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.

Johnson started a teaching career. Lacking a degree, and with physical handicaps that made him a target for children’s disrespect, he was not successful.

So he turned to writing where his career finally blossomed. Johnson was a prolific writer, creating a dictionary, poems, sermons, books, and political essays. Today he is the second most frequently quoted person in the English-speaking world, second only to Shakespeare.

What does this story have to do with you?

At first glance, nothing.

Look a little deeper into his writings and you’ll find this quote:

“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.”

Bam. Kind of hits you right between the eyes doesn’t it?

At this time of year when we are rushing around with holiday preparations, looking back at 2008 and beating ourselves up for all the things we did or did not do, those twelve words put it all into perspective.

Ponder this on a winter’s night:

* Are you happy at home?
* How can you mark and celebrate the richness of your home life?
* In what ways does your business support your home life or subtract from it?
* What are you going to do to enhance your happiness at home?

As you wind up 2008 and look ahead to 2009, use these words to create what really matters in your life and your business. Do the same for your readers.

“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.”

Samuel Johnson

Raise your glass with me in celebration of all the little things that make home feel like home.

Want to create a successful book? Free monthly author training calls with successful authors at http://www.SparkforAuthors.com. Lynne Klippel is a publisher, best-selling author and book coach who specializes in helping authors write great non-fiction books and use them to build their business and profits.

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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.

Where can you find relevant stories?

I’ve used stories in all of my books and no doubt your favorite self-help book authors have as well. You may have wondered when reading self-help books, where do these stories come from? Stories can be found all around you. Let’s start with your story and how you can use it in your book.

1. Your story

If you want to develop a more intimate relationship you’re your readers, it’s a good to include it at the beginning of your book, such as in your introduction or in the first chapter. In Take the U Out of Clutter, Mark Brunetz and I each told our stories in the first chapter. You can also include snippets of your story throughout the book when your experiences are relevant.

Since your story is about you, it can be one of the easiest ways to illustrate your message. Most readers are curious about the author’s experiences. Occasionally, authors get overly obsessed with themselves and turn off their readers. But one of the most effectively way to create a personal connection between yourself and your readers is to describe your own foibles and achievements, and poke a little fun at yourself.

2. Your story in disguise

In addition to including stories about yourself, you can disguise your experiences and present the story as if it happened to someone else. In my first book, When Helping You Is Hurting Me, the clients I described were actually based on my own issues, inner conflicts and challenges. To the extent that the stories reflected my personal experiences, they were “true”. But I embodied these aspects in characters that I created.

A word of warning belongs here:Because an engaging story centers on conflict, your story will often include other people. Be careful about telling someone else’s story without their permission. Yes, you may have gone through a divorce and you want to draw from that experience. But chances are your ex won’t be too keen on you exposing his or her personal life for all the world to see. If you use someone else’s story in a way that can be identified, whether it’s a part of your story or not, it’s important that you get a signed release form that person.

3. Observation

Where else can you find stories? From both your personal and professional worlds. You can include stories from your clients, patients and customers. No doubt someone in your family has had an experience relevant to your topic. Round this out with experiences your friends have had and there’s quite a large pool to draw from. As with the previous section, stories that are about other people should be told only once a signed release form is obtained.

4. Interviews

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people over my career for the specific purpose of getting real stories to include in my books. I bend over backwards to make sure that those I interview are happy with the way they are portrayed.

I’ve never had any difficulty with using real stories because I work so closely with those I interview, and I have everyone sign a release form. However, it only takes one disgruntled person to file a law suit, and who has time for that? Search online for sample forms, or request that your publishing house provide you with appropriate forms. But it is a good idea to get something in writing as close to the beginning of the project as possible.

5. Someone else’s story in disguise

A way to sidestep having to get signed release forms is to disguise the identity of the people in the story. Similar to basing the stories and characters in your own story, you can change specific features such as gender, location, age, and their relationship to you. It’s important to change enough of the features so that no one, even those closest to you, can figure out who you’re referring to.

