• Book ghostwriter
• Book writer
• Find a ghostwriter
• Find a writer
• Finding a ghostwriter
• Freelance book writer
• Ghostwriter book
• Help to write a book
• Help writing a book
• Writer
• Writer wanted
• Wanted writer

These keywords will then produce millions of results, way too many to sift through. It’s a lot more efficient if you refine your search and zero in on what you really want.

For example, if you want a top notch writer, don’t just search for “book ghostwriter.” Instead, look for a “New York Times bestselling book ghostwriter.”

You can also add the topic of your book to the search. If you’re writing a health book, for example, add the word “health” to your search, as in “New York Times bestselling book ghostwriter health.” Similarly, if you want assistance with your business book, search for “New York Times bestselling book ghostwriter business.”

You can refine your search even further by using negative keywords to screen out the websites you don’t want to bother with. To do so, go to www.Google.com and when the search box appears, click on “Advanced Search” (to the right of the search box). You’ll be taken to the Advanced Search page, where you can put negative keywords in the box marked “But don’t show pages that have…” For example, you might want to type “cheap” and “inexpensive” in this box to eliminate low-end ghostwriters. (The old adage “You get what you pay for” applies here.)  You might also type in “academic” and “textbook” to screen out writers who most likely will lack experience in writing for the popular press.

By using these simple techniques, you can create a narrowly-focused search that produces a manageable number of websites. That saves you lots of time!

We at Taylor-Fox can help you create your business book, health book, memoir, biography, inspirational book or other book and get it ready for publication. We’ve helped scores of people achieve their goals, and some of their books have landed on bestseller lists. Let us help you! Call us at 818-594-0379.

Be sure to investigate the firms you’re interested in, and read their contracts very carefully.

