about. (Spunky heroines and slapstick comedy are what writer Jack Doe is all about.)

Does any of this sound familiar? It should! You have all been told that you need to boil your ideas down into a one-sentence pitch. Well, this is the one-sentence pitch of yourself. It is just as important to pitch
yourself as it is to pitch your story. You don’t want to be a one-hit wonder. Pitching yourself tells people about your career; pitching your book just tells them about that one book.

Now you try writing a one sentence pitch.

If Jack Doe is hired to write a horror novel, he can create a spunky heroine with one or two slapstick moments and make the story his own.  He won’t struggle as much in the beginning to write this horror book because he knows what he likes to write about. He knows what will make this an enjoyable experience for him. Can you imagine how he might struggle if he couldn’t put his finger on what he didn’t like about this horror project? Instead, he can jump right in with suggestions and ideas for the publisher. (Remember, this statement about who you are as a writ

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The old adage, "if you want to stay healthy, expand your mind and try something new," is not only good advice, but can be fun as well. I ventured out of my comfort zone and took a two hour class on video game making. What a hoot! No wonder the young people of today are so addicted to their electronic toys.

The instructor is a high school teacher who teaches marketing and business classes. She pretty much ditched her books and turned her classes into real life situations in order for kids to apply what she teaches. Our video class was a watered down version of her class, but I came away with a better understanding of what makes a video game.

Guess what I discovered? Video making is not much different than book writing. Layer after layer is applied to the concept - whatever concept one has in mind. Miss Jenny kept saying, "in the event ..." and she would further explain we first had to build a room for the action to take place. Easy concept indeed. "In the event ..." something might happen, action and reaction concepts were explained. Individually we built a room, we clothed our sprites, which are little objects running around the screen or room created. My sprites were pieces of fruit and I decided how fast they would move, what would happen if they bumped into the wall or another bit of fruit. I had control, I made what was happening on the screen happen!

We added sounds, color, background, all tools we use in writing. Unfortunately, there was no scents to add, probably a good thing. But someday, somewhere, a gamer will realize one of our strongest senses, the sense of smell, is not being utilized in video games and a new revolution in gaming will begin.

I compared my video game building right up there with my basket weaving experience. It takes time to create something someone else might be interested in. Writing books is not easy and deserves our time and effort to get it just right as well.

I feel rather proud I succeeded in finishing my video game. I'm sure professionals would laugh at my attempt, but I also learned to appreciate a new venue. Right now, I'm wondering how to build another room. If I was writing a story, I would simply create the condept of another room, but in video making, "In the event..." my objects want to leave and enter another realm has me stumped.

But I'm learning ...

Til next time ~

DL Larson

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It's guest post Wednesday, and today I have an article by Suzanne Lieurance. Aside from being a multi-published author and freelance writer, Suzanne is a writing coach and instructor. Her programs encompass writing for children, freelance writing, and the marketing aspects of writing.

3 Reasons Why Most People Who Say They Want to Write a Book Will Never Write One

By Suzanne Lieurance

Almost everyone has dreams of writing a book some day. Yet, for most people this will never become more than a dream. And thousands of others who do manage to START writing their book will give up midway through and never finish writing it. As a published author and a writing coach, I've discovered there are basically 3 reasons most writers give up on their dream of one day writing a book:

1. Wanna be authors think their book has to be one of the best books ever written.

This is a lot of pressure for any writer, much less a first time author. No one could measure up to this, so it's safer and easier to give up before ever starting. But the truth is, published authors simply try to write the very best book they can write. They don't worry about it being one of the best books ever written.

2. Wanna be authors figure they really don't have anything new and different to say that hasn't already been written about before in other books.

That old saying, "there is nothing new under the sun" is true. So published authors don't worry that someone else may have written a book about the same topic they wish to write about. Instead, they try to give their book a unique "spin" on the topic. That means they write about it in a somewhat unique way.

3. Wanna be authors think writing should be easy. If it isn't, that means they weren't meant to be a writer. When they start writing, and the writing becomes difficult, they figure they must not be cut out to be an author.

Writing is a craft and it is often just plain hard work even for the best of writers. In fact, good writing is usually good rewriting, so most of the well-known authors work hard at their writing. They write, then rewrite and rewrite until they get the work just right. If they stopped when the writing got difficult, they'd never publish anything either. As you can probably tell by now, each of these 3 reasons for giving up on writing a book is merely an excuse for not following through on a dream.

If you dream of writing a book someday, don't expect to write one of the best books ever written. Don't worry that you have nothing new to say. Just try to say it in a new way. And, most importantly, don't expect the writing to be so easy that there's nothing to it. Just keep plugging along and eventually you'll have a finished manuscript you can be proud of.
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For daily tips to help you start and finish writing your book, for weekly audio tips, along with a jam packed writing resource site, join the Write More, Sell More, Make More Money Than EVER in 2010 Coaching Program.


Suzanne Lieurance is a fulltime freelance writer, the author of 22 (at last count) published books, and the Working Writer's Coach. She is also the coach at the Children's Writers' Coaching Club.

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Other articles you may find of interest:

Determination, Focus, and Perseverance





Aim for Writing Success

Ingredients for a Perfect Picture Book

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Great Writing Tools:

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