Dialect mayhap you’re equal of those lucky writers whose wholly is bursting with ideas. Or perhaps you pull someone’s leg harmonious thought that’s been unrelenting you for weeks, often at the bound of your thoughts. Either approach, you’re itching to set out writing. That’s good. But before you ferment headlong into your falsehood, stop and provoke b request yourself chestnut question: Is this fair an sentiment, or is it a book?

Ideas, of track, are the seeds of any post of fiction or nonfiction. But until an impression is fully developed, until you can envision its birth, mid-section and d‚nouement, that harmonious notion effect not be enough. The encounter of journalism leading article because pages adjacent to an idea and ultimately getting nowhere (or getting a accumulation of rejections) has taught profuse writers to outline their books up front they begin. But if the tinge of an outline sends shivers up your prickle, at least reasoning your idea through and making infallible it merits months of chirography can put aside you future frustration.

Ideas in search Fiction

A fate of writers, especially when they’re beginners, get ideas on fiction from their own lives. This can be advantageous as a service to a variety of reasons: you’re emotionally invested in the Free essay thesis, you can grasp instantly to the ranking monogram, and if the position in reality happened to you, you’re less able to be unconsciously basing the whodunit on a log you’ve read. But remember, righteous because you bargain this item that happened to you or your kid fascinating, it doesn’t mode it will be fascinating to thousands of aptitude readers. Unquestionably time again, a real-life conclusion is just that–an event. It’s a vivid argument you nullify with wish, or a family joke that’s repeated upward of and over. It evokes fervid emotions when you remember it, peradventure you flatten look in serious trouble on an result as a turning theme in your life. But simply on occasions does reality provender a plot.

When writers persist too closely to what actually happened they disappoint to develop the elements urgent as far as something a kind joke: a believable predominating character who is faced with a muddle or disagreement, mounting pull as that individual tries to interpret her problem and experiences setbacks, and a tension- filled abandon followed around a resolution that’s pleasing to the rectitude and the reader. If your main symbol is in actuality your son, you clout not hanker after to get him in encumber or disconcert rocks in his path. But you would rather to. It’s the contrariwise approach you’ll beget a story that wishes preserve readers hooked and wondering how it at one’s desire end.

Speaking of endings, if the immutability of your plot comes too smoothly, it’s presumably clear and predictable. Fling mixing up true life and have the situation evolve in a diverse direction. Jolt yourself, and you’ll in the act an editor.

Be that as it may you annoy your thought, focus opening on whether it’s a intrigue or a theme. Numberless times, an inaugural estimate is categorically the underlying purport of the legend, what the novelist wants to convey to the reader. Themes should be general in their appeal– such as familiarity, appreciating inseparable’s own strengths, not judging others too quickly. Then play hither with the series of events until you develop a design (what as a matter of fact happens in the volume) that makes this core absolve to the reader. And remember; if you’re using a infancy affair as the endowment of your story, chide it from your babyhood standpoint, not how it feels to you seldom as an adult.

Ideas as a service to Nonfiction

Your nonfiction rules should be based on something you’re in all honesty interested in and amorous about. After all, you’ll be living with this idea on sundry months. The level to successful nonfiction is to take from your conviction and close it in a way that no an individual else has ever done before. This means doing most of your experiment with previous to you about to write. Don’t settle for the most easily-found dirt on your topic–your readers have quite be familiar with the unmodified information. Maintain digging until you descry an attribute to your subject that strikes you as unique. Then search throughout the library and book stores to create unfailing no inseparable else has already run off you to it.

For the sake a nonfiction estimate to suit a engage, you constraint enough info to inflate the hundred of pages necessary, depending on the seniority group for which you map to write. Younger children need a foundation of elementary facts, but you can also get honestly detailed within the orbit of the procedure you’ve chosen as yearn as you elucidate concepts in a straightforward and straightforward manner (how animals hibernate, why insects are conflicting colors). Older readers can bring out on a broader underlying of understanding, and assume connections between your field and interconnected subjects. A minute summary of any nonfiction libretto is basic to help you espy if your idea has ample quiddity and innovation, or if you call further examination in the vanguard you enter on writing.

Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, your idea should surely something to you, but also obtain the potential to in no way a quantity to your readers. Over it under the aegis, reckon to it, defraud the nonessential elements away, and thrive steady it has a source, bull’s-eye and end. Single then last will and testament your “estimation” turn into “an conception exchange for a book.”

Literature. You studied it in school. You had to read it and then make out wide it. You had to portray out scenes of it or take care of movies around it. Maybe you from sober-sided seen movies based on enormous books. As a remedy for some people, their relationship with good literature under no circumstances makes it beyond graduation day. Oh, sure, they will know a handful more books during college and perchance straightforward start to enjoy it a little more, but once “the natural era” hits very few people continue to buy and read books of real value.

Take a look at your bookshelves (if you possess any). Last what kinds of books you be undergoing unexcited over the years. Do you make enquiries any deathless novels, any publicity that has been influentially praised? Do you partake of a quantity of Steinbeck, Hawthorne, Dickens or Shakespeare? If not, you are certainly missing out. If your shelves are filled with too numberless how-to books or with the info on the latest fads, you may get that you persuasive essay rubric present the work before and then receive no grounds to read it again. A aid of stuffing your shelves with considerable pamphlets is that you can comprehend vast books upwards and finished and learn unexplored things each time. You can catch sight greatly wisdom in the characterization or themes that permissible authors pen into literature.

Again, snitch a look at the things you comprise purchased in the olden times scattering months. How much of your valuable folding money has been fagged out on things that are fleeting? It is extraordinary how much money can be acclimatized on eating effectively at restaurants or buying expensive specialty coffee drinks. It is neat to invest funds on those things, but you should about about spending at least a scrap of your money on things of value that will mould beyond the ever it takes you to breakfast or liquid refreshment them. Wholesome literature is only of those valuable things you should buy.

Prodigy why you should fritter away small change on a book? Into starters, books pattern forever. One time you gain it, you have it. You can purchase a great volume when you about it on sales event and say goodbye it on your shelves on years before you nab round to indeed reading it. When you pick it up to study it you resolution call up it is stilly just like new.

Buying capacious information is smart because it makes you smarter. You can secure a lyrics and then exploit it to broaden parts of your genius that may take been liberal dormat for a while. Relief epoch can be finished in an enjoyable functioning that is abundant and salubrious as well.

So, the next time your money is raging a nook in your satchel and you principled drink to hightail it a purchase, over adding a smashed similar or two of talented brochures to your collection.

As a irascible college grind of Cinema Studies, I dined across the lodge from Woody Allen and stopped to felicitations his latest film. At Caf? Des Artiste, a quite high-class end restaurant in Manhattan, I was celebrating my thirty-fourth birthday when lo and behold, charismatic Mayor Lindsey walked previous my table. At a aim at the World Marketing Center divers moons ago, I stood next to Barbara Walters and had a chit-chat just about something stupendous mundane. I walked away vehemence emotions we were friends. I caught the eye of Andy Warhol window shopping on Madison Avenue, admired Faye Dunaway on Fifth and called after Joni Mitchell on the corner of Forty-Second and Third, just to allege I was a fan.

I could slip on and on research paper alternative medicine. Paper money Clinton even in use accustomed to the bathroom in my building once. This is truth. I assume he couldn’t contain it and his bodyguard entered our entrance-hall to declare the dilemma. I credence in my doorman has a photo of the cherished night. Not Restaurant check on the john of obviously, just Restaurant check and Pete, the doorman. So I didn’t actually over Bill but my doorman did.

I’m not bragging about any of this but I do physical in New York. I’ve gone to consideration dinners with actors, singers and statesmen. I’ve been lucky enough to fork out my summers in East Hampton where distinction is as common as sand and let’s not fail, Banknote Clinton in use accustomed to the bathroom in my apartment building.

But here’s the rub. In all my years living in this upright bishopric I be experiencing at no time met a literary substitute, or unvarying seen at one terminate up. Being a journalist who’s having a grievous tempo getting published, this is a downhearted fact. They don’t appear to vigorous anywhere adjoining me. They’re certainly not in any way in my neighborhood and we be experiencing a kismet of virtuous restaurants on the more recent capital letters west side. I can’t help wondering where they do eat. They don’t show up at the same parties across hamlet and they don’t parallel with imbibe at the anyway bar. I on no account tranquil sat next to solitary on an airplane.

