You know you want to write a book. I can help.
[image: avoid boring words]Dave Bricker specializes in interior design and layout for books. This doesn’t stop him from being a writer as well. A writer who brings design sense to his word choice.
You can, too.
Writing is Design: Boring Words & Generic Descriptions — Not Nice!
Art Holcomb posting at Larry Brooks’ StoryFix blog: Smart list of 20 things you may not have thought about when writing. I particularly like #5. How ’bout you?
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1242703 by Leonardo Barbosa http://www.sxc.hu/profile/leonardobc]
Steven Pressfield: Blowing Off Maslow Here’s my take: we often confuse our “wants” with Maslow’s “needs.” Where Maslow says “food” we want to read “eating out” or at least “eating well.” Where Maslow says “shelter” we see a 3-car garage, or at least, a home we own rather than rent.
Maslow was right. We just twist his research into excuses not to do the work of making art. But go read the article at Steve’s site and see what you think.
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1426375 by Bas van den Eijkhof http://www.sxc.hu/profile/mistermast” width=”222″ height=”247″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-3295″ style=”border: none;]Most new authors dream of getting a book deal; having a publisher contact them and say, hey, we want your book. I’ll reserve comment on the value of getting a book deal for another conversation.
Some time back a client turned down not one, but two book deals. Two publishing houses approached them and said, hey, we want your book, just sign on the dotted line.
And they thought and they thought and they said, I don’t fit in the box you’d like to put me in.
And then they said the hardest word in the language of business: … more … “If the Box Doesn’t Fit, Don’t Wear It”
Last year I tested Chris Brogan’s 3 Words thinking and it was a stupendous success. Last year’s words were dissident, High Priest and performer. The goal is to choose 3 words which remind me who I want to be this year. Words which will inform and affect every action, every day.
These words aren’t in play because of what they mean literally, nor does it matter in my routine what they mean to you. The goal is to give myself a quick and easy touchstone for “Is what I’m doing right now moving me toward my goals?”
My 3 words for 2014: artist, adventurer, actor.
By the time he was 22 years old, Chris was leading a sales team of 120 independent contractors. His team consistently ranked in the top three productivity offices of roughly one-thousand North American teams. He attributes his team’s consistently high performance to a relentless focus on leader and culture development.
Chris left Direct Sales in 2006 to pursue his passion of leadership and team culture development on a larger scale, and founded Actionable Books in 2008. ActionableBooks.com – a company dedicated to using business books as a platform for leader and team growth – earned Chris 2009’s Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, a shortlisting for PROFIT’s Fuel Awards (2011) and has been the topic of articles in the Globe & Mail, Toronto Star and Toronto Business Times, as well as an audio interview for Profit Magazine’s BusinessCast.
In 2010, Chris launched “Actionable Interviews” a video interview series with best selling business book authors and leading thinkers in the business space. To date he’s conducted 42 interviews for the series, with highlights including Seth Godin, Dan Pink, Susan Cain and Sir Ken Robinson. It’s through these conversations that Chris developed The Salaried Entrepreneur™; an innovative team development methodology that’s being used internationally by companies large and small.
Chris currently lives in Spain with his wife, Amy.
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/80376 by Jeff Prieb http://www.sxc.hu/profile/ctechs” width=”222″ height=”157″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-3196]Here on Someday Box Joel often lays out the case for self-publishing your book—instead of chasing the REALLY BIG PUBLISHING DEAL. I would have to agree that there are benefits to self-publishing. But based on my experiences as a writer (and author of the forthcoming book, Business Lessons From Rock) I believe it’s only fair that you should hear the other side of the argument. Let me take a moment to enumerate the advantages of pursuing a major publisher. There are many.
… more … “Call Me Pollyanna (Guest Post by John “Pollyanna” O’Leary)”
[image: Joel and Sue Canfield]I’m married to an author. I work with an author. In fact, many authors. In my work for Someday Box I’ve worked with a dozen authors or so this year. In my virtual assistant business I’ve worked with another dozen or so this past year. So I know quite a bit about authors.
If you are married to an author, you know authors can have their quirks.
[image: ?]My first book started writing itself the day a local childcare owner asked me, “Phil, I shop a lot, and I have to say, your store has the best customer service I’ve ever encountered. What is your secret?”
The short answer was simple. I hire good people.
She pressed me further. “Can you do a presentation to our Child Care Association about it?”
Sure.
Now I needed a longer answer. Fortunately, the answer was there and pretty soon I had a presentation and the outline for a book.
The funny thing is that I never set out to write a book. I think the book had a life of its own, born when the question was asked. At least a dozen times throughout the process I wondered what made me think I was capable of writing a book. Mostly I ignored that thought and kept writing. After all, I was just answering a question.
Your business has the answer to a question, too. There is something you do better than most other businesses. You have a philosophy, a reason, a method for why you do what you do and how it makes your business better. It may be one of your own design, or one you stole from someone else, or one you pieced together from several sources. Someone has probably already asked you why or how you do what you do.
You just have to start writing it down.
My second book started the same way – with a question.
… more … “What Question Can You Answer Best? (Guest Post by Phil Wrzesinski )”
Trying to edit while drafting is like trying to polish your shoes while walking. Actually, it’s more like trying to polish your shoes while trailblazing over rough and unmapped territory. It takes longer to get where you’re going, you can’t possibly get a good shine and you’re almost guaranteed to lose your balance and fall.
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1110158 by Michal Zacharzewski http://www.sxc.hu/profile/mzacha” width=”444″ height=”145″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-3080]
Your brain stem and limbic system can do more than one thing at a time, which is why you can walk and chew gum and still notice cars in the crosswalk. But your cortex, your creative brain, simply cannot multitask.
… more … “Stop Stopping Yourself with Premature Edits (Guest Post by Rosanne Bane)”
[image: Howard Pyle illustration from the 1903 edition of The Story of King Arthur and His Knights]Once upon a time in a place you’ve never heard of, a young man seeking fame and fortune and a beautiful wife had the bad fortune to get sucked into a Ponzi scheme which left him penniless.
Rather than die of starvation and exposure, he agrees to marry an ugly crone for her money. He pretends, of course, that this is a noble act; that he, in fact, is giving her a gift by overlooking her hideous countenance.
On their wedding night, he returns from his dressing room to find a beautiful maiden in his bed. Immediately, he leaps into bed with her, whereupon she wallops him in the noggin.
“Hey! Aren’t you curious where your wife is?”
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