Online Writing Books

I used this book as a great reference tool when placing my own book online with amazon. It gives step-by-step instructions on the ins and outs of working with amazon to get the best exposure for your product. Everything from Listmania, to blogging on amazon, to helpful hints on setting up your account and reviewing books in your area of exptertise. I have recommeded this to several others. If you're planning to sell to Amazon, this is a must-have resource tool.

As I wrote in my latest novel,Standup Comedian: The Secret and Beyond "My father is in the baling wire generation, my son is in the digital generation, but I am in the duct tape generation. My point? The guide is written so that even I understand the suggestions and how to implement them. I am in the process of doing that right now as I write this review.

I read the book, and now I am going back through doing the easiest suggestions first and will progress to the more involved marketing efforts as I come to them. If only I had know this information when I published my first novel,Beyond the Shadow of Death: Book One of the Adam Eden Series.

Kenneth Ray Taylor author of Return to Zero: Book Two of the Adam Eden Series and other books.

This is a bit difficult to read, but enlightening on several points; it's not really clear in some areas. Recommended skimming the points that are less than top rated and spending more time with the higher rated items.

Well, I must admit that I wish I had found this book before I published my first ten books, but all is not lost since I am in the process of writing twenty (20) more in 2008.

This book and the information contained within are essential reading for any author who sells his or her books on Amazon. Simple easy to follow instructions on how to get the most out of Amazon in regards to making your books a financial and physical success on Amazon by utilizing all the tools that Amazon provides.

I have already started implementing some of the steps in this book and will hopefully be doing all of them by the end of this week.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for absolutely everyone who is selling a book or books on Amazon. This is the best money I have spent in any format on selling more books on Amazon. Pick up this book immediately and start implementing the information provided in it even sooner.

Shawn Kovacich
Martial Artist/Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series.

I bought this book to help me market my first novel, a sexy, funny mystery. I have to say it's everything it's advertised to be. A great primer on how to create your profile and leverage the social networking and intelligent suggestion algorithms of Amazon to get out the word. I'm doing it just by writing this review (and notice the link at the end - sweeeet!).

This is a short read - not many pages, big type, wide margins. But that also means there's no filler. You can pick up this book, grab a highlighter and a bunch of page markers, and within an hour or two have a great fast plan to get your book noticed.

I'm glad I started my research with this book. Highly recommended.

Scott Sherman, First You Fall: A Kevin Connor Mystery

I work for a Fortune 500 company and was first introduced to Gerry McGovern through one of his workshops that my company was hosting. I really connected with Gerry's passion for both the customer's perspective, as well as his message to get the fundamentals right. Armed with his book Killer Web Content, I left the workshop inspired with new ideas for solving some of the UX issues we were having with our Careers website (strategic business tool for talent recruiting).

I started to read his book the next week and learned enough useful information with each chapter that I finished it. I got a lot of value from some of the techniques described in Killer Web Content. I appreciated the information specific to generating good content using "Carewords" in the right way and at the right time. I also learned from this book that the web user is a different animal than traditional application users. Gerry has a good handle on the machinations that drive this new information hunter's behavior.

I can honestly say that I've quoted Gerry's work in UX meetings dozens of times since first attending his workshop. Since December, I've given away three copies of Killer Web Content to other UX professionals. All 3 have given it rave reviews! In addition to attending one of his live workshops (absolutely awesome!), I HIGHLY recommend getting this book!

I have been a subscriber to Gerry's weekly e-mails for over two years. As a web editor for a large organization, his advice has guided me in my career and helped me enormously in every area of website management.

When I learned about Gerry McGovern's book Killer Web Content, I immediately ordered it. Because I was about to leave for vacation, I had Amazon ship the book to where I was holidaying - that's how excited I was to read it. Sure enough, I devoured the book, and (almost) couldn't wait to get back to work so I could start applying his teachings.

Killer Web Content is THE authority on how to have a successful website. Using real-life examples, it feels as though McGovern is having a conversation with you. His advice is invaluable and this book should be necessary reading for anyone creating a website.

I cannot recommend this book enough - not just for communicators and marketers, but for graphic designers and techies too. McGovern is a visionary and ahead of his time. YOU MUST READ IT!

I love when authors get to the point, and McGovern does it. A lot of this stuff is common sense, but it becomes more top-of-mind when someone writes about it. McGovern mentions some good tools to help write "killer web content," and while some of the practices he uses for testing content aren't necessary do-able for most companies/people, I'm still able to take away the basics and make them part of my process for writing web content.

