I just got done reading Michael Crichton’s State of Fear, which is just as intellectual as it is roller coaster ride. I won’t give any spoilers if you haven’t read it, but on thing absolutely amazed me when I got to the end of the book… there was a bibliography.

Not only that there were footnotes and references throughout Crichton’s work of fiction (Yes, Fiction not Non-fiction), he goes on to say his take on the global warming subject that is addressed in State of Fear. And then Crichton writes that he spent three years researching before starting State of Fear. THREE YEARS! That is Amazing, and a little daunting if I think through how much research I’ve put into my own WIP.

It makes me question the amount of time I spend researching before I place my characters in the first scene. Would you count your research time in hours, weeks, months, or years?

I think this is an important thing to think about, when joining in the insanity and fun of writing a manuscript. If Michael Crichton didn’t do his years of research would we believe: Dinosaurs can be brought back from the Jurassic Age(Jurassic Park, The Lost World), Time travel is possible (Timeline), or Global warming doesn’t exist (State of Fear). The amount of time he puts into researching his novels is what makes them bestsellers time and time again. His story worlds are so in depth and you can’t help but see them as truth on some levels.

This should be the goal of all writers.

To present a story world that makes us think about our own place in this universe. That is the joy of Fiction, and what I hope to be the goal of all my manuscripts.

Happy Writing!

Just about everyone in the CBA knows the Snowflake Guy, Randy Ingermanson. So when his blogs said he takes his marketing advice from James Brausch. You have to take notice. I jumped over to James Brausch’s blog and found that he is taking questions from us mere mortals and to quote Randy Ingermanson,

“Brausch has built an extremely successful business around his blog, and the information he sells is based on hard empirical data. When he tells you to do something, he’s basing his advice on real experiments he’s done. Ya gotta respect that.”

So my question is…..

If you’re a beginner in world of marketing yourself and your products would you recommend building trust aka establishing crediblity, or pushing your products and building crediblity over time?

If you want to ask James Brausch a question, here’s how it works:
You ask a question related to generating an internet business, and he will answer all questions on Monday.

You ask your question by posting to your own blog and linking back to this blog entry. He’ll see the link or trackback and therefore see your question. He will answer questions in a post on his blog.

Good Luck!