Linden Publishing

Raise calmer, happier, healthier children with these fun, hands-on nature activities for parents and kids to enjoy together.

Gold Winner, Nonfiction Authors Association Book Awards

Are your kids stressed? Are they feeling a bit down? Do your children—and you—need a break from screens? Nature can help. What we all suspected intuitively for generations, science has now confirmed: spending time connecting to nature is a safe, effective tool to help improve our health and happiness.

In Finding Ecohappiness, author Sandi Schwartz guides families in building regular habits of experiencing nature to reduce stress and boost mood. She explores key positive psychology tools from a nature-loving perspective. You will learn simple, practical tips for incorporating these tools—awe and gratitude, mindfulness, creative arts, outdoor play and adventure, volunteering, food, and animals—into your daily routine to help your children thrive and live a happy, balanced life.

Finding Ecohappiness will introduce you to all kinds of engaging nature activities you can do with your kids, from hiking and bike rides to visiting nature centers and science museums to volunteering outdoors to embarking on ecotourism adventures. In addition, you will discover unique nature relaxation activities like cow cuddling, animal yoga, forest bathing, float therapy, and earthing. Nature isn’t just for kids, either—doing these activities with your children will tremendously improve your own well-being, too.

A must-read for all families, Finding Ecohappiness will help you protect your children from feeling stressed and overwhelmed; manage your children’s current issues regarding stress, anxiety, and mood; and improve family togetherness.

A sweeping, interwoven story of how America fell in love with the Occult

Here’s to My Sweet Satan is the first book to fully document the Occult craze of the 1960s and 1970s as a single pop culture phenomenon that continues to influence nearly every aspect of culture today. A masterful cultural history, Here’s to My Sweet Satan tells how the Occult conquered the American imagination, weaving together topics as diverse as the birth of heavy metal, 1970s horror films, the New Age movement, Count Chocula cereal, the serial killer Son of Sam, and more. Cultural critic George Case explores how the Occult craze permanently changed American society, creating the cultural framework for the political power of the religious right, false accusations of Satanic child abuse, and today’s widespread rejection of science and rationality.

An insightful blend of pop culture and social history, Here’s to My Sweet Satan lucidly explains how the most technological society on earth became enthralled by the supernatural.

Enjoy the best sex of your life after 50!

Sure, growing older brings physical and psychological changes, and some couples have fallen into the rut of having sex the same way for years resulting in a severe case of the bedroom blahs. But many people enjoy the best sex of their lives after 50. More passionate, more thrilling, and more satisfying sex. The kind they only dreamed of before.

Keeping your sex life active is an important part of making sure your relationship is in good shape. And, while one needs to take certain steps to compensate for changes the body is undergoing, more important are the attitude adjustments that people must undertake if they are going to have a romantic, satisfying sex life as they grow older.

With Dr. Ruth’s Sex After 50, Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, world famous sex therapist, guides you through the physical and emotional challenges of sex after 50, revving up the romance, passion, and excitement as only Dr. Ruth know how. Be sure not to skip Chapter 7 “Spicing Up Your Love Life”!

Don’t let simple mistakes ruin your book’s chances!

If you’re not getting published, you may suffer from foggy writing—writing that’s full of unnecessary, misused, and overused words. Foggy writing drives editors crazy, and it’s the number one reason most manuscripts are rejected on first glance.

Let veteran editor Don McNair show you how to clear up your foggy writing and produce sparkling copy that will attract agents, editors, readers, and sales. 

Editor-Proof Your Writing will show you how to avoid fatal writing mistakes by eliminating unnecessary words—and in the process you’ll strengthen your book’s action, invigorate your dialogue, and make your writing crackle with life. Containing 21 simple, straightforward principles, Editor-Proof Your Writing teaches how to edit weak verb forms, strip away author intrusions, ban redundancies, eliminate foggy phrases, correct passive-voice sentences, slash misused and overused words, and fix other writing mistakes. 

A must-have addition to every writer’s toolkit, Editor-Proof Your Writing won’t just make your writing clearer; it will make you a better writer — more expressive, more entertaining, and more likely to sell.

A fast intro to using the power of effective delegation to get more done with less stress.

In this delightful, quick-to-read business-management allegory, Donna M. Genett, Ph.D., uses an entertaining narrative about identical cousins, James and Jones, to introduce her successful six-step program for effective delegation.

Whether you are the one delegating or you wish to help your boss become a better delegator, these six simple steps are guaranteed to lighten your workload and give you more time to focus on what's really important—on and off the job.

If You Want It Done Right, You Don't Have to Do It Yourself! will show you how to use effective delegation to:

• Increase job performance.
• Relieve job burnout.
• Decrease workload.
• Build teamwork.
• Elevate employee morale.
• And reintroduce energy and passion into your job.

No matter what business you're in, following the six simple steps in If You Want It Done Right, You Don't Have to Do It Yourself! will immediately improve your career and your mental and emotional health.

The book that has literally saved lives.

Could It Be B12? An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses uncovers a public health crisis that even many doctors don't know exists—the chronic misdiagnosis of vitamin B12 deficiency.

Few patients are tested for B12 deficiency, even though it's a common disorder that can be easily diagnosed and inexpensively treated. The manifold symptoms of B12 deficiency can look exactly like a myriad of different diseases, misleading doctors to misdiagnosis. B12 deficiency can cause dementia, multiple sclerosis, early Parkinson's disease, diabetic neuropathy or chronic fatigue syndrome. It can cause depression and mental illness, infertility in men and women, or developmental disabilities in children.

