Lean. Trim. Clear. Concrete. In a world where decisions are made between two rings of a cell phone, this is what a successful business proposal must be. It's a lesson entrepreneur Patrick Riley learned after one too many potential partners ignored his painstaking (but long and forbidding) proposals. And now, in The One-Page Proposal, he shares his secret strategy -- the one that he has parlayed into a multimillion-dollar business career. Riley describes...

For most, the hardest part of writing is overcoming the mountain of self-denial that weighs upon the spirit, always threatening to extinguish those first small embers of ambition. Brenda Ueland, a writer and teacher, devotes most of her book--published back in 1938, before everyone and their goldfish got their MFA's in creative writing--to these matters of the writer's heart. Still, the real gift of the book is Ueland herself: She liked to write,...

A step-by-step guide through the grant-writing process covers such topics as individualizing a letter of intent; developing action plans; and finding corporate, foundation, and government grants.

The founder of a popular weekly podcast shares comprehensive explanations for troublesome grammar rules in a resource complemented by memory tricks, word-choice guidelines, and e-mail tips.

Anyone who wants to be heard is facing an epic challenge--people are drowning in a sea of words. How do you get your audience to pay attention? By learning to say a lot more with a lot less and punch through the noise. By learning Smart Brevity. "Brevity is confidence. Length is fear. This is the guiding principle of Smart Brevity, a communication formula built by Axios journalists to prioritize essential news and information, explain its impact...

Elevate Your Writing From So-So To Spectacular! Great writing requires more than an original idea, compelling characters, or a scintillating plot. An author needs all of these to be successful, but writing--and writing well--also demands an entirely different skill set. Spellbinding Sentences arms you with the tools you need to master the power of the English language. In this book, you'll learn the different qualities of words and the many ways those...

"Samara O'Shea is the guardian angel of this almost lost art." - Samantha Ettus, Creator of The Experts' Guide book series "Samara O'Shea has outdone herself with her own passionate love letter to the written word." - Rachel Kramer Bussel, Village Voice Lusty Lady columnist "A charming look at the lost art of letter writing." - Jane Buckingham, author of The Modern Girl's Guide to Life and The Modern Girl's Guide to Motherhood "For the Love of...

Everybody has something to say. In an age when Twitter, blogs, and Tumblrs give millions the chance to write whatever is on their minds, it seems that we're finding plenty of avenues in which to share it. How, then, do we write what is worth saying? How do we record our important memories so they'll be remembered? How do we tell our personal stories the way they deserve to be told? In keeping with successful earlier editions of Writing from Within,...

"Writers flock to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) each November because it provides a procrastination-busting deadline. But only a fraction of the participants meet their goal. Denise Jaden was part of that fraction, writing first drafts of two subsequently published novels in that tight time frame. In Fast Fiction, she shows other writers how to do what she did, step-by-step, writer-to-writer. To insure success, her program begins a month...

"Every writer knows that as rewarding as the creative process is, it can often be a bumpy road. Have hope and keep at it! Designed to kick-start creativity, this handsome handbook from the executive director of National Novel Writing Month gathers a wide range of insights and advice for writers at any stage of their career. From tips about how to finally start that story to helpful ideas about what to do when the words just aren't quite coming out...