By Gerald Gillis  »  So you want to write a book? You've always wondered what if might be like to see a title of your own on a bookstore shelf, but you've yet to make the commitment to begin the process. You're creative, you think you have a story to tell, and you believe you have the ability to tell that story. Surveys have shown that over 80% of Americans feel they have a book in them. ''There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart,'' wrote Samuel Johnson, ''a desire of distinction, which inclines every man to hope, and then to believe, that nature has given himself something peculiar to himself.''

Is there a book in you? And are you willing to spend long hours with a pen in hand or a keyboard at your fingertips? Can you commit to a process that could take months, perhaps even years, before you achieve your particular objectives? And are you willing to risk criticism and/or rejection over a labor of love that you've put so much of yourself into?

Well, if so, here are five reasons you should just do it:

By Katherine Carol  »  Have you ever stood in a downpour and tried to catch the rain, one drop at a time? The volume of falling water overwhelms even the most determined rain catcher. Similarly, both first-time authors and seasoned ones freeze at their computers, overwhelmed by volumes of emails and social media strategies. They spend more time fretting than doing. Rather than being flexible with quick movements to grasp broader opportunities, their writing joints stiffen and become inflamed with frustration. They may even ask themselves, what was I thinking? I wanted to write a book, not spend my time on promotion. I'm an author, but this is a business.

Do you love your book, but struggle to find a social media strategy for getting it to stand out above the noise? Do you wonder why someone doesn't just send you a big, fat check for your brilliant work? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you could be suffering from Authoritis. Sounds like a serious condition-better see a book shepherd. Or perhaps a little self-healing might be in order.

Unfortunately, no pill prevents or alleviates this dreaded condition. But there is a cure: it's the creativity that produced your book in the first place and the methods on which you built your other successes. You no doubt have high performance patterns and strategies, but do you throw them out the window when faced with... Facebook? We twitch instead of Tweet and become disconnected instead of LinkedIn. How do we overcome this perplexing dilemma?

By Katherine Carol  »  As authors, we seldom write in isolation. We partner with various professionals like; editors, graphic artists, layout and cover designers, distributors, book shepherds and other consultants who help us dance to publishing success. Understand the power of these professional relationships and you unlock one of the doors to selling your book. How we work with our publishing team greatly influences our book and financial success.

The question is, "Are we doing all we can to make these important relationships work?"

In essence, we as authors are both the leader and the follower in this intricate publishing dance. We lead and direct our vision and our goals. We follow the advice of our team and learn from their expertise. Just how you develop a high performance team depends on you - the author.

By Neelam Shah  »  A novel written in first person is a first-hand account of events told or narrated through the eyes of a single character, typically the main character. Books written in first person are easily identified by the use of the pronoun "I" rather then "he or she."

In my opinion a first person writing a novel can be effective on depending what kind of story it is, it allows the readers to sympathise with the feelings and thoughts of the character and see their view of perspective on life in the story, although first person doesn't directly tell the readers what the other people are feeling except through making them do certain actions that the character speaking will interpret later on.

The reader will see phrases such as "I said, I thought," rather than "he said, she thought." Everything is experienced through the eyes of a single character, and all thoughts and observations are limited to that one person. There can be no outside observer. If the narrator does not see or experience an event first-hand, it cannot be a part of the story. All scenes in the story are filtered through this person's unique perception.

One of the advantages of first person makes the narrator close up and personal. 

By Lori Handelman  »  You've spent hundreds of hours writing, perhaps hundreds more reading and re-reading and fine-tuning. Your friends and family can't say enough great things about your writing, and they eagerly ask you about it whenever they see you. Frankly, you've written something that is unlike anything else, and people will be knocking down your door. But now and then, you wonder if it's really that good, you suspect your friends and family can't offer critical feedback, and you start to think about hiring a professional editor.

What can you expect from professional editing? People often think editing comprises checking spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and spellcheck does that automatically. This type of editing is proofreading, and a professional editor can be helpful because as many of us know to our embarrassment and chagrin, spellcheck only determines whether words are spelled correctly, not whether you've used the right word (e.g., public vs pubic). 

WORTH READING | By Janice Gillgren  »  Routine can definitely help the writer. If you are a very artistic and spontaneous sort of person, you will probably feel like hitting the little cross at the top right of this web page right now, and moving on to another site. You may be the sort of person who says 'I hate routine' or 'creativity and routine don't seem to go together'.

However, think of all the most creatively talented people you know. How much would they achieve if they never actually applied themselves to regularly and consistently turning up for work?

By James Proebstle  »  I'm new as an author, so I'm reluctant to give advice. I am not new, however, in professional selling. My entire career in corporations, like Xerox, involved responsibilities with customers, both as a salesman and as an executive. For the last 20 years I have offered consulting advice to large and small corporations in their sales management practices through Prodyne, Inc., a consulting firm I founded in 1991. The following observations and suggestions are rooted in that experience.

My first book signing was in a small B. Dalton store in Bemidji, MN. The longer I sat behind the table, the more people felt awkward in approaching me. I also knew that being a large man can make it harder for some people to warm up. It seemed intuitively obvious that day that the people who were "hovering" in the store wanted to talk to me, but didn't know how. Being a Rotarian and sharing that value of friendship with others helped. I didn't have to sell them the book-they knew I was selling books. I needed to engage them in the topic of reading, something we both shared as an interest.

WORTH READING | By Susan Mary Malone  »  We talk a lot in this business about a writer's 'style,' and often that's an elusive issue. Not one's voice, exactly, although style incorporates voice, and not the technical aspects such as sentence structure and word usage, syntax, although those, too come under that heading. So what, exactly, IS style?

In essence, it includes the entire spectrum of the elements of writing. One can write in a minimalist style and still pen a 'Big' book. Think Hemingway, though it's in vogue these days to praise his style and slay his substance. But that's truly missing the boat. Because style BECOMES in large part the substance; the two are intertwined and by divorcing them we lose the point.

By Jennifer Boire  »  There are many aspects that make a poem written in free verse work as a poem, without strict adherence to rhyme and metre. One aspect is the sound, the musicality, and the word choice, creating a rhythm that is not prose-like. But that doesn’t explain the whole picture. Poems are also about meaning and mood.  Poetry is made with layered imagery that speaks volumes, that evokes as much as describes, and grabs our attention. 

The musicality is more and more important to me. Irving Layton called it ‘making music out of words”.

Otherwise, why did the poet choose to write a poem and not an essay or a short story? There needs to be a strong sound component - without rhythm, rhyme or musicality (through repetition, alliteration, assonance, and internal rhyme) a poem doesn’t sing. Just as importantly, the images and word choice in a poem need to move us beyond flat prosaic style.

Without layers of meaning built on fresh, surprising images and metaphor or symbols, poetry is just a bunch of lazy, unstructured words piled up in a thin column on the left side of the page, using statements and emotions without any attempt to shape or prune the language.  

By Irene Watson  » Now that you've had your book video trailer made, and you've followed all the guidelines for making it as effective as possible, it's time to promote the video, which in turn will help to promote your book. Following are some ideas for how you can get notice for your video and in turn for your book.

Your Website:

Your website is the obvious place to use your book video trailer. Place it on your home page at least during the initial first six months to a year when your book and the video are new. Make sure it is large enough on the website for people to watch, and make sure it only starts to play if people choose to play it. Nothing is more annoying than audio or video that automatically and unexpectedly starts playing and startles the viewer.

Don't stop at the homepage of the website, however.