What Is Your Real Worth? Think about this. If it is possible to quote you as a person on any Stock Exchange, what would be your real worth? Have you ever, in your wildest imagination thought that one day, it might just be possible to quote professional men and women, on the Stock Exchange? Never, you say. You in fact think it is just a figment of my imagination. I agree with you. Getting person...

What is book design, and why do I need it? You’ve spent weeks, months – maybe a year – writing your book, and you’re now ready to release it to the world. Wait. Is your book professionally designed? Huh? Apart from the mechanical book design structure, i.e. Cover, Copyright page, Foreword, etc., are the things like paragraph length, sentence length, white space, etc., done right? Presuming t...

What Have You Learned Lately? The other day I attended a half day program where seven presenters — all with high level positions in the IT (Information Technology) field — gave us their “take” on career opportunities. Even though each focused on their own area of expertise and how they had reached their positions, each of the seven stressed that the two most important qualities considered when hi...

Stories Are for Adults Too! Very often when I tell someone I am a storyteller, they will say, “Oh, how nice. Do you tell stories to children in the schools and at the libraries?” Well, yes, I do tell stories to children of all ages, but I also tell stories to adults. And, in my opinion, adults need and want the stories even more than the children. In this article, I am going to address why we, as...

What Do I Mean By Storytelling and Storyteller Ethics? Original source: http://www.creativekeys.net/StorytellingPower/article1047.html Both weekly and monthly, I receive a huge number of publications that deal with business and technology. Ever since the whole Enron scandal became news, these magazines have and are featuring more and more articles dealing with ethics, honesty and trust. In every...

What Do Editors Want? At a recent SCBWI conference in Denver, Melanie Cecka, Senior Editor for Viking Children’s Books, tried to answer that perennial question, “What are editors looking for?” Her answer–and this is a real kicker–is that because publishers are cutting back on the size of their lists, editors are looking for reasons not to publish your book. Does this mean that editors are plann...

What Audience’s Want From a Storyteller When asked about the personal characteristics that best describe the “perfect storyteller”, audiences say they want a storyteller who is: Enthusiastic. Show your audience that you are happy to be there. Dynamic. Wow your audience with your own sense of style and delivery. Sincere. Be believable through your words and actions. Confident. Know your storie...

What Can I Add? After brainstorming a great new idea for a nonfiction book, one of the most important questions to ask yourself is “What can I add to this topic?” To find out, you must check Amazon.com or take a trip to a couple of bookstores to find out what’s already been published about your subject. Agent Djana Pearson Morris says, “Take a serious look at the competition– if someone’s alrea...

Wave or Waive: Do You Know Which One to Use? It is no surprise that the English language (at least, as spoken by we Americans) is crammed full of words that turn our brains to mush when it comes to figuring out which word spelling to use, how to spell them, or just when exactly to use them. Our school systems have long since abandoned the “readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic” days when kids were gi...