The Writing Edge for Business Writers: 1/8/16

Jan 8, 2016 | Better Writing

You’re a businessperson. You may not think of yourself as a writer, but you know that writing well can boost your results and your career. Naturally, you want to do better. Every week I point you to articles and blog posts that I think will teach you something or spark an idea or two. Some weeks there are more pointers than others.

This week I’m pointing you to pieces on marketing your book and writing a book fast.

From Frances Caballo: Book Marketing Tips from Author Helen Sedwick

“Today I interview Helen Sedwick, author of Self-Publisher’s Legal Handbook: The Step-by-Step Guide to the Legal Issues of Self-Publishing. Her book has attracted 77 reviews on Amazon. Eighty-six percent of those reviews give her a five-star rating and the rest of the reviewers give her four stars. Yes, she doesn’t have a single review that criticizes her book, which is amazing. Here is how Helen, soon after publishing this legal handbook, landed guest writing posts for Joel Friedlander and Jane Friedman and began selling plenty of books.”

From Brandon Turner: A Simple 4-Step Process for Writing Your First Book in 100 Days

“But I’m not talking about just any old outline. I don’t care about just your chapter titles. Or your ‘flow.’ I wanna know everything about your book in excrutiating detail. Every chapter. Every subchapter. Every point you plan on making. Jot it all down. Summarize each and every subchapter. This is going to take some time. But, trust me: Every minute you spend outlining is an hour you save writing.”

Wally’s Comment: I don’t like posts and articles that imply that writing a book is easy or quick. This post doesn’t do that. Read it to get a sense of what kind of planning and preparation sets up a straight-through write.

Sources I Check Regularly

I find the posts and articles that I share with you on The Writing Edge in many places. But there are a few that provide insightful pieces again and again. Here they are.

Digital Book World

Frances Caballo

jeffbullas.com

Joel Friedlander

Joanna Penn

Men with Pens

Merce Cardus

Problogger

Becky Robinson’s Weaving Influence