Showing titles in Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Nothing sells you like a book ... but it had better be a good book! If you want to create a powerful non-fiction book that serves and attracts your ideal clients while positioning you as the go-to expert in your industry, you need to rethink your entire approach to planning and writing your book.

Legendary writing coach Jack Hart spent 26 years at The Oregonian and has taught students and professionals of all stripes, including bloggers, podcasters, and more than one Pulitzer Prize winner. Good writing, he says, has the same basic attributes regardless of genre or medium. Wordcraft shares Hart’s techniques for achieving those attributes in one of the most broadly useful writing books ever written. Originally published in 2006 as A Writer’s Coach, the book has been updated to address the needs of writers well beyond print journalists.  

A guide to writing a full-length transformational nonfiction book, from an editor with two decades' experience working with authors from all walks of life. "I know I have a book in me." "I've always wanted to be an author." "People always ask me when I'm going to write my book." "I have a story...

Publishing is an incredibly rewarding yet endlessly complicated profession. This comprehensive and empowering book serves as a resource and reality check for anyone considering launching a press or publishing a single book. Author Joe Biel draws on 23 years of experience in all parts of operating a small publishing company to teach you the skills of the trade, from distribution, operations, inventory, scheduling, and accounting to development, sales, publicity, and marketing. 

In today's fast-paced, competitive business environment, everyone needs to communicate clearly and use time productively. E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide is a user-friendly audiobook that is filled with guidelines, tips, and tools. Discover how to write professional email that gets results, makes better use of email time, and avoids problems that can be costly. The updated version includes a section on using instant messaging and handheld devices. Used by individuals, corporations, and trainers, this is a must-have for anyone who writes emails at work. 

With chick lit novels popping up on every best seller list, millions of listeners are all thinking the same thing: I could write this stuff. I could write a best seller and never go back to the office again! And here’s the guide that will show you how. Best-selling novelist Sarah Mlynowski and veteran chick lit editor Farrin Jacobs cover every stage of developing and selling your soon-to-be best-selling novel....

Finally I was forced to admit that I work in a corrupted profession." When award-winning journalist Nick Davies decided to break Fleet Street's unwritten rule by investigating his own colleagues, he found that the business of reporting the truth had been slowly subverted by the mass production...

Following the success of several recent inspirational and practical books for would-be writers, Poemcrazy is a perfect guide for everyone who ever wanted to write a poem but was afraid to try. Writing workshop leader Susan Wooldridge shows how to think, use one's senses, and practice exercises that will make poems more likely to happen.

The business of book marketing has changed! The traditional rules longer apply, and a new era of marketing books is upon us - an approach in which authors are authentically engaging their audiences. But where do you start? Today's mega-success authors are not only writers but entrepreneurs who expertly work a strategy that leverages the power of social media, search engine optimization, advertising, speaking, bookstore signings, and a combination of other programs that are incredibly rewarding to the author.

Distinguished author Phillip Lopate, editor of the celebrated anthology The Art of the Personal Essay, is universally acclaimed as “one of our best personal essayists” ( Dallas Morning News). Here, combining more than 40 years of lessons from his storied career as a writer and professor, he brings us this highly anticipated nuts-and-bolts guide to writing literary nonfiction. A phenomenal master class shaped by Lopate’s informative, accessible tone, and immense gift for storytelling.

Nellie Bly, born Elizabeth Jane Cochran on May 5, 1864, was an American journalist, author, and charity worker who received initial renown after writing a stinging expose of the mistreatment of the mentally ill while faking insanity and living undercover at a New York mental institution. At a time when women were just beginning to break into the field of journalism, the type of undercover investigative reporting undertaken by Bly set an important precedent, allowing her to successfully pioneer working in the male dominated field of newspaper writing.

How do you decide what is a 'story' and what isn't? What does a newspaper editor actually do all day? How do hacks get their scoops? How do the TV stations choose their news bulletins? How do you persuade people to say those awful, embarrassing things? Who earns what? How do journalists manage...

"Writing is spooky," according to Norman Mailer. "There is no routine of an office to keep you going, only the blank page each morning, and you never know where your words are coming from, those divine words." In The Spooky Art, Mailer discusses with signature candor the rewards and trials of the writing life, and recommends the tools to navigate it. Addressing the listener in a conversational tone, he draws on the best of more than fifty years of his own criticism, advice, and detailed observations about the writer's craft.

For aspiring writers, few experiences offer the thrill of a well-taught creating writing workshop—imagine the surge of fresh ideas filling your mind, exercise by exercise, as you absorb the skills of the craft from a seasoned expert, almost effortlessly. Now you can experience this unmatched...

Mignon Fogarty can't remember whether it was a misused semicolon, a chronic case of comma splicing, or an "affect" when an "effect" was called for, but at some point she had seen one mangled sentence too many. Determined to counter the slipping standards of good writing in daily discourse...

Your most potent writer's tool is your own mind, Natalie Goldberg says. From there springs the detail and truth that give your written words power and authenticity. Now this bestselling author introduces you to the pleasure of creating vivid memoirs of your own with Old Friend from Far Away...

The first set of an extraordinary collection of 10 sets of personal letters written by Lord Chesterfield to his illegitimate son, young Philip Stanhope, then living abroad with his tutor to further his education. His Lordship, later secretary of state, hoped that his son would follow in his footsetps and took endless pains to instruct him on the essential and finer beharioral traits of a the aristocracy, which might lead him to such dizzying heights.

Join the bestselling author of Writing Down the Bones as she gives you a map for taking your best ideas and inspirations—your thunder and lightning—and turning them into finished stories, essays, and novels. The challenge we face as writers, Natalie Goldberg says, begins with the process of...

My name is Drew Hayes, and for the past six years I've made my living as a writer. In that time, I've published 20 books, written hundreds of thousands of words, and made countless mistakes - most of which I like to think I've learned from. Underqualified Advice (and Other Amusing Diversions) is my attempt to compile those lessons and share them with others, as well as have some fun along the way. Half of the book is dedicated to detailing specifics about writing, maneuvering the industry, and keeping fiscally afloat in largely unstable waters.

In the tradition of The Elements of Style comes Trish Hall's essential new work on writing well - a sparkling instructional guide to persuading (almost) anyone, on (nearly) anything. In charge of the Op-Ed page for the New York Times, Hall spent years immersed in argument, passion, and trendsetting ideas - but also in tangled sentences, migraine-inducing jargon, and dull-as-dishwater writing. Drawing on her vast experience editing, Hall presents the ultimate guide to writing persuasively for students, job applicants, and rookie authors looking to get published.