I love being able to sit outside and enjoy this delicious morning. Having a
cute cat on my lap makes it even better!
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A Great Way to Start the Day: Cat on My Lap
What Are 12 Easy Ways to Improve Writing Skills?
“I’m not a good writer” is something many bright and talented entrepreneurs say to me. Writing skills aren’t as hard to come by as you might think. No need for long hours of study or busting your brain on grammar. Many of these tips below will truly surprise you!
These 10 ideas from Sylviane Nuccio are a great start; then you’ll get 2 from me, so stick around after this helpful resource for more.
10 Ways You Never Knew Would Make You Write Better And Get More Traffic
Today I thought I’d write a fun post that would make you curious enough, so firstly, you would click on the title link that leads to this article, secondly you would enjoy (I hope), and thirdly you would want to use those tips next time you write.
We all know that traffic to a blog post is not ALWAYS related to the quality of its content, but it’s also due to the popularity of the blogger, how much he or she puts into the promotion of the post and other factors.
On the other hand, however, content quality is the one thing that will assure constant traffic in the long run, even if you are a popular blogger, and know how to promote your post.
So, without further ado, here are 10 ways you never knew would make you write better and get more traffic to your blog posts.
1) Be Human and don’t be Afraid of your Flaws
Don’t you hate reading monotonous, lifeless, and void of any personality blog posts?
People love to read from someone that they can recognize as a real human being. It’s a law of this world that humans tend to relate to other humans and nothing is less attractive than a writer who writes with no feeling and no emotion.
Always put a little bit of who YOU are in your writing, and don’t be afraid to talk about your flaws at times. People are flawed and like to read about other people’s flaws.
This is a great way to help you write better and bring more traffic to your posts.
2) Eat Healthy and Get Some Sleep
I know this one might be a surprise for you, but if you don’t eat healthy, and don’t get enough sleep your brain and thinking abilities will be affected, and ultimately it will affect your writing. Yes, that’s right, especially if you need to write on a regular basis.
The way I see it, a good diet and a good night sleep help for good writing. Don’t under estimate them to help you write your best and attract more traffic to your articles.
3) Be Honest
You don’t want to be mean and insult people when you write, but you should be honest and bold enough. In other words, don’t be afraid to tell the truth in your writing.
Wanting to please everybody all the time may make your writing dull and boring at times. On the other hand, once you are known to be a writer who is honest and tells the truth about things it will help you be a better writer and increase your traffic, because people will always trust what they read from you.
4) Don’t Be Afraid to Tell What you Think
Now this one could almost be included in the “being honest” section but I think it’s a topic of its own.
Not to be afraid to tell what you think means that you don’t have to agree with everyone all the time. A good writer usually writes what he or she thinks. As a matter of fact, you sholdn’t be writing if it wasn’t to tell what you think.
It’s OK not to agree with everyone else if it’s how you feel, and it’s OK to say it as you see it. It’s actually a great traffic magnet. Ask the boldest of bloggers and they’ll tell you.
5) Read Just Before you Write
Writing ideas are induced be reading. Yes, that’s a very easy trick. Especially if you feel that you don’t know what to write about.
Reading before you are due to write is an excellent remedy for the blank page syndrome. This is due to the fact that the act of reading alone, even if it’s totally unrelated to your topic, will help you to be in a writing mood and turn you into a writing mode.
This will also tend to improve the quality of your articles and bring more traffic to it, of course.
6) Don’t Worry about Sequence
Don’t get stuck in your writing just because you feel that you have to write your article in sequence. There is no time record when you write. You could write the last paragraph first and the first paragraph last, nobody would ever know.
Write as you please, make your writing flow no matter in what order you write your paragraphs or chapters. When you’re all done you can rearrange things so the articles flows better.
The less you worry about sequence the better your writing will be, and of course the better for traffic.
7) Make People Emotional
Emotion is a seller, guys.
This works even if your blog post is not selling a thing. The post still needs to sell itself, doesn’t it? You want people read it, right?
People go for what makes them, laugh, cry and feel things that resonate with them. If you make people FEEL, they will be tempted to come back to read your stuff again and again.
