Richard Lanham, a well-known scholar and teacher of writing, gave a name to the writing style found on many formal documents, such as those used in the fields of government, military, legal, finance and other similar sectors. He calls it “The Official Style,” a way of writing based on “the dominance of nouns and the atrophy of verbs.”

What writing style do you often use? If you’ve ever read lab reports, military documents or financial forecasts, you will likely notice one thing: they are ridiculously difficult to understand. Marked by an adherence to strict grammar (likely with the help of a formal writing software) and colorless prose, not only are they unforgivably boring, they are cumbersome to read. That’s all part of the charm, actually, since they’ve been intentionally wrought out that way.

Especially prevalent in bureaucratic structures, The Official Style is necessary to a certain degree. What situations warrant them?

• When you intentionally want to obfuscate a message. Read speeches from politicians and you’ll find their noncommital statements buried under The Official Style of writing.
• When you want to sound impersonal and unbiased.
• When you want to sound professional. For some reason, people do identify this clap-trap of wordiness as professional, mostly as a conditioned response, since much of our laws and procedures are written in this manner.
• When you want to sound intelligent. Again, it’s all perception. Because lawyers, bankers and high-ranking officials have traditionally written this way, people assume you carry a dignified title when you write in this manner.

Jessica was anxious and exhausted when she came to see me. She’d never seen a psychologist before. A young mother of two, she enjoyed her work and her children, and for the most part she felt like she had a good life.

But at night she would wake with her heart pounding, and toss and turn. Sometimes she would be on the edge of panic for what seemed like hours. She was losing sleep and felt irritable with her family.

When we began, she felt overwhelmed, out of control. But after she started making some behavior changes-more exercise, some meditation-I taught her automatic writing. Soon she was managing her anxiety, and her sleep, on her own.

With automatic writing, your brain and body can let go of anxiety even when you can’t “fix the problems”. You may be reluctant to do it at first, since it involves confronting thoughts we are trying to stay away from.

In fact, though, the work your brain does avoiding those thoughts is the very process causing the anxiety. The thoughts – threatening, looming, terrifying – circle through your brain, with no way to escape. When you pull those thoughts out, and move them through all parts of your brain, you process. You get distance, and a more positive perspective.

Even for things you can’t change.

Releasing anxiety doesn’t just feel better – it also keeps you stay healthy. Living in anxiety means living in a constant state of biochemical stress, and the impact on your body can reach far beyond the pounding heart and tightness you feel. It can create stomach problems, IBS, headaches, and reduction in immune function, even the development of hypertension and chronic pain.

All this, because your body is constantly being bombarded with stress biochemicals.

But when you write the thoughts down, your brain processes them. Releases them. Turns them into something you can work with, live with, and even grow from.

Automatic writing takes 20-30 minutes. I know, that’s hard to find in your busy schedule! But it gives you emotional freedom for greater enjoyment of your life.

Find a time when you won’t be distracted. That may mean getting up early, or staying up late, or getting up in the night when the thoughts wake you. For 20 minutes – no more than 30 – write the most horrible-awful-can’t-stand-it-too-scary-for-words thoughts you can pull up from the depths of your mind. These are the thoughts you usually try to get away from. Just pour out all the negative thoughts hiding in the nooks and crannies of your brain. No worries about spelling or punctuation.

You might find yourself saying things you don’t like to even think, let alone say. That’s OK-you’re just pulling out the thoughts that have been hiding in there, worrying you.

Write them down, even though it may feel bad while you do it. Let them be as bad, as scary as they are. You may have horrible thoughts about someone you love. You may be afraid of something you can’t change. No matter. Let your brain do its work.

After 20 minutes, it’s time to stop, though you can finish up a few thoughts if you want to. Be sure you write for the full 20 min, though, or you’ll stop when the scary stuff starts to come out.

When you’re finished – tear it up. Tear it until no two words are together, and they can never be read by anyone. If you’ve done it well, it won’t be something you want anyone to see. It will probably sound extreme even to you!

At the end of your automatic writing, things may look different. Or they may not! However things look on the outside, though, you body will begin to feel different on the inside. Your catastrophic thoughts have moved through all parts of your brain, out onto the paper, so your brain can see them, and manage them.

And your body doesn’t have to be afraid.

I’ve been asked about writing for many years. How do I start writing? What should I write about? Should I write in the morning? What method or style of writing will increase my chances of success? Should I get an agent? How do you choose a publisher?

In a four decade career in higher education, consulting, and now missions, I’ve asked my own questions. Every time I met an author I tried to discover what made him or her successful. I asked them about their tricks of the trade.

The observations that follow were gleaned from those multiple conversations with published authors, book editors, and publishers, along with a few tidbits from my own experience. I’ve paraphrased original comments to make them more accessible, and I’ve borrowed heavily from friends “in the know.” I salute their experience and expertise so freely and lovingly given to the writing craft.

Some Thoughts on Writing

All writers experience “writer’s block.” Stop. Take a brief break, like a walk. Perhaps read a pertinent book. Pray. Think about what you are trying to say.

