So Many Book Ideas…How to Pick Just One?

When first time non-fiction book authors come to me, I find that just as often as not they suffer from too many ideas as opposed to no ideas, or only one. After years of  helping them wrangle through the process of selecting which of their ideas they should focus on for their first book, I came up with a way to look at multiple ideas and quantify their readiness.  It’s now  part of the first course I offer online in the Academy, Passion & Purpose.

It’s called the Book Idea Quiz, and It gives you a method for determining which idea will work best for you and the market, right now.  You answer the following six questions, assigning point values to each, and the tool works out which is the winning idea, and what you might need to do to make a so-so idea a winning one, if that’s the one you’re set on doing first.

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6 Ways to Gloss Over Your Fear of Public Speaking

Public speaking IS totally terrifying.
Public speaking can be terrifying.

If you suffer from Glossophobia, there’s a chance you’d rather die than speak in public. The good news is, there are lots of ways to get around this common fear. There’s no need to listen to that nasty voice in your head screaming They’re all going to laugh at you! because no one actually wants to laugh at you. And overall, being a solid speaker and delivering a quality presentation is completely within your hands. One day, Grasshopper, you will be a top contender in the World Championships of Public Speaking! (Yes. That’s a thing. Some people actually love public speaking – and the key to their success is practice!)

These 6 steps will put you on the path to success.

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Crowdfunding ABCs: G is for Goal Setting

We all know that proper goal-setting is a critical part of your crowdfunding campaign success strategy. There are a ton of great posts (like this one) on how to set goals, so I’m not going to belabor those basics.

On this subject, however, there are two concepts I’d like you to ponder in a bigger sense when you’re strategizing for your campaign.

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You Wrote a Book! Now What?!

Every 12 seconds, a new book is published (and 80% of statistics are made up on the spot). To be slightly outdated, but more accurate, in 2012 Bowker reported that there were 3,500 books published every day in the USA alone, and this figure doesn’t even include e-books. (I don’t math, so feel free to calculate the per-second volume in your own time!) Simply put: There is a ton of competition in the book marketplace. How can a new writer stand out with all this noise?

Is she your audience?
Is she your audience?
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Are You Taking Yourself Seriously as a Writer?

Remember: whether you’re writing fiction, creative non-fiction, graphic novels or a research paper on the mating habits of termites in Madagascar… (wait, whaaaaaat?!) there are some rules of the road that apply to everyone.  Today’s post comes from the co-founder of an exciting new literary venture out of Toronto, Nicole Brewer – hold onto your hats, check out her site, and when you’re done – get busy being a writer!


words(on)pages is an organization created by emerging artists for emerging artists, so that we can help writers and poets find the validation and acknowledgement that every budding writer needs to keep going. We want to give writers the opportunity to showcase their work online, in print, and in front of an audience, so that they can value themselves as much as we do. Often, the most difficult part of being an emerging writer is getting yourself noticed, so words(on)pages wants to give you a few pointers on what you can do to help get yourself out there. We may not be experts (this is an art, not a science!) but it’s been working for us.

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Manuscript Mark-Up: Are YOU a Billboard Punctuator?

A warm welcome to the first edition of Manuscript Mark-Up.

I hope we’ll have all sorts of fun together, and talk about the stuff of writing without getting our shorts in a knot. This should be a relaxing experience. (Listen to this as you read along!)

billboard

Today I’d like to discuss an editorial phenomenon I call “billboard punctuation” – that is, the incorrectly applied punctuation used mostly by novice writers who believe these props will enhance words, phrases or messages in their work.

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It’s Not Me, It’s You

A few years ago, Internet was snarking at novelist Lynn Shepherd as her featured Huffington Post blog titled, “If JK Rowling Cares About Writing, She Should Stop Doing It” made the rounds. I wrote this in reaction.

The gist of her argument is this:

“…this is my plea to JK Rowling. Remember what it was like when The Cuckoo’s Calling had only sold a few boxes and think about those of us who are stuck there, because we can’t wave a wand and turn our books into overnight bestsellers merely by saying the magic word… But it’s time to give other writers, and other writing, room to breathe.”

Everyone loves a good underdog story, right? Imagine how much better they’d be if there were no top dogs! The pool of underdogs would shrink as each competitor succeeded and then left the arena – everyone would be given the chance to win! Gold medals and awards for everyone because LIFE IS PERFECT & FAIR, & PERFECTLY FAIR!

*sigh*

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ABCs of Crowdfunding: F is for Finance First

We love to jump into new things, especially when it comes to MAKING MONEY, and crowdfunding is no exception. I’m guilty of it myself.

You can be successful (and 142,647 Kickstarter projects as of today have been to the tune of $3.6 billion!), but it isn’t a slam dunk. On average, 36% of Kickstarter campaigns succeeded, and Indiegogo’s success rate is even lower: about 34%. The reasons for campaign failures vary, but one thing you CAN bet on is that if you don’t prioritize careful financial planning in advance of your campaign, you run a high risk of not achieving your campaign goal.

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Afghanistan being rebuilt from the inside out

On April 23, 2017, I left Seattle for a vacation to Japan, a country I had always wanted to visit. Flying into Osaka, I zipped across land on the Shinkansen (the infamous Bullet Train) to Hiroshima to meet up with my long-time Canadian friend, Shona, who was teaching and mentoring for her 7th year in a program sponsored by the United Nation’s Institute for Training & Research (UNITAR), the Fellowship for Afghanistan.  I was going to sightsee, of course, but also to observe some of the sessions in the two-week long intensive course provided to 30 Afghan Fellows at the end of their six-month program.

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12 Days of Christmas Inspire Goal Setting

So this year I was thinking about a new approach to goal-setting. Especially as it relates to self-responsibility, something folks in any recovery program are familiar with as an important topic. I thought about the 12 Days of Christmas tradition, which means a loved one receives one gift a day for the 12 days preceding Christmas. If I was to turn the idea of that from a gift into a goal, and the 12 days into 12 months, I could come up with looking at 2018 as a year to bring myself into further alignment by taking responsibility for things I wouldn’t want others to have to deal with if something happened to me.

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