Book References

You should become a manuscript or book author's ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader. However, if you're only starting to think about a writing career, I suggest you get a bachelor's degree in English or whatever language; perhaps in language studies, English literature, creative writing, or English in general. A master's degree or higher is even better. I myself have a combined degree in journalism, fine arts and creative writing.

Once you have that, you need to get some experience. You could be hired by literary magazines, especially at your school, or you could write articles for newspapers, perhaps starting your own column. You can also acquire writing jobs on the Internet by looking up work. I suggest avoiding the low paying bidding jobs and going for regular posted work at sites like Daylo, or other freelancer's sites - where writing work is posted for free.

Once you have a few writing credits, you can begin your ghost writing career. I would suggest trying to get hired by a book ghost writers service, as there are many on the Internet. Another possibility is you can start your own service, as I did; mine is called Rainbow Writing, Inc., and we hire people who either have a lot of professional experience, a good educational background, and/or show a lot of writing talent. I have over thirty years of experience at writing, especially as a book ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader.

Once you get on the Internet, you will need to search engine optimize your website, post lots of articles with your credit box attached to them, or hire pay per click or other services to get advertising exposure. Then you can begin to acquire clients. You may start by offering a free five to ten page rewrite of a chapter the client sends you; this is what is generally expected of a book ghost writer and copy editor. You can quote a price, and I would start fairly low early on in your career, unless you have prior writing experience. Ask the client what he or she can afford, but stay reasonable, so you can keep your costs low and pay your bills.

As book ghost writers, copy editors and proof readers, we all need to make sure our clients are satisfied with their results. So while you are in the writing field, make sure you read copiously and on a regular basis, write short stories, poems and articles on a regular basis to refresh your writing skills, and be sure to work on a novel or two of your own. This will keep you handy when it comes to being a book writer for others as well. Another possibility is to keep a daily hardbound journal of your writing or simply comment on your daily activities, thoughts and dreams. This sort of thing can keep you really practices; I kept such a journal for over twenty years.

As to scheduling, it's a good idea to take on as many clients as you can handle. Don't overload, but you'd be surprised how much work you can do once you get into the swing of it. Try to get a book ghost writer job done in two to three months. If you charge $5000 per book at first, you can make $20,000-30,000 a year if you keep up on a regular basis. Once you have more experience, you can begin charging more money.

When you are a book author, ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader, you will find you are working a job that really consumes your time, so make sure you take the time to perform your other daily activities of family life, and set aside a one hour period every day to exercise. Book writers are one group of people who have the "sedentary lifestyle pattern" hazard, so in order to avoid getting sick, you must exercise. If you don't want to go outside and walk, purchase a cheap treadmill. Those work quite well.

Book authors, ghost writers, copy editors and proof readers all need to maintain the standards of our profession. When you are a ghost writer of any kind, chances are you won't be allowed to take credit for your work. It's supposed to belong to the works true "author," who is the person paying you to do the ghost writing. Even if you do most or all of the work, your client is the author of it and is the one who receive the credit, unless you make some other arrangement. If the client is willing, you can be coauthors with him or her, or make some other such arrangement, such as you getting credit and a percentage of book sales in lieu of upfront payment.

By the way – the method of payment for a manuscript or book ghost writer is upfront. You get paid in advance, in installments usually as the book is being written. This is the main advantage of being a book or manuscript ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader – upfront payment. You need to sound the client out on his or her budget, set a total price, and then ask for the first installment payment once you have been hired.

You might also sign a contract with a non disclosure clause with the client. The contract might be three way, if you are working for a ghost writing agency, or two way, if it's just you and the client signing it. A non disclosure clause states that you won't discuss the book's contents with anyone not designated by the client as someone with whom you may do so. Also, copyright laws in the USA and several other countries treatied with the USA, such as England, Canada and Australia, state that the author of the ghost written work retains full copyrights. You can check with the US Copyrights Office on the Internet to read the full scope of these laws.

Basically, even if you write the whole work yourself from research and you get nothing but basic ideas for the book from the supposed "author," he or she is still considered the true author of any such ghost written book, and will still hold full copyrights to all original material within it. This is, however, subject to whatever agreements you and the client make.