All writers experience “writer’s doubt.” That’s one reason “writers’ colonies” have developed in places like Paris, New York, or Boston. Writers need one another for stimulation, encouragement, affirmation, etc. So when you experience “writer’s doubt,” remember, you’re normal.

For most of us, writing is work. It may be enjoyable work, but it is still work. That’s the source of the old joke about the author who was asked, “Do you enjoy writing?” The author replied, “I enjoy having written.”

For some of us, writing is like going on a diet. We don’t do it until we really want to do so. Desire produces discipline. Far more people aspire to write than actually do.

Dreamers dream, writers write.

There are many reasons people write, personal expression, professional obligation, a sense that something “needs to be said,” to earn income, ministry or service, etc. Whatever your reasons, try to pick topics about which you are passionate, or at least care about. The writing process will be far more enjoyable, and you’re much more likely to finish the project.

Write sometime, some way, every day. Make writing a habit.

Know why you want to write. Identify what drives you. Set realistic, achievable, but stretch goals with target accomplishment dates. Goals may be a project, pages/words per day/week, etc.

The better the outline, the quicker the writing. Do your homework.

Once you have the outline and you’ve done the research, write. Just write and keep writing the best draft that you can, but don’t worry a lot about its flow or connectedness or logic. This comes together on the second or third pass. Great writers like Philip Yancey take two-three years to write a book, and they typically rewrite sections repeatedly.

Pick a space where you can leave your writing materials out, open, and ready. It’s easier to “pick up where you left off” than to try and start all over again.

Pick a time to write that fits your own rhythms, early morning, late at night, blocks of time, whatever works. John Maxwell frequently gets up in the middle of the night to write. Works for him. Wouldn’t work for me. Find what works for you.

For some writers writing is not a sacrifice. For most there are trade-offs. Recognize this and make a choice. For example, you may have to give up evening television, etc.

Every writer needs readers, not only when the project is finished but also as the writing is being crafted. Readers’ comments are only as valuable as your capacity to receive critique. Many academic writers never develop this capacity. They seem to think every word they write is “sacred.” Not so. You must set aside your ego and look for helpful criticism with a sense of humility. It’s still your writing, so you do not have to adopt the reader’s comments, but you’ll always benefit from others’ pre-publication review. You should develop the same attitude when you work with editors. This includes project word limits. It’s possible to say “more” with fewer words.

Getting readers may be one of your bigger challenges. People often say they’ll read your material, then don’t read it, or don’t read it in the timeframe in which you need feedback (quickly), or don’t read it with a truly objective eye, i.e. soft-pedaling their response to avoid “hurting your feelings” or saying what they really think.

Try to identify a couple of knowledgeable and objective readers who will faithfully return your material with honest commentary in the timeframe you require. Try to identify one or two other readers, who may know very little about your subject, but who are well-read individuals capable of giving you honest feedback on style, grammar, sentence construction, flow, content, “readability,” etc.

Don’t try to write for multiple audiences. It rarely works. Choose an audience, e.g. college students, colleagues, the general public, professionals, homemakers, rocket scientists, etc., and write for that audience. But know your audience.

Study the writing of successful authors who are writing for the audience you want to reach. Learn from these authors. Don’t copy them. Emulate them.

Some Thoughts on Publishing

Get a publisher and stay put. Get in the publisher’s stable and you and your projects will naturally rise higher on the business’s hit parade.

If you want to increase exposure for your work, program, or organization, write books that reach the public and match the interests of the organization with the public’s interest.

You may want to write for your peers. This is good, but few books will be sold and you may need to identify a university press.

You may want to write books for the general public. In this you’re not trying to “impress” but “express.” Don’t try to show off your vocabulary. Remember, the first law of communication is to communicate.

“Books aren’t bought; they’re sold.” You have to get out and hawk the book. Do media interviews, book signings, speaking engagements re the book, etc. Cooperate with the publisher on this and create your own market.

Books are generally divided into publications categories like academic, professional, inspirational, etc. A trade book is one written for the general public.

Publishing houses generally prefer to receive a book proposal before a book is written so the staff can work with the author to craft the book.

Book proposals are always required and should be presented in the most refined form possible according to the publisher’s guidelines. The proposal allows the publisher to assess the author’s ability to write a well-crafted book and may be the difference between an accepted or rejected project.

It’s kosher to send your proposal to more than one publisher at a time, as long as you tell them what you are doing. But publishers do not really like this and it may be a matter of shooting yourself in the foot by robbing the publisher of a bit of incentive to invest time and money reviewing your manuscript. You are probably better off to submit your proposal to “your publisher” (if you’ve published before) or to the publisher you think fits your topic, then wait for a response (4-6 weeks). If the book is rejected, then of course you can shop it around.

If your book proposal is rejected, stay encouraged. Publishing lore is full of stories of authors who piled up rejections only to publish eventually and sell a lot of books (e.g. J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter).

Sometimes a book contract will include a stipulation about “bulk sales,” meaning bulk orders from an agency like a radio program, which will in turn market the book on air. The contract may stipulate that the author receives a lower royalty rate on these kinds of bulk sales. In other words the author does not receive as much from this arrangement. A lot of books may be sold, but the royalty is lower and this arrangement may also dry up the market for additional sales.