1. 1^st World Publishing – Fairfield, IA – www.1stworldpublishing.com
2. 48Hour Books – Akron, OH – www.48hrbooks.com
3. Aachanon – Payson, AZ – www.aachanon.com
4. American Binding & Publishing Co. – Corpus Christi, TX – americanbindingpublishing.com
5. Arbor Books – New York, NY – www.arborbooks.com
6. Ardith Publishing – London, Ontario, Canada – ardithpublishing.com
7. Author House – Bloomington, IN – www.authorhouse.com
8. Aventine Press – San Diego, CA – www.aventinepress.com
9. Balboa Press - Bloomington, IN - www.balboapress.com
10. BelieversPress – Bloomington, MN – www.believerspress.com
11. Blurb – San Francisco, California and London, UK – www.blurb.com
12. Booklocker - Bangor, ME – www.booklocker.com
13. BookMobile – Minneapolis, MN – www.bookmobile.com
14. BookPros – Austin, TX – www.bookpros.com
15. Bookstand Publishing – Gilroy, CA – www.ebookstand.com
16. BookSurge – See CreateSpace
17. Bravado Publishing – Roseburg OR – www.bravadopublishing.com
18. Brentwood Christian Press – Columbus, GA – www.brentwoodbooks.com
19. Callawind – Kirkland, Quebec, Canada – www.callawind.com
20. CheckPoint Press – Mayo, Ireland - http://www.checkpointpress.com
21. CreateSpace – Scotts Valley, CA – www.createspace.com
22. Dellarte Press - Bloomington, IN – www.dellartepress.com
23. Dog Ear Publishing – Indianapolis, IN – www.dogearpublishing.net
24. Donning Company Publishers – Virginia Beach, VA – www.donning.com
25. DragonPencil – Savannah, GA – www.dragonpencil.com
26. E-Booktime – Montgomery, AL – www.e-booktime.com
27. Economical Self Publishing – Laredo, TX – economical-self-publishing.com
28. Epigraph Publishing Service – Rhinebeck, NY – www.epigraphps.com
29. Fidlar Doubleday – Davenport, Iowa – www.fidlardoubleday.com
30. First Choice Books- Victoria, B.C., Canada – www.firstchoicebooks.ca
31. Foremost Press – Cedarburg, WI – www.foremostpress.com
32. Foresight Publishing - Rossville, GA – www.foresightpublishingnow.com
33. Goose River Press – Waldoboro, ME – www.gooseriverpress.com
34. IBJ Book Publishing – Indianapolis, IN – www.ibjbookpublishing.com
35. Infinity Publishing – W. Conshohocken, PA – www.infinitypublishing.com
36. Innovo Publishing – Collierville, TN – www.innovopublishing.com
37. InstantPublisher - Collierville, TN – www.instantpublisher.com
38. iUniverse - Bloomington, IN – www.iuniverse.com
39. JADA Press – Atlanta, GA – www.jadapress.com
40. Just Self-Publish – Newton, PA – www.justselfpublish.com
41. Laredo Publishing – Englewood, NJ – www.laredopublishing.com
42. Leonine Publishers – Phoenix, AZ – www.leoninepublishers.com
43. Llumina Press – Tamarac, FL – www.llumina.com
44. Lulu – Morrisville, NC – www.lulu.com
45. Mill City Press – Minneapolis, MN – www.millcitypress.net
46. Morris Publishing – Kearney, NE – www.morrispublishing.com
47. Mystic Publishers – Henderson, NV – www.mysticpublishers.com
48. Network Printers – Milwaukee, WI – www.network-printers.com
49. New Book Publishing – Apopka, FL – www.newbookpublishing.com
50. Omega Publications – Palm Springs, CA – www.omegapublications.net
51. OmniLand Books – Anahuac, TX – www.omnilandbooks.com
52. Outskirts Press – Parker, CO – www.outskirtspress.com
53. Palibro – Bloomington, IN – www.palibrio.com
54. Poetry Publishing – www.poetry-publishers.com
55. Polished Publishing Group - Canada – www.polishedpublishinggroup.com
56. Professional Press – Chapel Hill, NC – www.profpress.com
57. Red Lead Press – Pittsburgh, PA – www.redleadpress.com
58. RoseDog Publishing – Pittsburgh, PA – http://www.rosedog.com/pod-services.asp
59. Schiel & Denver - Houston, TX and Coventry, UK – www.schieldenver.com
60. SelfPublishing.com – New York, NY – www.selfpublishing.com
61. Smashwords – Los Gatos, CA – www.smashwords.com
62. Spire Publishing – Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada – www.spirepublishing.com
63. Trafford Publishing – Victoria, BC, Canada – www.trafford.com
64. U Build A Book – Camarillo, CA – www.ubuildabook.com
65. Virtual Bookworm – College Station, TX – www.virtualbookworm.com
66. Volumes – Kitchener, Ontario, Canada – www.volumesdirect.com
67. WestBow Press - www.westbowpress.com
68. Westview – Nashville, TN – www.publishedbywestview.com
69. Wheatmark – Tucson, AZ – www.wheatmark.com
70. Whitehall Printing – Naples, FL – www.whitehallprinting.com
71. Wimmer Cookbooks – Memphis, TN – www.wimmerco.com
72. WinePress Publishing (formerly Pleasant Word) – Enumclaw, WA – http://www.winepresspublishing.com /
73. WingSpan Press – Livermore, CA – www.wingspanpress.com
74. Word Association – Tarentum, PA – www.wordassociation.com
75. Wordclay – Bloomington, IN – www.wordclay.com
76. WordPro Press – Ithaca, NY – http://wordpro.com/press
77. Xlibris - Philadelphia, PA – www.xlibris.com
78. Xulon Press – Longwood, FL – www.xulonpress.com

We at Taylor-Fox can help you create your business book, health book, memoir, biography, inspirational book or other book and get it ready for publication. We’ve helped scores of people achieve their goals, and some of their books have landed on bestseller lists. Let us help you! Call us at 818-594-0379.

Ideally, the price will be high enough to cover all production, distribution and other costs, with a generous royalty left over for you, yet low enough to entice potential buyers.

Here’s a sampling of the way book prices are determined by various self-publishers:

• CreateSpace – You can set the price. According to their website (as of April 14, 2011): “The retail price listed on the product may be suggested by you, or estimated in accordance with standard industry practice.” However, the company insists the price cannot be “less than the fees due for a given sale,” which means they don’t want you to sell a book at a loss (for them).

• Dellarte Press – The company sets the price. According to their website (as of April 14, 2011): “During the publishing process, the price of your book will be determined after you have approved your manuscript. The cost of your book is based on the cover cost and page count, which determine the minimum base price for the production of your book, plus the distribution cost and royalty amount.”

• Dog Ear Publishing – You set the price. The company will tell you how much it costs to produce a single copy of your book, and you will set the price somewhere above that. They suggest it be “at least 2.5 times the single-copy printing cost to allow for a reasonable margin (to cover our costs and your payments) after trade discounts are factored in.” Thus, if the production cost for your book is $5, they would like you to charge the consumer at least $12.50 to cover the production costs, handling fee, discounts, and so on and still leave a profit for you.

• Infinity Publishing – You set the price, based on their “Suggested Book Pricing” tables (http://www.infinitypublishing.com/book-publishing-services/suggested-book-pricing.html). The tables give “Suggested list prices” based on a book’s size and number of pages. However, according to their website, “You may elect to price your book higher and in turn earn a much higher royalty percentage on sales.”

• Lulu – The company helps you determine a suggested retail price, which you can increase if you like. According to the company’s website (as of April 14, 2011): “You have the option of pricing your book even higher, which will allow for greater profits, and greater royalties.” Their “Retail Book Cost Calculator” helps you determine the suggested retail price for you book. (See http://www.lulu.com/en/includes/calc_retail_inc.php.)

• Schiel & Denver – The company sets the price based on competitive books, unless you purchase the Set My Own Price (SMOP) option for $249.  When the company sets the price, it asks you to “identify three already published books in your genre, that are currently selling in a proper bookstore like Barnes & Noble.” The costs of these three books are averaged to produce a price for your book. With the SMOP option, you pick the price and can change it as you like – however, the company “will advise you on the minimum price you can set” as they don’t want you to price your book so low it will be unprofitable.

• Trafford Publishing – You set the price based on several factors. According to their website (as of April 14, 2011): “The price of your printed book is determined by a fixed cost for the cover and page count, plus the distribution cost and royalty amount…. During the process of publication, you will be prompted to choose your price after the manuscript and cover are approved (because we need to know the final page count and book size)…. The best price of your printed book depends on a variety of factors, but overall, the choice is up to you.” In essence, you add together all the costs, plus the amount you’d like to receive per book, to determine the sales price. All e-books, however, have a “default price of $9.99.”

• WingSpan Press – You set the price. According to their website (as of April 14, 2011): “You may choose to set your price as high as you think the market will bear.” Remember, however, that you have to price it high enough to cover your cost per book, while, as WingSpan advises, it’s low enough to be competitively priced and “attractive to readers.” A chart on the “Retail Pricing and Print Cost” page of the website gives the “Minimum Cover Price” and “Your Print Cost” for books of different sizes to use as a guide in pricing your book. (See http://www.wingspanpress.com/standard_pricing.php.)

• Xlibris – The company sets the price unless you purchase the “Set Your Own Price” (SYOP) option. According to Xlibris, with the SYOP option you “control the retail price of your book and the amount of royalties you earn on each copy sold.” The SYOP option costs $249 and allows you to select the prices for the hardcover and softcover editions of your book, and to change the retail price “as often as you want.” Xlibris offers a “Book Calculator” to “guide you through price and profit setting for you book.” (See http://www2.xlibris.com/calculator/.)

We at Taylor-Fox can help you create your business book, health book, memoir, biography, inspirational book or other book and get it ready for publication. We’ve helped scores of people achieve their goals, and some of their books have landed on bestseller lists. Let us help you! Call us at 818-594-0379.

Unfortunately, even a statement that seems perfectly clear – such as “You get a 10% royalty for each book sold” – can produce different dollar amounts, because some self-publishers compute the royalty based on the gross sales price while others use the net sales price.

The gross sales price is the book’s list price, or cover price. You can think of this as the “official price.” The net sales price is the amount of money the publisher receives after certain deductions have been made – think of it as the “money-actually-in-the-publisher’s pocket-price.”

There can be a major difference in the amount of royalties you receive depending on which sales price is used as a basis. If, for example, the cover price of your book is $10 and you receive a 20% royalty on the gross sales price, you will get $2. But if the publisher deducts $4 from the cover price to cover costs, producing a net sales price of $6, you will receive only $1.20 in royalties.

So when checking a self-publisher’s contract to determine what your royalties will be, look to see whether they are calculated on the gross sales price or net sales price. And if it’s the net sales price, find out exactly what might be deducted from the gross sales price to produce this new, lower figure.

Here’s a sampling of the way royalties are calculated by different self-publishers:

• WingSpan Press – pays on the gross sales price. According to their website (as of April 13, 2011): “With WingSpan, you earn 20% of the recommended retail cover price of your book on every sale….Retailers – Amazon’s a good example – can, and often do – sell books at a discount. Like any store, they sometimes have ‘sales.’ But your earnings are not affected. Your royalty remains the same no matter what they sell it for.” (The company has a different calculation for e-book sales.)

• iUniverse – pays royalties on the net sales price. According to their website (as of April 13, 2011): “Royalties are based on the payments we actually receive from the sale of printed or electronic (e-book) copies of your book, less any shipping and handling charges or sales and use taxes. Also, we offer discounts to retail and wholesale customers, so the royalty amount you receive depends on what type of customer bought your book and any discount they received.”

• Xlibris – pays royalties on the net sales price. This company has a complex royalty calculation that factors in whether the book is a trade paperback or hardback, is sold through a bookseller or directly by Xlibris, and is sold to the author, a bookstore, library or reseller. The “Author’s Royalties” section of their “Author Agreement” spells out discounts from the gross sales price ranging from 20-60%, depending on the situation.

• Dellarte Press – pays royalties on the net sales price. According to their website (as of April 13, 2011): “Royalties are based on the payments we actually receive from the sale of printed or electronic (e-book) copies of your book, minus any shipping and handling charges or sales and use taxes. Also, we offer discounts to retail and wholesale customers, so the royalty amount you receive depends on what type of customer bought your book and any discount they received.” They give the example of a book with a “suggested retail price” of $11.99, from which they deduct a 48% retail discount and $3.81 for the cost of goods sold (the book itself), leaving $2.42. The author receives a 50% royalty on the $2.42, which is $1.21.

• CreateSpace – varies the royalty according to several factors, including book size,  whether it is sold through Amazon.com, eStore or their Expanded Distribution, and whether or not the author has signed up for the “Pro Plan.” Fortunately, they have a “Royalty Calculation” on their site (https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/;jsessionid=1DA8089424A3DF8E80A2B03B4EA9FF91.cspworker01) that allows you to enter the variables and see what the royalty will be for each book sold.

In short, royalty calculations can be simple or complex and your payment can vary in size, depending on the self-publishing company.

We at Taylor-Fox can help you create your business book, health book, memoir, biography, inspirational book or other book and get it ready for publication. We’ve helped scores of people achieve their goals, and some of their books have landed on bestseller lists. Let us help you! Call us at 818-594-0379.

As you scan through each contract, look for key items such as:

• Who owns the copyright to the text, cover design and other elements of the book?
• Precisely which costs are your responsibility?
• Exactly which services does the self-publishing firm provide?
• Do you surrender any control over the book’s content or appearance?
• Who controls the book’s sales and marketing? If the firm does, exactly what will be provided?
• Who determines the book’s sales price and how?
• Exactly how are the royalties calculated?
• Is the contract exclusive, or can you accept other publication offers?
• Can you terminate your agreement with the self-publisher and, if so, on what terms?
• Does the contract reflect the statements that appear on the company’s website, in their brochure and in other materials?

Click on the links below to view or download the agreements from these self-publishing firms:

• Aventine Press – you can view their “Publishing Agreement” at http://www.aventinepress.com/pub_agree.html.
• Bookstand Publishing – you can view the “Contract and Agreement
  for Print-On-Demand Publishing for Bookstand Publishing” at http://www.ebookstand.com/content/terms_of_service.
• BookSurge – you can view their “Publishing Agreement” at http://www.booksurgepages.com/author_publishing_agreement.html.
• CheckPoint Press – you can view their “Simple, Easy-To-Understand, One-Page Agreement For Self-Publishing Services” at http://www.checkpointpress.com/selfpublishingagreement.html.
• Dog Ear Publishing – you can view the “Dog Ear Publishing Contract” at http://dogearpublishing.net/resourcesauthoragree.aspx.
• Foresight Publishing – you can view the “Foresight Publishing Group, Inc., Self-Publishing Agreement” at http://www.foresightpublishingnow.com/_documents/Publishing%20Agreement.pdf.
• Infinity Publishing – you can view their “Book Publishing Agreement” at http://www.infinitypublishing.com/book-publishing-services/book-publishing-agreement.html.
• Innovo – you can view their “Author Services Agreement: Terms & Conditions” at http://www.innovopublishing.com/files/Innovo-Author-Services-Agreement-121209.pdf.
• Polished Publishing Group – you can view this Canadian firm’s “Publishing Agreement v3.2” at http://www.polishedpublishinggroup.com/Publishing_Agreement_JHB6.html.
• Schiel & Denver – you can download their “Official Author Agreement” in PDF format from this page: http://www.schieldenver.com/learning-center/terms-a-conditions/author-agreement.html.
• WingSpan Press – you can view the “WingSpan Press Publishing Agreement at http://www.wingspanpress.com/publishing_agreement.php.
• Xlibris – you can view the “Xlibris Author Agreement” at http://www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk/legal-authors-agreement.aspx.
• Xulon Press – you can view their “Publishing Consultant Agreement” at http://www.xulonpress.com/imgs/global/service_agreement.pdf.

We at Taylor-Fox can help you create your business book, health book, memoir, biography, inspirational book or other book and get it ready for publication. We’ve helped scores of people achieve their goals, and some of their books have landed on bestseller lists. Let us help you! Call us at 818-594-0379.

The Basic Idea

It’s quite easy to create a Table of Contents. The three basic steps are:

1. Identify the headings and subheadings you want included.
2. Indicate where the Table of Contents should be inserted.
3. Tell Word to create it.

Step #1: Identify the Headings and Subheadings

You certainly want the chapter titles to be in the Table of Contents, and you may also want section or even subsection headings included, each followed by a page number indicating where it begins.

The simplest way to do this is to go through your completed manuscript page by page looking for the items you want included in the Table. For example, let’s say you want your Table of Contents to include the chapter titles, main section headings and subsection headings from each chapter. When you come to the first chapter title in your manuscript, use your mouse to highlight it. Then click on the “References” tab at the top of your document. When the “References” tab pops into place, look to the far left in the “Table of Contents” area, for the “Add Text” command. When you click on “Add Text,” a drop-down window with four choices will appear. The choices are, in order:

• Do Not Show in Table of Contents
• Level 1
• Level 2
• Level 3

Level 1 is for the most important items in the Table of Contents, such as chapter titles.  Level 2 is for subordinate entries such as section headings, and Level 3 is for the least important items, such as section subheadings.

In our example, you’ve highlighted the first chapter title in your manuscript, so you should click on “Level 1.” You’ll see that the chapter title is now highlighted in blue and takes on a new style in the manuscript.

Continue working through your manuscript, highlighting chapter titles, section headings and section subheadings, and indicating whether they are “Level 1,” “Level 2,” or “Level 3” entries.

Step #2: Indicate Where the Table of Contents Should Be Inserted

The Table of Contents usually appears at the beginning of the manuscript. You may wish to insert a blank page after the title or other opening pages, and put the Table of Contents on this blank page.

