You blog regularly.  You share ideas or reflect on the world.  You offer your unique perspective on your business or profession. You made a pilgrimage or extended journey and blogged about it.  Followers of your blog have encouraged you to make a book out of your blogs.  You like the idea but is it a good idea?  From the Write Here, Write Now/Write Choice Services perspective the answer is a resounding “Yes but . . .!” Michele Sharp and her husband, Wayne, sailed their boat from Bayfield, Wisconsin through the great lakes, the St. Lawrence River/Seaway, into the Atlantic Ocean around the Maritime Provinces and down the east coast of the United States to Punta Gorda, FL.  Michele blogged the entire way.  Her book –  Adventures of a Once Reluctant Sailor: A Journey of Guts, Growth, and Grace – is in the final stages of editing prior to publication.  Jeff Sheehan is an integrated marketing and social media consultant, hosts Sheehan Marketing Blog and has over 92,500 followers on Twitter.  Jeff has begun work on a book based upon his social media knowledge and experience with blogging and twitter. Michele and Jeff will share their insights and experiences around blogging and creating a book.

Smart authors know that writing to a specific audience not only makes your book more interesting to your target reader, but makes it’s easier to promote as well. Today’s guests have each written their book with a niche reader in mind.

Linda Hughes career has uniquely equipped her to author her recently released book, CEO Secrets to IT Success. Linda’s past roles include divisional CIO for The Coca-Cola Company and Vice President of the Technology Practice and CIO for The North Highland Company (an international management and technology consulting firm). Most recently she held the position of CIO for AIG Agency Auto. Currently she is the President and CEO of The Great Ridge Company, which provides consulting services focused on improving the operational and growth capabilities of businesses.

Also on today’s show is Sarah Hunt Engsberg. A professional farrier since 1991, Sarah has been serving the needs of horses and equestrians in the sports of Three-day Eventing, Combined Training, Dressage, and Endurance for nearly two decades. Sarah specializes in finding and maintaining proper balanced movement for each horse’s individual conformation. Her book, From Hoof to Helmet: Understanding Critical Balance for Peak Performance, is scheduled to launch in Fall 2012.

Dr. Tim, host of Write Here, Write Now, often shares a story about his dad who owned a very successful small business.  His dad was also quite active in local and regional church matters in the United Church of Christ.  As such, he dealt with ministers a lot.  When Dr. Tim indicated his interest in studying for ministry, his father replied, “Then I want you to get as good a business education as you can. Ministers need to have a business sense about them and very few do.” Dr. Tim did that including taking business courses at Harvard Business School as part of his DMin. studies.

When Dave Doty felt called to seminary,  it was to study economics, the marketplace in Christian perspective, and Christians in marketplace vocations. After eight years’ research and writing, Dave’s first book, Eden’s Bridge: The Marketplace in Creation and Mission, was published in 2011.

Timothy Read is licensed to practice law in Georgia, Virginia, Texas and California.  He is also an ordained ministry within the Presbyterian Church, USA.  Tim’s current writing interest is in areas of constructing (and often deconstructing) missional organizations to balance the competing needs of accountability, transparency and stewardship with priorities of freedom, creativity and external focus.

Guests Dave Doty and Attorney Tim Read along with Dr. Tim  will discuss the challenge of bringing solid economic practices  combined with accountability and well grounded theology to the market place.  Faith, accountability and solid business practices should be solidly intertwined if folks claim the mantle of business leader and person of faith.  Learn from these guest authors how they chose their topic of interest for writing and how they engage in research to write effectively.

From the perspective of writing coach/editor and host of Write Here, Write Now, Tim Morrison, there is no difference in possible or potential approaches between men and women in writing a memoir; in fact, Dr. Tim has found a curious common thread which he will share during this broadcast.  Brian H Settles and William L Graham are the guests.  Former airline captain Brian Settles writes of life as a bi-racial orphan who became a fighter pilot to overcome the demons of his childhood.  He flew in nearly 200 combat missions in Viet Nam. His book No Reason for Dying shares a ruthless, honest testimony of his wartime experience and the hard lessons he subsequently learned in search of himself as he sought a greater purpose in life.

After a visit to his boyhood/growing up communities of Baltzer and Drew, Mississippi, William Graham realized that it would be impossible for his own adult children and certainly his grandchildren to visit and know the Mississippi Delta and its towns of his youth and formative years. He set about to document the times, places, people and events that shaped his life and left an indelible mark on him as a person.

