Writing Related Books I Read in 2020

Here are the books I read to further my writing career in 2020.

The Successful Author Mindset: A Handbook for Surviving the Writer's Journey by Joanna Penn - This book didn't have a lot of new material in it, at least for me, but it did remind me of how important it is to treat my writing like a business if I want to succeed. It also inspired me to think about my productivity and some bad habits I'd developed.
 

Productivity for Authors: Find Time to Write, Organize Your Author Life, and Decide What Really Matters by Joanna Penn - This book continued with the "I know that. Why am I not doing it?" pushes.


Productivity for Creative People: How to Get Creative Work Done in an "Always On" World by Mark McGuinness - This book pushed me at times, bored me at others, irritated me at times but always seemed to make me look at my productivity and my productivity drains whether I wanted to or not. I think I read it too soon after Productivity for Authors. I wonder if my reaction would've been more positive if I'd waited a while...
 

Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting, and Voice Technologies by Joanna Penn - This book really got me thinking... I'd been toying with the idea of creating audiobooks for each of my titles for awhile but kept convincing myself there were too many obstacles, but after reading this I feel confident about trying it, at least.
 

Narrate and Record Your Own Audiobook: a simplified guide by M. L. Buchman - furthered my confidence in moving forward with recording and releasing my books as audiobooks by making the process, the technology, and equipment feel approachable.


This Is a Voice: 99 exercises to train, project and harness the power of your voice by Jeremy Fisher - This book was interesting, to say the least. I've been shy about speaking in public or even being videotaped or recorded, but the idea of recording my own audiobooks intimidated me a little bit. I kept wondering about inflections and using different voices and how to make sure sounds were really clear. This book helped me understand how my voice works better.

You probably noticed a theme here. I spent the last year researching how to do audiobooks, so audiobooks should be coming your way soon for those who follow my writing.


If you'd like to follow what I'm reading in real time, please follow/friend me on Goodreads.

If you'd like to see when I publish new books, please follow me on Amazon.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

Image
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert grabbed my attention from the first page. Kolbert illustrates the future of extinction by illuminating the history of extinction. She tells a story of the Earth we inhabit in both scientific and historical terms related to the myriad species of animals that have and do inhabit the Earth. She travels to myriad places on the Earth to talk to scientists and historians. I felt like she took me along on her journey to places I would never go on my own. She discussed the effects of natural processes as well as unnatural processes affecting the extinction of species and how those extinctions lead to other extinctions. Her references to previous mass extinctions were always linked to the story of our Earth and present-day extinctions. She talked about frogs, bats, auks, coral, and trees among other things. The Sixth Extinction doesn't shy away from pointing out how each species is a part of an ecosystem and how all our eco...
Read more

A Snitch in Time by Sunny Frazier

Image
Sunny Frazier always delights, and A Snitch in Time is no exception. She writes the Christy Bristol series in a way that feels lighthearted even in its darkest moments. When Bristol goes on vacation to visit her friend, Lennie, she never expects to get drafted into working for a different department doing her job. Bristol is intrigued enough by the crime at hand that her protestations seem half-hearted at times though her annoyance is very real. When she and Lennie get into a fight, she's left with nothing but the work the department expects her to do. Frazier drops the reader in the Sierra Nevada Foothills creating a sense of isolation that makes the reader cheer for Bristol to stand up to her superiors and get out of there while simultaneously wanting to her to solve the crime. When a witness contacts Bristol via phone she doesn't take her seriously at first only to discover she might have vital information. With suspicion cast in multiple directions, Bristol isn't sur...
Read more

Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat

Image
Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat approaches the Palestinian struggle for freedom by delving into how legal maneuvers are used to manipulate politics and political maneuvers are used to manipulate the law to justify the oppression of the Palestinian people. Erakat's explanations had me repeatedly wondering how people can be so cruel and why they choose to be. Erakat demonstrates and examines how the wording in multiple documents including the Oslo accords left loopholes and contributed to the subjugation of the Palestinian people while leaving room to make vague claims of a mirage of progress that falls apart with the smallest amount of investigation. An undercurrent throughout Justice for Some is that oppressors make laws the oppressed are expected to live by keeping the oppressors in power and the oppressed under control. Justice for Some explains much of the law that often gets cited in media and other analysis used to justify the dehumanizat...
Read more