If you’ve ever considered writing your own nonfiction book, this video of a talk offered by Dan Poynter is one that you must watch. Dan is the owner of Para Publishing. He started Para Publishing in 1969 in North Quincy, Massachusetts in order to publish his own non fiction books on parachute design safety and skydiving. In 1974, he moved to Santa Barbara and started publishing a number of other books on many other subjects by Dan as well as several other authors.
Today, Dan is recognized as a well established and successful publisher. He not only publishes, but also travels around the world to offer his insight into the publishing industry. Self-Publishing Guru Dan Poynter explains and educates new writers on how to write publish and promote their first book. He personally fell into publishing because he believed in his book and believed that there would be an audience for it (and there was!).
In an impressive example of work-ethic and drive, Dan both writes and publishes his books - a total of 76 so far. His books are nonfiction - obviously making him the nonfiction expert to go to for your own insight into how to write your nonfiction book. Dan’s is no fly-by-night publishing company - his books sell tens of thousands a year. His best-selling one sold over 100,000 in one year. In fact, his company is a perfect example of business entrepreneurship and how someone with the drive to succeed and a passion for a product can make it independently.
Please enjoy this fantastic video of this awarded writer and publisher on how to write your first nonfiction book.
When you’re done listening - share your own opinion about Dan’s talk in the comments section below!
This week, I’d like to share a great video interview with one of my favorite writers of all time - Stephen King. Mr. King was born and raised in my home state, and he has always served as an inspiration for young Maine writers. In this interview, Borders interviews Stephen King on writing short stories, writing scary stories and much more. It’s a very enjoyable interview - check it out!
Stephen King points talks a bit about the importance of the short story in the story writing process, and how in his case many of his early short stories ended up evolving into novels, such as Carrie. He points out that about 22,000 word pieces are too long to be a short story and too short to be a novel. This is only a partial interview - to see the entire interview you have to visit Borders Media.
With that said, while I respect the man for his rise from the ashes into fame for his horror novels, I also have to say that being a long-time fan for many years, I also noticed that he’s quite arrogant. A friend of our family worked as a security guard at UMO and had an interaction with Mr. King while trying to enforce University safety rules, that ended in King making a statement to the effect of, “Do you realize who I am?” Apparently King thinks very highly of himself, and apparently forgets that it’s the fans that make a successful writer, not simply a name.
Another example of this was his comment about rising writer Stephenie Meyer, where during an interview he was asked about J.K. Rowling and Meyer, and his response was, “The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”
While I’m not particularly a fan of the Twilight series, I found Stephen King’s comments very hypocritical in light of his words in his book On Writing, where he even mentions this sort of elitist attitude among published writers, especially when you’re getting started in the business. The fact that she sold 29 million books in 2008, making her the best-selling author of the year, is a testament to the fact that she’s a brilliant writer who can command the attention and interest of a significant audience. Yes, that means in 2008 she sold more novels than Stephen King. Money talks, Mr. King.
Then again, if Stephen King is simply alluding to the fact that a writer can sell millions of novels while not having the foggiest notion of decent grammar, punctuation or how to avoid a plot line that isn’t some boring cliche used millions of times in other novels…maybe he has a point and should consider examining his own humble beginnings.
Today, while I was going about my online business at work, one of my buddies approached me and congratulated me on my article that got highlighted on LifeHacker. I’ve been in such a fog lately, racing to finish so many articles by the end of the month, that I never stopped to take a look at the aftereffects of the articles I’ve already written this month. I remember a brief email from the editor over at MakeUseOf about something over at LifeHacker, but I think I was in the middle of a caffeine coma toward the tail end of another late-night writing binge, so it was a blur.
Turns out it’s true, over at LifeHacker they posted a highlight of the article I wrote for MakeUseOf on turning your PC into a Wi-Fi Home Surveillance system.
To say I’m honored would be an understatement. LifeHacker is the premier spot on the Internet where all tech geeks hang out and get the latest news and their techno fix. To get featured on the site is a very cool experience.