After the job is proof read, paid for and delivered, ask for a reference, also asking the client if it's okay to run an installment from the work on your website - with a credit that you are the ghost writer. Also, when the book is published, ask the client to include a reference to your name, perhaps within the Acknowledgements, as the book ghost writer.

You also don't have to stop as just the manuscript or book ghost writer. You may also be able to help your client set up to get his or her book published. This largely involves contacting literary agents and publishers. I would suggest contacting small publishing houses, and not the larger ones, unless you have a celebrity client with a large scale best seller on your hands. Due to confidentiality issues and ethical issues, you can't maintain contact with literary agents and publishers on a regular basis, but you can acquire lists of these people in order to contact them. Some more disreputable manuscript and book ghost writers also set up deals with literary agents and publishers where they are sent clients' work that the agents and publishers were sent, in order to edit it for them. Under the table money is made this way. It's not considered to be ethical practice.

It's satisfying to complete a client's book manuscript and then find him or her an agent and/or publisher. You can get a percentage of book sales this way, or by negotiating a deal with the book's author while you are being the book ghost writer. Sometimes a client will want you to work "on spec;" instead of paying you in advance, they will ask you to take a percentage of the book's profits. Unless you're sure the book is going to sell broadly, it's not advisable to do this, or you could end up working for free. But once you've got a book publisher's attention, anything is possible.

Lastly, be sure and enjoy your new career. Writing can be a fulfilling line of work, so if you keep at it, you can have tons of fun working for authors, getting the first time one's books written and published, and in general, having a "blast" as a book author, book writer, ghost writer, copy editor, and proof reader.

Get out there, now – and write!

I am truly amazed by the amount of cynicism directed by some readers toward e-books, as if their existence were a conspiracy to render traditional books obsolete in the spirit of Fahrenheit 451. Much effort has gone into comparing e-publishing to traditional book publishing. An Internet search for "Will e-books succeed?" brings up numerous passionate articles and blogs dedicated to the concept.

Whether individuals express preference or aversion toward e-books, there are multiple reasons related to lifestyle preferences, as well as personal views on technologies, learning methods, and pleasure reading. Some people desire a familiar kinesthetic page-turning experience, whereas others readily accept that paperbacks no longer require paper.

The problem with the e-book/traditional book debate is that e-books have evolved but common perceptions of them have not. Most people are familiar with e-books only as electronic versions of their logocentric counterparts. For example, consider Powerhomebiz's "Top Ten Reasons Why EBooks are Better than Printed Books" (http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol127/ebooks.htm). This list offers ten convincing reasons why businesses should switch to using e-books. However, one of the most critical and defining components of contemporary e-books is barely implied:

You usually get far more than just the book. Most eBooks are sold with bonuses and related information that usually don't come with the purchase of a traditional book. You might pay the same or even a bit more for an eBook, but you usually get more, too.

What does it mean to get far more? What are these bonuses? Perhaps the author is referring to hot-links to references and the ability to quickly search the entire e-book for a word or phrase (these features are noted subsequently in the list). Still, the definition of e-book seems rather limited to the traditional text-based approach.

What if we could depart from thinking about books as a collection of words? What if a book could contain video and audio? What if a book could evaluate the reader's understanding of it? What if multiple intelligences do exist, and what if we could stimulate more well-rounded learning by modifying the definition of "book"?

Before I delve any further into absurdities -- after all, everyone knows that words live in books, audio lives in radios, and videos live on TVs -- let's fathom to consider what might happen if these media could be happily married, and let's use psychologist Howard Gardner's categories of intelligence as a framework for theorizing how this might impact learning.

Verbal-linguistic intelligence has to do with words, spoken or written. Traditional books cater to this type of learning, thus it carries over to e-books. However, in e-books this kind of learning might be enhanced with audio. For example, what if a reader could click on a word to hear how it is pronounced, or roll over a glossary definition to hear it read aloud?

Musical intelligence is where a person learns aurally through rhythms. What if book text could be instantly turned into a lecture, so the reader could actually listen to the content? What if a reader could click a button to hear a clever rhyme supplemental to the text, designed to help him or her remember a concept?

