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Stairway to Earth -- Bill Birchard » Blog Archive » Factual time bombs

http://www.stairwaytoearth.com/2015/03/05/factual-time-bombs

A BLOG DEDICATED TO PROFESSIONALS WHO WANT TO WRITE BOOKS. There’s an old saying in journalism: If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out. In other words, don’t believe. You hear until you go to a second source and check your facts before publication. I’ve covered the hazards of giving short shrift to fact-checking in an earlier post. My purpose here is to tell a story to show how important that step is in the book process. In 1998, I was doing research for my first book,. Counting What Counts,.

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Stairway to Earth -- Bill Birchard » Blog Archive » Titling your bestseller

http://www.stairwaytoearth.com/2014/12/18/titling-your-bestseller

A BLOG DEDICATED TO PROFESSIONALS WHO WANT TO WRITE BOOKS. What’s the secret for titling a serious nonfiction book? There is no secret. A host of writers in books, blogs, and articles give you the recipe without hesitation. And many of them are full of confidence that their titling formula will create a bestseller. One blogger proclaims the five proven ways to create a bestselling book title. All of these writings are helpful, but of course no one knows. What I Know For Sure. 1) Start with keywords.

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Stairway to Earth -- Bill Birchard » Step 4 Right Content

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EIGHT STEPS TO GETTING OUT OF THE CLOUDS AND HITTING THE GROUND.WRITING. Step 4 Right Content. When I work with authors, I stress a key distinction: concept versus content. By concept, I mean ideas, messages, insights, and conclusions. By content, I mean anecdotes, research data, study results, case stories, expert testimony, interview transcripts. Concept is assertion. Content is evidence. You need plenty of both. Do I have valuable freight that’s entertaining and educational? Digital reference files: I...

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Stairway to Earth -- Bill Birchard » Blog Archive » Beware permissions

http://www.stairwaytoearth.com/2014/11/24/beware-permissions

A BLOG DEDICATED TO PROFESSIONALS WHO WANT TO WRITE BOOKS. Say you want to spice up a chapter with a stanza of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind. How many roads must a man walk down, Before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail… etc.) Can you do so? Probably not under fair use laws. Just to give you an idea of the time involved, I requested permission to reprint five short book excerpts in. Stairway to Earth: How to Write a Serious Book. The Inner Game of Tennis,. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

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Stairway to Earth -- Bill Birchard » Blog Archive » Writing to think

http://www.stairwaytoearth.com/2014/12/29/writing-to-think

A BLOG DEDICATED TO PROFESSIONALS WHO WANT TO WRITE BOOKS. I regularly urge authors to work separately on two forms of composition: writing to think and writing to deliver. Writing to think is journaling, stream-of-consciousness style, to air and shape thoughts. It is part of prewriting. Writing to deliver is composing for publication, the actual words that will go into print. What should you write to think about? Goals: What are your goals in writing the book? Creating a calling card? Also, are there be...

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Stairway to Earth -- Bill Birchard » Step 3 Right Differentiation

http://www.stairwaytoearth.com/step-3-right-differentiation

EIGHT STEPS TO GETTING OUT OF THE CLOUDS AND HITTING THE GROUND.WRITING. Step 3 Right Differentiation. How do I know I’m saying something fresh? Maybe I’m just writing a book someone else wrote already. Books today are products. Tens of thousands are published each year. To catch a publisher’s eye, yours has to distinguish itself from all the others. And do you have a ready way to sell books — through speaking engagements, teaching, web sales, or other sales channels? Step 3: The paper trail continues.

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Stairway to Earth -- Bill Birchard » Blog Archive » Mind the contract nits

http://www.stairwaytoearth.com/2014/12/08/mind-the-contract-nits

A BLOG DEDICATED TO PROFESSIONALS WHO WANT TO WRITE BOOKS. Mind the contract nits. In a once-in-a-decade event, the Authors Guild. Just released its new Model Trade Book Contract last month. Though Guild members alone are privy to the document, the Guild’s lawyers recently held a conference call to discuss highlights. Guild attorneys urged authors to amend the publishers’ option-clause boilerplate. Don’t allow publishers the coveted right to automatically publish your next work on the same terms as t...

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Stairway to Earth -- Bill Birchard » Step 6 Right Craft

http://www.stairwaytoearth.com/step-6-right-craft

EIGHT STEPS TO GETTING OUT OF THE CLOUDS AND HITTING THE GROUND.WRITING. Step 6 Right Craft. Writing skill how to structure paragraphs, choose words and metaphors, draft sentences was once the skill I thought you most needed in creating a manuscript. Now I know it is only one. A lot of brainstorming, critical thinking, research, and organization come into play first. My view, however, is that a solid approach to writing a chapter follows an age-old pattern used by journalists: lead, nut, body, close.

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Stairway to Earth -- Bill Birchard » Step 7 Right Game Plan

http://www.stairwaytoearth.com/step-7-right-game-plan

EIGHT STEPS TO GETTING OUT OF THE CLOUDS AND HITTING THE GROUND.WRITING. Step 7 Right Game Plan. As I work on organization and craft, I start a publication game plan. My usual objective is to sell the proposal to an editor at a publishing house. I know I have several alternatives, however. I can sell it myself. I can sell through an agent. Or I can self-publish. The choice is an important one, because how I go to market later with the book depends on it. Step 7: The paper trail continues. Pitch letter: I...