One author said, “Get as good an advance as possible.” But advances are based upon computed and perceived first year royalties, so this is largely a situation of “Pay me now or pay me later.” An advance is good for the author, because it is guaranteed and in the bank, particularly if the book bombs. Many publishers now regularly pay advances because it is becoming a norm and is expected. When this happens, an author may receive one-half the expected first year royalties when the book contract is signed and the other one-half when the book is finished and submitted to the publisher.

For new authors, getting the book published is what usually matters, not really the money involved. So whether you receive an advance or simply wait for royalties does not amount to much.

For new authors, royalty percentages run about 14% to 16%. Very well known authors sometimes get royalties as high as 22% to 24% or higher comparable advances, but this is rare.

For newer authors in particular, literary agents are typically not necessary and, unless they really “add value” to the process, they become “middle men” who may “get in the way” and do little besides take a percentage of the author’s royalties. On the other hand, some literary agents, depending also upon the quality and content of your work, are worth their weight in gold because they can get your manuscript reviewed by publishers who would not look at your unheralded submission.

Edited books typically do not sell well and publishers are not all that interested in them. This is especially so for edited books with many authors, unless the book has a very good focus. Edited books that include a “point-counterpoint” approach around a focused and timely topic sometimes do well. It is the responsibility of the book editor (not the publisher) to secure permission from other publishers to use already published material in an edited book.

Publishing is changing rapidly and dramatically, influenced by the Internet and digital capabilities affecting audio and video productions as well. When you write, consider publishing in a “mediated” format, i.e. a digital presentation. This could be high definition digital video on DVDs, sound design productions on CD, a book or article published on a website, etc. In these formats, you will potentially reach far more people than any print publication could possibly reach, and you will reach younger people who now learn more from media than from any other source.

“Self-publishing” is easier and less expensive than ever and is gradually attaining new levels of acceptance. Self-publishing is perhaps best achieved via electronic means. Publishing one’s own work and promoting it until it attains a recognition sufficient to attract the attention of larger publishing houses is a bit like a new or maverick film maker producing an “independent” film, distributing it as best he or she can, and then evaluating the results. It can happen. Think, The Shack.

Writing is a craft. It typically requires time and effort to develop your best work. Whether you write for yourself or for the world, learn from others and enhance the power of your pen.

There are hundreds of scripts and thousands of written languages in the world. Some of them vary greatly in visual feature and legibility. All the writing systems play a vital role for the people to learn, communicate, and to create. Unfortunately, most people haven’t realized the legibility of a writing system correlate with the its capability of founding science, which constrains their mental power in sequential processing of visual information.

We proposed five aspects for assessing the scientific strength of a writing system in the recent article “scientific strength of writing systems – the aspects”. In this paper, we give analyses of the visual features of some major writing systems, regarding the first through fourth aspects[1]. They could be only briefed, given my limited knowledge of most of them. We focus on their visual characteristics solely, without referring to whatever sounds they might represent.

Let’s start from the complex Chinese characters in the east, and end at the simple Latin letters in the west, two extremes among the most widely used. Together, languages written in their variants cover the vast majority of the world’s population.

1. Chinese

Due to vertical reading, Chinese characters are enclosed in blocks, and growing complex internally. Apparently, the complexity is not good for reading, as radicals and strokes are not readily recognized and often neglected during reading, although a complex character might look clear when focused upon. Consecutive characters are not by themselves connected into bigger units, albeit people intend to use double or multiple-character words.

Traditional Chinese has more internal complexity while simplified Chinese uses more multiple-character words. They both suffer in the first through fourth aspects, with simplified Chinese to a less extent.

2. Kana

Kana, with two forms – hiragana and katakana, has their origin in Chinese characters, limiting the number and form a set of symbols of less complexity. Still, the symbols retain some trace of Chinese characters, emphasizing internal shapes, neglecting interconnection and differentiation. The strokes are not easily discerned, reducing the clarity of and the connectivity between symbols. Some strokes are separate, making the symbols less coherent units. The differences between many symbols are subtle.

Both forms suffer in the first through fourth aspects, to less extent than the Chinese. Furthermore, the mixture of hiragana, katakana and kanji in Japanese makes reading more difficult.

3. Korean

The hangul is hailed as efficient and logical. It is faithful in representing speech by using letters to represent phonemes which form characters in blocks to represent syllables. The letters are relatively simple, systematizing subcomponents of the characters, a merit over traditional Chinese. But the characters still suffer internal complexity problems. To recognize a character, you need to identify multiple letters and apply artificial rules of their combination. Sequentiality is in question. The characters are not supposed to connect by letters. On the other hand, they are too complex to connect with each other easily.

Systematic internal composition helps improve the clarity of and distinction between characters, but still not good enough. It also suffers in the first and fourth aspects.

4. Arabic

The modern Arabic script is written from right to left in a cursive style. Many of the letters share similar shapes. Many share a common base form, and are distinguished by the number and location of dots or other small diacritics. Letters changing in different positions actually increases the number of letters thus harder to memorize and recognize. Letters are joined to form words, such that efforts are needed to separate joined letters during reading. These decrease the legibility of the letters.