As for helping your writing, making people emotional will help you to really get into what you’re writing like you’re speaking to them one on one.
If you can manage to write as if you were speaking to that one person you have in your head and make them feel something, then you will definitely increase you traffic and become a better writer.
8) Take Risks
I’ve noticed that at times blog posts that really go viral are posts where the writer has taken a risk. What do I mean by that? They decided to write about a topic that wasn’t very popular or that may have had lots controversy, or even a bit unusual.
Whatever niche you might be in, don’t be afraid to take risks when you write. It will boost your writing and attract traffic to your blog post.
9) Think Value
People are always willing to stop by a valuable blog post or article.
If you write with value in mind you will write useful pieces that will drive more traffic, and it will help you improve your writing as well.
Value calls for good writing because it forces you to write with a purpose which is always a positive factor for writing quality.
10) Be Funny
Maybe being funny is not your top quality, but if there is anything a bit humorist in you, if you like when people laugh at something you said, then put some of that into your writing.
When a writer uses humor here and there in his article or blog post it’s very inviting for the readers as it makes them smile, laugh, relax and want to read more.
Learning how to use humor in your writing may help you improve your writing skills and attract people who love that. Yes, humor is a traffic bringer.
Photo Credit: FreeDigtalPhotos.com
2 MORE Tips to Improve Writing Skills, from Ronda Del Boccio
11) Write to ONE PERSON, not a crowd.
I call this the Power of 1. Remember that even though thousands of people will read your book or article, it will happen 1 person at a time. Writing to 1 amplifies the power of your words no matter what you say.
12) Speak directly to the needs of your ideal customer.
For most niches it works well to speak directly to your ideal customer (AKA prospect) as if you are sitting at a cafe having a coffee and you’re having a heart-to-heart conversation, friend to friend. This will give that sense of connection you desire.
I hope these tips to improve your writing skills will help you.
What would YOU suggest? Add your tip in the comments below.
And for more help with all aspects of being an author, including writing, publsihing options, book marketing, product creation, writing skills, book writing advice, mindset and more, please begin yuor 7–day FREE trial Awakened Author Adventure Premium Membership.
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- A brief action-oriented message 5 days a week
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See you “inside”!
Follow your bliss!
Ronda Del Boccio, the Story Lady
bestselling author, speaker and mentor
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What Are 12 Easy Ways to Improve Writing Skills?
Note from Ronda: One of the hats I wear as an author mentor is book marketing coach. Here is a way for you to expand your reach as an author and sell more books by getting into magazines. This is a guest blog post.
Book Marketing Coach: How To Promote Books In Book Magazines
You have spent sleepless nights working on your book and now it is out, why not promote the book doing what you do best — writing? Below are several examples on how you can promote your book using book magazine.
Book Excerpts
Many popular magazines use book excerpts. They normally want excerpts from books which relate to their magazine, for example, cooking magazines usually want excerpts from cookbooks, poetry magazines want to excerpt poetry books and a travel magazine will quote travel books.
If your book features Native African art in Southern Africa, for example, a South Africa travel or history magazine might be interested in publishing your work on South Africa tribes. An excerpt from a book on writing tips for home-based businesses can provide a good content for a writer’s magazine.
Topic Submission
You should submit articles on topics which are only remotely related to the book you have written to promote it. For example, if you have written a book on creative parenting, you can promote it through articles featuring storytelling techniques for parents, how to teach children money awareness, how parents can uphold family traditions and tips for helping parents bond with their new baby. But you can also plug this book even if you are writing an article about snails. You can mention, for example, that when you ware writing the parent book, you met a father who paid his 6-year old son a dollar to catch garden snails.
How about an article on early culture comparisons for a history or an ethnic magazine; flower arranging for a gardening or floral magazine; exploring the lost continent of the Hawaiian Islands for a history, New Age or travel magazine or how to write a how-to book for an author’s magazine?
You can always get a tagline at the end of your article. Use the opportunity to promote your book. The best articles for marketing your book are those articles which rely on your expertise. However, most book magazine editors normally reject articles which blatantly promote a specific product, so it is advisable to keep the article from sounding like a sales pitch for the book. Just write an informative and useful article suitable to a particular book magazine and talk about your book where appropriate.
You Could be Paid
Expect to be paid anywhere from $60 to $1,000 for an article you have written based on your book. You can also be asked to give away some of the promotional writings. And why not, if it the deal means having the pieces published in a national book magazine which is read by anywhere from 30,000 to 600,000 people?
Probably, by now you have dozens of ideas for marketing your book through book magazines. To come up with even more:
- Brainstorm with friends and family.
- Study a variety of book magazines from cover to cover.
- List as many topics related to the book as you can.
Do writing articles for book magazines sell books? I think so. Writing a book is demanding but fun. Promoting it can be intimidating and terrifying. That is why I recommend to writers to start promoting their books by doing something they love — writing.
William is the marketing manager for Bookkaholic Magazine. If you are interested in learning more about book promotion visit the site to see wha they offer for book promotion. Bookkaholic has proudly promoted sites like Najeez Raj Nadarajah.
* * * * *
Thanks William for that great advice.
Being an author is about so much more than merely writing the book. Taking a holistic approach rather than focusing on only 1 area makes a huge difference in your results AND how you feel about the journey.
Begin your Awakened Author Adventure PREMIUM Membership with a full 7 day free trial right now and you can get help every single week with writing, publishing, marketing, creating other products, and developing an awakened mindset.
Start here NOW!
Ronda Del Boccio, the Story Lady
#1 bestselling author, speaker and mentor.
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Book Marketing Coach: How To Promote Books In Book Magazines
Finding Time to Write, Options to Publish a Book and Other Choices: This Week’s Awakened Author Adventure Premium Member Messages
Imagine being able to focus on one aspect of your author journey per day and know you would never get off-center or emphasize one aspect to the detriment of the others. Premium Members receive an action-oriented brief message each day.
Ten minutes that change your outlook and make writing, publishing, book marketing, and creating other products and programs a breeze.
Each weekday, Premium Members focus on 1 of the 5 keys to author success in the BLISS Butterfly System.
- Monday is all about entrepreneur mindset. – Your Noble Cause
- Tuesday is about how to write a book..- Finding Time to Write
- Wednesday is about how to publish a book. – Choosing Which Publishing Option
- Thursday I wear the book marketing coach hat.- Should you Be on Twitter?
- Friday is about monetizing your message. – Physical or Digital Product?
Would YOU find it helpful to have a 10 minute dose of inspiration and action each weekday? You can get a sample simply by listening to the Awakened Author Adventure FREE writing podcast. That will give you a feeling for what it’s like each day. Go ahead and listen to the last free episode now (Episode 9).
This week’s FREE message is about how to choose which option to publish a book.
Premium Members, login on WriteOnPurpose.com & see all your Premium Member benefits, and you’ll see your audios automagically appear in this same post at the bottom, with their download links, so you may listen online and/or download.
Follow your bliss!
Ronda Del Boccio, the Story Lady
bestselling author, mentor and speaker
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Finding Time to Write, Options to Publish a Book and Other Choices: This Week’s Awakened Author Adventure Premium Member Messages
The Cure for Being Scattered:
Premium Member Call June 27
So many things can scatter your efforts as an author-entrepreneur, and scattered input = scattered output! This Premium Member Call brought questions about –
- Which social networks to focus on
- How to drive people from your book to your workshops/coaching/other programs.
- How not to be scattered.
- How mindset can hurt your results if it’s a faulty mindset.
Social networks can really mystify people.
Here’s the post with the fabulous infographic and demograpnics to help you understand which social networks are most likely to have your audience. Read it now.
Current Premium Members
First – IMPORTANT DAY CHANGE for next week’s call! Thursday is July 4, American Independence Day, so the Premium call is changed. See below after you login for details.
Awakened Author Adventure Premium Members will be able to login and listen to the call right now. You’ll see the login form below on WriteOnPurpose.com, then once you’re “in,” you’ll see the player.
Don’t Be a Lone Wolf
Why try to do it all alone and risk soaking in bad advice when you can get help every week!