I'm a usability researcher who's looking to get some concrete suggestions about how to write better for the web. That's what I was hoping to find in this book--a guide with detailed suggestions for how to do this type of technical writing. Instead, there are very few concrete suggestions in this book about how to write well, other than vague platitudes about keeping phrases short, and providing users with the content they'd like to see. Duh.

I read this thing cover to cover in about an hour. Mostly I learned that "killer" rhymes with "filler." A lot. If it has not yet occurred to you that you might want to talk to your customers about what they're looking for on your webpage, then I guess this book would be for you and would provide you with that revolutionary insight. That's all the advice there is in this book--talk to your customers to find out the content they're looking for on your webpage, and then deliver that content to them in small, easily digestible phrases. Again, duh.

For people who are just starting out on this type of research, there's really no detailed advice on how to conduct this "talking to your users to find out what they want" research though (other than some more platitudes like "be a good listener."). If you want more detailed advice on how to do research like this, I'd say search the web for "wants and needs analysis" because that's basically what this guy is recommending. If you can't find enough things for free on the web about that, there is a good chapter in the book "Understanding your users" by Catherine Courage on this technique. That book is also great for giving you a wide toolset of techniques for usability.

He also gets a little bit into persona creation, which is basically a fancy way of saying it helps to imagine who your customers are and have a picture of them in your mind as you design your user experience. Again, you can find free stuff on the web about this or check out Tamara Adlin and John Pruitt's book "The Persona Lifestyle" to get lots of great information about this technique.

If you're truly just starting out trying to figure out how to make your website better and you don't know where to begin, I think a way better guide is Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think." That book provides a great overall context for providing great user experiences in general.

I am looking forward to reading the new Ginny Redish book on this subject! Her stuff has been high quality in the past and so I expect she will have a bunch of actual information on how to write for the web as opposed to the filler in this book. It's pretty ironic that a book all about providing great content without a bunch of filler is...a bunch of filler. It was a killer for me but not in the way it intended to be.

The book is a good read with a lot of useful information about content design and production. Don't expect a detailed tutorial, it aims rather to show you what is important and what approach you should take.

What I liked
- rich information about user behaviours regarding content consumptions (debunks some myths)
- eye-opener findings (did you know that the word 'special offers' is preferred to the word 'deal' when people are asked though when searching, they use the word 'deal'? etc.)
- clear examples and reasoning that can help you in situations when you have to convince clients about some fundamental content issues

What I did not like
- if you have been following Gerry's newsletters as I did, well, you already know most of what the book is about
- there are some chapters that did not tell me really anything (one is about some very rudimentary SEO, another about the importance of blogging)
- the design of the print: there are complete pages written in bold red letters, some pages look like this is the first Powerpoint presentation with an ISBN number

This book is a true student service for online learning and is a great step toward online student retention! It covers everything the online student would need to know in order to succeed in a self-paced, self-motivated, and technology dependant environment!!

I compared Online Student Skills and Strategies Handbook (Pearson Longman 2006) to E-Learning Companion A Student's Guide to Online Success (Houghton Mifflin 2005) in order to select a resourse to support distance learning. I found Online Student Skills and Strateiges Handbook much more useful, learner oriented and readily accessible. It includes large, clear screen captures to accompany step by step directions. It handles practical topics like using Rich Text Format (RTF), practicing netiquette, storing lessons in a binder, and submitting assignments. It also includes cross references to other relevant chapters in the handbook, and it includes other Internet resources for each chapter. In comparison, E-Learning seems too textbookish. While E-Learning has a useful glossary and index, Online Student Skills and Strategies has a glossary, index and Webliography.

This is a valuable resource for students interested in a successful on-line learning experience. The straightforward and practical examples should help guide everyone from novice to experienced.

I was very impressed with the format, content, attention to detail, step-by-step approach to help users work through technology, and the success-oriented focus of the text. The first chapter utilized an innovative and unique assessment to help users identify what they already know and what they will need to focus on to learn. The text is a well-designed and non-threatening resource for any online user.

I think this text is a practical and useful guide for both novice and experienced online students. The information is very well organized throughout with a couple great appendices containing websites and computer skill tips. The helpful screenshots and lay flat binding are a plus for use as you are working on the computer.

The Options Playbook is "how-to" guide on investing... This book blows everything else out there, out of the water... really! I have never seen anything as simple to understand in the complex world of investing...

