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Jocelyn Carbonara 1/16/25 Jocelyn Carbonara 1/16/25

Business Book Author McKenna Sweazey: Be Generous About Timelines

SPIRITUS BOOKS: Tell us a little about your book, How to Win Friends and Manage Remotely, and why you wrote it.

MCKENNA SWEAZEY: I’d been batting around an idea of an empathy-based leadership book for a while, and when the pandemic hit, I suddenly had both some extra time to do it and a renewed focus on why empathy is really important in digital interactions.

Scott Carbonara 1/9/25 Scott Carbonara 1/9/25

For the Love of Descriptors!

For the love of everything holy, please stop inserting words that do nothing but clutter your writing.

Before littering your writing with a slew of meaningless descriptors, ask yourself these questions:

Scott Carbonara 1/2/25 Scott Carbonara 1/2/25

Don’t Wait to Write Right to Start Writing!

One resolution I hear often from people when they learn I’m a ghostwriter is something like: “I’ve always wanted to write a book! Maybe that should be my New Year’s resolution!”

Yes, maybe it should. If that’s your resolve, let me tell you how to make it happen. Resolutions that come with an action plan are more likely to remain intact and come to fruition.-goes-here

Jocelyn Carbonara 12/26/24 Jocelyn Carbonara 12/26/24

Seven Down-and-Dirty Tips to Transform Your Writing

As a book editor, I spend much of my time in “heavy lifting” work—assessing a manuscript for overall flow, shoring up gaps, and ensuring clarity and consistency. But the rest of my effort goes toward sentence-level changes that will impact the reader’s understanding and experience. A few are so easily accessible that anyone can apply them. I’ll share seven of those with you now. Applying them can elevate your writing, and even help you make better use of the time and money you spend on editing.

Jocelyn Carbonara 12/19/24 Jocelyn Carbonara 12/19/24

Author Beth Jones: Remaining Hopeful Is How We Sustain Our Journey

Please enjoy this Q&A about the book writing process with memoir author Beth Jones.

My book is Becoming an Empowered Survivor, You, Too, Can Heal from Trauma and Abuse, in which I share my story about my healing journey, told through my acronym for HEAL, which means to hope, evolve, and love. In the book, I share my experience with each of these actions. I wrote the book to crystallize my message to other survivors of trauma and abuse, following the subtitle of the book, that they, too, can heal.

Jocelyn Carbonara 12/12/24 Jocelyn Carbonara 12/12/24

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome as an Author

Even masters of their craft deal with imposter syndrome. Poet laureate Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “I have written 11 books, but each time I think, ‘uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.”

Two of my areas of expertise as an editor are non-fiction and memoir. I think these hold a special corner on fostering imposter syndrome. Here are some tips to overcoming the imposter syndrome that may paralyze or stall you in your writing.