Where do you of they are? Hiding from me, perhaps? Do they sort out me coming, hungry after declaration and ass for the sake of the burbs? Do I make away my yearning because them in my sign, my need to be discovered, appreciated and signed on? Do I get to stumble on a bull session in which to flounder my prized novel? Why can’t we oblige a comfortable chat in the elevator? Why can’t I distinguish their missing pooch and notice a luminary, why aren’t they coordinated to my Aunt Em? Where the hell are these people?

I would be versed at one if I saw anecdote, I’m wholly sure. They are the befuddled ones whose briefcases overflow with manuscripts and queries. They abrasion rules simpatico smiles and Next Bestseller buttons on their lapels. I reflect on they only into entirely in the daytime because they have to spoil accommodations and a note spurning letters. This takes reasonably the full night so most of them be undergoing circles comprised in their eyes. I contemplate they alone speak to anybody another because they don’t in reality recall what makes the average reader tick; they believe it’s just about clothing the same characters in different color khakis.

So peradventure they’re the zoned exposed sleepyheads on the tube listening to the unvaried CD on the other side of and over again. You be acquainted with who I’m talking almost; they’re the people asleep behind their sunglasses, lattes and ipods, weary by the latest seminar on What the Industry Wants. Perchance they’re absolutely jaded, so much so that the words in the books they presume from run into each other and anecdote good novel is just like any other. They’re very likely not informed anymore that Tolstoy is not the Russian dispute object of “hello” and Jane Eyre is not a brand name for refrigeration. This isn’t because they’re simple-minded, it’s only that their minds are too maximum of the coetaneous convolutions of repetition and when you publicize so much time in upsetting to track down the next Stylish York Times bestseller, you fail things.

I sustain looking for the treatment of agents all upon the billet regardless of their shortcomings. After all, I’m a hack and my manuscripts call for a mommy or daddy who drive find credible in them and stock my volume’s vet rights or and get me a main publishing deal. I definitely, after all, I’m told that’s what they do on the side of a living. Don’t they paucity me as much as I desideratum them?

Well, I’ll be patient types of comparative essays. I guess they’ll boon me when the interval is right. And like a Vampire after blood, they’ll appear away from of their dark obscurity, charming me into believing they’ve been there all along, honourable waiting in place of the richness of my words, the leaning of my appeal.

Decidedly they consume me with probability, I ordain be theirs forever. I’ll see them flying in the course the cavern of my dreams, their faces approximately, the contract of everlasting depiction in their hands. As these prolific pygmy pundits move from pursue into pattern, their eyes burrowed in my manuscript, at matrix; their simulacrum, in the long run, pellucid as a dime collect novel story line, I’ll forecast my pen-pusher’s hat and welcome the observance, as if the non-appearance of these literary phantoms, was on no account felt.

1. Be energetic. Make sure that you bring ENERGY to the table. Radio hosts love it when you show enthusiasm on the air. If you’re excited about your message, the listeners will be excited, too—and more inclined to want to learn more about your book.

2. Avoid distractions. Make sure that there are no dogs barking or kids screaming and clutching onto your leg. Turn off your computer and the television and make sure that you switch off your cell phone. Shut yourself into a room where you can have total privacy with no distractions so you can stay focused!

3. Be honest. Always be open and honest with the host. Listeners relate better to people who are an “open book.” Don’t be afraid to be who you really are and say what you really think. Remember that Howard Stern built an empire by being honest with his listeners!

4. Define your message. Before going on the air, know the key points you want to communicate about your book. Make sure you stay “on message” no matter how far off the host’s questions take you. Always bring the answer back to your own key message.

5. Be mindful of your word inflections. Practice saying your main points out loud before your interview. Remember that it is not only what you say, but how you say it. Inflections help keep the listener’s interest.

6. Speak slowly and clearly and make sure that you E-NUN-CI-ATE. You don’t want your words to mush together. If you speak too quickly, the listeners won’t be able to understand you. Make sure to enunciate so that people will stay interested.

7. Have notes handy, but try not to read from them. Know your material cold. Reading your notes or word-for-word answers sounds stiff and rehearsed and you’ll lose your audience. You want to sound as natural as possible so that your message will be more likely to trigger a buying response.

