Yikes! My hard drive crashed today. Joy! I use the Mac’s built-in Time Machine functionality, so that I’m continually backing up to a 1T hard drive. I lost–nothing. Took my MacBook Pro (unlike most laptops, it’s not a do-it-yourself hard-drive machine) to the techs; 3 hours later, voila! The Mac’s ready to bring home. I [...]
May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A “magic pocket”
The tools of the author’s trade used to be simple and few–something to write with, something to write on. Today we have a lot more help–or distraction, depending on your proclivities. The computer, with its keyboard, spell-checker, dictation software, gorgeous printing, great organizing abilities, has become indispensable for me. I love to type, and have always hated [...]
May 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Pain
If you want your book to be read, and to do good for people, an excellent approach is to focus on a particular pain that your audience is experiencing. Of course, this means you must have a specific audience in mind when you are writing. And that’s worth at least a paragraph or two right [...]
May 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Another plug for FastPencil
I’ve written before about FastPencil.com, an online collaborative portal for authors. But “online collaborative portal” doesn’t really convey the whole juicy picture. Here’s more of the story: When you decide you seriously want to write a book, you may just start writing. Or perhaps you start thinking things through and realizing there are lots of [...]
May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Don’t write a book
Let’s face it, writing a book is a non-trivial undertaking. I mean, you’ve been thinking about it for–how long now? A year? Five? Surely if it were important or could make a significant difference in your business, you’d have realized it and just gotten it done. Think about all the things you have to do [...]