It suffers less sequentiality problem, but suffers in the second and third aspects, whilst combination of bigger/higher and smaller/shorter letters might help in the fourth aspect.

5. Devanagari

The Devanagari script, comprising 47 primary letters, some of which are a little complex. The horizontal and vertical lines shared by many letters add to the similarity between letters, although the joined horizontal lines help connect letters. As an alphasyllabary, the script uses diacritical marks to denote non-default vowels. That adds another dimension to consonant letters and complicates recognizability. So do the conjunct consonants. Various rules and features need to pay attention to, increasing the difficulty of reading.

It suffers some sequentiality problem, and also suffers in the second through fourth aspects.

6. Cyrillic

The Cyrillic script looks like the Latin script, particularly in its capital form. Cyrillic uppercase and lowercase letter forms are not as differentiated as in Latin typography. Many Cyrillic lowercase letters are small capitals. Cyrillic writing is at the same level of legibility of all-caps writing in Latin.

Modern Cyrillic letters are simple-shaped with clarity. Most of them are easily distinguishable from others. The letter forms are rarely augmented or altered when forming words. Letters are separate within words while spaces separate words, demonstrating the sequential growth of texts.

It is good in the first through third aspects. But it scores low in the fourth aspect, which is exhibited in lowercase letters of the Latin script.

7. Latin

This paper is written in the Latin script. The majority of the Latin script texts are in minuscule form. There are three segments in lowercase letters – body for all letters, ascender and descender for some. The bodies exhibit characteristic of roundness, which facilitate smooth-running reading. Ascenders and descenders help in differentiating letters. Letters with ascenders or descenders combined with those without help create sub-word units with enhanced recognition, which also facilitate the recognition of words.

Both uppercase and lowercase letters are of simple shapes and evenly distributed variations. The distinction between letters is strong. Minuscules are better for sequential reading, while majuscules are suitable for emphasis.

The script performs well in all four aspects, particularly the written English, which rarely employs diacritics and ligatures.

Conclusion

The surveyed systems display variations in the four aspects. The Latin alphabet appears strongest among the existing systems, laying the foundation of modern science. This survey is brief, aiming to demonstrate our approach and be a starting point for complex analysis.

It appears that writing systems stronger in these aspects usually support more advanced societies, given adequate population, publications and developmental time. The advancement level of a society correlates with the legibility level of its writing system(s). The exact connection and mechanism still need further investigation.

Furthermore, it is unknown if there is a writing system in theory that is totally different and stronger than the Latin alphabet. Will that be invented or evolved from existing ones?

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_alphabets

https://omniglot.com/writing/japanese_hiragana.htm

Welcome to How to Study Korean!

https://r12a.github.io/scripts/arabic/

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[1] First, sequentiality; second, clarity of symbols; third, differentiation between symbols; fourth, combination of symbols. The fifth aspect (“other aspects”) are not so essential as the first four.

There are many ways for writers to make money, and one of the most popular is article writing.

If you’re a good writer and you can write articles quickly, you can earn a substantial, regular income. And I’m going to show you how much you can earn and how easy it is.

There’s no doubt about it. Good writers are always in demand, and that’s true now more than ever before.

There are thousands of blogs online needing regular content plus companies need marketing articles too.

I used to be a freelance writer, writing for many different clients. It was how I got my start as a writer several years ago.

And what I discovered was that good writers were always in demand, especially if they could produce useful and interesting articles quickly and consistently.

I used to get regular work from a few clients which provided me with a steady income.

And if you want to do the same I can tell you how to do it.

You begin by getting used to writing articles quickly. If you practice non-stop for only a week or two, you should be able to produce quality articles quite quickly.

It’s possible to write a short article in just 15 minutes. But even if it takes you twice that long (30 minutes) you can still earn a better-than-average income even if you only work part time.

So let’s look at the numbers to see how it works.

If you can write an article in 1/2 an hour, then you should be able to complete 8 articles in 4 hours, which is only half a working day.

And if you charge $20 per article, your 8 articles will earn you $160 a day.

This means that if you write articles for 8 hours a day, which doubles your writing time, it will also double your income to $320 a day.

And at that rate, if you work 5 days a week, your weekly income would be $1,600 ($320/day x 5 days/week).

Not bad for a ‘work at home’ freelance writer. And you get the weekends off.

By working for yourself this way, it all comes down to the quality of your work and your speed of writing.

And with regular client work, you could earn an on-going income – and it could be quite substantial.

And because you’re only limited by the number of hours you’re prepared to work, you could earn even more.

Imagine that.

In law school, as well as in the practice of law, you will have many opportunities to demonstrate your skills at many types of writing. One type of writing you will need to use from time to time is expository writing. Expository writing is a rhetorical mode of writing in which the purpose of the author is to inform, explain, describe, or define his or her subject to the reader.

However, when answering law school essay exam questions, you are called upon to demonstrate a different type of writing. Exams are opportunities to show your professor your skills of resolving legal problems by identifying issues, stating concise rules that will be used to resolve the problems, then applying your analytical talents to reason to conclusions. That requires a departure from expository writing.

