Writer’s Tip: How To Write a Short Book in a Year!

How to Write a Short Book in One Year
In order to write a book, you must write consistently. Choose one day a week when you know you’ll have the time to write and write at least 2 pages (more is OK, but start with at least 2 type written pages.) Later on you can expand this to more days per week, but start with one day and make it a consistent habit.

Figure out if your best writing time is in the morning, afternoon or evening and set aside a space to write in. You can write with a notepad, in a journal, on the computer, on a typewriter, whichever method feels the most comfortable for you.

Pick a subject that you are passionate about, it’s easier to write about something you care about.

After you have your two pages, throw them into a file, don’t look at them again, or try to edit them, just start collecting the pages.

After three months, take out the pages and put them in a sensible order, then go through and print them out double spaced so you can do an initial editing job on them. Check them for spelling, punctuation, grammar, fact check them and then make those corrections to your writing. Fill in the information and transitions from one chapter to another.

If you have not already done so, create a story board or an outline of the chapters and subjects you’d like to cover in the book and reorganize the chapters so they make sense.

Continue to write in this manner and in a year you’ll have a 104 page manuscript.

I hope this helps!!!

BTW, I wrote my latest book about Budgeting with this method, only I increased the number of writing days to four per week, so the manuscript would be done in 8 months, then spent 6 weeks at my editor’s desk (with suggestions and corrections flying back and forth until we got it right and tight.) Then another 2 weeks at my book designer’s (for the interior and exterior design), so that the book was completed by November and in the stores for Christmas!

Op-Ed: Choosing between printing hardbound vs e-books

Op-Ed: Choosing between printing a hardbound vs an e-book for your self-help books.

When it comes to printing and publishing a “how to” or self-help book, the choice of whether to go with hardbound or E-book is a no-brainer. Why? Because, information changes, particularly with self-help books. For example, if you’re giving your readers a list of telephone numbers and contact information, that information can be outdated at any time and you may need to change it to keep the information current. Or, new methods of dealing with a problem may arise or old methods may no longer be viable. If your book is in hardbound form, it is very difficult to upgrade or update the information without spending a great deal of money.

Let’s say that you’re writing a self-help book on how to do your personal income taxes. Every year, the tax code changes, minimums and maximums allowed for different categories are changed, and certain deductible categories may disappear entirely. Instead of having to go through the expense of correcting and reprinting your hardbound book, you may want to choose an e-book format so you can simply rewrite the updated information and upload your new version.

With e-books, you can correct website links, update statistics, or include new information without incurring a huge cost. You can expand certain chapters, add chapters or delete chapters, depending on what you’ve learned in the last year.

I’ve published both paperback and e-books, and if you’re working in nonfiction writing, it may be a better choice to publish your work as an ebook. You will have more flexibility and less cost if you choose this format for self-help books.

Writer’s Tips- The Elevator Speech

Thursday is the day to share your Writer’s Tips! Mine is about “The Elevator Speech”.

You may be asking yourself “What the heck is an Elevator Speech and How do I write one?” Imagine you are in an office building, you get on the elevator with other people and one person turns to you and asks “So, what do you do?” Pretend this person is someone who may be able to help you with your business in some way, or may purchase your product.

An elevator speech is a prepared answer that you are comfortable with saying to a stranger, that describes what you do and how to contact you in 30 seconds, about the time it takes for an elevator to travel a few floors.

You need to be able to look a stranger in the eyes, give your speech as though it isn’t overly rehearsed, and then hand them your business card.

Here is mine:

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening, my name is Diane Tegarden, President of FireWalker Publications, where we are fueling your future. I write, produce, publish and promote a variety of books, including self-help, poetry and science fiction. If you’d like to know more about my business, books or TV and radio interviews, please visit my website at http://www.firewalkerpublications.com.

I’d like to ask you a little favor (it’s free!)

I’d like to ask you a simple favor (if it’s not too much trouble, that is)…

Go to your local library and ask for “Budgeting on a Dime: 10 Steps to Financial Independence” by Diane Tegarden. They won’t have a copy, but if you request it they will look on their Ingram Book List of available titles, find it there and order a copy for their library. This will help get the book into circulation, and won’t cost you a dime. BTW, if you want to read it, this way you can read it for free!