6. Composites

Another popular way to get the stories you need while protecting confidentiality and privacy is to combine features from two or more people you know. This can be helpful if the true story doesn’t illustrate the point you want to make as well as you’d like. Often, reality doesn’t fit into the nice, tidy categories we authors have created. As long as you’re up front with your audience about the nature of your stories, you can blend several people into one illustration.

7. Pure Fiction

There is a fine line between creating a composite and writing pure fiction. Basic honesty would restrict you from “making up” success stories when, in fact, no one has ever been helped by your program. It’s unethical to claim that Mary lost 50 pounds when no one has ever lost that much weight on your diet, or to report that your conflict resolution program saved Charlie and Pamela’s marriage when your clients have ended up divorced. Create your composite stories carefully, with a keen eye on illustrating what is true. You can run into problems if your stories are more fiction than genuine experiences people have had.

Acknowledge your story process

I’m often asked by readers I meet if the stories in my books are true. Since readers often identify with the people in the stories, they are naturally curious about how “real” these people are. I tell them the truth, whatever that may be for the book in question. Sometimes all of the characters are parts of myself, some stories give identifying features and I use people’s real names, and some of my stories are based in fact but told in a way that is not exploitive. I’ve never had anyone express concern about the stories I’ve used as long as I’m up front with them. To strengthen the credibility of your stories, I recommend that you acknowledge your process somewhere in the book.

To learn how to get your book published download my free article, “The 3 Most Important Questions You Must Answer to Land a Book Contract” at http://www.carmenreneeberry.com/untitled16.html

Carmen Berry, MSW is a New York Times bestselling author who has taught aspiring authors how to get published for 10 years. Her coaching draws, not only from her successes, but also from the many mistakes she has made during her 25-year writing career. As a result, her clients can avoid making common-sense blunders that many first-time authors make. It’s okay to be a first-time author as long as you don’t act like an amateur. She works with aspiring writers who love helping people such as mental health professionals, educators, medical professionals, pastors, fitness experts and craft enthusiasts.

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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.

The best type of person with a need is someone with a problem or group of problems. Your readers are no different, so find a common problem in the community you are aiming at and work it to your advantage. All problems have solutions, so promise a solution to this problem in your book, and give them the solution. If it happens to be a fiction then make the character’s problem their problem now; they must feel like the only way for an answer is to buy your book and read it.

If you are publishing a book just for the sake of publishing a book it won’t work. It must have feeling. You must have a reason to write. Figure out why you want to – why you have to – write this book, and you will do much better. This will also be required for the blurb on the front of the book telling the reader a little about you. You have to know what entitles you to be able to write this book and help people with whatever problem they happen to have, whether it be a lack of entertainment or learning how to play the kazoo.

Many people today write books as a means of branding themselves. If this is your reason there is one important fact you need to know.

People really don’t give a darn about who the publisher is.

They care about what the book contains, how the writer can help them, and the fact that it’s published. What this means is that you don’t have to convince a traditional publishing house to publish your book. Modern on demand publishers have given you the capability to publish the book yourself. As far as the public is concerned, you’ll do just as well publishing under a name of your choosing. It is best not to use your name as the publisher’s name, however. Use something different enough for people to not know right away that it’s you publishing the books. The only problem of course, is that this doesn’t work with book sellers who continue to rely on the traditional publishing houses for their product.

Do you want to learn how to write a book in 24 hours? Take my brand new free course here: http://www.learningcreators.com

Do you want to read more free information like this? Go to my blog: http://www.learningcreators.com/blog/

Glen Ford is an accomplished consultant, trainer and writer. He has far too many years experience as a trainer and facilitator to willingly admit.

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You know writing your book will be good for you–it will attract more ideal clients to you, it will make your business more visible, it will allow you to make more money, and it will get your message out to much bigger audiences. You want to write the book and you have lots of ideas, but when you sit down to do it, you just can’t seem to get anything done.

