It used to be that to become a writer,
you had to hope that you could convince the gatekeepers to let you pass.
Publishers held all the cards, and your only option was to play the game
their way (or not play at all).
Those days are gone...
Jeff Goins is a great example of someone
who has figured out the new rules and freedoms that exist when it comes
to being a writer. He shares his insights as well as dishing out
plenty of encouragement in his new e-book You
Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One).
What I found is that I'm much closer to "being a writer"
than I give myself credit for. In fact, I *am* a writer... I just
need to decide where I want to take it from here.
Contents:
Foreword
Introduction
Writers Are Born, Not Made
The Truth About Writing
Building a Platform
Establishing a Brand
Channels of Connection
Getting Started
Before Your First Book
What Next?
About the Author
Share this Book
Being a writer comes down to making
a choice... a choice to BE a writer... to write. There is nothing
to prevent you from putting your words out there for others to read. Goins
acknowledges that it isn't necessarily easy to commit to writing (as opposed
to just thinking about writing). But with all the online tools available
(blogs, e-books, newsletters, etc.), there's no reason that your writing
has to remain in your head or be limited to actual paper and ink.
Beyond the encouragement aspect of the
material, Goins has solid information on how to put down a foundation on
which to base your efforts. Building a platform (get experience,
demonstrate competence, generate buzz) establishes you as someone worth
listening to and following. Branding yourself is also critical in
today's over-saturated media environment. Take the time to figure
out what you want to portray to others, as that will be what people will
think of when they turn to you. Finally, you need to figure out how
you'll communicate and connect with your audience. While it's easier
than ever to make connections via Twitter, Facebook, and other online tools,
it's also critically important to not neglect those channels once you set
them up. It's a privilege to have people listen to you. If
you don't reciprocate that listening, your audience won't stay around very
long.
You Are A Writer is a book that won't
take you very long to read, but it will stay with you forever if you let
the message change the way you think about who and what you are. You
*are* a writer if you choose to be...
Book Review - Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection by A. J. Jacobs
Sun, May 19th 2013 10:13a Thomas Duff I've always been amused by people who
are health fanatics following some particular trend or fad that promises
to fix every issue known to medical science. A. J. Jacobs decided to follow
all the health advice he could find for a year, and the result is his book
Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection.
With the type of humor displayed in his prior books, Jacobs shows just
how impossible it is to follow all the health advice out there (or even
a small part of it). [read] Keywords:
52
Sun, May 19th 2013 9:10a Thomas Duff Nate Silver is the current rock star
of statistics and predictions based on the overwhelming accuracy of his
forecasts in the 2012 election results. His book The
Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don't
does a good job in explaining the fundamentals of statistics, probability,
and predictions. If society understood these concepts, we'd spend far less
time arguing from polarized positions "supported by facts"...
Contents:
A Catastrophic Failure of [read] Keywords: notes
network
100
Book Review - Learning to Play With a Lion's Testicles: Unexpected Gifts From the Animals of Africa by Melissa Haynes
Wed, May 15th 2013 8:45p Thomas Duff This book had me in tears, both by laughter
and emotional impact... Learning
to Play With a Lion's Testicles: Unexpected Gifts From the Animals of Africa
by Melissa Haynes. The title was enough to intrigue me into considering
it for reading and reviewing. It didn't take long before I knew it was
a great decision.
Haynes went to South Africa to volunteer
on a wild game reserve, seeking to find some perspective and purpose in
her life. What sounded like an adventure quickly turned in [read] Keywords:
103
Book Review - Judaism For Dummies by Rabbi Ted Falcon PhD and David Blatner
Sun, May 12th 2013 7:40p Thomas Duff This was a book that I had put on my
library "to be read" list, but decided that getting it via Amazon
Vine was faster and better... Judaism
For Dummies by Rabbi Ted Falcon
PhD and David Blatner. I felt this was a *perfect* example of what Dummies
titles are good for... context on a complex topic, enough so that you know
where to go for more information. Toss in a fair amount of humor along
the way, and I had a great time reading this (while learning lots).
Contents:
Introduction [read] Keywords:
111
Book Review - Tell No Lies by Julie Compton
Mon, May 6th 2013 8:40p Thomas Duff Tell
No Lies by Julie Compton is the
first of a series (two so far) of novels centered around District Attorney
Jack Hilliard and his fellow lawyer and one-time lover Jenny Dodson. That's
"one-time" as in "slept with her once", but it happened
at a time and under conditions that made the two of them front-page news.
Dodson was put on trial for murder, facing the death penalty. Hilliard
was her alibi, as the night of the murder was the night he visited her
house. He's convinced that [read] Keywords:
157
Book Review - How Data Science Is Transforming Health Care by Tim O'Reilly, Mike Loukides, Julie Steele, and Colin Hill
Sun, Apr 28th 2013 2:24p Thomas Duff How
Data Science Is Transforming Health Care
by Tim O'Reilly, Mike Loukides, Julie Steele, and Colin Hill is not a large
book... in fact, it's only 26 pages. But it's a solid 26 pages that makes
the case for how health care can (and will) be transformed by the use of
massive and detailed data on patients and outcomes. Given that you can
download it for free on Amazon, there's no reason *not* to give it a read.
It's enough to shift your view of how health care technology can be much
[read] Keywords:
128
Book Review - Storm Kings: The Untold History of America's First Tornado Chasers by Lee Sandlin
Sat, Apr 27th 2013 10:09p Thomas Duff Tornados... powerful, fearful, unpredictable...
and a source of controversy over the years as people tried to figure out
what they are (or if they even existed). Lee Sandlin tells the story of
those who first tried to solve the puzzle in his book Storm
Kings: The Untold History of America's First Tornado Chasers.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, but it could well
be due to incorrect expectations rather than the fault of the content or
quality of the writing. I'll [read] Keywords: connections
114
Book Review - Six Years by Harlan Coben
Tue, Apr 23rd 2013 6:06a Thomas Duff I picked up Harlan Coben's latest novel
Six
Years from the library a week
or so ago. I enjoy his books, and I was looking forward to a few days of
leisurely enjoyment. What I got instead was a book I had a hard time putting
down, as Coben kept me guessing right up to the end. Granted, I read a
lot and don't necessarily do a good job of being able to remember plots
and story lines of books I read even six months ago. Still, this is one
of the best non-Bolivar novels he's written.
[read] Keywords:
147
Book Review - Calculated In Death by J. D. Robb
Sat, Apr 13th 2013 8:49p Thomas Duff Yay... another J. D. Robb (aka Nora
Roberts) novel... Calculated
In Death. This time, Dallas is
tagged on a woman's death that looks to be a mugging gone bad. Her body
is found on the street at the base of a set of stairs leading up to a building
in the midst of remodeling. But Dallas and Peabody find evidence that she
was actually killed inside, and the street scene was staged as a diversion.
Further investigation reveals that in her job as an auditor, she had just
been given three new [read] Keywords:
151
Book Review - Keep No Secrets by Julie Compton
Sat, Apr 13th 2013 3:20p Thomas Duff I've not read anything from Julie Compton
before, but the premise of her latest book Keep
No Secrets sounded like a interesting
novel. Since it's a sequel to Tell No Lies, I got that one from the library
intending to read that first before this one. But too many books and forgetfulness
found me starting Secrets first without remembering the sequence. No matter...
Once I got started, this was pretty much a "won't put it down"
story. I'll be starting Tell No Lies tonight. :)
St. [read] Keywords:
