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The John Lewis website (www.johnlewis.com) is an amazing online store to hunt for fabulous special deals on a big range of top quality electrical equipment and appliances, as well as many other products. You can find an ample array of leading brand electricals and appliances, such as; washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers, fridges and microwaves, to list but a fraction of the range available. All the products you can see on the site are from market leading brands like Hotpoint and Miele. Quality Miele washing machines are an investment that can last a long time - make sure you choose the right one.

If you are looking for a shiny new washing machine you will never happen upon a more comprehensive site for finding information on your next acquisition than the John Lewis buyers guide. This invaluable web page gives you a treasure trove of interesting, exceptionally useful, unbiased and pragmatic suggestions on selecting the right equipment to most accurately suit your households requirements. Attributes which you might often wish to ponder when you’re securing you and your families brand new washing machine should be: which brand you think is the best value, e.g. Bosch, Miele, Hotpoint, Zanussi etc. Is it going to be slotted into the allocated space you have available; what sorts of functionality do you and your family really require; how water efficient would you like it to be and how unproblematic is the appliance to install.

After you no longer need to consult the sound suggestions in the buyers guide, you can then have a browse through an extensive list of great value items which are on sale online at the John Lewis site. The web site couldn’t possibly be easier to navigate - the navigation bar at the top of the web page gives you with fast access to all the top level categories, e.g. technology, electrical appliances, fashion etc. Below all of these aforementioned sections you will happen upon a web link straight to specific item types e.g. washing machines; when you get to the desired category you may then find your way around by attributes for example, price, brand and type, e.g. Zanussi. It’s that straightforward.

As a long established and trusted retailer you should have no problems with opting to buy on-line from John Lewis with confidence. The John Lewis company offer absolutely free nationwide delivery for any orders; so the price you see is the price you’ll actually pay. No nasty shocks when you get to the home delivery options web-page. It is a given that if you have experienced a malfunction and urgently need that brand spanking new Bosch tumble dryers very fast you should opt to lay out a nominal premium for expedited delivery. And for even greater piece of mind, John Lewis offers free returns should you or your family be unhappy with your items. If that wasn’t enough, as standard you shall also get a free two or three year warrenty on your households brand new tumble dryer.

Good writing is often designed around a character who has a distorted vision of himself or of the world. During the story, he is placed under sufficient pressure to force an epiphany, a moment of clarity in which, he sees the world as it is, not as he wished it to be.

A classic example is “Casablanca,” where Bogart’s immortal Rick has managed to create an insular world in which he can pretend to be utterly detached and uninvolved. He supposedly has no political beliefs, and no real human connections. But the reappearance of Ilsa forces a cascade of events that cause Rick to reexamine his attitudes about love, fate, patriotism, courage, fidelity, friendship, and life itself.

Rick begins as a damaged, closed off character, carrying wounds to his heart and ego. What he WANTS is to be left alone to his self-pity. What he NEEDS is to be re-awakened to a life of purpose. The writers, wisely, give Rick what he needs, not what he wants, and in that manner a classic was born.

In Lifewriting we trust that the quality of a writer’s skill will be heightened by his evolution as a human beingin other words, his ability to write people will be based on his capacity for honest observation of himself and others. His ability to turn a plot creatively will be based on his understanding of the world as it isnot as we often fantasize it to be. This ability to create moments of suspense, revelation, humor and horror often triggers an “ah! Life is just like that!” response from the audience, a recognition of universal humanity that can transcend culture and time.

The easiest way to learn this is to look at our own lives. None of us make it through our years without wounds, damage, pain. Just as physical scar tissue shortens muscles and limits mobility, emotional scar tissue creates “armoring” around our hearts. It also begins to warp our reality, as we create justifications for why THIS relationship self-destructed, or THAT job crashed and burned…once again. It’s never our fault, of course. The opposite, and even more damaging reaction is to take not just responsibility for our failures, but massive guilt as well. Our lives don’t work (so the reasoning goes) because we are bad, terrible, horrible people undeserving of healthy bodies or relationships or careers.

Either attitude clouds our vision, makes it difficult to see the world as it is. Those clouded inner eyes and warped “reality maps” make it very difficult to navigate a path to our chosen goals. Again and again we will bark our shins on invisible rocks, crashing into invisible walls, almost as if life is trying to teach us, to educate us, to enlighten us as to the realities of existence.

What we WANT is the comforting womb of our illusions. What we NEED is to be born into the world as it actually is.

Often, we are dragged kicking and screaming into clarity, forced ultimately to accept the ways we’ve been wrong. “Too soon old, too late smart” is one rather fatalistic way of speaking of this process. Too often, we must be old before we grasp that WE are the ones who sabotaged our dreams of success. We are the ones who refused to exercise and eat reasonablythat our bodies are more the result of our behaviors than our genetics. We are the ones who broke communication in our relationships, who lied and withheld and blamed, and thought that “the other person” was responsible for our misery. We are the ones who refused to grow up, to stop blaming our parents, or society, or racism, ageism, sexism or any other “ism” for our lack of happiness.

Too late, we are battered by one failure or disappointment after another, until the ego walls we created to protect our self-image are shattered, and we’re forced into contact with our true selves. The moment of death is supposed to be absolutely first rate at creating such clarity, a realization of our true values, and regret at the way we sold out our true potential.

But there are events that create clarity. The birth of a first child. A near-death experience. Accomplishing some worthy and transforming goal. The first deep and true moment of love or friendship. Transformation. In such moments, we see ourselves for the magnificent, wounded, earthy, spiritual beings that we are. We forgive ourselves, and our families, and the world around us, knowing that we have no right to expect more perfection from others than we ourselves possess. And as the saying goes, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” No perfect people in this world. Accept it. And move on.

Stories that deal with these core stressors–life, death, birth, transformation, loveare always, and have always been the most popular stories in human history. Under this stress, your character, robbed of their self-justifying lies, must speak the truth. Under these stressors, they are revealed in their magnificence…or sometimes (especially if they refuse to acknowledge reality) revealed in their venality, cowardice, and dishonesty.

This is one of the functions of story. The writer must create story pressures beyond the capacity of the characters to maintain their illusions. Then, and only then, can you reveal their true natures. To do this, just look at the times in your own life that you awakened, transformed, grew, went kicking and screaming into the next level of your life. Then create dramatic exaggerations or simplifications of these passages, and create characters to experience them. Let them be as humanas flawed and magnificentas you yourself are. As we all are. Heighten their qualities for the sake of drama, to be sure, but always, always, at their core, let them be human, whatever it is that you believe human beings to be.

Let them struggle. Let them learn. Let them love.

Let them live.

Do this, and it will mark the beginning of a beautiful friendship…between you, your muse, and a world audience starved for entertaining truth.

NY Times Bestselling writer Steven Barnes has created Lifewriting, the first holistic high-performance system for writers and readers. Get a free daily Lifewriting tip at: www.lifewriting.biz or www.lifewrite.com

When you are ready to step into the professional world, one thing becomes your mirror, in which every employer see you and gets to know about you. This mirror is known as resume. Writing resume is an art and tips for writing an effective resume are indeed too essential for you.

A resume is a very important document which plays a major role in letting the employer decide whether he will hire you or not. Your resume tells him about your profile which includes your experience, objectives, interests and capabilities. A professional employer, on an average, spends about 20 seconds scanning your resume. In those 20 seconds he takes his decision whether he should call you for the interview or not. So it becomes important for you to carefully design your resume to create the big first impression.

There are some essential things that you must cover in your resume with utmost rationalization and logic. Perfect resume writing consists of 5 essential components:
Career Objective
Work Experience
Education
Additional Information
Personal Details

Career Objective
Career objective acts as a window which illustrates your professional goals and where you would like to see yourself in the years to come. Career objective also explains how you would like to develop and hone your skills.

Your career objective should be based on the realistic goals and logic. It should not be full of subjectivity as you want to succeed or grow. There should be an element of concrete basis and belief about what you exactly want to do in life.

Your career objective provides the perfect opportunity for you as the employer can analyze your determination and attitude via your career objective. A little creativity and logic can lead you to create a good and professional career objective.

Work Experience
This section is the most important component of your resume. The section describes your accomplishments and work experience in the field you are applying. This section also includes the work experience that you have in different fields as well.

Your work experience
provides the employer with the information related to your worth. Your work experience let him know that you are an experienced person and capable of doing things. In the work experience if you mention your projects and role played by you in achieving them, it would further enhance the image of your capabilities in the employer’s eyes.

Your work experience should be lined up in a reverse chronological order. It should include all the necessary description of the company you worked for, your job title and job role and your projects in each company. You should order your work experience in accord with the type of job. You should edit all the unnecessary information from the work experience.

Education
This section involves your educational background. Some employers are typical about certain educational levels like bachelor’s or masters. You should write your education level in a right sequence, starting with the recent educational level on the top and the lowest in the end.

Additional Information
Additional information refers to description of your achievements in extra curricular activities, your interests and key strengths. This section enables the employer to know your abilities and talents. The description should be kept precise and to the point. It should not look like self boasting, but should seem like representation of the facts.

Personal Details
This section should be included last in your resume. This section mainly deals with your personal details such as:
Father’s name
Date of birth
Sex
Address
Phone number
Martial status

Resume writing is an art. A good resume enhances your chances of being selected where you want to work.

Matt Garrett, www.AllArticles.org www.LearnStuff.Org

There are various things which need to be thought about when deciding what kind of flooring to get fitted. Getting new flooring put in in your home can breathe new life into it and can be a great way to reinvigorate your living environment. It may not be as expensive as you think either.

A big consideration on what flooring to choose is the function of the room it will go in. Flooring which makes sense for the front room may not be appropriate for the bathroom or kitchen for example. Some of the more widely used types of flooring are carpet, vinyl, wood, and laminate.

Laminate flooring can be a great alternative to wooden flooring if you are looking for a wood effect floor at a lower cost. Laminate flooring is made from a sheet of MDF with a wood-effect plastic surface attached to it. The downside of laminate flooring is that whilst it is scratch resistant once it is scratched it is impossible to repair. That aside it can still be an ideal choice for a kitchen, where the plastic coating provides an easily cleanable surface. On the other hand a solid wood flooring would not be a good idea in a bathroom, or indeed any room which is likely to get very humid and wet. Some woods are more vulnerable to the wet than others.

If you are looking to fit a wooden floor, it’s important you have a suitable surface to fit it on. Ideally your existing floor needs to be flat, and dry. There are options however to resolve uneven flooring problems, such as laying ply throughout, or employing an underlay to create a ‘floating floor’.

Often laminate flooring is sold as a product you can assemble without help which is a great way of keeping costs down. Solid wood flooring requires however a higher degree of DIY skills, so it can sometimes be advisable to get solid wooden floors fitted professionally which on the downside can add substantially to the cost.

Something many people do not realise when they measure their room to work out how much flooring they will need - is that it is important to include a 10mm gap around the edge of the room for the wooden flooring to expand and contract.

As an integral part of any interior design scheme, it is vital to select the right flooring. Whilst wooden or laminate floors can be ideal - often for a more chic minimalist look; carpet can be a better option if you are trying to achieve a more traditional home feel. The important thing is you take into account the various factors you need to consider before ordering new flooring.

You, yes you

Yes I’m talking to you

I want to thank you

You might ask “for what?”

For not knowing what I really feel for you

For appreciating all even the smallest thing I do for you

For spending time with me

spending your time talking,listening to me

For being there always

for the promises that never failed

for your great opinion, idea and advise

Specially for being a friend

Who always care and understand

Thank you for letting me come into your life even just for awhile

Thank you for making yourself strong

Thank you for letting me live, because I live only because of you

About the Author: The author don’t usually do this kind of thing because he’s so busy. He don’t have time to read this because he do this on the spot. Think type and submit.He just want to know if there is a point in what he just type or send.
( this is just a trial)

Source: www.isnare.com

It’s Natural

The first impression I had for you the first time we met was so unconscious

The beat of my heart that time was intuitive; I never thought I’ll be this hooked up

The strange feeling was very spontaneous; I got to grasp your mysterious persona

I’m in love and anxious to find out would you accept me or I might get dumped

I just can’t seem to realize why? Why are so special? Probably it’s innate

My thoughts were unpretentious, its really sincere and I anticipate that the upshot would be worthy

For I’ll win your heart and I’ll have you near me

And how can I help it? You’re not hard to be loved

And the feeling was so natural… for you are so natural…

Not a fake… not a mock… not even a clone… it’s just that I like you for who you are…

You’re every detail… you’re every feature and every thing about you…

You’re just too good to be true … that’s why I’m kind’a skeptical if you’ll be willing to accept me…. But I’m happy for what we have right now. And I think I’ll just go on like this…

You’re so Natural…

About the Author: I dedicate this to Mr. VAN GOUGH….thanks for being there…you are my inspiration when I wrote this!!! je t’aime beaucoup vincent mon cher ami!!! jazz_raki21@yahoo.com

Source: www.isnare.com

When attempting to understand Creativity and Innovation, it pays to import the vast range of research and knowledge that has been accumulated in these fields - most of it is to be found in the field of Business and Management.

For example, Writer’s Block is intimately related to Organizational Culture - the same principles that prevent people from generating ideas in the corporate workplace are also responsible for Writer’s Block - evaluation apprehension in its many forms. Another example, the principles that prevent screenwriters from getting their work successful commercialised are the same as those that prevent organisation’s successfully implementing innovation - lack of access to decision makers and so on.

Consequently, the following is one area of Creativity and Innovation Management that can assist screenwriters.

Incremental Productivity

Whilst radical innovation is glamorised, the true hero is incremental innovation. In other words: sustained, smaller changes. Whilst a few radical innovations are the result of giant leaps, the vast majority result from incremental changes applied over long periods. This principle can be applied in a number of ways:

a) Rather than wait for the “big idea,” the chances of hitting on the “big idea” increase when writers engage in not so dynamic projects, develop their competencies, identify and solve problems in a regular and sustained way. We know this to be true because screenwriters tend to come up with their best ideas WHILST they are working on a project.

b) Artists often tinker with various concepts for long periods resulting in work that grows in distance, novelty and diversity from the original idea. That is until new knowledge causes the artist to leap onto a new concept, which is radically different from the original idea and grows further away in terms of distance, diversity and novelty - it increases in radical nature. In other words, radical leaps are a product of incremental activity.

c) We often use the term “think outside of the box.” But what does it actually mean? Some of the most successful ideas have resulted from small changes that were originally just outside of the box. Take the low cost airline model of South West Airlines and EasyJet - the only difference between the standard and their models is essentially price. They took the small notion of price and pushed it outside the box where it seemed impossible - London to Spain for $30 was thinking outside the box at one time. Again, radical ideas result from small changes.

d) In the field of drama and improvisation, actors have found that the best ideas result from not trying to be original but being UNORIGINAL.

These are other topics are covered in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity and Innovation and the various Story Structure Templates and other products available at http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

About the Author: Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com/

Source: www.isnare.com

Another strategy to compete with other clothing businesses is to have a promo of “buy one, get one free”. With wholesale clothing, this is possible. You can afford to give away one clothing for every purchase because of the cheap price of acquiring your products. Be sure that you have the numbers right before making this offer.. Get Wholesale Inspired By Purses at Salehoo wholesale directories, see how Salehoo can help your business. Jupiter also predicts in the report that 86 million U. Read on to find out more about Wholesale Inspired By Purses and Salehoo Wholesalers. Selection - A directory with a good selection of drop ship categories is important. More on Wholesale Inspired By Purses at Salehoo wholesaler directory.

This is the only wholesale club in the U.S. that offers no membership requirements and limitations. Read on about Wholesale Inspired By Purses and how Salehoo wholesale directory can help you. However they say it they usually bury this information in their sites hoping you won’t pay attention to it and they sugar-coat it in such a way that it sounds really good to you if you DO realize what they are up to. More on Wholesale Inspired By Purses below.

Wholesalers are usually importers or people who buy from importers or manufacturers to sell to other wholesalers or distributors, then normally don’t sell to retail stores. Wholesalers specialize in getting good products and supplying them to wholesale distributors, cash and carry’s and even exporters. Find out more about Wholesale Inspired By Purses and how Salehoo wholesale directory can help you start your own business from home. This will allow you to order the exact size of diamond that you need to complete your project. Wholesale Inspired By Purses: Find out how Salehoo wholesale directory can serve YOU!

Get: Wholesale Inspired By Purses at Salehoo wholesale directories, and get a head start in your own startup business. The only way to thrive in your startup business is to get quality products cheaply, and from 100%, weekly verified wholesale suppliers from all over the world. CLICK BELOW for FULL DETAILS Inside

Many of us dream of writing a book. Why not.
What greater story can you write about than
from the pages of your own book of life.
Each day is a new beginning.

Someone said everyone has a story. How true.
Each day that passes by, is a page in the book
of life. Everyone that crosses your path has
something to add to your vast life experience.
You never know what the day will bring when
you wake up. Who can tell what’s going to be
added to or deleted from your To Do list. Surely
you have dreams to pursue, disappointments
to deal with, don’t forget the triumphs and
happiness, relationships, hobbies, passions,
pet peeves. The list goes on.

Where to start? From the very depths of your being.
What filled your day? It is not the story about a lifetime
that gets crammed, edited, chopped up to suit your public.
Far from it.You have inspiring moments to share, battles
you fought and won. Or how you stumbled and bravely
got back on your feet. How you learned to trust your
intuition, the benefits, add to this how you stay healthy in
mind, body and spirit.

The daily pages from your own book of life is your
own, unique and personal, yet, can be shared with the
universe.The life as you write it, as it unfolds each
day, each waking hour, your dreams the visit you in
your sleep. If you let it. Were your problems manageable?
Did you give yourself time to take care of you? Isn’t
Mother Nature inspiring, relaxing and instills tranquility
and serenity to your tired body and mind.

Share some of the experiences from the pages of
of your life. Surprise yourself.

Life is poetry.Life is a song.
Each day is a new day, new experiences, fresh hopes
and fresh outlook. On a sunny day, your
enthusiasm for life is fueled by the brightness.
On a dull morning, take time to reflect, to contemplate

and look forward to the next sunny day. There are moments
when the rhythm of life is enchanting. these are moments
when Life flows like a poem.

With the advent of technology, the web offers the chance
as never before to share these precious pages with
the world..Someone would love to read from your pages.

Think about it!

About the Author: Bonnie Moss writes about spirituality, tools available to all
to walk the path. Visit her website , a metaphysical site that
offers information on tarot, crystals, aura, journalling and related topics.
Her various articles are published on e-zines and newsletters.
She offers guidance and counselling through the wisdom of tarot.
Visit her website
http://goldencupcafe.tripod.com

Source: www.isnare.com

TURNING YOUR IDEA INTO A BOOK

With general non-fiction there is usually room for a good new book on the market, provided it’s likely to attract a substantial group of readers because:

It’s about something entirely new and very interesting that no-one has written about before, or…

It’s about something that’s not new, but to which you contribute something entirely new and very interesting

So why write a business book? Well, there aren’t many more effective promotional tools. “Having a book published” still holds a certain kudos and perhaps in Pavlov-dog fashion, people automatically associate someone who writes a book about something with that someone being an expert on the subject.

Used correctly, your book will also be a helpful PR tool in other areas, and will make a business gift that has a very high perceived value. But never make the mistake of thinking you will retire to the Bahamas on the proceeds of its sales.

Pick a good title

A book’s title is a very important part of the marketing of a book. With non-fiction and particularly business books, like every other piece of marketing communication the book title has to offer or at least suggest a benefit to the reader.