By way of example, in order to prove a negligence claim, a plaintiff must provide evidence of several elements, one of which is the existence of a “duty” on the part of the defendant to act with reasonable care in relation to the plaintiff. The following is unnecessary in an essay response:

“Duty” can serve as a touchstone when trying to understand the essence of the concept of negligence. The notion of duty appears to be a universal keystone in legal systems throughout the world. In civilized societies, all human action is conformable to the law, which members of each society are required to obey. Duty may be obliged by law or by contract. When imposed by law, a duty is an obligation requiring the actor to conform to a certain standard of conduct for protection of others against unreasonable risks. The word “duty” is used throughout the Restatement of Torts to denote the fact that the actor is required to conduct himself in a particular manner; if he does not do so he runs the risk of becoming subject to liability to another to whom the duty is owed for any injury sustained by such other, of which that actor’s conduct is an actual and proximate cause.

From an essay-writing standpoint (outside of law school) this may be a fine paragraph. Including it in an expository writing could be helpful. Although introductory explanations, historical justifications, moral discussions, and segue paragraphs tend to round out good collegiate expository writing, these are not hallmarks of good law school essay exam writing.

Business has no time for long or fuzzy words. Effective business correspondence is built on tight writing which depends on few, but hard-hitting words. Every word must convey a precise meaning that is understood in the same way by writer and reader. Use your thesaurus to replace long words with shorter, crisper ones.

Whether you are writing a prospecting letter or a report, a follow-up letter or a proposal, use the shortest, simplest word you can find to convey the meaning you want. Whether you are writing up, out or down, choose appropriate replacements for the cold and pretentious business expressions of the past. Eliminate the junk like: attached herewith please find. Instead, say exactly what you mean: I am attaching this for you. Use ordinary, everyday English–I call it shirtsleeve English–for real results.

Simplicity makes reading easy–and professional writers know that business readers want a quick, easy read. In fact, most busy readers get lost in sentences of 21 words or more. Equally important, when you go for the bigger, more impressive word, the chances are your reader will find you less impressive–not more. According to Daniel Oppenheimer, researcher and contributor to the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, “Anything that makes text hard to read and understand such as unnecessarily long words or complicated fonts, will lower readers’ evaluation of the text and its author.”

In twenty years of teaching business writing workshops and polishing proposals for my corporate clients, my experience tells me it’s the people with the least education who seem driven to use the biggest words–often with the silliest results. One writer, for example, searched for an alternative to “old” and found one he liked. In his letter, he actually referred to “senile” equipment. Another writer tried to impress a CEO with this: I value your needs and I wish to have the opportunity to assist you in achieving your envisions. You may laugh, but that is a direct quote–and it isn’t funny.

Now, I am not suggesting you would make the same foolish mistakes, but the principle of writing simply and cleanly is an important one–no matter how many degrees you have or how good you are with a dictionary. Professionals don’t complicate information–they simplify it. They don’t choose a ten dollar words when a fifty cent word works better. They don’t try to dazzle with multi-syllables when short, crisp words simplify reading and improve business results.

Don’t use “as per your request” when you could say, “as you asked.” Don’t write, “despite the fact that” when you could write, “although.” Don’t go for the heavy-duty, “in reference to” when “about” works better. I’m sure you get the idea.

When you write for business, it is not your job to teach your reader a new word. Nor is it to your advantage to show off, talk down, or confuse the reader. Clarity charms. Simplicity pays. Write to express, not to impress, and you’ll find your business writing actually means business.

Many aspiring authors spend hours and hours, alone behind their computers tap, tap, tapping away. Then those hours turn into months, and of course, the months slip into years.

This is admirable. If I’m confident of anything, it’s that to be an author you have to be willing to spend hours of your life equivalent to entire years out of your life slaving away writing. I’m just for sure that you need to read at least just as much.

One thing that gets unfortunately overlooked by many is that you also have to be willing to leave your books and your computer behind sometimes. To engage others.

Not that you can’t be an introvert. Thousands of widely regarded successful authors were introverts. That’s is because in some way or another they were able to overcome, albeit sometimes only briefly, their restrictions and step outside of their comfort zones.

That’s because while writing can take many forms; journaling, hobbies writing, personal letter writing. Authorship is a profession, and that means that it falls within a business structure. No matter how sincerely you believe that Jack Kerouac went from nothing to a fantastic book within two weeks of boozing (which FYI, in reality, he didn’t). If you want to move books from shelves, you will need to approach the task earnestly. With a humble attitude that is open to working with others.

The business of writing, designing, editing, publishing, marketing, and selling your books requires a multitude of strangers. Regardless of whether you have a small budget, or you’re JK Rowling.

In fact, the small your budget, the approach is better suited to involving a large number of people each with small, potentially volunteer style task. For instance, having friends complete a narrative edit before giving it to a professional editor, to reduce the amount of paid time the editor has to spend on the manuscript.

For your first book, I highly suggest having a strong group of people who can offer various products, services, and insights to help you stay focused, motivated, and up-to-speed on the ever-changing self-publishing landscape.

Being a successful author requires a lot more than just writing a great book. You have to get into the weeds, be willing to change out of your writer’s cap and into a variety of other hats depending on where you are in the process.