You can become a Premium Member with a 7–day free trial. You’ll get a live weekly call, daily action-oriented message and more. Join now www.WriteOnPurpose.com/adventure.
Premiums – see you “inside” –
Follow your bliss!
Ronda Del Boccio, the Story Lady
bestselling author, mentor and speaker
Originally posted here:
The Cure for Being Scattered: Premium Member Call June 27
#009 Deciding What to Write Your Book About: Awakened Author Adventure Episode 9
Welcome to Episode 9 of the Awakened Author Adventure, where visionaries like you come for inspiration, resources and direction to write, publish and share life-changing books.
Your guide is bestselling author, speaker and mentor Ronda Del Boccio, The Story Lady – namely ME. I’m PASSIONATE about turning world-changers into bestselling authors with grace, ease and joy!
This week’s show is all about the L for Legacy in the B.L.I.S.S. Butterfly Author success System.
Being an author is about more than merely how to write a book. There are 5 key systems to your success, and each week the Awakened Author Adventure Podcast.you’ll gain insights into one of them, and this week it’s all about writing your book.
Premium Members cycle through each area of author success every single week!
Today’s quote
“Write a book that solves a problem for the reader and makes life better.” – Ronda Del Boccio
Listen to Today’s Episode
First, if you are viewing this article on a site other than WriteOnPurpose.com and don’t see the player, simply go to www.WriteOnPurpose.com/8 to listen.
Here’s this week’s episode.
Resources & Links from today’s show:
- Thanks for keeping the show in New and Noteworthy in iTunes in all 3 categories!
- Ask a question via voicemail www.WriteOnPurpose.com/question
- Subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher Radio
Need MORE Help with your book?
Premium Members get a brief action-oriented inspiring message each weekday, PLUS a live weekly call and more to keep you moving forward with your book and all that surrounds it..
Begin your 7-Day FREE Trial Awakened Author Premium Membership RIGHT NOW at WriteOnPurpose.com/adventure!
CLICK to Get Show Reminders + an Invitation to the next FREE training!
Love this show? Tweet it out to your peeps!
I’m so HONORED that YOU are keeping Awakened Author adventure in the iTunes bestselller list, New & Noteworthy, in Arts, Education, and even Business! THANKS mucho!
Listen weekly to master the 5 keys for author success in the BLISS Butterfly System, including entrepreneur mindset, how to write and publish a book, book marketing ideas, and more.
Come back next week!
Follow your bliss!
Ronda Del Boccio, the Story Lady
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#009 Deciding What to Write Your Book About: Awakened Author Adventure Writing Podcast Episode 9
Book Marketing Coach: How Do You Choose the Right Social Network to Find Your Ideal Customer?
Lee wrote to me, saying: “I’m so confused about which social networks to use. How do I know where to spend my time?”
This just came up during the Awakened Author Adventure Premium Member live Call today. What perfect timing to find the resource below.
Lee, and all busy author-entrepreneurs, here is some book marketing coaching to get you on the right track.
Which social media sites should you use most? it all stems from knowing your intended outcome, knowing your audience, and knowing what networks they use most.
You want to leverage, not scatter, your efforts.
This fabulous article and infographic will help. The bold parts and lists are mine, to help you focus your eyes and attention more easily on the parts that matter. Stick with me afterward for some more help.
Choose The Right Social Media Platforms For Their Goals [Infographic]
The different social media platforms available out there lend themselves to different goals.
This is what this infographic is all about: choosing the right social media platform for an organization’s goal and the type of content they produce.
Looking at it another way, organizations may look at what their goals are and then produce content to match the social media platform that is best for their goals.
The infographic asks, what do you aim to achieve?
- If it’s SEO, Google+, YouTube and StumbleUpon are better than Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
- If your brand wants traffic to your site, you better focus your efforts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Reddit and SlideShare.
- If you want brand exposure, almost all social networks are great except for Reddit, the infographic says.
- Meanwhile, the best customer engagement drivers are SlideShare, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Based on those goals, you can tailor your content creation efforts to match the social media platform you choose.
- Facebook is a jack of all content types as photos, videos, articles and texts are suitable for the world’s largest social network.
