11 Things Authors Forget to Do When Speaking About Their Book

Several weeks ago I attended an excellent conference featuring women authors. Exciting event. Diverse authors. Great presentations. So many lost opportunities! All these speakers/authors had a fabulous opportunity to build their fan/reader base, yet almost none of them took advantage of these eleven easy tips for maximizing the marketing benefit of speaking at a conference on their books. In the conference …

From Six Weeks to Ten Years: The Writing of Hallelujah!

I have built my business as a book coach on my ability to crank out a book in record time. On Your Mark, my most recent book, is about going from first word to first draft in six weeks.   But the truth is, while I’m pretty good at cranking out books, it doesn’t always come easy. And sometimes it …

Hallelujah! Thank God It’s Monday!

Work is a four-letter word. But it doesn’t have to be penance. We’ll spend approximately half of our adult lives working. It should be no surprise that our happiness, well-being, and positivity will be largely determined by our engagement and satisfaction with our work. Our life’s work is central to how we think about ourselves and how we engage with …

Ten Ways to Sabotage your Writing Goals

You want to write your book. You want to get it done in 2015. My guess is that even though you have every intention of writing your book, you may be unwittingly sabotaging your own best efforts. Explore this list and determine if you are getting in your own way. I haven’t told anyone about my goal. If you haven’t …

The Power of Positive Intention

There is something really powerful about creating a positive intention. I’ve been working with my coaching clients on harnessing this power by encouraging them to wear the button I created, “Ask me about my book!” I jokingly say that the buttons are magic—but only when you wear them! There’s magic in first putting it on and wearing it to the …

Six Things NOT To Do When You’re Starting on Your Book

Why is it so hard to start a big project? Maybe it’s because it is so big that it seems daunting, or that it’s difficult to identify the best first step. Starting your book can offer the same challenges: how do you get started in a productive and confident manner? Here are six ideas about what NOT to do when …

Why Would Anybody Want To Read My Story?

“Why would anybody want to ready my story?” was the innocent question asked by a client in a recent strategy session. And it’s a question that I’ve heard repeatedly from aspiring authors. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to answer that question, and what I’ve discovered is that my answer is based on a series of my beliefs about …

Writing a 1000 word chapter is easy, right?

While it’s not that many words, finding and honing the right words for your message can be a daunting task. Read about Alicia’s experience in putting together her contribution for an anthology. This experience was an awakening for me.  After tons, and I do mean tons of research, it felt like I was writing a thesis and I couldn’t write …