self-help – Busybird Publishing

So you want to write and publish a book?

Busybird — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 01:16:44 +0000

Congratulations! There are three ways that you can go about writing and publishing a book: In the broadest sense, this is what you need to consider for your book … What’s your idea? If I were to ask you to pitch it, could you? Or would you bumble around, unsure how to express it? If this is the case, then you actually don’t know what your idea is.

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Writing Self-Help – The Fundamentals

Busybird — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 23:42:28 +0000

What does it take to write a self-help book? Lots of people blunder into it, thinking it’s just about getting everything out onto the page. Then that’s it. But this is tantamount to writing a novel without structure and direction. It’ll bore readers or be hard to follow. Readers will then disengage and put the book down. There you go: you’ve lost them. With a self-help book…

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Of Mentoring and Packages

Busybird — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 22:22:38 +0000

There are lots of people out there offering fast, nasty mentoring packages. They’re fast, because the mentor wants the quickest turnaround possible, which inflates their bank account. And they’re nasty because, often, the mentor knows very little about writing, or the publishing industry – if anything, they know just enough to bluff their expertise. Usually, some sort of formula is offered – a…

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The Guide to Writing Coaching Books – Part 2 of 3

Busybird — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 23:51:10 +0000

Avoid repetition Repetition might work for midnight infomercials, where the presenter is saying to you, ‘But, wait, there’s more!’ But TV is a visual medium where repetition works as an assault to gain attention. In reading you already have your audience’s attention. The reader would not have picked up your book unless they were interested in what you have to say. Don’t make the same point…

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The Guide to Writing Coaching Books – Part 1 of 3

Busybird — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 06:30:10 +0000

There is no formula for writing a book that works for everybody, although there are templates that tell you that a book should be X chapters, include a bonus chapter, contain these and those appendices, and each chapter should contain roughly 2,500 words, accumulating to a total of roughly forty to fifty thousand words. What it comes down to is this: in writing a book, your job is to deliver…

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Quoting Others Doesn’t Always Make You Look Smart

Busybird — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 23:41:21 +0000

There is a tendency for authors of self-help books to quote others. These quotes are usually (1) from a recognised author who has penned books of a similar or related subject to the one this author is currently writing and/or (2) ‘feel good’ phrases. I assume the reason for the former is to give one’s own book some backing from a ‘recognised authority’ and I assume the reason for the latter is…

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Writing Self-Help

Busybird — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 01:09:49 +0000

A popular field of writing is self-help. So many people apparently have the solution for what ails us, and whilst many might scoff at the credentials of whoever the latest guru might be, everybody deserves their chance to get their message out there. Our experiences, the choices we make in our lives, and the way our lives evolve from those choices, make us unique. No matter how alike we might be…

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