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence deals with muscle memory and learning by doing, rather than by reading or hearing. Imagine if a student could read about architectural concepts, and then follow step-by-step videos to build projects (and have the ability to pause the videos when necessary). Similarly, a dance student might find it more useful to observe and follow a video embedded within a dance theory e-book than to read about all the physiological and qualitative details of specific exercises.

Spatial intelligence is similar to bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, because it involves learning through visual aspects. People with good visual memory might benefit from embedded videos in e-books just as people more oriented toward bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, since videos potentially offer more sensory stimulation than reading alone. I say "potentially" because learning stimulation is difficult to quantify and is subjective. It is possible to be emotionally or even physically moved by written text, as people more attuned to verbal-linguistic learning might attest.

Considering these four kinds of intelligences -- verbal-linguistic, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and spatial -- and assuming that people learn through different means, it becomes evident that if we assume the purpose of a book is to instruct it is better to instruct beyond a dominant framework of verbal-linguistic or logocentric intelligence. The only traditional books I'm aware of that have embedded audio, in a sense, are children's books like Sounds of the Farm by Gail Donovan where the reader can press buttons to hear how animals sound, but the sound cannot be associated with specific parts of the book except through the possibility of textual command to the reader to push a button.

Thus far, I have argued that diverse reading experiences could be enhanced through the integration of aural and visual stimuli with traditional text-based books. However, I have only touched upon four of Gardner's original seven intelligences. If, by this point in the article, anyone still doubts that e-books can theoretically offer a more comprehensive learning experience than traditional books, I believe any hint of skepticism will be erased after exploring what e-books could do for the remaining three intelligences.

The notion of self-reflection is a dominant theme in contemporary education theories, and was identified by Gardner as intrapersonal intelligence. Interaction with others is interpersonal intelligence, in which learning occurs through discussions and participation in group activities where a person directly encounters others' perspectives. E-books have the ability to stimulate self-reflection and group interaction if they could be integrated with online learning platforms, thereby facilitating online discussions and journal-keeping. Furthermore, while students can self-reflect on a traditional book by making lengthy notes in a separate notebook, what if in an e-book it were possible to highlight text, type notes in a pop-up window, and even link notes to text?

Last but not least is logical-mathematical intelligence, which deals with logic and reasoning. Traditionally, instructors have been responsible for assessing students' understanding of course concepts. But what if a student could take e-quizzes and get immediate feedback on his or her comprehension? This would certainly help students know what they needed to review before class or prior to an exam.

So, let's stop thinking of e-books as electronic versions of the same book you could pick up at your neighborhood bookstore. What if instead they were dynamic learning environments that addressed all seven of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, and thereby provided a more engaging and meaningful learning experience to readers? Xplana Learning has assumed a leadership role in the development of interactive e-books and online learning platforms. In the above examples, Xplana answers the question "What if e-books could?" as "Yes, our e-book can." (See http://www.xplana.com/products/products_xb.php).

In the great e-book debate, it's time to stop worrying whether e-books will to replace traditional books. Individual preference for reading medium is largely dependant on lifestyle. E-books are venturing into a new realm that oversteps the limitations of traditional text-based books. We should be able to appreciate what e-books can add to the learning experience, and consider how we can continue developing e-books in relationship to contemporary educational theories in order to maximize learning outcomes.

I had already sampled Joels work when I read his original ebook "What Google Never Told You About Adsense", so I had high expectations of this physical Adsense training book. I have to say Joel didn't disappoint me this time either.

To start with The Adsense Code begins with the basics which anyone just starting out with Adsense will find useful as a quick reference to get them up and running. As someone who has been using Adsense for a while I found this section could be skimmed, although there are some tips you may still find useful even if you have used Adsense on your sites for a while. Some of the stuff in the first few chapters will jog your memory and remind you of somethings you already know but forget to use.

After the initial setup Joel gets right on with the stuff you bought the book for, the correct way to implement Adsense for maximum profits. His tips are all backed with his real life testing and tuning, but even so he is ready to admit that there is no one size fits all when it comes to ad placement and colour usage in the adblocks, think blending in the Adsense blocks to not look like ads and you are getting close. He also reveals what Adsense blocks work best and where, as well as caveats when this advice doesn't quite work out to be true.

