Can’t I Just Write About What I Know?

Unless you’re in the textbook or academic field (where there’s a need for very specific, academically accurate and impartial information) then you shouldn’t just write about what you know – you should find a way to write about it in a way the reader will want.

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Following trends – or “trend surfing” (which instantly means I’ve got my metaphors mixed!) as it’s now called – is a proven way to make money. It’s also the number one “creative” model used by the majority of mainstream publishers. Whether this is a worthy artistic approach or not – Read the full story

Books To Solve Problems or Give Answers (How To)

This approach is the best way to come up with “How To” book ideas. I’d suggest using Brainstorming and Mind Mapping (see earlier) to generate ideas using the “Big Problem” as your central theme. Make sure it’s a problem people really want solving though else you’ll have a Read the full story

The Author’s Creativity Matrix

This uses elements of matching and mis-matching as well as big picture and detail to produce lots of ideas and content to bring out a full range of creative flexibility you may not have thought you had. What you do with the resulting content is up to you Read the full story

Meta Program: Pain Vs Gain

Some people are more motivated by what they don’t want than by what they do. You’ll likely have a tendency to one extreme or another and this tendency can leave blind spots in your creative thinking. So follow these steps and see what comes up…

• Choose a target audience – we’ll go for authors again
• Divide your page into 6 columns – with Pain to the left and Gain to the right
• List all the things your audience “is afraid of”, “hates”, “doesn’t want” in the third column
• List all the things your audience “is excited about”, “loves”, “does want” in the fourth column – you should have something that looks like this…

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Despite widespread denial from the majority of traditional bookstores, publishers and authors, the publishing game has been changing at an increasingly rapid pace since the  emergence of the world wide web. The real tipping point, however, is only just being reached as Print On Demand (POD) technology, Ebooks and Social Read the full story