8. If you stumble, stutter, or slip-up during an interview, forget about it and move on. Don’t dwell on your mistakes. Don’t get flustered. Stay on message and you’ll be fine.

9. Don’t get technical or use words that most listeners wouldn’t know. Remember that you are trying to get a large audience to relate to you. Use layman’s terms, if at all possible, and save the four-syllable words for your next game of Scrabble.

10. Smile when you are on the air. If you are physically smiling while you are talking, the listeners will feel it. If you are frowning, they will feel that also. Although the listeners won’t be able to actually see you on the radio, they will be able to “feel” your interest and enthusiasm.

Remember—your intention for every interview is to enlighten the listening audience about your book and interest them in purchasing it.

If you would like to hear more about talk radio and how it can help you successfully promote your book, call me or my husband Steve at 727-443-7115, ext. 208. Nothing beats a real-life conversation!

Call today &ndash we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Warmest Regards,

Marsha Friedman, President

1. Be energetic. Make sure that you bring ENERGY to the table. Radio hosts love it when you show enthusiasm on the air. If you’re excited about your message, the listeners will be excited, too—and more inclined to want to learn more about your book.

2. Avoid distractions. Make sure that there are no dogs barking or kids screaming and clutching onto your leg. Turn off your computer and the television and make sure that you switch off your cell phone. Shut yourself into a room where you can have total privacy with no distractions so you can stay focused!

3. Be honest. Always be open and honest with the host. Listeners relate better to people who are an “open book.” Don’t be afraid to be who you really are and say what you really think. Remember that Howard Stern built an empire by being honest with his listeners!

4. Define your message. Before going on the air, know the key points you want to communicate about your book. Make sure you stay “on message” no matter how far off the host’s questions take you. Always bring the answer back to your own key message.

5. Be mindful of your word inflections. Practice saying your main points out loud before your interview. Remember that it is not only what you say, but how you say it. Inflections help keep the listener’s interest.

6. Speak slowly and clearly and make sure that you E-NUN-CI-ATE. You don’t want your words to mush together. If you speak too quickly, the listeners won’t be able to understand you. Make sure to enunciate so that people will stay interested.

7. Have notes handy, but try not to read from them. Know your material cold. Reading your notes or word-for-word answers sounds stiff and rehearsed and you’ll lose your audience. You want to sound as natural as possible so that your message will be more likely to trigger a buying response.

8. If you stumble, stutter, or slip-up during an interview, forget about it and move on. Don’t dwell on your mistakes. Don’t get flustered. Stay on message and you’ll be fine.

9. Don’t get technical or use words that most listeners wouldn’t know. Remember that you are trying to get a large audience to relate to you. Use layman’s terms, if at all possible, and save the four-syllable words for your next game of Scrabble.

10. Smile when you are on the air. If you are physically smiling while you are talking, the listeners will feel it. If you are frowning, they will feel that also. Although the listeners won’t be able to actually see you on the radio, they will be able to “feel” your interest and enthusiasm.

Remember—your intention for every interview is to enlighten the listening audience about your book and interest them in purchasing it.

If you would like to hear more about talk radio and how it can help you successfully promote your book, call me or my husband Steve at 727-443-7115, ext. 208. Nothing beats a real-life conversation!

Call today &ndash we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Warmest Regards,

Marsha Friedman, President

As many bestselling authors will tell you, talk radio is one of the best and most cost-efficient vehicles to get your message heard by consumers. But, with different publicity firms out there competing for your business, how do you choose the right one? What factors should you look for and which are the most important?

► Experience. How important is experience? Very. You need to employ a company who has had years of experience promoting books on talk radio. A skilled firm knows how to develop an angle from your book that will get you the broadest national exposure. They will know how to write an effective press release that stands out from all the rest. And most importantly, they know how to get a positive reaction from producers that results in a booking. This is the kind of experience that will ensure you get quality media placements.

► Quality Markets. In what markets will you be heard? If you’re paying a firm to obtain media interviews, you don’t want to be booked in markets smaller than top 100. There’s no question that stations in smaller markets have value, but you don’t need to pay top dollar for someone to arrange it for you.