It’s the title people react to when they see a book displayed, whether that’s on a shelf in a bookstore or online. When people are looking through books you only have one chance to get their attention, which is why your title needs to be powerful enough to stop them in their tracks.

There are two basic publishing routes you can choose: self-publishing, or conventional publishing by an external publisher. In addition there are a few hybrid options available, as well as publishing services organizations which offer services to self-publishers on a menu basis.

The conventional publisher

The advantages of getting your book published externally are:

It gives your book status (less so than in the past, but still good if it’s a well known, respected publisher)

Your book will be distributed to all the agreed markets at no cost to you

They will handle and pay for all design, setup, print and production costs

You’ll probably get paid a small advance on royalties

The disadvantages are:

They will be in the driving seat, although they will listen to what you want to do

They will say that they’ll market the book, but many of them won’t (see below)

You will need to negotiate your contract with them very carefully

The percentage of each sale you receive will be far less than if you self-publish

Finding a publisher to approach is easy with the Internet. Because publishers tend to stick to specific genres of book (called “lists”) you’ll find them simply by searching for your type of topic via a search engine or on Amazon. There are also print directories of publishers, such as “Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook” in the UK.

Most publishers have websites, and some even give you the option to submit your preliminary book proposal online - which is well worth doing.

Approaching publishers and submitting proposals

If you’re going into a publisher cold, you’re best to start with a covering letter addressed to the correct person, and enclose with the letter a one-sheet on which you describe the essence of the book. Then wait for feedback before you submit proposals.

You’ll find allthe main elements of detailed proposals that you will be expected to include in my eBook, GET YOURSELF PUBLISHED, here.

Once you have submitted your detailed proposals you may have to wait quite a while - several weeks - before you hear anything.

The offer and the contract

If you get the green light, the publisher will come back with a formal offer, saying “yes, we want to publish your book.” The “offer” part of it is the advance on royalties - but don’t expect much! Advances are normally paid in 2 or 3 tranches with payment points at signing of the contract, delivery of the manuscript, and publication.

Self-publishing

As the nuts-and-bolts elements of book production become cheaper through the advancement of technology, self-publishing becomes increasingly attractive for some business book writers. With modern print-on-demand facilities, too, you avoid the need to have hundreds or thousands of copies printed initially just to keep the unit cost down. Now you can have a handful of books printed at a time and still keep the unit cost within reason.

The advantages of self-publishing (as I see it) are:

You do not have to answer to anyone else on design, content, editing, etc

You do not have to spend any time on finding or convincing a publisher to take your book on

You get to keep all profit from book sales

The disadvantages of self-publishing (as I see it) are:

You have to find the money to get the book produced

You can get editorial and design support, but you have to pay for it

You have to organise and pay for distribution of your book

You will not find it easy to get your book on to Amazon and into other key distribution channels

You have to run a publishing business as well as whatever else you do

WRITING YOUR BOOK

A daunting prospect? Not if you approach it methodically. Here are some tips.

When you come to write the book and are faced with what many people call that “huge, impossible project,” here’s a trick that I was taught when shivering with fear about my first book.

Forget thinking about your book as one project. Think of it as XX discrete projects (one for each chapter.) Get that notion fixed firmly in your mind. 15 writing projects of 4,000 words each feels a lot more comfortable than one writing project of 60,000 words. You also get a greater sense of achievement as you’re working through the book, because the completion of each chapter becomes a major milestone.

Planning and structure

With non-fiction of any kind it helps enormously to work to a closely defined structure. Spend a good chunk of time planning your chapters and ensuring they run in the right order. Subdivide the chapters down into bullet point structure of their own and flesh that out as far as you can.

If you’re going to use research material you need to assemble it and file it under each chapter of your book. Particularly if the research material is printed on paper, assemble it in the same order as the running order of each chapter. That way you don’t have to leaf through piles of material to find what you want.

