Posts tagged books

Steps to Writing & Publishing a Book

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Interested in writing & publishing a book? Don’t know where or how to get started?

Successfully writing & publishing is much like starting a new business. The steps are essentially the same and having a plan & a coach really helps.

Many people think that publishing is expensive and difficult, but you can publish for very little money. It does require a lot if work to do it right. Here are my suggested 13 high-level steps to get you there:

1. Define your Purpose for writing.
2. Assess if you are ready to write & what you can write about.
3. Define the Audience.
4. Determine how you plan on writing your book (ways to get it written).
5. Ideation, research, brainstorming, and testing.
6. Outline.
7. Draft – edit – draft – edit – draft – edit – final draft.
8. Publishing determinations.
9. Cover design (and illustrations if required).
10. Draft reviewers and Foreword.
11. Pre-release marketing.
12. Format, Publish, and Release.
13. Post-release marketing.

If you are interested in writing & would like help, let me know.
Crosscutter Enterprises

Innovation

Why Stop Now?

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J. K. Rowling, the famous author who wrote the Harry Potter series states that she won’t write about Harry anymore.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bustle.com/p/jk-rowling-explains-why-there-wont-be-any-more-stories-about-harry-potter-8900613/amp

Being an author (Not of get stature), I question this. Ok, maybe Harry’s story has been told and there’s really nothing to add. However, what of the rest of the world and characters surrounding Harry Potter and Hogwarts?

In an immersive realm like Harry Potter, the opportunities are endless to expand on facets that no one ever considered. What about the Flight of Vox — this self destructing Phoenix that was owned by the Headmaster of Hogwarts is bound to have a series of interesting tales as he went through life bursting into flames and rising from the ashes.

I’m sure that there are some pretty interesting stories around the world outside of Hogwarts that Nomag’s have never seen. In Fantastic Beasts and in the Harry Potter series, we learn of other schools, which obviously have other stories.

Ok, J. K. (love the initials by the way), let Harry rest and retire. But, don’t stop now. In your mind is a world many have only glimpsed at. Bring it more to life and who knows what will happen?

Working on One Dead Marine II

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One Dead Marine

One Dead Marine

In May of 2012, I published my first fictional novel, One Dead Marine.

This book takes you into the world of The Savage SoulTM and Scorched EarthTM, which was created by a close friend of mine, Kevin Bogucki (Bogo).  Bogo worked on the world of The Savage SoulTM since we were kids in school.  Today, Scorched EarthTM is the planet Earth born out of an advanced society in the twenty-first century that died a painful death–and the killer’s name was Yellow Mike.

One Dead Marine follows Anthony Moon, a Native American U.S. Marine, who finds himself 150 years in the future, where old-world technology, magic-wielding demons, flesh-eating zombies, and monsters of every imagination populate the environment like the air he breathes.

Moon guides us through his journeys and experiences as you follow along in his own personal journal of his arrival to this new post apocalyptic world.  His journal outlines where Lance Corporal Moon learns to survive–barely–in a fanatical environment built out of the madness of a twisted drug and an ensuing great disaster.

The time for One Dead Marine II is upon us.

I have slowly worked on this second story, which picks up where the last book ended.  Lately, with the help of blogging, I have been getting wore into writing and this book is taking shape.

One Dead Marine II (true name yet to be announced) takes our unlikely Native American Marine hero to Las Vegas, Nevada.  Expect to see more of his struggles, to learn more about Moon, that he doesn’t even know himself, and battle lots of zombies–ugh!

This installment of The Savage SoulTM and Scorched EarthTM series will push Anthony Moon’s psyche to its limits with the madness that makes up planet Earth.

My goal is to release this installment by the end of the year.

Additionally, I’m working to reformat One Dead Marine, which was only released in paperback, in e-book format available for Kindle and Nook.  I hope to have this version released by April of this year.  It was very exciting to publish my first paperback and taught me some things about self-publishing that will help me when I release my first non-fiction business book, Overcoming Organizational Myopia.  I expect to also release that book by the end of May, beginning of April.

This second book following Moon will not be a journal, like the last book.  This one takes us into the more traditional approach to book writing by putting it in the first person view.  Also, I expect this novel to be longer than the first, which was just under 29,000 words (130 pages).

Well, back to writing…

It’s been a while…

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I was just looking back at past blogs and my last one was when I released my paperback, One Dead Marine. That was in 2012.

Back then the WordPress app was pretty weak, so I literally had to sit down at the computer and write. Now, when the thought hits me, I can put a daily blog together. That seems to be inspiring me.

Lately I have been examine lots of productivity tools in the area of phone apps. The market seems ripe, but I’m not seeing a lot. At work I often think about some of the apps that could really speed up things. We use Good for the Enterprise and often I don’t see much Good in it at all.

A couple of years ago, after I got my iPhone, I bought the Lark at Best Buy. It’s an armband that tracks your sleep at night and wakes you up by vibrating. I’m thinking there are better tools out there today for this.

In a world where Google Glasses, Autonomous Vehicles, and 3D Printers are taking the center stage, I think we have a lot of room to improve on what we have today.

What are your thoughts? Do you use any apps that make your life more productive?