31 Days of Notable Women- Lisa Gansky, partnership marketer

Lisa Gansky, author of The Mesh, is a marketect and “impact junky” with a strong interest in breaking the edges of formerly happy business models and bringing together not-so-likely characters in the form of new offerings, teams and partnerships.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Gansky

Get Your Truly FREE Annual Credit Report

For a truly FREE credit report without having to sign up for a service, go to www.annualcreditreport.com and you can request your credit report free from the three main credit reporting services. No charge! For more helpful, money saving tips, check out my newest book “Budgeting on a Dime: 10 Steps to Financial Independence” which can be found at Amazon.com at
http://www.amazon.com/Budgeting-Dime-Steps-Financial-Independence/dp/0974536970/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354724445&sr=1-4&keywords=Budgeting+on+a+Dime

Broken Wing…by Diane Tegarden

This is from my poetry collection “Light Through Shuttered Window”.

Broken Wing
by Diane Tegarden © 2007

Infallible, invincible, an angel of quiet mercy,
that’s who I thought she was.
Hands and arms to hold me,
to smooth my angered brow,
to hush my tears
and cool the fever of deepest pain.

Childish dreams,
broken on the wheel of my father’s self-hate,
the wheel crushing all those around him.
Who would dare
to question his judgment,
his actions, his words?

I would dare.
While those around me
would stare into their empty lap,
agreeing ever so silently
(With me?)
(With him?)

Yet in truth, the silence was their acceptance
of his awful, all encompassing authority,
his ignorance, his guilt.
Since only my voice
was raised against him,
I was the target of his rage.

Red hot and uncontrolled,
his hand would breach
that impossibly wide
gap between us.
He hit me in the face.
I had dared.

His hate, restless, mere violence no outlet,
he would verbally stab
at my every character weakness,
feeling strength in sounding my deepest wounds,
he would stab again and again,
screaming vicious, cruel lies at the tiny child within.

I believed him.

Eventually, after his anger was spent
after his fury had savaged my childish senses,
my protecting angel, would finally appear by my side,
to
silence
me.

The World Water Wars (Anti-Vigilante and The Rips in Time)

I’ve written an unusual science fiction novel “Anti-Vigilante and The Rips in Time”.  Creating my own world, peoples and language, the book is a “preventable vision of the future” with its hooks deep into renewable energy and the impending World Water Wars.  The science in my book utilizes ocean energy and photovoltaics to power their daily world. People from the past become the Gods of the Future as they appear through the Rips in Time.

You can find “Anti-Vigilante and the Rips in Time” at Amazon.com today, just follow this link: http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Vigilante-Rips-Time-Diane-Tegarden/dp/0974536911/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350751953&sr=1-2&keywords=Anti-Vigilante

Tax Tip#1- Giving to Charities

Tax Tip#1. If you give to charities, make sure they are 501(c)3 charities, so your donations will be tax deductible. If they are 501(c)3 charities, they will usually send you a letter or receipt stating their status and the amount you gave with each donation. Keep all these in a file marked Donations or Charitable Contributions, and at the end of the year, they’ll be handy and easy to add up!

For more money saving ideas, read “Budgeting on a Dime: 10 Steps to Financial Independence” which can be found on Amazon.com at:

Budgeting on a Dime: 10 Steps to Financial Independence

I guarantee that following only a few tips from this book will more than cover the low, low price!

The Crystal Heart- original poetry by Diane Tegarden

The Crystal Heart
By Diane Tegarden
1984

Once I was a child, laughing at the world.
I knew that I would learn and love,
to live and give,
and- win!

I boldly walked, then danced, then ran,
so free and strong and brave.
I knew that life was full of wonder,
and I was not afraid.

The child went out into the world,
the world that really is,
A large and somewhat frightful place,
where you must earn- and sin.

The paths I took, well, some were hard,
the ways of innocence, severed.
The child
a woman became.

Then I was a woman,
hot, bright and full of life.
But years of living dangerously
turned wishes into strife.

Many times I’ve made mistakes
giving of deepest self.
It finally tore my heart from me,
it sat upon a lonely shelf.

A man whose story matches mine,
had such a crystal heart.
He bound it in a place of steel,
to hide the emptiness.

Then when we met, we saw a light
reflected in each other’s eyes,
embers of fires burning low.
The glass begins to fill again-
we know.

This poem, and many others, can be found in my book “Light Through Shuttered Window” a compendium of my collected poetry, songs and stories.