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Getting Started - Easier Than You Might Think by Anthony White
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Getting Started - Easier Than You Might Think |
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Education
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My to-do list is full. It is an important list because this is what will help me seriously get to work on my book. To build it, I thought of the obstacles that have been keeping me from getting started. My office is a mess - well, my whole house has problems. I used to have a housekeeper but he (yes, he) moved and house cleaning went out the door when Carey left town. My dining room table is stacked with mail because I was gone for ten days. Got to go through the mail and pay the bills. I need more space in my office for laying out papers. This will take clearing off the extra table in my closet and boxing those clothes to give to Goodwill. So I'll need some boxes which means a trip to Wally World for their free banana boxes. So what else is keeping me from productive work? I need some file folders, index cards and yellow magic markers - besides cat and dog treats to keep my "children" satisfied while I'm working. Also, AA batteries for the mouse! With these tasks marked off the to-do list, I am much closer to producing my book - capturing on my computer what's been swirling through my mind for the past year. It is time to sit down and think hard about my book. Author Michael Gilbert offers tips for writing a one-year book plan that starts with determining how the finished book will look. To begin he suggests asking "How long will the book be? How will it be subdivided? What are the steps to completion of each section or chapter? Is there research involved? Can you develop an outline first? What kind of assistance will you need?" In other words, clarify your thinking before you start writing. You can accomplish much of this clarification by writing the back cover copy before doing anything else. The back of your book is critical in attracting endorsements and in targeting your book to available markets. If it is written well, the back cover copy can be turned into a quick elevator speech say book cover designers Graham Van Dixhorn and Susan Kendrick who suggest back covers include "- A great headline - Stand-out-from-the-crowd Intro copy - Powerhouse bullets - Killer endorsements (or endorsements in the works) - An "About the Author" bio that reinforces your credibility, expert status, and related services - A Call-to-Action that instantly builds your list of qualified prospects - And more ..." An expanded book development plan is crucial. If you've ever started on a writing project and abandoned it before completion, more than likely you didn't have a complete plan in place from the start, writes Douglas Robert, developer of a "Guaranteed Book Writing Success Plan." "Start by mapping out the key ideas. Choose the best ones and break them down further. Each key idea becomes a chapter in your book. Turn your map into a detailed outline by thinking through the overall project and each of its component parts. This organizes your material chapter-by-chapter, topic-by-topic, even page-by-page. When you know exactly what you're going to cover and where it's going, writing your book is a walk in the park." Robert's suggestions are a little too left brain for me. Instead of "mapping out" anything, I like to use a pack of small index cards: one key idea goes onto each card. Then I sort the cards into separate piles by topic, and voila! I have chapters. Put the chapter "stacks" in order, and my outline is done. Remember that extra table that I brought out of the closet? And the file folders? I'm a stacker and will organize my book by keeping my index cards and chapter materials files together as I work. Of course parallel plans that include marketing, publishing, sales etc. must run along side and some of the most complete assistance in developing those areas comes from self publishing guru Dan Poynter. This is all it takes for me to get on a roll and work the book project. My house is clean, pets are happy and I've got organization that I can see - right in front of me. It's like cooking. I'm not the best cook but I can cowboy up and get'er done IF I have the ingredients set out in front of me before starting and IF I clean up as I go. That's my cooking plan and I'm sticking with it. So with items checked off my to-do list and index cards in hand, I'm fired up and ready to write (and stack) - if I can just find where I put down the mouse batteries. dissertation help
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