You may not have the skills or willingness to tackle everything with your own two hands, and that’s why it’s so important to develop your own file of go-to resources along the way.

Here are 30 more resources to tap into along the way!

While this list is mostly self-publishing focused, if you’re going the traditional publishing route, you should still have a rigorous shift through them to make sure you are familiar with what is out there.

Useful Blogs and Sites

1. The Write Life

This workhorse blog is a one-stop-shop offering all you need to figure out how to work with clients, navigate the changing landscape of publishing, learn the ins and outs of social media, grow a following for your blog and find a community that will support you along the way. You’ll always find something useful for your book business here. Try not to get lost in the rabbit hole though. There is so much helpful information here I try to time my visits to make sure I’m not eating into my writing time!

2. Kindlepreneur

If you want to dig deep into the goulash of marketing your books, Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur is your man. His strategies are groundbreaking. Every successful author has to wear many hats, and Dave shares his years of marketing experience and success to show you how to promote the heck out of your books.

3. The Book Designer

Joel Friedlander, the creator of The Book Designer, says “Writers change the world one reader at a time. But you can’t change the world with a book that’s still on your hard drive or in a box under your bed.” This embodies the Community Writer mentality. Joel gives you everything you need to get your book out of the box with a variety of self-publishing guides, advice, templates, and toolkits. With his experience in book design and advertising, Joel has the creds to help you produce and sell a great-looking book.

4. The Creative Penn

The Creative Penn is run by Joanna Penn, who has been wildly successful with fiction and nonfiction. In her blog and podcast, she covers every aspect of what it takes to start and run a successful author business. She also has a grab bag of books on various self-publishing topics if you can’t get enough on her blog.

5. Jane Friedman’s website

Jane has more than 20 years of experience in the book and magazine publishing industry, with expertise in digital media and the future of authorship. Her site is full of actionable content and detailed strategies for the aspiring author from someone who’s been there and done that many times over.

Podcasts Worth Your Time

6. Podcast – Neuralle (Uncommon)

Please forgive the shameless self-promotion here, but aside from the fact that I will be most likely appearing on this podcast at some point, Neuralle is a fantastic self-development podcast and in my humble opinion a must for any aspiring author or entrepreneur.

Past guests have included Venture Capitalists, Entrepreneurs, Chefs, Restaurant Owners, Body Builders, Strength Coaches, Activists, Winemakers, Filmmakers and many, many more.

7. Tim Ferris Podcast

This show is the first publishing-related podcast that I followed, and it’s still an all-time favourite. It’s hosted by Tim Ferris an American best-selling author, entrepreneur, self-proclaimed “human guinea pig”, and public speaker.

8. Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Every green writer should bookmark this podcast. With helpful and insightful tips on grammar and storytelling, Mignon Fogarty’s podcast is sure to help you improve your narrative and technical writing skills.

9. The Writer Files

Hosted by Kelton Reid, The Writer Files is a long-running podcast that delves deep into habits and habitats of famed writers. Reid interviews writers from a broad spectrum, giving each listener a chance to see into the mind of an accomplished wordsmith within their genre or interest.

Forums

10. Neil Gaiman Board

Neil Gaiman’s Official Message Board. Enough said.

11. Goodreads Groups

Goodreads is the mega-site (with over 20 million members) for authors and readers. They have more specific groups than you can count, and if you can’t find an answer or inspiration here, then it doesn’t exist. You might feel a bit overwhelmed, but here’s a smart article on using Goodreads to support your author business.

12. Scribophile

There are tons of writing forums out there to choose from, so I suggest you have a play with a few of them. This one works a bit differently which is why I like it though. Scribophile provides detailed and helpful critiques from a member exchange. The analyses you’ll get are so much more than just a pat on the back – you’ll get actionable ways to improve your writing.

Writing Tools

13. Scrivener

Scrivener is a powerful writing tool for authors that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring your documents. Get a free 30-day trial and watch some brief YouTube tutorials to get acquainted with the system quickly.

14. Grammarly

This proofreading application is an improved version of your standard spellchecking program. Just copy and paste blocks of text into Grammarly, and it will check your writing for common mistakes. The reason it’s better than most spellcheckers is that it provides useful feedback that will improve the overall quality of your book. You will learn a lot very quickly by taking heed of the side bar suggestions and explanations.

15. Hemingway Editor

Excellent writing is quite often straightforward writing, and Hemingway was the master at that. Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, your narrative should get to the point with simple language. With the Hemingway software, you will learn how to simplify your writing.

Book Publishing and Freelance Help

16. Archangel Ink

Archangel Ink is a one-stop solution for getting your book ready to publish. Archangel offers a range of services to help you with cover design, editing, formatting, audiobook production and much more. I feel that if you haven’t published before you learn a lot by manually going through the process of completing your manuscript via Scrivner, finding editors/cover creators via say Reedsy/Freelancer and then uploading it to KDP/Createspace. However it can be frustrating, so I completely understand throwing down some cash and handing of some or all of this to someone else. I’m currently considering using Archangel Ink to produce and audiobook for me.

17. 99 Designs

This is a service where you post a design project, like your book cover, and dozens of freelancers submit mock-up examples. You then select finalists based on the submissions and choose the winner to work with you to create a finalised version. 99Designs can be pricey, but it’s a great option if you want a professional cover design for your book.

