Writing a how-to business book or CEO memoir has become a recognized tool for business professionals marketing and branding themselves and their companies. It helps them establish their expertise while sharing useful information appreciated by readers. Plus, it can introduce them to a vast new audience of potential customers.

The main goal of every writer is to get published, right? It’s what we all dream of as we toil away endlessly, clicking the keys to our laptops, hoping one day our hard work and dedication will be recognized. Unfortunately, the traditional publishing route of being picked up by an agent and signed to a major book publisher becomes reality for very few. So, what’s a writer to do?

Success leaves clues.  If you seek the tools for writing a New York Times self-help best seller, look no further than a new NYT best seller, called, appropriately enough, The Tools.

Phil Stutz and Barry Michels are Los Angeles therapists who have written an outstanding book encapsulating their approach to guiding their patients to successful living.  The book is a tutorial for people who want a better life.  It’s also a tutorial on how to organize and write a great book.  So let’s take a look at the tools Stutz and Michels use that you can put to work in your book.

Are you the type of person who writes a sentence and then spends 10 minutes thinking about it? "Is that the best word?" you wonder. "Does this flow from the previous sentence?" "Is that pronoun in the right place?"

It seems so…unliterary.  But publishing houses despise authors and are doing everything they can to make their lives miserable.  Here’s why.

Do you ever struggle with writer’s block? Here are 10 ways to tame that monster!

If your writing is blocked or too slow, even though you've scheduled lots of writing time for yourself, then try something different. Tell yourself that you are allowed to write for only "x" number of minutes per day or per week. (You, of course, get to decide what X represents, but make it slightly smaller than you think reasonable.)

We face a clean sheet of paper (or computer screen) and begin our stories and poems – starting tabula rasa. But are we really? Is it a clean slate in front of us? Are our characters pure before we bring them into being? And what about the plot of our stories or point of our poems? Do they just pop out of the ethereal ether? What is the role of the muse if not to bestow upon us eureka experiences to write about?

Lilly Ledbetter’s Memoir and Everyday Language

If you’re reading this column, you’re likely already a fan of the Internet. But do you use it to full advantage for all your wordsmithing? Here are a few sites I highly recommend:

You think it’s tough to find time to write? You haven’t met Melissa Fay Greene, author of numerous books: Praying for Sheetrock, Finalist for the 1991 National Book Award and a New York Times Notable book; The Temple Bombing; There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children and her latest, No Biking in the House Without a Helmet.

A good title not only draws readers in, but it can also be the actual start of the piece you are writing or can allude to some crucial meaning hidden in the writing. A good title is as important as your opening line, paragraph, or page – it should catch the attention of the reader as well as providing some insight as to what is coming.

In 2010 book publishing changed forever when Apple launched the iPad, a digital reading device that officially heralded the dismantling of the big publisher model that has been dominant for more than sixty years. A new bench mark was created and a universal platform has been established that allows every writer, publisher and business to profit without having to rely on a major publishing company Welcome to the new world of electronic publishing! Here are the three major trends in book publishing today.

Will all of these specific tips work for you? Maybe, maybe not. But invest an hour or two in getting your hard drive better organized and I guarantee you'll see your productivity soar.

In a rut with your writing? Bored with your sentences, your descriptions, your characters? Is your writing starting to feel contrived? It may be times to shake things up.