I recently looked at an article I wrote twenty years ago. I was shocked. Old School: First was the vocabulary I used. I was verbose, selecting big words when simpler ones would have sufficed. That was my style then, using word selection to sound intellectual; my thesaurus was my best friend, providing me with sophisticated […]
In five steps to write back cover copy for your book, I acknowledged that most writers struggle producing compelling back cover copy. I also encouraged you to write two versions and to save unused copy, content you didn’t use, and your brainstorming session. Here’s why: You also need to write promotional material for your book. […]
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How Long Should a Call Take?
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD My wife and I recently moved. There were the typical myriad of details to attend to, including arranging for utilities. I had three calls to make: one for natural gas, one for electricity, and one for water. I called the electric company first, as I assumed this would be the […]
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Do. Not. Do. This.
I first saw this technique on a blog: Putting. A. Period. After. Every. Word. It was endearing—sort of. But when I saw it a second time, it annoyed me. Now I’m seeing it too often, even in published books. I suppose if you want to communicate attitude for a thirteen-year-old, angst-filled girl who is wrtting […]
The purpose of back cover copy is to sell your book. It’s essentially ad copy, a pitch to entice people to read your book. You must hook the reader, telling them enough to intrigue them without revealing too much. If your book will be self-published, you need to write the back cover copy yourself. If […]
Some writing, such as a blog post, article, or even the draft of a short story, generally takes one sitting. But what about longer works that take days, weeks, and months to complete? For these we have the challenge of stopping and then resuming our project. Returning to a long piece is challenging for many […]
Authors need to know their audience. We must determine who will be the typical reader of our book. Too often writers naively assume— or arrogantly claim–that everyone will like their book. While having the whole world clamor to read our work would be a great outcome, it’s not going to happen; no book has universal […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Most telephone answering services are small businesses with closely held ownerships. Even many larger ones are still privately held, while a few are public companies or part of a public company. Regardless of size and structure, all answering services must plan for the future. Interestingly, their core concerns are essentially […]
I strongly recommend writers write every day, or at least most every day, according to a regular schedule. This is a great ideal, however, what happens when we don’t feel like writing? Here are some tips I use to keep me writing every day: Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of doing something […]
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Social Media
Part of successful book publishing is selling our books, which includes self-promotion. Social media, when done right, can play a huge role in promoting our books. Conversely, when done without purpose or plan, social media can be a huge time suck that produces no tangible results. Each social media option has scores of books written […]