Chapter breakdown

Using your word processing software, separate the chapter breakdown into one document for each chapter. If you prefer to work with pens or pencils you can print out the document so that each subject heading heads up one page, then staple those pages together in order.

Now, start writing more bullets and notes under each subject heading. Leave plenty of space between them so you can add sub-notes and sub-sub-notes.

Work through this process without hurrying, but keep going for as long as you feel the creative energy flow. Once you have incorporated the bare bones of all information you feel needs to go into that chapter, stop and take a short break. Then go back to the chapter and edit your notes as necessary.

Writing it up

Now you need to take the plunge and start writing prose. Because you have mapped out the content of your chapter so carefully and thoroughly, you’ll find that some it has already started to write itself. Your job then becomes one of linking and smoothing, rather than having to think up stuff from scratch. This method doesn’t remove the fear of writing altogether (if you’re that way inclined) but it certainly makes it a lot easier.

Your own edit

Take your time over your editing process. And most important of all, be hard on yourself. Put yourself firmly in the shoes of a potential reader and ask yourself if - in this role - you would a) understand everything and b) find it interesting. If the answer is no to either then rewrite the section concerned until it IS a) understandable and b) interesting.

The external editor

If your book is being published externally, once you’ve finished your edit the manuscript will go the publisher’s editor. Once the edit comes back to you, you’ll have the opportunity to go through the issues raised by the editor and dispute their recommendations if you feel they’re wrong. Then when everyone is happy with the result, your manuscript goes into production.

If you’re producing the book yourself you don’t, in theory, need to use an editor at all. However unless you’re a professional writer by trade, if you’re self-publishing it makes a lot of sense to use a pro editor to have a look at your work. An informed but unbiased extra expert on the case will help you sharpen up your text and will pick up on all the little details that you - being so close to the material - may have overlooked.

And there you are - a finished manuscript! Now, to the final stage…

PRODUCING AND SELLING YOUR BOOK

If your book is being published externally you won’t have a huge involvement with the production process. This means that you’re relieved of the hassle and expense of production, but on the other hand you won’t have all that much control over how your book looks. Publishers will usually send you cover designs to look at as a courtesy, but don’t automatically assume they’ll change the designs if you happen to hate them.

“You can’t judge a book by its cover” — but it helps!

If you’re self-publishing you’re free, of course, to have whatever you like on the cover. Even if you have strong ideas about how it should look, in your shoes I would invest in a professional design for the cover. Particularly if you’re going to sell the book remotely (i.e. without your being there) that cover is the only real point-of-sale tool you have - so it needs to be good.

Just as the title and cover design are critical elements at the point of sale for your book, so is the jacket copy. This has to sell hard enough to make them carry your book all the way to the checkout and stay there until they’ve paid for it. If you’re self-publishing and don’t feel you can create the snappy words required, hire a pro copywriter to do it. It won’t cost very much as it shouldn’t take them long to complete, and it will be well worthwhile.

Marketing and selling your book

Publishers say they do marketing, but the reality is they don’t do much. And it really is annoying when you think that they are taking the lion’s share of the proceeds from your book sales. So if you want your book to be marketed, you have two choices.

The first choice is to hire a publicist. This is quite popular among American business gurus and public speakers who do not have the time but do have the money. Opinions are divided on whether or not you will get back what you pay the publicist in extra book sales you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

The second, and the more realistic choice for most of us, is to DIY. To achieve that without spending big bucks you need to consider a number of points following publication of your book. You’ll get all the details of this and much more from my eBook, GET YOURSELF PUBLISHED, downloadable from here.

Well, that’s it - with luck you’ll sell a good number of books. Enjoy the experience!

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Canadian-born Suzan St Maur is an international business writer and author based in the United Kingdom. Her latest book, GET YOURSELF PUBLISHED, is available here.
© Suzan St Maur 2003-2005

About the Author

Canadian-born Suzan St Maur is an international business writer and author based in the United Kingdom. Read more - and check out her free biweekly business writing tips eZine, Tipz from Suze, - at her website, SuzanStMaur.com
© Suzan St Maur 2003-2005