November is the month we give thanks for everything we have, in America.

For our freedom. For the food on our tables. For our families. For making it through another year, because 2021 is on the horizon. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Communing with family, seeing folks I haven't seen all year long, eating lots of good food; that's my idea of a good time. I always look for new recipes to try out on unsuspecting family members. If you have one, send it along! 

If you have suggestions on any of those topics above, around celebrating Thanksgiving, write your book now. Some people will be unhappy following the election, and others will be joyous. There may be great opportunity to write a book about the election. No doubt many smart people will. If you're one of them, you don't need my  help, either. I don't do politics. 

December is Christmas.

Let's be honest - Christmas has already started. Many stores have Christmas decorations out as we speak. But, come November, the holiday will be in full swing and regardless of the outcome of the election, or the pandemic, people will celebrate Christmas. What might you have to contribute about that? Something about how it all got started? An updated Scrooge story? Or maybe something for the kiddies - your own version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Write it now and start talking it up before Thanksgiving.

If you're contemplating writing a book about any of that - a book you will want to take on the road in 2021 to speaking engagements (on the road being via Zoom most likely, but on the road, nonetheless), I'd like to work with you as you create your book. To get you started, here are some of the books from Nurturing Big Ideas.

Books to Help Writers Write and More

Our book, The How to Write a Book Book was written to guide new and established authors on their book writing journey. My husband, Tom Collins of Old Dog Learning, and myself, wrote it from the premise of building a house. I maintain that building a house is a lot like writing a book. Or, writing a book is a lot like building a house, however you want to say it. You need the same ideas, mindset, and focus. 

Once we had released the "book book" as we call it here, I knew folks would need help with marketing. How do you market your book? You can't just 'announce' it on Facebook and hope people will buy it. You have to begin far sooner than the release date. With that in mind, I wrote The Ultimate Book Promotion Plan: A Workbook with specific steps to market your new book to the audience you have chosen for it.  

Does it cover all the things you need to do to market your book? No. It covers a timeline of tasks and advice on how to perform those tasks. Truth is, I think you should also look at our eBook 15 Ways to Market Big Ideas, which is good for book marketing, as well as marketing a business idea. After all, a book is a big idea, isn't it?

The last book I want to talk about today is brand new. It's called, Finding Your Throughline - Electrifying Your Idea. One of the areas we work on with our authors is their throughline. A throughline is the focus, message, purpose of your book and must work from beginning to end, all the way through the book. Many authors are unfamiliar with this concept. It was new to me, not that long ago. But a throughline is as important to your book as the front and back cover.

We write in the book that

"...how finding your throughline can make every part of your book writing and publishing journey easier - and your final product stronger."

Your goal, in throughline, is to devise the one sentence, or two, that describes your book's throughline. Don't you hate it when someone describes a word using the word? But the word through is easy enough to understand. And the word line, especially as it pertains to your book, is easy enough to understand. In 'through' you're taking an idea from beginning to end. In 'line' you're using words to describe the idea you're taking 'through' - in this case, through your book. 

The concept is a bit more complicated than that, which is why we wrote the book. The exercises will help you discover your own book's throughline. Even if you have to change it as you write the book. 

We include full copies of these books with new book coaching programs. It can't hurt to check out what that might look like, can it? I'm around.