Why is it such a struggle when the desire is there? Because writing a book is such a big project that if you sit down thinking, “I’m going to write my book,” you’ll end up overwhelmed. You won’t see an easy entry point. It’s like trying to see individual trees in a vast and dense forest–the task seems so big that it’s hard to see it for its smaller pieces. But forests aren’t just one big thing; they’re a collection of many smaller things all working together.

Books are the same way. They’re not just a big idea written out; they’re many smaller ideas compiled and arranged so they communicate something larger. Books are created sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page, and chapter by chapter. When you understand this, the idea of writing a book is more manageable. Just like you’d have to plant a forest one tree at a time, you can’t write a book by sitting down to write a book-you have to break it down into smaller pieces and write them one at a time.

So where do you start? Once you understand that a book is several smaller pieces put together, you just need to figure out what your smaller pieces are. What stories are you going to use? What strategies are you going to teach? What examples are you going to give? Then when you sit down to write, you work on one of those small assignments.

You’re not writing an entire book; you’re writing an example of how your readers can apply your first strategy, or you’re writing about the importance of the third step in your system, or whatever your assignment is for that day. Only after you break the bigger task down can you truly grasp where to start and what it will take to get it done.

When you approach writing a book as many small pieces, the task is no longer overwhelming. You can sit down to write with a sense of purpose and a manageable task to complete. Then you can come back and do the same thing the next day. And before you know it, you’re no longer thinking about writing your book-it’s actually done.

Melinda Copp helps aspiring nonfiction, business, and self-help authors get clear on their story and book idea, and figure out how to put it all together so their ideal readers love it. Visit http://www.writerssherpaprograms.com/writeabook.html for a free copy of her “Jumpstart Your Book E-course!” and get your book started now.

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1. You are writing a book sold well.

Maybe this is the most difficult conditions met. You might think that the best-selling book is a book that has a very good quality, a masterpiece. Wrong. Not necessarily.

Not all of the best-selling book is a masterpiece. Quality books sold was not necessarily a lot. Indeed, even so, a book with good quality are more likely to be in demand. So, there are many possibilities of your book will be a bestseller.

2. You are productive enough to write a book.

If you have the book Best Seller You deserve gratitude. But how many still expressed a book best-seller sold in many countries.
Moreover, if we look at the conditions in the countries which are very low interest in reading. It can be seen that  a book called the best-seller can be reached only in the range of the thousands. Tens of thousands will be the best. It’s even less if the book is non-fiction books. To avoid this happens we must productive writing a book.

3. You have an income which is a side effect of your writing

Surely you’ve seen a lot of professionals who write a book.Once I have asked a writer to find out what is his motivation to write a book. He answered that he have written a book just to share knowledge, promote expertise. Royalty is not in his answer.

Value is not worth the time and energy that should be devoted to writing a book. By writing the book he will get more credibility to encourage business.

4. You have to promote yourself
It is not time again that a writer is a solitary, immersed in busy writing and forget the relationship with the outside world.

A writer once said that because he was not one who can speak well that is why he became a writer. The worst thing, he just writes and writes, and never appeared in the world. If you have a chance you are supposed to interact with the environment and talk to anyone.

1.Get to the main point
Don’t waste your reader’s time by presenting lengthy stories of the character’s past, the opening of long stories or funny things. Reduce the noise and talk less. King has a direct and fast technique on conflicts or tensions. Do this fast before the readers lose their temper and get rid of your works.

2.Draft the story and pour out for a while.
King suggests you to write a story draft and then keep it in a drawer. Let it have a rest there!, as long As you wish. King keeps his scripts for months before the editing process and rereading. This method is to get rid of confused thoughts when writing scripts and getting thoughts or clear view points over the scripts we have made. Thus, editing, correcting, adding or even cutting off the unnecessary can be easier. The result is inevitably better and sharper.