Place your cursor where you want the Table of Contents to begin and click once.

Step #3: Tell Word to Create It

Now that you’ve indicated where the Table of Contents should begin, go back to the “References” tab and, in the “Table of Contents” area on the far left, click on the “Table of Contents” command. A drop-down window featuring some Table styles will appear. Click on the style you like, and Word will create the Table automatically. The Level 1 entries will be flush left, the Level 2 entries will be indented a bit, and the Level 3 entries will be indented a bit more. Each entry will be followed by the appropriate page number.

That’s it – you’ve created a basic table of contents!

Advanced Techniques

There are other features you can use to create a Table of Contents and other ways to prepare it. To learn advanced techniques for creating or modifying a Table of Contents, or if you need assistance with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or other popular computer programs, contact Jeff Davidson of PC Consultants at (818) 716-0991.

We at Taylor-Fox can help you create your autobiography, memoir, inspirational book or other book and get it ready for publication. We’ve helped scores of people achieve their goals, and some of their books have landed on bestseller lists. Call us at 818-594-0379.

What Goes into an Index?

An Index is made of numerous individual Index Entries, which can be:

• An individual word, phrase or symbol
• A topic that spans a range of pages
• A reference to another entry (such as “Transportation – see Bicycles”)

When you select text and mark it as an Index Entry, Microsoft Word inserts a special XE (Index Entry) field that includes the marked main entry and any cross-reference information that you choose to include. If, for example, you add the word “bicycle” to your Index, the XE entry appearing immediately after it would look like this: {XE “bicycle”}

Who Selects the Entries for the Index?

You do, either working from a list of words/phrases you created, or looking for good candidates for the Index as you work your way through your manuscript. In either case, go through your manuscript identifying the words/phrases you’d like to appear in the Index – and you only have to do it once for each word/phrase, for Microsoft Word will find all the other occurrences in the document.

Then What?

After you mark all the Index Entries, you tell Microsoft Word to create the Index. Word goes through your manuscript collecting the Index Entries, sorts them alphabetically, notes their page numbers, finds and removes duplicate entries from the same page, and displays the Index in the document.

That’s it in a nutshell. Now let’s take a look at the individual steps you must take to create a basic Index. I’ll talk about advanced techniques in subsequent blogs.

Step 1: Mark the Index Entries

Go through your manuscript, looking for words and/or phrases you’d like to be indexed. When you find one, double-click on it to highlight it, then click on the “References” tab at the top of your document, go to the “Index” area and click on “Mark Entry.”

When you click on “Mark Entry,” a new window will open. You’ll see that the word/phrase you want indexed is already in the “Main Entry” line at the top of the new window.

At the very bottom of the new window you’ll see three buttons; “Mark,” “Mark All” and “Cancel.” If you only want this one instance of the selected word/phrase to appear in the Index, click on “Mark.” If you want every instance of the selected word/phrase to appear in the Index, click on “Mark All.”

Step 2: Create the Index

You’ve worked your way through your manuscript, marking the words/phrases you’d like indexed. Now it’s time to create the Index, which is easy to do. Start by going to the end of your manuscript – the usual place for an Index to appear – and click on the place where you want your Index to begin. If you like, you can type the word “Index” and click right below that.

Once you’ve clicked where you want the Index to begin, go back to the “References” tab and in the “Index” area, just to the right of “Mark Entry,” you’ll see “Insert Index.” Click on that, and a new window will appear. Click “OK” at the bottom of this new window and your Index will pop into place. Each of the words/phrases you selected will be there, followed by the page numbers on which they appear.

That’s it – you’ve got your Index.

Getting Fancy

There’s a lot more you can do with the Index, including bolding and/or italicizing either the Index Entries or page numbers; bolding just a few page numbers in the Index to highlight them; creating sub-entries, third-level entries and cross-references within the Index; changing the look and style of the Index; and more.

To learn about advanced Indexing techniques, or if you need assistance with Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, or other popular computer programs, contact Jeff Davidson of PC Consultants at (818) 716-0991.