18. Grammarly

I won’t rant on this too much as already do that frequently enough if you don’t have the free version of this you need to get it now. What some of you might not know, is that via the paid version they have an option to connect you with a professional proof reader. I haven’t used this before but considering the calibre of everything else they do I think it’s worth investigating.

19. Freelancer

One the most significant websites for hiring freelance talent. If you want to find the largest pool of people, then this is a great place to look. The app makes chatting with prospective freelancers seamless so you can manage your project and selection of the perfect candidate on the go.

20. Reedsy

Reedsy offers a boutique experience in editing and cover design. Most freelancers here have worked in the publishing industry, so they have a thorough understanding of what will work for your books. But you should also expect to pay more for the freelancers you find here. If you’re going the self-publishing route within fiction, a professional editor is a must, an absolute necessity, seriously. Reedsy is a great way to find one, with almost every budget available. If you can’t afford the lower tier, I suggest saving your pennies or going the traditional publishing route, where a publisher will provide you a professional editor to work with.

Getting Feedback

21. Survey Monkey

Is an easy to use survey builder; ask multiple choice questions and get demographic information about your audiences, like age, sex, or occupation. You can use it for your current email list, or post a survey with a lead magnet somewhere your target audience will see it (forums, pay-per-click ad etc.)

22. PickFu

PickFu allows authors to get instant feedback on your book before you publish using audience polls. This is a more advanced option for those who already have income streams, again I don’t suggest paying for a resource unless you’ve used a free version and had equitable success with it.

Email Marketing

23. AWeber

With a drag and drop email builder, unlimited image storage and an easy to use interface, AWeber is a great option to manage your email marketing communication.

24. MailChimp

MailChimp offers 12,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers – free. That’s what MailChimp can do for you. A great email marketing resource if you’re just getting started. MailChimp is easy to set up, easy to manage and offers an easy to scale pricing plan as your list grows. As the Wix email option ‘Shoutout’ has a capped number of emails you can send but an exportable email list. You can use MailChimp to send additional emails if you are pushing the boundaries of the free Wix option.

25. Constant Contact

You can’t call yourself constant contact and then not be available to your customers. And that’s just what makes this email automation company shine. They offer round the clock support 7 days a week. They also offer 60-day FREE trial.

26. SpyFU

Search for any domain and see every place they’ve shown up on Google: every keyword they’ve bought on AdWords, every organic rank, and every ad variation in the last 11 years. This combined with Wix’s seamless SEO makes key words unbelievably easy. You don’t need to have some ten years long.

Learn how to connect with these domains, too. Find online and traditional leads methods — social media, email, phone, and address — you can’t find anywhere else. So you can look at other authors within your niche and find out exactly where readers are going to find them.

Staying Organized

27. Google Keep

Keep is an excellent organisation tool. It stores every idea, research plan and content structure. Which can quickly be dumped into Scrivner later.

28. Evernote

Another option this is with a few more features is Evernote, you can save snippets of content you find online and go back to all of it in a searchable, taggable easy to find notebooks on Evernote. It also connects to my Google Home via IFTTT which frustratingly Google Keep doesn’t seem to, so I can handsfree keep notes easily.

29. Google Drive

Accessible from anywhere with internet, Google Drive is a great collaborative tool for teams to use when you’re working with content, files, or images in tandem. Google Sheets and Google Docs makes group work seamless, and all work can easily be shared with hyperlinks.

30. Tomato Timer

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management strategy preferred by many authors. It’s not always easy to keep track of the non-writing tasks related to your book projects. With Brain Focus Productivity Timer, an excel sheet (or just pen and paper) and Scrivner’s session tracking you can keep motivated with tangible evidence of how hard you’re working. Not only time associated with the project. Team Viz is another excellent paid alternative to this method, and you can’t forget the simple Tomato Timer (tomato-timer.com)

31. Slack

It’s like super chat. Instant communication. Instant file transfer. Indexed and Searchable. It is fantastic for collaboration if you have a specific project you are working on. Again, use wisely, if you are co-authoring for example. Not if you’re just working with a freelancer for a short time, instead use the platform’s chat for content protection!

32. Lander App

You can learn more about A/B testing here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing

I have experimented with A/B testing in the past but didn’t feel that it was hugely beneficial. I think that you have to have a relatively sophisticated reason to use A/B testing. Potentially I’ll use this for a book launch with a landing page in the future. Of those that I experimented with, I found Lander App to be the most straightforward to use.

Again, if you don’t know what A/B testing doesn’t worry, you don’t need to! Don’t jump to trying to use A/B testing, focus instead on the following:

– Mailing list Opt-in rate

– You unique visitor Site traffic

– Total engagement (comments, email responses) / Book Sales

For the third point there, you concentrate on engagement if you haven’t released your first book yet!

Website Hosting

33. Freenom – A Name for Everyone

One of my favourite hosting companies, if you’re just starting out, I don’t suggest spending any money on anything if you can avoid it. This is perfect for this, as instead of choosing a.com or a.net you can get a free domain and easily swap with redirection later once you’re profitable. Personally, I use Wix for all website things, but this is an excellent option if you’re just starting out.