► Quality Stations. What caliber of stations will your interviews take place on? The criteria we use for booking interviews is nothing less than 5,000 watts or above on the AM dial. In every market you’ll find high-powered and low-powered stations. Obviously, the more power a station has, the morepeople will be listening in. So, if you’re paying for media interviews, your best return on investment will be appearing as a guest on larger stations.

► Guarantee. What sort of guarantee is in place? In the book promotion business, you’ll find some PR firms whose fees are based on performance and others who charge a monthly retainer with no guarantee. Given a choice, your best bet is to work with a performance-based firm as your media placements will be guaranteed.

Hopefully these four factors will help in your search for the right publicity firm.

Having been in the book publicity business for almost two decades, we know a thing or two about generating media attention for books. If you want to hear more about EMSI’s affordable talk radio campaigns, call me or my husband Steve at 727-443-7115, ext. 208. Nothing beats a real-life conversation!

Call today &ndash we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Warmest Regards,

Marsha Friedman, President

P.S. We also offer a host of other essential publicity and advertising services, including TV and radio commercials and infomercials. Once we understand more about your book, we can discuss the different options available to create the national buzz that’s so crucial to a successful book campaign.

As many bestselling authors will tell you, talk radio is one of the best and most cost-efficient vehicles to get your message heard by consumers. But, with different publicity firms out there competing for your business, how do you choose the right one? What factors should you look for and which are the most important?

► Experience. How important is experience? Very. You need to employ a company who has had years of experience promoting books on talk radio. A skilled firm knows how to develop an angle from your book that will get you the broadest national exposure. They will know how to write an effective press release that stands out from all the rest. And most importantly, they know how to get a positive reaction from producers that results in a booking. This is the kind of experience that will ensure you get quality media placements.

► Quality Markets. In what markets will you be heard? If you’re paying a firm to obtain media interviews, you don’t want to be booked in markets smaller than top 100. There’s no question that stations in smaller markets have value, but you don’t need to pay top dollar for someone to arrange it for you.

► Quality Stations. What caliber of stations will your interviews take place on? The criteria we use for booking interviews is nothing less than 5,000 watts or above on the AM dial. In every market you’ll find high-powered and low-powered stations. Obviously, the more power a station has, the morepeople will be listening in. So, if you’re paying for media interviews, your best return on investment will be appearing as a guest on larger stations.

► Guarantee. What sort of guarantee is in place? In the book promotion business, you’ll find some PR firms whose fees are based on performance and others who charge a monthly retainer with no guarantee. Given a choice, your best bet is to work with a performance-based firm as your media placements will be guaranteed.

Hopefully these four factors will help in your search for the right publicity firm.

Having been in the book publicity business for almost two decades, we know a thing or two about generating media attention for books. If you want to hear more about EMSI’s affordable talk radio campaigns, call me or my husband Steve at 727-443-7115, ext. 208. Nothing beats a real-life conversation!

Call today &ndash we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Warmest Regards,

Marsha Friedman, President

P.S. We also offer a host of other essential publicity and advertising services, including TV and radio commercials and infomercials. Once we understand more about your book, we can discuss the different options available to create the national buzz that’s so crucial to a successful book campaign.

1. Be real. Present yourself the way that you really are. Don’t put up a false or manufactured front. If an audience perceives you to be fake, your message will fail. Be REAL. Be who you really are.

2. Be sensitive about political views. If you are discussing a controversial political issue, always try to acknowledge that the other side has some good points. Remember that radio audiences are diverse. By “giving and taking,” you will win credibility points with your entire audience.

3. Familiarize yourself with the current news climate. Stay up to date on current events and present yourself as the “expert” on your topic. Don’t be caught unaware about a current or breaking news story that pertains to your book. Projecting yourself as knowledgeable will help to build your credibility with listeners.

4. Tie-in a local angle if at all possible. Whether you are talking to a radio show out of St. Louis, Detroit, or Sacramento, be sure to tie the local area in to what you are saying. For example, if your book is about the economy or real estate, talk about the unemployment rate or real estate values in that particular city. By localizing the message as much as possible, you draw your listening audience in even further, and more importantly, you keep them tuned in and interested in your message.