- Twitter does better with photos, articles and texts.
- Google+, like Facebook, accommodates all content types. LinkedIn is for articles and texts;
- YouTube is for videos (obviously),
- Pinterest is for photos;
- Reddit is for photos, videos and articles;
- SlideShare is for photos, articles and texts;
- StumbleUpon is for photos, videos and articles; and
- Instagram is for photos.
However, also consider how many users are there for the different social platforms as this determines potential reach.
Facebook and YouTube offer the biggest potential audience followed by Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, SlideShare, Reddit and StumbleUpon.
Also consider whether your target audience is among the users of the social network you are thinking of using.
- If your target audience is in the 18 to 24 age range, Google+, Reddit and StumbleUpon has more of them than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
- If your target audience is in the 25 to 24 age range, choose Google+ YouTube, Twitter and the other social networks which have more of them.
Learn more of this from the infographic below.
Furthermore, consider the demographics of your target user base. The infographic breaks down users in terms of gender, educational attainment, and income for each of the social networks so look that up and decide.
Nonetheless, it takes more than just deciding to start a social media campaign. As always, we at Social Barrel remind you to act.
Here’s how to decide which social networks to use most:
- Know your audience.
- Know where your audience hangs out.
- Be of value, don’t just barf out your links.
- Build relationships in the social networks.
If you would like help every week to keep moving forward on your book plus a brief 10–minute action-oriented message Mon-Fri, then you’ll benefit from the Premium Membership.
Begin right now with your free 7–Day Trial Awakened Author Adventure Premium Membership.and you can be ON the next live call.
Begin now at www.WriteOnPurpose.com/adventure.
Follow your bliss!
Ronda Del Boccio, the Story Lady
Bestselling author, speaker and mentor.
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Book Marketing Coach: How Do You Choose the Right Social Network to Find Your Ideal Customer?
I made this photo remind you that you are never alone.
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You are 100 percent supported at all times
Whats 1 of the Sexiest Methods for How to Write a Book?
If you don’t think writing a little ol’ tips book is good enough, think again. Check out this quote:
“A one-time leader in the consumer mail order catalog business generated a documented 13 percent sales increase of products in their catalog that they traced directly back to offering a tips booklet as a gift with any purchase in one edition of their catalog. That 13 percent increase represented millions of dollars in catalog sales.”
The tips book is one of the 6 simple recipes for how to write a book I show you in the bestselling Kindle book Instant Author Formula: 6 Simple Recipes for How to Write a Book Fast
After you check out the info below, I’ll share one of my most successful Awakened Authors, who has produced a tips book in both English and the same book in Spanish! He is a member of the international best seller book list with both!
Here’s a great article on the power of writing a tips book! I have put some portions in bold red to draw your attention.
YES, Tips Booklets ARE Sexy … and Here’s Why
By Paulette Ensign May 13, 2013
So you think that how-to tips booklets are way down the food chain when it comes to publishing? They are if you’re thinking New York Times Best-Seller List. However, that’s not the purpose of a tips booklet. It’s created for different reasons than a book.
Think about the highly successful study guides that have been published over the years, whether it was the Cliff Notes (are you old enough to remember those?) or other laminated 8.5” x 11” 2-sided guides currently on the market — all of which were how-to tips and notes about full-length books that were classics in some cases.
The study guides were created to introduce the reader to the topic and to ease into a more in-depth treatment of the subject. Sometimes that was all the student ever wanted or needed to accomplish the end result of an overview and/or to pass the test. Other times it whet the appetite to want more.
The same is true with Executive Summary products that exist today for full-length business books. The summaries may be written or delivered as audio recordings, printed or downloadable. These also serve the same purpose as the study guides do for high school students.
The full-length books were written, in many cases, with the goal of commercial critical success — New York Times Best-Seller List stuff. The summaries were also created for commercial success, just without the goal of public awards and acknowledgements for their writing style or for the number of units sold.
In both cases, the guides often generated more sales than those of the books they summarized, yet not always. After all, textbook sales were based on a decision made by someone other than the end-user. The book sale is already a done deal.
Tips booklets often prompt sales of whole books that are also written by the same author as the person who wrote the tips booklet. The tips booklets often trigger sales of other products and services the author creates, and sales for companies and organizations who use the tips booklets as marketing tools for their own products, services, and causes.
A one-time leader in the consumer mail order catalog business generated a documented 13 percent sales increase of products in their catalog that they traced directly back to offering a tips booklet as a gift with any purchase in one edition of their catalog. That 13 percent increase represented millions of dollars in catalog sales.
The booklet author licensed specific written rights to the company to use the booklet content, in exchange for a 5-digit licensing fee and lots of additional business because the author’s contact information was included in the booklet.
Still think a tips booklet isn’t sexy?
Who cared if the tips booklet got public recognition? The purpose of the booklet was solely to generate sales — sales of the booklet and sales of other products and services.
This is not to say the same couldn’t be done with full-length books, to use them to generate sales of other products and services. In fact, in some situations, a 200-page book is a better match for a particular campaign for a company. It depends on what the perceived value is of the product or service offer and the bonus attached to it.
Think of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) model. There are different size bonus packages available at many programs they produce, providing something for everyone, at different price levels. The booklet can be the ideal match at one level of PBS donation, and the book, bundled with an audio or video of the program can be appropriate for a higher donation amount.
How would you feel about selling over a million copies of a tips booklet, which then prompted sales of thousands or millions of units of other products or services you have? Starting to look a bit different now, isn’t it? Yes, much sexier!
The tips booklet is not the great American novel, and was never intended to be. Its purpose is a marketing tool and/or a direct source of income. Yes, the booklet and the book are both words that are distributed to teach the reader something. In this case, it’s about learning how to use booklets and books as powerful tools for your business and the businesses who purchase your booklet from you.
© 2013 Paulette Ensign – see original article source here.
Paulette Ensign, Founder and Owner of Tips Products International, had no idea she would sell well over a million copies of her 16-page tips booklet, 110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life, when she wrote it in 1991. Or that she would do so in four languages and various formats without spending a penny on advertising. Nothing in her background prepared her for that. Yet her can-do attitude triggered and supported those results. She has made a handsome living and a cross-country move from New York to San Diego by recycling the same 3500 words since 1991.,
5 Ways to Benefit from Writing a Tips book
Here are some ways YOU can benefit from writing a tips book:
- Save your reader time and trouble – You as the expert look like such a genius in the eyes of your reader when you fix their painful problem. Often it’s the littlest thing that makes the biggest difference.
- Lead the reader to the next logical step – Remember to invite the reader to opt in for something juicy and wonderful. Your opt-in is a BUYER when they’ve bought your book!
- Generate customer leads VS freebie-seeker leads – Someone who has opened their wallet and paid even a dollar for something is 10 times more valuable as a lead than a frreebie seeker.
- Include excerpt of another book/product – Your tips whet the reader’s appetite and demonstrate you know your stuff. Why not add a short excerpt from another book, or perhaps an info product?
- Take the angst out of writing a book by publishing a tips book! – People get more caught up in head stuff about writing a book. This method truly takes the pain out of authoring.
A Great Example of a Successful Lead-Generating Tips Book
101 Video Marketing Tips & Strategies for Small Business by Lasse Rouhiainen
This book is in the top sellers in several categories months after its release (English version). The Spanish Version is new as of this writing and is already an international bestseller the first day it released.
This book generates leads all day long for Lasse, and that’s what can happen for YOU!
More Help + More Simple Recipes for How to Write a Book
As an Awakened Author Adventure Premium Member, you get daily help with all aspects of being an author, including mindset, how to write a book, publishing, book marketing ideas and more.
You receive an action-oriented short audio each weeday to help you with 1 of the 5 keys to author success (writing is Tuesday’s message), plus a live weekly call, all for only what you might give for dinner for 2 at a local diner.
Begin your 7–day free trial Premium Membership now at www.WriteOnPurpose.com/adventure
Follow your BLISS!
Ronda Del Boccio, the Story Lady
Author, speaker and mentor
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Whats 1 of the Sexiest Methods for How to Write a Book? TIPS