This is a perfect gift for anyone that loves investing. Very easy to read. I absolutely love it!

I am sending a copy to 20 people I know for xmas. Seems like the perfect gift!

This book is excellent. It easily explains how each option strategy works and when to use it. This is the perfect book to get started with learning about options, and you will keep using it because the strategies go to very advanced. He does talk a little much about using TradeKing which is an online broker service. But once you figure out how to get the information elsewhere, you'll be trading options and understanding your trades in no time.

This book is an absolute must for beginners in option trading. Every aspect of the four basic strategies is covered and I liked the simple and entertaining way this book was written. If you're a option trader this is shouldn't be missing in your library.

Malcolm van Eyck,
Almere Buiten, Flevoland
The Netherlands

The book lives up to its name. It gives you an easy-to-read breakdown of 30 different option trading strategies, as well as more covering the key factors involved with trading. A gold mine for beginners; a great reference for veterans. Another worth having in your personal library.

The best introduction to option trading and its perils.
A must have in your traders library.

I've owned both editions of this wonderful little book. This little gem is for the person who doesn't have time to slog through all sorts of prescriptive grammars. It's handy, well organized, and easy to use. I own a lot of grammars, being both an author and an English teacher, and this is the one I turn to first.

Author of:
Nasty

"Nate Jepson (a.k.a. "Nasty") is a solid entry into the P.I. hall of fame." - Publisher's Weekly

A good friend who must really love me gave me this book when I headed to grad school. It answered all of my APA citation questions and many of the little grammatical quandries one encounters at 3 a.m.
I only wish I had the budget to buy this book for all of my high school students. Every young writer should have a guide like this to tidy up their work. Alas, at about $50 a pop, with a school of 350 students, this book is out of our range. If you can pick one up used or can afford a new copy you won't be sorry.

As one of Andrea's former students, I've had to read this book and use it extensively. Not only did it get me through her class, but every class I had after that (and I've had a large number of English and History classes). If you're looking for a book to help you with MLA style, Professor Lunsford covers everything you can possibly hope to draw info from, including lectures, interviews, and even MUDs online.

This book is an ideal tool for anyone who has to write for school, work, or as a hobby. The easy access tabs and extensive menus help you find what you are looking for quickly and the spiral binding lets you lay the book open while you type. The coverage of the writing process and argumentative writing really set this book apart. Anybody can write up grammar rules or documentation standards, but Lunsford's coverage of writing at the start of the book is wonderful. Buy this book and don't sell it back to the bookstore, this is a keeper. Also, for the teacher that wants one for every student, try "Easywriter" which is the smaller version of this text that only costs about fifteen bucks.

The Everyday Writer is a wonderful asset to any college English student. It contains all the essentials for writing term papers. I suggest that everyone who needs help in English should pick up this book.

This is an excellent book for helping technical authors accustomed to writing printed documentation in understanding how and why the structure should be different for online readers. Too often authors simply move the information online without any clear understanding of the context in which the reader is using it. I recommend this book to anyone developing software Help files or planning single sourcing documentation.

I have a shelf full of books on technical writing. Ever on the lookout for something new or better, I picked this up. As usual, Joann delivers only the best.

If you are serious about becoming a successful technical writer, I highly recommend purchasing this book.

Of all the books I have purchased, I refer to this one the most often. The CD is great because it has the entire text of the book categorized for easy access right from your computer!

Many technical writing books are outdated and were written BI (before the internet). This book focuses on technical writing using newer technology such as the Internet, WWW, and corporate intranets.

I can't count the number of times this book has come in handy. It is a great reference that you should keep close at hand. Great job Joann!

The approach outlined in this book has completely changed the way I tackle developing on-line documents. I have extensive experience in a technique called Information Mapping that is an analysis and document design methodology for paper documents. In many ways the authors' methods are similar to Information Mapping - at least at a macro level. After reading this book I've gained an appreciation for the vast differences between paper and on-line documentation. My "paper-based" thinking before this book resulted in a waste of the underlying capabilities of an on-line document. The authors show how to use technology to vastly improve your reader's efficiency and overall experience when seeking and reading the information you create. If you are used to writing for paper-based publications, or have deveopled on-line pages using nothing but intuition and judegement, this book will completely change your way of thinking.