5. Do NOT use a cell phone. Always make sure to use a secure landline for all of your interviews. Cell phones are unreliable for on-the-air interviews and you stand the chance of getting cut off in the middle of your interview. Obviously, this is a major pet peeve of talk radio hosts as they now have to fill the time originally set aside for your interview. No host likes to have the timing and pace of his show screwed up. If your interview is cut short due to cell phone problems, don’t expect them to put you back on the air or reschedule you.

6. Don’t forget to hit on your key points. Sometimes you can get so wrapped up in the conversation you are having with the host or from call-ins by listeners that you lose sight of your main message. Try to always remember your main focus and don’t get too off-topic.

7. Match your interview pace with that of the radio host. If the host is a “fast-talker,” pick up the pace. If the host’s style is slow and easy, do your best to adapt. By adapting to the host’s rhythm, you’ll develop a better camaraderie with him. The positive rapport between you and the host will keep regular listeners interested in your message.

8. Limit numbers and statistics during your interview. If you have a particular statistic that you think applies very strongly to your message, use it and hammer it home. But be careful…if you throw too many numbers at the audience, you will lose their interest and they will tune out.

9. If you are in the dark about an issue, don’t fake it! If you aren’t familiar with an issue the host brings up or don’t know the answer to a question, don’t be afraid to admit it. You will lose immediate credibility by pretending to know something when you really don’t. On the other hand, your credibility goes through the roof when you are perceived by listeners as being honest.

10. Try to give your interviews an intimate feel. Remember that radio is a one-on-one medium. Talk to the host in a personal and conversational manner, and if there are callers, do the same with them. This will help keep the audience interested and they’ll be more likely to relate to you.

Remember—your intention for every interview is to enlighten the listening audience about your book and interest them in purchasing it.

If you would like to hear more about talk radio and how it can help you successfully promote your book, call me or my husband Steve at 727-443-7115, ext. 208. Nothing beats a real-life conversation!

Call today &ndash we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Warmest Regards,

Marsha Friedman, President

1. Be real. Present yourself the way that you really are. Don’t put up a false or manufactured front. If an audience perceives you to be fake, your message will fail. Be REAL. Be who you really are.

2. Be sensitive about political views. If you are discussing a controversial political issue, always try to acknowledge that the other side has some good points. Remember that radio audiences are diverse. By “giving and taking,” you will win credibility points with your entire audience.

3. Familiarize yourself with the current news climate. Stay up to date on current events and present yourself as the “expert” on your topic. Don’t be caught unaware about a current or breaking news story that pertains to your book. Projecting yourself as knowledgeable will help to build your credibility with listeners.

4. Tie-in a local angle if at all possible. Whether you are talking to a radio show out of St. Louis, Detroit, or Sacramento, be sure to tie the local area in to what you are saying. For example, if your book is about the economy or real estate, talk about the unemployment rate or real estate values in that particular city. By localizing the message as much as possible, you draw your listening audience in even further, and more importantly, you keep them tuned in and interested in your message.

5. Do NOT use a cell phone. Always make sure to use a secure landline for all of your interviews. Cell phones are unreliable for on-the-air interviews and you stand the chance of getting cut off in the middle of your interview. Obviously, this is a major pet peeve of talk radio hosts as they now have to fill the time originally set aside for your interview. No host likes to have the timing and pace of his show screwed up. If your interview is cut short due to cell phone problems, don’t expect them to put you back on the air or reschedule you.

6. Don’t forget to hit on your key points. Sometimes you can get so wrapped up in the conversation you are having with the host or from call-ins by listeners that you lose sight of your main message. Try to always remember your main focus and don’t get too off-topic.

7. Match your interview pace with that of the radio host. If the host is a “fast-talker,” pick up the pace. If the host’s style is slow and easy, do your best to adapt. By adapting to the host’s rhythm, you’ll develop a better camaraderie with him. The positive rapport between you and the host will keep regular listeners interested in your message.

8. Limit numbers and statistics during your interview. If you have a particular statistic that you think applies very strongly to your message, use it and hammer it home. But be careful…if you throw too many numbers at the audience, you will lose their interest and they will tune out.

9. If you are in the dark about an issue, don’t fake it! If you aren’t familiar with an issue the host brings up or don’t know the answer to a question, don’t be afraid to admit it. You will lose immediate credibility by pretending to know something when you really don’t. On the other hand, your credibility goes through the roof when you are perceived by listeners as being honest.

