Today, I’ve got a real treat for you. Over at www.writenowcoach.com, you can read an excerpt from Math for Writers — and it’s one of my most favorite sections. Yippee!

And there’s more good news: writer and coach, Rochelle Melander, is giving away a copy of Math for Writers to one lucky winner. Visit my guest post for the details.

So what’s this excerpt about? If you’ve faced BIG numbers that must go into a story, you might have wondered, “How can I do this without completely losing my readers?” The answer is so simple and so creative. Create metaphors that help you break the number down into manageable pieces. Bonus points, if these comparisons are really visual.

On Rochelle’s blog, I give really clear examples of how this is done. I guarantee that once the juices get flowing, you’ll be inspired to do this on your own!

Make Numbers Come Alive

Rochelle Melander is an author, speaker, and certified professional coach. She is the author of ten books, including the National Novel Writing Month guide—Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (and Live to Tell About It). Rochelle teaches professionals how to turn their ideas into books, navigate the publishing world, and connect with readers through social media. She is the founder of Dream Keepers, a writing workshop for at risk tweens and teens in Milwaukee. For more tips and a complementary download of the first two chapters of Write-A-Thon, visit her online at www.writenowcoach.com

Laying the foundation for fiction and nonfiction writers alike to write a book in less than a month (and survive), Write-A-Thon provides the blueprint to do it all and survive! Write-A-Thon contains three sections: Training, Write-A-Thon, and Recovery. Each section utilizes introductions, brief valuable essays filled with practical tools, and just enough encouragement for the writer to press on and finish what may very well be the challenge of their life (or simply the challenge of the month). Perfect for accomplished authors or those who simply write, Write-A-Thon provides the complete guidebook for brainstorming, writing, and finishing that book.Save

Today, I’m hanging out with Marcia Layton Turner and Sandra Beckwith, founders of www.informationproductsforwriters.com. Not sure what an information product is? Let me help you out there.

If you have a great bit of information that others in your field value, you can develop an information product that features this valuable information and either give it away (to build your email list) or sell it. Information products run the gamut from e-books to case studies to apps. But personally, I find spreadsheets to be the hottest information products out there. Unlike other documents, spreadsheets are dynamic. With the right mix, they can be pure gold.

Get the details on Marcia and Sandy’s site. (Click on the headline below.)

Create a Spreadsheet-Based Information Product

Sandra Beckwith is a national award-winning former publicist who now teaches authors how to promote, publicize, and market their books. Get tips and how-to information in her free Build Book Buzz e-newsletter at http://buildbookbuzz.com. Connect with her on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Marcia Layton Turner is a bestselling author and founder of the Association of Ghostwriters. Learn more at http://www.associationofghostwriters.org. Together with Sandy Beckwith, she shares tips and guidance on creating and selling information products at http://www.informationproductsforwriters.com.

Productivity has been on my mind a lot lately. Last fall, I decided I was going to figure out (once and for all) how I can be more productive in my work and family life. I read tons of books and really thought about lots of aspects of productivity — like when I have the most energy and the types of projects that make me the happiest. But much of the advice I received was geared towards people working regular 9-to-5s.

Imagine how thrilled I was to come across John Soare’s blog Productive Writers. Here, in one place, was advice directed just to me! It was like the icing on the cake, and I eagerly devoured the advice he gave.

As a mathy, I know that a few calculations could help me maximize my productivity. (Some of that advice is in my book, Math for Writers.) So I asked John if he’d like a guest post about merging income and career goals. In this post, I look at how you can use your income goals to make significant decisions about your career — like working only 11 months out of the year or writing a book.

Click here to read Merge Your Income and Career Goals

About John Soares

John Soares has been a freelance writer since 1992. He’s completed over 300 projects for college textbook publishers, written over 100 outdoors articles for magazines and newspapers, and authored three hiking guidebooks, including 100 Classic Hikes in Northern California, third edition. He discusses writing, marketing, and time management at ProductiveWriters.com. At ProductiveWriters.com, John Soares shows freelance writers how to get high quality work done quickly, how to get paid well, and how to market their products and services.

About Find Your Freelance Writing Niches

What if you could meet your income goals while only working 20-30 hours a week? What would you do with that extra time? Spend it with your family and friends? Get more exercise? Travel? Or, if you want, work more and sock the money into savings or pay down your credit cards or squirrel it away for your kids’ college education. John’s online, self-paced course, Find Your Freelance Writing Niches: Make More Money for Less Work, offers freelance writers the secrets of specializing, including why you should specialize, how to find your niche and what to do once you choose a specialization.

Today, I’m the guest of Marketing Wizard and coach, D’vorah Lansky of www.bookmarketingmadeeasy.com. In this audio interview, we discuss the math behind good book marketing — how to measure platform and keep track of marketing successes — as well how Math for Writers came about. Like me, D’vorah is a former public school teacher, so we even talk about how many of us developed our relationship with math.

Don’t miss this great conversation!

D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed., Author, and Marketing Wizard

D’vorah Lansky, known as “the marketing wizard” has a Master’s Degree in education and has been marketing online and mentoring leaders since 1994. She has published two books: Connect, Communicate, and Profit: Build Successful Business Relationships Online and her newest book, an Amazon Bestseller, Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online.

D’vorah is also the co-author of Building Relationships that Build Business, Chicken Soup for the Network Marketer’s Soul, Corporate Mom Dropouts, and Ignite Your Passion. D’vorah coaches and trains authors on online book marketing strategies and practices. She is passionate about online marketing as well as helping authors grow their business and their brand. Click here to view her work: http://DvorahOnAmazon.com

Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online

In Book Marketing Made Easy you will learn how to: increase your credibility and be seen as an expert in your field; sell more books to people who will benefit from your message; create multiple sources of income with the content of your book; harness the power of multimedia marketing to reach more people; and use social media to increase your influence and expand your market.