We at Taylor-Fox can help you create your autobiography, memoir, inspirational book or other book and get it ready for publication. We’ve helped scores of people achieve their goals, and some of their books have landed on bestseller lists. Call us at 818-594-0379.

In The Glass Castle, the story of a deeply dysfunctional family, author Jeannette Walls begins: “I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.” This sentence is not only shocking and attention-grabbing but a harbinger of things to come.

Elizabeth Gilbert opens Eat, Pray, Love, her “meditation on love in its many forms,” with: “I wish Giovanni would kiss me. Oh, but there are so many reasons why this would be a terrible idea.” This opening is romantic, introspective, funny and full of longing – just like the memoir.

Rewrites, a memoir written by the famous playwright Neil Simon, begins, “In the spring of 1957, I was unhappily in California working on a television special. I was thirty years old and knew that if I didn’t start writing that first Broadway play soon, I would inevitably become a permanent part of the topography of the West Coast.” In a matter-of-fact way, he tells you who he is, how he feels, where he’s going and what year it is, in just two sentences. While Simon’s intro is not as scintillating as the first two examples, he doesn’t needto be quite so catchy because we already know about the fabulous accomplishments that lie in his future. But if your life story is not so well-known, you’ll need to make your opening a bit more evocative.

In short, don’t build up to an interesting, catchy, evocative beginning: start that way with the very first sentence.

We at Taylor-Fox can help you create your memoir, biography, inspirational book or other book and get it ready for publication. We’ve helped scores of people achieve their goals, and some of their books have landed on bestseller lists. Call us at 818-594-0379.

This “before the event” technique can be used with any important event: waiting in the wings before going on stage to deliver a stunning (or disastrous) performance; tightening your helmet and shouldering your rifle before dashing across an open battlefield; getting into starting position and murmuring encouraging words to your horse before the gates open at the Kentucky Derby. It not only sets the scene, it serves as a springboard to action that will grab the readers’ attention and make them want to get on board for a wild, exciting ride. Just keep it brief: readers tend to lose patience with lengthy descriptions and set-ups that take too long. Grab their attention; then pull them into your story immediately!

We at Taylor-Fox can help you create your memoir, biography, inspirational book or other book and get it ready for publication. We’ve helped scores of people achieve their goals, and some of their books have landed on bestseller lists. Call us at 818-594-0379.

Mikal Gilmore’s dark and fascinating memoir Shot In the Heart begins with, “I have dreamed a terrible dream.” He then goes on to relate the dream, which introduces every member of his family, certain salient details about them, and how each one died. For example: “There is my mother, Bessie Gilmore, who lived a life of bitter losses, who died spitting blood, calling the names of her father and her husband…” “There is my brother Gary, who murdered innocent men in rage against the way life had robbed him of too much time and too much love, and who died when a volley of bullets tore his violent, tortured heart from his chest.” “There is my brother Gaylen, who died young of old wounds…” “And there is my father, Frank Sr., who died from the ravages and insults of cancer.”

In recounting this dream, Mikal sets the stage for a harrowing tale of a family gone terribly wrong, a tale that will involve many deaths, including the famous firing squad execution of his brother Gary Gilmore in Utah in 1977. Mikal reinforces his theme of death and continues the introduction of his main characters in his opening paragraph in Chapter 1: “One by one, I had watched them all die. First, my father. Then my brothers Gaylen and Gary. Finally, my mother, a bitter and ravaged woman.” He goes on to introduce himself, or at least how he felt about his family. “In the time that followed I believed I was no longer tied to the wreckage that had been my family’s spirit, and whatever devastations might come in my life, at least now they would be my own.” Dreams, ghost stories and true stories almost too terrifying to tell dominate the book, culminating in the horror of Gary Gilmore’s widely- publicized execution.

Using a “bookends” approach to beginnings and endings, Mikal ends his memoir with another dream, this one concerning Gary’s trial. In the end, he wakes up sobbing in the middle of the night, “my insides racked in a sharp pain,” when he realizes that, “It will never be all right. It will never be all right.”

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