34. WP Engine

WP Engine is a hosting company that provides managed WordPress hosting for websites around the world. They have great support, and their servers help your WordPress site run a top speed. I use Wix as I find it far more user-friendly, however, the advanced features do require a minimum annual cost. With WordPress, most features can be scaled up for free, but a bit more mucking around with add-ons and tech stuff.

Definition of Copyright and Copywriting

You can apply for a copyright or you can apply for some copywriting, but they’re totally different things. In the first case, you’re asking for a document that gives you the right to publish something. In the second, you’re asking for a writing job. Writers often get them confused.

Copyright

A copyright is a legal document issued by the Copyright section of the United States Patent Office. It states that the person named on the document as the author owns the right to publish the written material designated in the document. That doesn’t mean that the person named actually wrote the copy, only that he or she has the legal right to publish it.

It’s not necessary to copyright anything. Legally, as soon as a person commits words to paper, they’re protected by a copyright whether a government document has been acquired or not. Practically, if you write something, and I apply for and get a copyright on it, it’s going to be tough for you to prove that you wrote it.

From the tech writer’s POV, it’s a little different. The law says that work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, or a work specially ordered or commissioned is a “work made for hire” and the employer is considered to be the author. If you get paid to write something for someone else, you don’t have a right to it.

In its correct forms, the word is:

– copyright: the right to publish

“She owns the copyright to that book.”

– copyrighted: the condition of being covered by a copyright

“You can’t publish that because it’s copyrighted material.”

– copyrighting: the act of obtaining a copyright

“I’m copyrighting this even as I write it.”

There is no such form as copyright or copywritten correctly associated with this definition even though the Microsoft Word Spell Check accepts copywritten as a correct spelling (but doesn’t say for what), and copywritten shows up all over the Web in place of copyrighted.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the act of creating copy or content. Generally, the term refers to writing in the sense of creating non-technical material. It’s different from the kind of writing tech writers do. Some jobs that call for copywriting are marketing brochures, magazines, newspapers, and consumer-directed communications. If you’re a writer, you might be a copywriter.

Bonus

Here’s another comparison to be careful of. If you want to write plays, you want to be a playwright. Yes, that’s right. You have to write wright when you’re writing about writing plays. We almost never use wright by itself. It’s used mostly in compound words such as wheelwright, millwright, or wainwright. We do see it a lot as a name; Frank Lloyd Wright or Wright/Patterson Airbase.

Wright has the same history as Smith. A smith was anyone who worked some kind of metal with a hammer; blacksmith, tinsmith, silversmith. A wright was a craftsman who made something. The name of the occupation became the name of an individual.

A person who makes plays is a playwright. True, he may write them, but he’s not a playwright. I guess you could argue that a person who writes copy is a copywright, but it’s not used that way.

1. Readers understand words

Readers understand words because they have read how sentences and words fit together, the order of a sentence and the placement of words. They understand the sentences because they have seen these words and similar sentences before. They can then use them in writing or compose similar ones.

2. Readers understand the structure of the Language

Readers have seen the structure so many times that they can readily understand how to construct great sentences. They can see that writers use different kinds of sentences to make Writing more interesting like starting out with a question. Then the author proceeds to answer it. A variety of sentences like Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative and Exclamatory make Writing much more delightful to read. Readers also see that some sentences are long and some are shorter. By varying sentence length, it keeps the Writing more lively.

3. Readers understand grammar

Good grammar only makes sense to readers. They know how different parts of speech should fit together. For example: they know in the sentence “The boy rides his bike,” that rides goes with a single subject noun. Thus, they understand subject-verb agreement. Understanding good grammar really can assist the reader in Writing. They are much more able to write complex and simple sentences.

4. Readers understand thoughts of the writer

Good readers understand the thoughts of the writer because they have read and thought along with the authors. This helps them in Writing their own compositions. This is a tremendous asset in Writing. When you read, you follow the author’s train of thought. It is so natural.

5. Readers have a great vocabulary

Because of their tremendous reading, readers have a great vocabulary. This will certainly help in Writing. They will use a variety of words, not the same old thing. I have a cousin who was such a wonderful reader. When he wrote his thesis for his doctorate, the words he used were so large and long, one needed a dictionary to look them up. He always beat everyone in Scrabble when he was little, even the adults. No one could outdo him. His vocabulary was extensive.

6. Readers know how to make their writing interesting and exciting

Readers read. They know they don’t like to read “boring” books or articles. They can see how authors use words to paint pictures and make it more interesting and exciting. Redundancy is poor Writing and writers need to stay away from it. Usually good readers are good writers. They go hand in hand. One complements the other.

7. Readers can use creative ways to make people want to read what they wrote

Finally, I would say that good readers can make their Writing creative. People want to read it. It would be a book you can’t put down. You just want to keep reading it until the end. It is like a bait to a fish. I thought The Shack was like that. It had a great story line, the kind that would interest many people. A good reader can do that. I loved it when my students were creative in Writing. Sometimes I would put a sentence or part of a sentence on the board. It was great to see their creativity using that sentence and making an adventurous story from it.