Created as a primer for the beginning actor, To Be or Wanna Be takes you on a journey that reveals the path to becoming a successful actor, as well as how to avoid the pitfalls of the starving artist. Beginning with the simple, yet important distinctions of how to take control of your career, and through personal anecdotes of how he discovered them, Sean Pratt guides you toward the more complex and powerful concepts that will make all the difference in your future success as an actor.

In this eye-opening account, Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice. Not only is the cliché flawed - preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work - but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping. After making his case against passion, Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do.

There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These people invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They figure out what to do when there’s no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.

With in-depth advice for all stages of book creation and publication, The Influential Author takes a uniquely grounded and intellectual approach to nonfiction self-publishing. Unlike self-publishing guides that promise to teach you how to write a best-selling book quickly and easily, it actually walks you through the complex details of planning, writing, editing, and promoting your work at the standards of traditional publishing.

In his bravest and most challenging book yet, Seth Godin shows how we can thrive in an economy that rewards art, not compliance. He explains why true innovators focus on trust, remarkability, leadership, and stories that spread. And he makes a passionate argument for why you should be treating your work as art. Art is not a gene or a specific talent. It's an attitude, available to anyone who has a vision that others don't, and the guts to do something about it.

How can we create and market creative works that achieve longevity? Holiday explores this mystery by drawing on his extensive experience working with businesses and creators such as Google, American Apparel, and the author John Grisham as well as his interviews with the minds behind some of the greatest perennial sellers of our time.

Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of ordinary formal, journalistic, scholarly, or technological types of literature, usually characterized by the emphasis on narrative art, character development, and the use of literary conventions, or the different traditions of prose and poetry. Due to the lack of definition, writing such as feature stories can be considered as creative writing, even though they fall under journalism, because the content of the features focuses specifically on narrative and character development.

Discover finally how to become a successful author thanks to the techniques that have allowed the most famous authors to create their first best sellers. They succeeded. Now it's up to you to prove that with the right tools you can succeed in the publishing world. This book takes you through the first steps to understanding the fundamental concepts of writing until you create the right mindset to start working with creativity and create your first book.

Unleash the Power of Storytelling offers a practical roadmap to crafting and delivering more powerful, persuasive stories that you can use to get more of what you want out of your career and your life. Study after study confirms that stories have unparalleled power to break down walls, build trust, and influence people to act. More than facts and data alone, stories are fundamental to capturing and expressing our ideas, wishes, and beliefs and getting the results we want.

A guide to writing a full-length transformational nonfiction book, from an editor with two decades' experience working with authors from all walks of life.

The Indie Author Mindset shows you how simply changing your way of thinking about your writing business can revolutionize your career. Using Adam's personal experiences and examples, you'll be able to think differently about the business side of your writing career and lay down the foundations for long-term success.

Whether you're a self-published author, traditionally published or just starting out writing your first book, there are dozens of obstacles standing between you and six-figure success as an author. Wouldn't it be helpful if you knew ahead of time what those obstacles will be and how to overcome them quickly and easily? In Secrets of the Six-Figure Author you will learn the 12 key obstacles every author must face and how to blast through them without breaking a sweat.

In 2013, Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt published 1.5 million words and made their full-time livings as indie authors. In Write. Publish. Repeat., they tell you how exactly how they did it: how they created over 15 independent franchises across 50+ published works, how they turned their art into a logical, sustainable business, and how any independent author can do the same to build a sustainable, profitable career with their writing.

Three short years ago, when Chris Brogan and Julien Smith wrote their best seller, Trust Agents, being interesting and human on the Web was enough to build a significant audience. But now, everybody has a platform. The problem is that most of them are just making noise. In The Impact Equation, Brogan and Smith show that to make people truly care about what you have to say - you need more than just a good idea, trust among your audience, or a certain number of fol­lowers.

When it comes to creating ideas, we hold ourselves back. Thats because inside each of us is an internal editor whose job is to forever polish our thoughts, so we sound smart and in control, and so that we fit into society. But what happens when we encounter problems for which such conventional thinking fails us? How do we get unstuck? For Mark Levy, the answer is freewriting....

Three short years ago, when Chris Brogan and Julien Smith wrote their best seller, Trust Agents, being interesting and human on the Web was enough to build a significant audience. But now, everybody has a platform. The problem is that most of them are just making noise. In The Impact Equation, Brogan and Smith show that to make people truly care about what you have to say - you need more than just a good idea, trust among your audience, or a certain number of fol­lowers.