In fact, the topic itself was a blast to write. Wi-Fi technology presents so many opportunities for people to get creative with gadgetry in a way that wasn’t even possible only a few years ago. Even the layout described in my article has a number of variations. With a bunch of wi-fi cameras (ideal ones that you can assign their own IP, without the need for a PC) - you can create:
A home surveillance system for when you’re away
A monitoring system for haunted hot-spots (if you’re into that kind of thing)
A perimeter around your property to monitor the schedules of your local wildlife
A camera at your driveway to trigger an alert on your computer when someone arrives
The possibilities really are endless. And dreaming about them certainly makes for easy writing. A huge thanks to LifeHacker for highlighting the article, and as always a thank you to MakeUseOf for hiring me on in the first place!
By now, everyone is starting to understand that Twilight the book and Twilight the movie are quickly becoming the next cultural phenomenon, much like Harry Potter was. But, as a writer, one of the most amazing things about Stephenie Meyer’s novel, Twilight, is the fact that it destroys many of the myths about getting yourself published. And more importantly, Stephenie provides a wonderful play-by-play of her experience getting her first book, Twilight, published.
Twilight the Book offers New Writers Hope
Stephenie Meyer’s completed her spellbinding manuscript of Twilight the book in only three months. This is an amazing feat, regardless of the fact that she describes how the process of writing it became almost like an addiction. She couldn’t stop thinking about it, but was at least able to control the desire to write enough to only write at night after the kids were in bed. Her description of the writing process, which she provides in detail at her website, is almost as intriguing to me as the novel itself. Every writer out there can feel the sort of emotions she describes as she struggles to get the words on paper in the same way it appears on the movie screen of her mind. Soon enough, the book would become Twilight the movie. But first, she needed to get published.
How to Get Published Using Twilight, the Book, as a Guide
The story that Stephenie describes is a wonderful lesson in humility and perseverance. Every new writer who has ever attempted to publish a book can feel the pain and rejection she describes when receiving rejection after rejection, some more harsh than others. She describes one case in particular as follows:
The only rejection that really hurt was from a small agent who actually read the first chapter before she dropped the axe on me. The meanest rejection I got came after Little, Brown had picked me up for a three-book deal, so it didn’t bother me at all. I’ll admit that I considered sending back a copy of that rejection stapled to the write-up my deal got in Publisher’s Weekly, but I took the higher road.
The Process of Getting Published
The process she describes to get published, however, is a perfect outline for all new novelists to follow. Unlike common belief among young writers, you do not simply mail off your manuscript to every publishing house you can find. The first step is the most difficult, you need an agent. It may be a long and difficult road, but a good writer with excellent skills and an amazing storyline will ultimately find success, just as Ms. Meyer did. The road she took to final publication was as follows:
Subscribed to WritersMarket.com in order to find publishers and literary agencies that accept unsolicited submissions
Listened to advice regarding “good” literary agencies with an established reputation
Sent out multiple queries to all of those contacts
Suffered through countless rejections until Writers House asked to see more of her book
Her description of the moment Writer’s House asked for her entire manuscript is every writer’s ultimate dream. She writes:
It was a very nice letter. She’d gone back with a pen and twice underlined the part where she’d typed how much she enjoyed the first three chapters (I still have that letter, of course), and she asked for the whole manuscript. That was the exact moment when I realized that I might actually see Twilight in print, and really one of the happiest points in my whole life. I did a lot of screaming.
Every Writer’s Dream
A month later she was picked up by Jodi Reamer, an agent with Writer’s House. After a bit of editing work and Jodi promoting her book, before long Stephenie’s novel was picked up by Little, Brown and Company. The entire process? Six months. The book is not skyrocketing in popularity and is due to become a blockbuster hit as Twilight, the movie, is set to break records. It’s an amazing tale isn’t it? Stephenie’s tale, that is. And every writer out there, the successful and the not-so-successful, find a bit of solace in her success, because if it’s still possible for new writers like Stephenie to realize such wonderful success - then there’s still room in the world for future success stories just like hers.
Ryan is a professional writer for private clients, Associated Content, LoveToKnow and MakeUseOf. Ryan started FreeWritingCenter to offer insight, news, advice and tools for any person
who wants to earn money by working online. Make sure to bookmark FreeWritingCenter.com and visit often for the latest updates!
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