Happy One Year Blogging Anniversary to Me!

I received official notification from WordPress that my blog is now a year old:

Wordpress

Thank you to friends, followers, and everyone in this wonderful writing community for your friendship and support. I love working with writers, and my goal for my blog posts is to provide useful content that will help you whether you write for publication or “just because.” In honor of this auspicious occasion, I’m listing links to some of my most popular articles and guest posts from the last 12 months, and I hope I’ve grouped these in a way that makes searching topics a bit easier for you. Feel free to add a comment on any of them—your comments are always welcome.

Self-Editing

Struggling with Revisions? Try Playing with Paper Dolls

Self-Editing Checklist for Fiction Writers Part I: Macro Issues Continue reading “Happy One Year Blogging Anniversary to Me!”

Pat Brown: I Always Wanted to Live in a Third World Country and Now I Don’t Have to Move

I just read (and was quite moved by) this post, the first of a new blog started by Profiler Pat Brown, whose book How to Save Your Daughter’s Life: Straight Talk for Parents from America’s Top Criminal Profiler is one I acquired and edited when I worked for a traditional publisher. Pat is not a woman who minces her words, and she is true-to-form in this blog, which I share below.

I Always Wanted to Live in a Third World Country and Now I Don’t Have to Move.

Whether you agree with Pat Brown’s ideas or not, she always has an interesting point of view, and I hope you’ll check out her new blog. I know I’m looking forward to reading her thoughts about this next stage of her life.

–Candace

P.S. Pat has also written other books, including fiction, which you can find here. I recommend Only the Truth!

Why You Must Create a Compelling Book Description

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Question: What’s the most important piece of writing you’ll do once your book is complete?

Answer: The description of your book. No matter how well written your book is, no matter how great your author platform is, no matter how great your marketing plan is, if your promotional copy puts readers to sleep, you just lost a potential sale.

What you say about your book can be as important (and arguably even more important) that what you say inside your book.

What’s the most important piece of writing you’ll do once your book is complete? #selfpub #indieauthors Click To Tweet

The product description you write for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other product pages—even your own website—needs to be the best sales copy you can create. Whether readers are just browsing for a book to read or they’re looking for yours specifically (yay!), the interest and excitement you create in that product description will influence whether you gain another reader or not.

Continue reading “Why You Must Create a Compelling Book Description”

Available Today: The Resilient Woman: Mastering the 7 Steps to Personal Power

The Resilient Woman: Mastering the 7 Steps to Personal Power by Dr. Patricia O’Gorman, PhD, which I was privileged to edit, is available today in

Resilient Woman
http://tinyurl.com/cf9ld5s

print and e-book formats. It offers both a mirror and a roadmap to guide women to new understandings about individual thoughts, actions, and strengths.

You can hear the author speak about resilience today, Tuesday, March 5, on A Moment of Change  with Sherry Gaba and Cathleen O’Connor on CBS Skye Radio. And be sure to  check out Dr. O’Gorman’s blog at http://thepowerfulwoman.net for more on this subject.

Learn more about this fantastic “must-read” tool for personal growth here, and buy or download the book at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, or at your favorite bookseller today!

Happy Reading, and please let me know what you think of The Resilient Woman!

—Candace

Update 4/1/13: Publisher’s Weekly review of The Resilient Woman here.

The Song in You by LaDonna Gatlin

As the editor of The Song in You, I had the privilege of working closely with LaDonna Gatlin, and what a terrific story she has to tell! Before Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers became one of the biggest hits in country music, they toured with their sister LaDonna as The Gatlin Quartet, and in this optimistic message of hope and healing, LaDonna Gatlin shares the choice she made to embark on a different “tour”: raising her children, putting family first, overcoming adversity, and ultimately helping to inspire countless others discover their own song.

You can read it all in The Song in You: Finding Your Voice, Redefining Your Life. Today LaDonna is a Certified Speaking Professional and a member of the National Speakers Hall of Fame, part an elite group of CPAE recipients such as Ken Blanchard, Ronald Reagan, Norman Vincent Peale, and Zig Ziglar.

But in this inspirational memoir, you’ll learn all about the sometime-difficult journey LaDonna has had on the way, and why she’s such a popular speaker (and now, author!).

This book has it all—including a foreword by big brother Larry Gatlin! LaDonna shares her personal story in a very transparent and often hilarious way and crafts an incredibly uplifting message. She takes readers down an inspirational path to uncovering their own potential, purpose, and passion.

Using the seven notes of the musical scale—do (do the right thing), re (realize your potential), mi (mind your manners), fa (failures can become fertilizer), sol (solutions begin with me), la (laugh), ti (time is valuable) . . . and right back to do—Gatlin uses her own story, including her dramatic personal struggles, to craft a spiritually uplifting message.

The Song in You
 contains practical, emotional, and spiritual insights gleaned from LaDonna’s experiences as part of a famous musical family, and also as a woman whose Christian faith caused her to walk away from untold riches and fame to travel the world. With a finely tuned voice, sharp wit, and engaging communication style crafted over a lifetime of performing, LaDonna ignites readers to boldly discover their passion, connect with their voice, and embrace a life of purpose and meaning.

You don’t want to miss this one! Stop by your favorite bookstore on your way to the polls on Tuesday—the line won’t seem nearly as bad when you have a great book to read!

—Candace

A Love Affair with Words

One of my greatest childhood possessions was my library card. My stay-at-home mom didn’t have a car, so a “trip to the library” consisted of visiting the bookmobile during its bimonthly trek to our neighborhood. The selection of books wasn’t large, but neither was I—I left that bookmobile every two weeks with a pile of books and a huge smile on my face. I could never decide which book to read first, so I’d start several at once. My mother marveled that I didn’t confuse the plots, but I never had a problem with switching between stories, and I enjoyed them all (especially with a flashlight under the covers after the official “lights out”).

Love Affair with Words
Poster for bookmobile service of the Chicago Public Library, showing a traffic light. “Curb service 10,000 current books – convenient, free, time saving : Chicago Public Library, Randolph St. corridor.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My love affair with words began early, and it has grown and morphed over the many years that have passed since those bookmobile days. I’ve always been fascinated with the way words sound, the way they look, and the rules surrounding their use that often seem arbitrary (but seldom are). I suppose it is natural, then, that I ended up working with words for my profession, and today I take great delight in helping you, the writer, polish your own sentences, paragraphs, and pages so those strings of words express YOU. If you’ve written anything—your own blogpost, an article, a research paper, a book—I’m here to help you make it the very best it can be. Call me today at 954-348-1963 or e-mail me at cyjohnson5580@gmail.com and let’s get started. One day soon someone will be reading YOUR words under the covers with a flashlight!

If you've written anything—your own blogpost, an article, a research paper, a book—I'm here to help you make it the very best it can be. #amediting #amwriting #editing Click To Tweet

—Candace

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