When it comes to creating ideas, we hold ourselves back. Thats because inside each of us is an internal editor whose job is to forever polish our thoughts, so we sound smart and in control, and so that we fit into society. But what happens when we encounter problems for which such conventional thinking fails us? How do we get unstuck? For Mark Levy, the answer is freewriting....

A guide to writing a full-length transformational nonfiction book, from an editor with two decades' experience working with authors from all walks of life.

There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These people invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They figure out what to do when there’s no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.

Whether you’re new to marketing or a seasoned pro, this book gives you a crystal-clear road map to grow your business, make more money, maximize your impact in your market, and love what you’re doing while you’re doing it. Author Brian Kurtz takes you inside the craft to help you use all the tools at your disposal - from the intricate relationship between lists, offers, and copy, to continuity and creating lifetime value, to the critical importance of multichannel marketing and more - so you can succeed wildly, exceed all your expectations, and overdeliver every time.

After getting rejected from many business schools and fired from several sales jobs, Srinivas Rao decided to stop doing what he thought he was supposed to do and start working in a way that felt honest. He launched the Unmistakable Creative Podcast to interview some of the greatest minds in business - including Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, Pam Slim, Elle Luna, and Ryan Holiday - and found a surprisingly big audience. This book distills the lessons, anecdotes, and insights of the 500+ people he has interviewed.

Too often we feel like underdogs fighting a system that stacks the odds against us. We work hard, follow the rules, and dream of a better life. But these days, working harder doesn't always lead to fulfillment. In fact, according to Gallup research, nearly 90% of people feel disconnected from their jobs. So how do you break free from the drudgery and achieve more success on your own terms? You hustle.

Stop being average at so many things, and become extraordinary at one big thing. What were you born to accomplish with your life? One Big Thing will help you discover what you were born to do and allow it to revolutionize your business, your ministry, and your life. In today's distracted, digital culture, it’s harder than ever to identify your calling, get your voice heard, and achieve your dreams. To stand out and communicate your ideas and message, you need to cut through the clutter and get noticed. Here's how.

Everything you've ever wanted to know about publishing but were too afraid to ask is right here in this funny, candid guide by acclaimed author Courtney Maum. Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book has over 150 contributors from all walks of the industry, including internationally best-selling authors Anthony Doerr, Roxane Gay, Garth Greenwell, Lisa Ko, R. O. Kwon, Rebecca Makkai, and Ottessa Moshfegh, alongside cult favorites Sarah Gerard, Melissa Febos, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Mira Jacob.

Most of us think of sales as convincing potential customers to believe or do something they don't really want to. But that cutthroat mentality makes the process much harder than it has to be—especially in an economic downturn, when customers are more suspicious and defensive. It's far more productive (and satisfying) when salespeople think like Go-Givers and focus exclusively on creating value for the customer.

Best-selling social historian Charles Murray has written a delightfully fussy - and entertaining - book on the hidden rules of the road in the workplace - and in life - from the standpoint of an admonishing, but encouraging, workplace grouch and taskmaster. Why the curmudgeon? The fact is that most older, more senior people in the workplace are closet curmudgeons. In today's politically correct world, they may hide their displeasure over your misuse of grammar or your overly familiar use of their first name without an express invitation. But don't be fooled by their pleasant demeanor....

If you've ever thought, "There must be more to life than this," The Art of Non-Conformity is for you. Based on Chris Guillebeau's popular online manifesto "A Brief Guide to World Domination," The Art of Non-Conformity defies common assumptions about life and work while arming you with the tools to live differently. You'll discover how to live on your own terms by exploring creative self-employment, radical goal-setting, contrarian travel, and embracing life as a constant adventure.

What if someone could guide you, step-by-step, as you identify, plan, and launch your dream career - in just one year. That's what Ben Arment does in his transformative coaching class, which has helped hundreds of people reinvent their lives to enjoy greater enthusiasm and fulfillment while also making a living. Now he's sharing his best insights, advice, and inspiring true stories in Dream Year. You'll find out how people just like you are discovering (or rediscovering) what they were truly born to do, then following a proven process to make it real.

In Silicon Valley slang, a "bozo explosion" is what causes a lean, mean, fighting machine of a company to slide into mediocrity. As Guy Kawasaki puts it, "If the two most popular words in your company are partner and strategic, and partner has become a verb, and strategic is used to describe decisions and activities that don't make sense"...then it's time for a reality check.

Erik Wahl, a visual artist, speaker, and entrepreneur, helps us unite the yin and yang of creativity - the dynamic new ideas with the dogged effort. He shows why we won't get far if we rely on the spark without the grind or the grind without the spark. What the world really needs are the creators who can hold the two in balance. This audiobook offers surprising insights and practical advice about how to fan the sparks and make the grind more productive.