How to Self-Publish a Book.
Practicing the Craft. Chinese Snow. New Year's Resolution Reading List: 9 Books on Reading and Writing - Maria Popova. New, old, and dead writers offer their advice for stepping up your literary game. As far as New Year's resolutions go, hardly anything does one's mental, spiritual, and creative health more good than resolving to read more and write better. Today's reading list addresses these parallel aspirations. And since the number of books written about reading and writing likely far exceeds the reading capacity of a single human lifetime, this omnibus couldn't be—shouldn't be—an exhaustive list.
It is, instead, a collection of timeless texts bound to radically improve your relationship with the written word, from whichever side of the equation you approach it. 1. The Elements of Style, by Maira Kalman, Strunk and White If anyone can make grammar fun, it's Maira Kalman -- The Elements of Style Illustrated marries Kalman's signature whimsy with Strunk and White's indispensable style guide to create an instant classic. 2. On the itch of writing, Lamott banters: On why we read and write: 3. On feedback: How To Self-Publish A Bestseller: Publishing 3.0. Editor’s note: James Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and several-times entrepreneur. His latest book, “Choose Yourself!” (foreword by Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter) came out on June 3. Follow him on Twitter @jaltucher. My most recent book, “Choose Yourself!”
Sold 44,294 copies in its first month out [update: just tipped over 100,000 copies as of Dec 30] , hit the Wall Street Journal Bestseller list, was No. 1 on Amazon for all non-fiction books for a few days and is still flirting with No. 1 in its various categories. This post is about what I did differently, why I did it differently, and how I think anyone can do this to self-publish a bestseller. I describe all the numbers, who I hired and why, and how I made the various choices I did. Every entrepreneur should self-publish a book, because self-publishing is the new business card.
Unfortunately, most people suck at it. The distinction now is no longer between “traditional publishing” versus “self-publishing.” More money. - StumbleUpon. 30 Very Funny Books--Seriously. It's a dreary day, so I thought I'd indulge myself and come up with a list of my favorite comedies. A caveat, however: this is not a fancy English-professor-y list of the finest, most exquisitely crafted, most erudite or intellectually sophisticated works on paper in the language.
This is a list of the books that make me laugh until my mascara starts to run. These are books to read over your first cup of coffee or just before you go to sleep . Remember: a day you've laughed is day you haven't wasted--even if you didn't get out of bed. Some days you need a jump-start to get to the funny parts of life. You've probably heard of most of these titles, and maybe you've already read several of them. You ready? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.
And of course this is just the beginning. [places for writers] - connecting writers with places to publish [places for writers] Seven Tips From Ernest Hemingway on How to Write Fiction. Image by Lloyd Arnold via Wikimedia Commons Before he was a big game hunter, before he was a deep-sea fisherman, Ernest Hemingway was a craftsman who would rise very early in the morning and write. His best stories are masterpieces of the modern era, and his prose style is one of the most influential of the 20th century.
Hemingway never wrote a treatise on the art of writing fiction. He did, however, leave behind a great many passages in letters, articles and books with opinions and advice on writing. Some of the best of those were assembled in 1984 by Larry W. 1: To get started, write one true sentence. Hemingway had a simple trick for overcoming writer's block. Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. 2: Always stop for the day while you still know what will happen next. 5: Don't describe an emotion--make it.
DarkCopy - Simple, full screen text editing. Cure writer's block with writing prompts. Internet Resources - Writers Resources - Writing Links & Writers Links for Writers. Unsorted [/writers] James Patrick Kelly - Murder Your Darlings - "When time comes to make that final revision, however, you must harden your heart, sharpen the ax and murder your darlings. " Greda Vaso - Determining the Readability of a Book - includes formulas for Gunning's Fog Index, Flesch Formula, Powers Sumner Kearl L.
Kip Wheeler - Literary Terms and Definitions L. Kip Wheeler - Comp - Lit - Poetry - Links - more Style - Grammar - Errors in English [/writers]American Heritage - Book of English Usage - free download Band-Aid AP StylebookPaul Brians - Common Errors in EnglishCJ Cherryh - Writerisms and other Sins The Chicago Manual of Style FAQ Gary N. Curtis - The Fallacy Files - Logical fallacies and bad arguments Prof. Charles Darling [RIP] - Guide to Grammar and Writing The Economist (UK) - Style Guide John Eshleman - Logical Fallacies H.W.
CALLIHOO Writing Helps--Feelings Table. Character Feelings You can describe your character's feelings in more exact terms than just "happy" or "sad. " Check these lists for the exact nuance to describe your character's intensity of feelings. SF Characters | SF Items | SF Descriptors | SF Places | SF EventsSF Jobs/Occupations | Random Emotions | Emotions List | Intensity of Feelings. The Publishing Process in GIF Form. At first you're thinking of writing a novel and you're all... But then you have an idea! And you go... But then you hit page 50 and you're all.... And then you hit page 75 and you're all... But you power through!! And then you're finished!!! You have finished a novel!! Only then find out you have to start querying agents.
So you write your query letter... You obsess over it... And then you send it out to agents and you're all... Then a couple of days go by and you're all... And... And... But then you hear from your first agent!! And it's a rejection. Then you get a few more and it's more like... But then! But you don't want your agent to think you're crazy so instead you're like... And you love your agent! But instead you go... And then it's time to submit to publishers. Then the editors start saying....
And your inbox starts looking like... And you're all... But then your phone says your agent is calling. But instead it's more like... And it's an offer! And on the car ride home you're still like...