After the initial setting up, and placement, The Adsense Code goes further into testing and tracking to get the maximum CTR (Click Through Rate) for your Adsense blocks. Joel mentions some of the tools he uses for tracking and gives you a more in depth knowledge of how to use the tracking Google has already given to Adsense publishers with the "Channels" you can use to track your Adsense effectiveness with. This is a useful read for anyone who wants to make the most of every block of Adsense ads.

The other parts of the book briefly (sometimes it seems a little too briefly) cover the topics of content sites, search engine optimisation and using your website stats to help you increase your traffic. The section on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) could have been a little more in depth, although this is a huge subject which deservedly has more than enough books and ebooks written about it, it could have had a little more than the 8 pages devoted to it, but then this book isn't about getting traffic, it's about making the most from what you already get.

In summing up, The Adsense Code by Joel Comm is an ideal book for the beginner to intermediate Adsense publisher, and will help improve their Adsense earnings. If you are already earning a living from Adsense this will offer only a little backup reference information for you. The Adsense Code covers the core subject for which it was written in great detail, in an easy to understand way without being patronising. My advice is if you are earning less than a few hundred dollars a month from Adsense but would like to do better then this is the book to buy, and keep referring back to as you improve your earnings.

Copyright (c) 2008 SharpBrains

Dana Press kindly sent us a couple of books. One of them, The Dana Guide to Brain Health: A Practical Family Reference From Medical Experts, is our topic today.

We are impressed by what Dana is doing to insert neuroscience findings and implications into the public discourse.

No big surprise then, to find out so much quality content inside a 700-page one-of-a-kind guide.

The guide is really 4 books inside a common binding. Priced at a reasonable level, and with superb in-depth text and images in all relevant areas, the book can be used as a 1) Brain 101 tutorial, 2) brief summary of the basics of Brain Care and Wellness, 3) description of the stages of brain development, 4) reference guide for around 70 brain-related conditions.

In my personal opinion, every neuroscience, medical and psychology student, clinician and researcher should have this book in their hands to keep abreast of many recent developments, and also be exposed to professional development courses based on it. Many families and individuals interested in the brain should consider buying it too.

Given the focus of our blog-brain fitness for healthy individuals-, we particularly enjoyed the sections

- on intelligence, with sentences such as "It is extremely unlikely that an "intelligence pill" will be discovered in the near future" (P. 215)

- on "The Brain-Body Loop" which explains, among other things, the effects of stress,

- "Taking Advantage of New Findings and New Finding About the Adult Brain", with gems such as "Recent research on the brain has established two great principles. First, far from remaining static in adulthood, as we had long assumed, the human brain continues to grow and develop throughout our entire life span. This development takes place in two ways: by ongoing adjustments in signaling pathways and by the addition of new brain cells. Knowing this means that you should try, as you would with any fine, high-powered machine, to practice good maintenance to give it the best chance to provide peak performance...in many respects we can make a material difference in how it ages, and even induce it to perform better over time...Just as we may choose to strengthen our muscles with challenging workouts, we can encourage brain growth by keeping engaged in many different mental activities".

- and, above all, the one on "Basic Brain Care: Protecting Your Mental Capital" (Pages 31-41), where we are all recommended to

---- Sleep: at least 6 hours a day, making sure we don't make a habit of "cutting sleep short"

---- Eat well: the general rule here is that what is good for the body is also good for the brain, and to be wary of "diets advertised as "brain food"

---- "Protect the fortress" (our skull), by making sure we use security belts and helmets whenever there may be a risk

---- Exercise regularly

---- Keep Stress in Check (stress can inhibit or reduce the creation of new neurons, among other things)

---- Stimulate our minds through life, by ensuring a flow of novelty and variety that enhances the creation of a "cognitive reserve". If is fascinating for us to see how Brain Fitness helps integrate "Brain Health" and "Lifelong Learning", Health & Wellness and Education. Of course, these categories are human conventions that the brain itself probably doesn't care too much about...

In short, a great reference book for professionals and for people interested in the brain. And a great starting point (the only one we are aware of) for a really useful and practical guide to Brain Health that every family should have. In a bit more creative terms: great quality marble looking for a consumer-oriented Michelangelo.