How did each determine the approach to take for writing his individual memoir?  What challenges did they encounter? What advice do they share? Listen to the encouragement they offer as men who wrote  and published their memoirs.

Diane Dunn began her professional career in theater in New York City.  Today Diane owns and operates Paz y Luz Healing Center and Bread and Breakfast in Cusco’s Sacred Valley in Peru. In between she earned her Masters of Divinity degree, and developed a church-based community outreach program for homeless and unemployed people in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa.  Ms Dunn is known as a healer and teacher and leads workshops throughout the world. She has written two books:  Cusco: the Gateway to Inner Wisdom and  Cusco II: the Magic of the Munay-Ki, a Love Story.

 Dr. Ken Harmon is Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Kennesaw State University.  Prior to this appointment, Dr. Harmon served as dean of Kennesaw State University’s Coles College of Business. Harmon has served in faculty and administrative positions with six other universities.  Currently Dr. Harmon is working on his book with a working title of Managing Happiness.  In the book he discusses how leaders can understand the research on happiness and use that information to create a better workplace environment.

What inspires people to write? Just about anything – really.  For Heather Marie Wilson inspiration came from a garden she planted. Heather Marie’s life looked successful on the outside.  She attained a great job right out of college, received steady promotions. As  a strategy and marketing professional, she devoted  more than a decade to studying personal development and to improving the quality of people’s lives. She rose to the level of corporate executive at a  Fortune 50 company.  Then she planted a garden – literally – and began to see and experience her life and the success spiral differently. She wrote down the thoughts and reflections and “ah ha” moments that came to her.  Out of those writings emerged her book: Seeds of Freedom: Cultivating a Life that Matters.

What was it about gardening that touched the life of a corporate executive and spawned a book and a new approach to life and work?

Jon Gordon’s best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. He is the author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller The Energy Bus, The No Complaining Rule, Training Camp, The Shark and The Goldfish, Soup, The Seed and his latest The Positive Dog. Host Vanessa Lowry talks with Jon about his writing process and the success of his books — including The Energy Bus being in the Top 10 Wall Street Journal list of Best Sellers only few weeks ago, even though it is one of his earliest books. They will also discuss the promotional activities Jon engages in and how having multiple books published has impacted his business. Learn more about Jon at www.JonGordon.com.

Leave a comment below with any questions you want Vanessa to ask Jon (before June 12th). Then leave a comment to let us know how his interview inspired or educated you in your own publishing journey.

It is every writer’s dream, isn’t it? To be published by a mainstream, traditional publisher. Today’s guests’ individual books are being released mid-June by two different, readily recognized, traditional publishers.  Different stories, different journeys, same end result.  How did they do it?

Echo Garrett co-authored My Orange Duffel Bag: A Journey to Radical Change. This mini-memoir of Sam Bracken, her co-author, shares his journey of abuse, homelessness and abandonment to becoming a successful college athlete and then leader in business. Echo now leads a non-profit called the Orange Duffel Bag Foundation, which teaches the book’s transformational change principles to at-risk youth ages 12-24. This is Echo’s third appearance on Write Here, Write Now.

Joel Manby is president and CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment – the largest family owned theme park corporation in the U.S.  Joel has also been a highly successful corporate executive at Saturn and then as Saab North America’s CEO.  He was featured on a 2010 episode of the hit TV series Undercover Boss.  Joel’s book is Love Works.  Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders. In Love Works, Joel provides the framework for successful leadership that results not only in a deeply satisfying work life, but also in a passionate and motivated workforce.  Joel comes to Write Here, Write Now after a week in New York City where he was promoting his book.

Most of the guests on Write Here, Write Now do the “happy dance” when they get their first book written.  Some go on to write 2 or 3 more.  All tend to stay in the same genre.  What is it like to write in different areas? Or even to be a ghost writer?  Kindred Howard is the founder of Family Upward and the organization’s lead marriage, parent and family life coach. Family Upward is an organization devoted to building stronger families. 

 Howard has authored over 30 social studies books used by schools in 9 states. He is a ghostwriter. And his newest book is:  Cavemen in Babyland: What New & Expecting Mommies Should Know About New Daddies (So That They Won’t Kill Them). In this interview, Kindred will share his insights into being able to write text books, a self-help book, along with the challenges of being/using a ghost writer.