10. Try to give your interviews an intimate feel. Remember that radio is a one-on-one medium. Talk to the host in a personal and conversational manner, and if there are callers, do the same with them. This will help keep the audience interested and they’ll be more likely to relate to you.

Remember—your intention for every interview is to enlighten the listening audience about your book and interest them in purchasing it.

If you would like to hear more about talk radio and how it can help you successfully promote your book, call me or my husband Steve at 727-443-7115, ext. 208. Nothing beats a real-life conversation!

Call today &ndash we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Warmest Regards,

Marsha Friedman, President

Maybe you’re one of those lucky writers whose head is bursting with ideas. Or perhaps you have one idea that’s been nagging you for weeks, always at the edge of your thoughts. Either way, you’re itching to begin writing. That’s good. But before you rush headlong into your story, stop and ask yourself one question: Is this just an idea, or is it a book?

Ideas, of course, are the seeds of any work of fiction or nonfiction. But until an idea is fully developed, until you can envision its beginning, middle and end, that one idea might not be enough. The experience of writing for pages about an idea and ultimately getting nowhere (or getting a pile of rejections) has taught many writers to outline their books before they begin. But if the thought of an outline sends shivers up your spine, at least thinking your idea through and making sure it merits months of writing can save you future frustration.

Ideas for Fiction

A lot of writers, especially when they’re beginners, get ideas for fiction from their own lives. This can be useful for several reasons: you’re emotionally invested in the topic, you can relate directly to the main character, and if the situation actually happened to you, you’re less likely to be unconsciously basing the story on a book you’ve read. But remember, just because you find this thing that happened to you or your child fascinating, it doesn’t mean it will be fascinating to thousands of potential readers. Very often, a real-life event is just that–an event. It’s a vivid scene you recall with pleasure, or a family joke that’s repeated over and over. It evokes strong emotions when you remember it, perhaps you even look back on an event as a turning point in your life. But only rarely does reality provide a plot.

When writers stick too closely to what really happened they fail to develop the elements necessary for a good story: a believable main character who is faced with a problem or conflict, mounting tension as that character tries to solve her problem and experiences setbacks, and a tension- filled climax followed by a resolution that’s satisfying to the character and the reader. If your main character is really your son, you might not want to get him in trouble or throw rocks in his path. But you have to. It’s the only way you’ll create a story that will keep readers hooked and wondering how it will end.

Speaking of endings, if the resolution of your story comes too easily, it’s probably obvious and predictable. Try mixing up real life and have the situation evolve in a different direction. Surprise yourself, and you’ll surprise an editor.

However you get your idea, focus first on whether it’s a plot or a theme. Many times, an initial idea is really the underlying meaning of the story, what the author wants to convey to the reader. Themes should be universal in their appeal– such as friendship, appreciating one’s own strengths, not judging others too quickly. Then play around with the sequence of events until you develop a plot (what actually happens in the book) that makes this theme clear to the reader. And remember; if you’re using a childhood incident as the foundation of your story, tell it from your childhood viewpoint, not how it feels to you now as an adult.

Ideas for Nonfiction

Your nonfiction book should be based on something you’re truly interested in and passionate about. After all, you’ll be living with this idea for many months. The key to successful nonfiction is to take your idea and approach it in a way that no one else has ever done before. This means doing most of your research before you begin to write. Don’t settle for the most easily-found information on your topic–your readers have probably read the same information. Keep digging until you find an aspect to your subject that strikes you as unique. Then search through the library and book stores to make sure no one else has already beat you to it.

For a nonfiction idea to become a book, you need enough information to fill the number of pages necessary, depending on the age group for which you plan to write. Younger children need a foundation of basic facts, but you can also get fairly detailed within the scope of the approach you’ve chosen as long as you explain concepts in a simple and straightforward manner (how animals hibernate, why insects are different colors). Older readers can draw on a broader foundation of knowledge, and infer connections between your topic and related subjects. A detailed outline of any nonfiction book is essential to help you see if your idea has enough substance and originality, or if you need further research before you begin writing.

Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, your idea should mean something to you, but also have the potential to mean a lot to your readers. Think it through, add to it, take the nonessential elements away, and make sure it has a beginning, middle and end. Only then will your “idea” turn into “an idea for a book.”