Recently, I worked on an online help project and found various parts of the online communication process mystifying, which our online help writers take for granted. Examples that come to mind are:

- Standard length of each help file

- The need for popups

- Using the imperative form as opposed to gerunds

These are some of the things I was looking to have explained to me when I bought the book. The book turned out to be perfect for this. Not only does it cover the mechanics, reasons, and standards of online communication, it also contains many nuggets of wisdom regarding the various methods of writing that we apply as technical writers. It's helps me decide when weighing different ways of presenting the same information. So even if you are an experienced online help writer there is no doubt that this book would enlighten your approach to the everyday tasks of creating online/context-sensitive help.

Also, the book comes with a CD that has all the information in the book in a help file that is indexed and can be searched. This is excellent for quick reference.

Trust me, this book is a keeper if you create any kind of online help.

A new publishing medium comes around only once every five centuries or so, and it's no wonder people are confused by the Internet. Gary Gach investigates the new world of publishing on the Net and provides great literary finds and useful information for established writers, beginners, and all lovers of words

Writers.net ups the ante in printed guides to the Net. Neophyte writers in cyberspace will find it as valuable as magellan found his compass. Experienced voyagers can use it to find whole continents they never knew existed

Finally, all the information in one easily-accessible place! Gach has delivered an invaluable resource for writers, whether you're a Net newbie or an e-zine publisher. Any writer considering publishing on-line needs to read this.

Writers.net is probably the most "reader-friendly" of all the specialized Internet guides on the market; each of the nineteen chapters of Writers.net is devoted to a particular genre of writing. Writers of mysteries, romances, science fiction, screenplays, and other styles need not burrow through endless pages to get to the sections that interest them most--each chapter is well-structured and organized to give the writer the resources s/he needs before logging onto the Internet and searching blindly for a paying e-publication or research database.

Gach catalogs URLs by the gigabyte, offering links to poetry and fiction mega-link lists, authors' and agents' homepages, research resources, and more. Most URLs listed are followed by a brief description of the site, while some chapters have the look of a printed "bookmark" file from a writer's web browser.

All writers will especially want to study the book's final chapter, which is devoted to Internet censorship and copyright issues, a sticky subject for writers on and off the computer. URLs and descriptions of the more affluent writers' unions and leagues are profiled here, as is information essential to any writer confused about her/his rights.

As with any printed directory of Websites, there is no guarantee that every URL listed in Gach's book will still be valid once you bring Writers.net home from the bookstore (this book is three years old, mind you). To combat the ever-changing climate of the Internet, Gach maintains a Webpage of book updates on his personal homepage, where one may find additions, URL changes, and even a sample chapter from the book.

Gary Gach has written the essential guide for using the World Wide Web to further a writing career. Because anyone can publish on the Web, writers can use the Internet to promote and publish their work as well as for research. Gach's book tells how to use your computer connections to get published online or in print in any of several genres, and there are dozen of ideas that will enrich a writers soul, mind, and pocketbook. It is an essential tool for computer-literate writers. --Mason West

The concepts are valid and the instructions are good, but there are several references and internet tools which are no longer available or are simply outdated. This book is dated (copyrighted) 2004, and four years in the online world is a verrrry long time. It wouldn't take much to revise this book and bring it up to date, but the author hasn't seen fit to do this, at least not yet. One has to know where to go to find current tools to substitute for the outdated ones. However, I think the overall value is still there.

This truly is a comprehensive manual on how to write and publish an ebook, covering everything from font styles to obtaining copyright and ISBN numbers, marketing the final product (including affiliates), arranging for payment processing, and utilizing "Print On Demand." Unlike many books of this type, it doesn't sugar coat the task at hand, but rather offers practical advice ranging from how to obtain a professionally designed cover to overcoming the dreaded "writer's block." Finally, his critique of the traditional publishing model is the best I've ever read!

This book does a great job of giving practical advice for the independent writer. It shows that getting a successful book is very do-able. It's free of fluff and extraneous information. Instead, it's focused on helping you get the book done and sold. Of particular interest to me was his advice to "Create your Sales Mini-Site" and "Create a free mini-course."

I have two non fiction books published. Alas, I discovered Shaun Fawcett book after my books were already in print. In it I found many things I had to learn the hard way. I have read many books on how to write books, some of them excellent, but they did not have this step by step approach plus a flowchart. I was dreaming of a book of this kind, with a fully developed step by step plan. Well this book exists. If you plan to be a non fiction writer this book will avoid you costly mistakes and will accelerate your path towards success. Also, it will enable you to become an author-entrepreneur of your own books. The key to it is the step by step plan. Buy it!

