I’ve been asked many times by would-be authors whether or not their content is valuable and something people would want to read.

Now of course, my first thought or response is “would you read it?” My next response is that the content always depends on your motivation. Why do you feel compelled to write on that topic? And, what do you plan to do with after you’ve written it?

If you’re simply wanting to draw out your experiential stories and bind them into a book it might be a bit more like a diary or memoire. If you can relate to your reader or pose “what-if” questions you might better engage them. You can talk in terms of “you” verses “I”. But, when you write to your reader with an intent and provide them value and help give them what they want then you are creating an audience. But, as always, with any book you have to take it beyond the pages and get out from behind it.

Most writers don’t think when...

I want to know how many times you have considered writing a book, played out the ideas in your head and the response your readers would have, felt that longing to bang on the keyboard and tell your story and dreamt about being on stage sharing your experiences and gifts. And, I want to talk about the day you finally sat down to write and you had NOTHING TO SAY!

Writing a book seems like a great idea until you sit down to write and your stumped on how to fill the pages with content. In my book Let’s Get Your Book Published, I give you a few tools for writers block and these are pretty typical across the board for any kind of writing. But, these tools are not what I want to talk about today.

I want to talk about the...

Here is Nicole's profile: 

Nicole Gabriel

Angel Dog Productions

Book layout and design has been my specialty for the last 10 years. I work primarily with corporate clients and speakers with professional print. I am the author of several books and my most recent book (Lets Get Your Book Published) began a deeper dive into book publishing coaching. My training program specifically focuses on teaching authors to move out of the role of writer and the desire to get best-seller status and into a role of using the book to enhance their professional platform….learning to write the book with the idea of a return on investment outside the book. I prefer to teach my clients how to use the book to market themselves or to define their niche with their book. I also teach my clients how to move the book into an online training program. I feel it’s important that everything is clearly defined up front and that the design work I do is consistent with the goals and objectives and...

What Motivates Us to Write?

Good morning! It’s a beautiful sunny winter morning here in the great state of Utah…and I want to talk to you a bit about what motivates us to write…and what we should aim to create as an author.

Before you can get to a functional manuscript you have to have a bit more than just the yearning to tell your story and a few ideas.

You also have to have a bit more than a few vendettas to get even by outing someone and a bunch of wounds you want to bleed out over the pages. Yeah, trust me that grief and anger inspires more authors than you realize. I’ve been doing this awhile and trust me—I’ve been there and I’ve seen it more than enough. What I’ve also seen enough of is an author summarizing a bunch of quotes from their favorite leaders and honestly, this positions an author as a follower no matter what the subject!

Vendettas, wounds, and playing follow the leader aside…these do give us energy...

Hi Guys!

So today I want to talk about what I’ve been up to. I’ve been a bit MIA here for…well... a few years. (repurposed content from 12/03/19 podcast)

You see, there is this little thing called life that sometimes has another agenda when it comes time to either writing a book or building an online training program from a book…I finally can say that I’ve held steadfast to my goal and produced both my Let’s Get Your Book Published book and it’s companion online book publishing training program.

I want to talk about these challenges and what it took to accomplish my lofty goals I set out for myself….because every author faces some form of interruption.

So before I wrote my book I was living in the Hawaiian islands. I was in business with my partner and we were quite successful at it. I picked up and dusted off some old skills and learned some new ones in our partnership. You see, he was a sales guy and a coach for my design business...

As the Let's Get Your Book Published program begins to launch and content is rolled out over the website, social media, podcasts, and YouTube videos a transformation of self is happening on a grand scale. As many writers do, we bounce between fear, faith, stepping into our authenticity, and toying with how to represent ideas in a more hypothetical "it wasn't me" way...you know what I mean if you are a writer, you also know if you are an entrepreneur. 

Sometimes God gives us a gift to share and we feel so compelled to do it that we must write, build our business, share our "thing"...it's the longing to step into our truth. 

Ernest Hemingway said:

"All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know."

So, let's start there!

The birth and the growth of this program and its accompanied book were a true labor of love with the ultimate divine inspiration. This program was birthed through many trials and stands today as an accomplishment for its...

Don't leave the design of your book cover in the hands of a Designer alone!

I've been designing book covers for nearly 10 years now. It's been my primary job along side the interior book layout. I have seen a thing or two. But by far my largest challenge is that when my clients are referred to me they usually have NO IDEA what is involved in book cover design! This is generally no fault of their own, but they are usually referred to me by a book coach or they just don't know what they need and find me by referral or even randomly. 

You see, the book cover isn't just about the look and feel and what you like, but it needs to suit the genre and attract a reader in that genre first, but it really has to align with the reason you are writing in the first place. 

If you are coaching or speaking is your book written to that audience? If you are planning to do teaching or training you might like to use a logo on the cover to identify your school or academy and allow the logo or...

If you've been in the publishing industry for as long as I have, you learn that the creation of a book is a pretty repetitive process...at least the general foundation. But, every author has a unique story to tell and a unique set of challenges.

For many years I wanted to lock in the foundational pieces and find a way to coach those in way that allowed authors to move along in the comfort of their own home and at their own pace. I also wanted to make the system I was using smart enough to teach it to my authors that were looking to do something similar for their book and clients. Imagine if you could use the book to create the foundation of your offerings...the pieces that are repetitive...and free up your time for self-improvement, a better lifestyle, etc. Imagine turning your book into an online coaching system, to serve as your sales tool, to spark interest in a new field of study, to begin a movement, or to change lives.

The process doesn't have to be complicated.

...