fiction

Dr Johnson on Success

Samuel Johnson grew up poor and handicapped in 18th Century England. He was also brilliant and determined to be independent. Son of a bookseller, Johnson was a voracious reader.

While attending Oxford, young Samuel was mortified when a fellow student left a pair of shoes on the doorstep one night after noticing the condition of his tattered shoes. He dropped out of Oxford after a year, unable to pay his tuition.

Read the rest of this entry »

Write a Bestseller! 7 Places to Find Great Story Illustrations

The stories you tell in your self-help book must have meaning to your audience. What kind of stories will interest them, provide them with hope and motivate them to move forward in their lives? The answer is “stories about people like them.”

Think about what your audience looks like, believes, rejects, and values. Remember their age, gender, and other relevant characteristics. Most importantly, get in touch with their more difficult emotions: discouragement, frustration, guilt, shame and so forth. Then concentrate on the feelings you want them to feel: hope, competency, success and pride in a job well done. The more you understand your audience, how they think, what moves and motivates them, the better you will be at selecting most compelling stories.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tips For Writing Your First Book – Important Things to Remember About Books

Here are some facts about writing a book that you should remember.

Books require someone to read the book. If you don’t have a group of readers you don’t have anything except a bunch of paper with type on it. You have to find the group you will sell most of the books to and concentrate on them. You can’t be all over. If you look at T.V. channels they always are aimed at a specific group of watchers. Cartoon channels are aimed at kids and teenagers, the news channels at those who want to be kept up to date, science-fiction channels, etc. They concentrate on one group of people, because otherwise nobody will watch them; it is the same with books.

All books need to meet a need. A weight loss book helps to meet the needs of someone who is trying to lose weight, while a fiction book meets the needs of someone who needs to be entertained. Your book must do the same: it needs to give the reader answers or solutions, or at least help them find these answers and solutions to their needs.

Read the rest of this entry »