Loved the shorthand section and found the Netiquette chapter right on the mark. Grammar and word choice section was also helpful.

A must-have for anyone getting started with writing on the internet.

I use the Grammar and Word Choice section of this book all the time. It has very easy definitions and examples of parts of speech and punctuation. There is a list of commonly misspelled words (properly spelled for you) and the appropriate usage of common confusing words (when to use affect vs effect, anticipate vs expect, discrete vs discreet, and so on). There is also a series of lists of correct abbreviations, for example, academic degrees, professional titles, latin abbreviations, and mailing and state abbreviations.

I point out this section because it may not be evident that there would be such an excellent resource inside an online style guide. But this grammar section is so easy to reference and has very simple examples -- I use it ALL the time! I recommend you buy this book even if all you need it for is common day-to-day writing do's and don'ts.

I admit that because of the publication date being a couple years old, I was skeptical that this reference book would help me. I thought it might be outdated with all the changes in the Internet. While there are some terms that are new since this book was published, and some of the "names" of software or companies have changed, I found the book to still be very useful and surprisingly current. It has helped my editorial team stay consistent with terminology and usage. The grammar section is awesome--great tips that I have shared with our writers! The emoticons are fun. And the netiquette and style sections gave me lots of ideas for our company style guide. I especially appreciate the layout of the book--the tabs make it really easy to find what I need and it lays flat next to the computer--something the others don't. Minor points, maybe. But overall, I rate this a good buy compared to similar books on the market that I've used.

Managing Editor. Find myself reaching for this handy resource daily. Confusing words section (continual/continuous) is a lifesaver. Documentation section helped me meet deadline last week (answered vexing question of how to properly reference a Web site). Emoticons & online shorthand section is a nice surprise. Now I can decipher all those BFN (bye for now) and ;) (wink - light sarcasm). Fun... I've used some of these to get credibility with some of the "techies" I work with.

Overall, Online Style Guide is a winner. Clear, concise writing, conveniently presented (love the section tabs and lay-flat binding). Ordered one for both assistant editors.

The impact of the Internet on the writing profession is revolutionary, and Super Searcher Author Scribe draws upon experiences of leading journalists, authors, and researchers to tell how best to utilize the power of the Web. Links to almost 300 Internet resources accompany tips of successful writers.

Super Searcher, Author, Scribe: Successful Writers Share Their Internet Research Secrets is an informed and informative look at the enormous impact the Internet has had on the craft of writing, especially in its offer of a quick and easy way to search out up-to-date information on almost anything - assuming the savvy researcher knows how to weed out the genuinely useful content from the hype, errors, and disinformation! Fifteen professional journalists, book authors, writing teachers, and literary researchers share their wisdom in finding what one needs to know quickly, efficiently, and effectively. The additional Super Searchers Web Page features link to nearly 300 Internet resources that have the highest recommendations. Super Searcher, Author, Scribe is enthusiastically recommended as a superbly presented, "user friendly" reference manual for anyone eager to optimally exploit the 24 hour, 7 day a week easy-access wealth of informational resources that the Internet provides.

The Internet has become an ever-growing depository of information on every imaginable topic. Businesses, researchers, reporters, investigators, students, authors, shoppers, and Internet enthusiasts of all kinds make use of this information resource on a daily basis. Do they make the best use of it? Online researching is a discipline and there is a definite art and science for doing it right!

Loraine Page and Reva Basch have produced an outstanding collection of online researching experiences. Super Searcher, Author, Scribe features the experiences and advice of fourteen professional writers - a variety of authors, researchers, and Internet devotees who have proven track records. They offer quite different but equally successful approaches to using the Internet to gather information.

In a convenient question and answer format these writers discuss topics such as what their favorite search engines are - and why, what their favorite online information sources are, sorting through online information, how the Internet has helped their professional writing careers, the use of personal Websites, what kind of computer hardware and software they use, what kinds of online connectivity they have, and other general information. Additionally, they provide their own "super searcher power tips" for readers to pay particularly close attention to. An appendix lists cited Website URL's and other resources.

Readers will find this book insightful. The varying research experiences and methods shared will greatly contribute to their own online researching endeavors. Readers will glean from the contents of the book and develop their own individual strategies, determining what specific approaches will work best for them, resulting in more efficient use of their own research time, effort, and resources. This book is excellent reading for small businesses, teachers, students, researchers, and of course - writers!