Written in a highly accessible style that makes complex medical information clear and comprehensible to ordinary patients and their families, Could It Be B12? gives readers the knowledge and confidence to fight the ignorance and rigidity of the medical establishment and take control of their own health. Could It Be B12? presents vital information and strategies for readers to learn if they or their loved ones are suffering from B12 deficiency and how to work with their doctors and other health care professionals to get the treatment they need.

Could It Be B12? also presents a stirring message against the medical profession's indifference to the epidemic levels of crippling B12 deficiency and a demand for worldwide social action to raise awareness and win the fight against this easily prevented disorder that so needlessly ruins millions of lives.

Discover the extraordinary power of Positive Aging to prepare you for the greatest challenge of your life—growing old.

Americans now live longer than ever—a full 30 years longer than they did in the early 20th century. Our forever-young culture and personal expectations have not yet adapted to that change. These extra years can be a burden or an adventure, depending on your mental attitude. You can't fight the inevitable changes to your aging body, but author David Lereah says these changes are at worst inconveniences that won't prevent living a fulfilling life.

The Power of Positive Aging offers a practical training guide to successfully cope with the physical and mental decline that accompanies aging. Based on life lessons learned during Lereah's successful battle against cancer, The Power of Positive Aging gives readers an easy-to-follow program of mental and spiritual exercises teaching mindfulness and acceptance, plus strategies for pursuing a balanced life and seeking and accepting social support.

The Power of Positive Aging shows how simple lifestyle modifications will transform your everyday life, helping you to live more joyously for the rest of your years. Growing older can be the best part of living when you embrace the power of positive aging.

Writing Flash is a fast and informative guide to developing your writing skills and your career in one of fiction’s most challenging genres.

Flash fiction—the art of the ultra-short story—is a challenging skill-building exercise for any writer. Learning how to compress a story to its most essential elements will make your writing vigorous, evocative, and full of emotion. In Writing Flash, acclaimed writing teacher Fred D. White gives an in-depth introduction to a fascinating genre, complete with exercises to develop and strengthen your flash-writing techniques.

Writing Flash presents a complete guide to the writing techniques and creative possibilities of writing flash fiction, plus tips on publishing and marketing your own flash fiction to build your writing career. White also shows how the writing techniques of flash fiction are invaluable tools for any kind of writing, including writing novels and longer short fiction. Writing Flash won’t just help you become a better flash fiction writer; this book will help you become a better writer, period.

A unique and indispensable reference guide for writers.

Writers frequently write about mental illness and psychological motivations, but all too often they use terms and concepts that are clichéd, outmoded or just plain wrong. Written by a clinical psychologist who is also a professional writer and writing coach, The Writer's Guide to Psychology is an authoritative, accessible, fun, and easy-to-use reference to psychological disorders, diagnosis, treatments, psychotherapists' work and what really makes psychopathic villains tick.

Did you know that serial killers are almost never psychotic? That modern electroshock therapy doesn't cause convulsions? That many psychotherapists think examining your childhood is unimportant—or even irrelevant—to therapy? Those are just a few of the hundreds of myth-busting facts in The Writer's Guide to Psychology. The only reference book on clinical and counseling psychology designed specifically for the needs of writers, The Writer's Guide to Psychology presents specific writing dos and don'ts to avoid the psychobabble clichés and misunderstandings frequently seen in popular writing. The book's extensive sidebars include Q&As from real writers, information on controversial treatments and issues, tips for using realistic psychology to create complex and compelling characters, and Don't Let This Happen to You! boxes that humorously expose mortifying mistakes in fiction, film and TV—and teach you how to get it right in your own writing.

Written in an approachable, easy-to-understand style that's perfect for both in-depth study and quick answers to specific questions, The Writer's Guide to Psychology is a unique combination of accurate psychology, myth-busting information and practical guidance that belongs on every writer's reference shelf.

The definitive guide to making real money as a writer—revised and updated for the online media market of the 2020s.

Bob Bly spells out how you can find your writing niche; develop ideas for profitable how-to books, e-books, articles, video, audio content and more; research, write and publish effective, practical, how-to instructional materials; repackage content in a dizzying variety of proven-to-sell products; promote and market your work; and earn $100,000 a year or more.

This revised and updated second edition of How to Write and Sell Simple Information for Fun and Profit adapts Bly's tried-and-true formulas for writing success to the modern online content market, including best practices for monetizing podcasts, YouTube channels, webinars, Facebook groups, social media, software, and more.

You don't have to be the world's greatest writer. You don't have to be the leading guru in your field. But if you have a curious mind and love learning new things, you can be a six-figure success as a how-to writer—and How to Write and Sell Simple Information for Fun and Profit will show you how!

Expert advice on attracting, training, managing, retaining, and succeeding with America's newest generation of hard-working, tech-savvy employees.

A new generation is entering the American workforce—Gen Z, the age cohort born after 1996. Having grown up with smartphones, social media, emoji-speak, helicopter parenting, and no expectation of privacy, Gen Z has a unique culture and working style that can be baffling to their Millennial, Gen X, and Baby Boomer managers.

In Managing Generation Z, Robin Paggi, a veteran HR manager, and Kat Clowes, an educational consultant who has worked with hundreds of Gen Z'ers, join forces to give employers and managers a practical, easy-to-understand guide to the new generation defining the future of work. Based on Clowes's in-depth knowledge of Gen Z habits and Paggi's real-world experience of how generational miscommunications can cause expensive personnel problems, Managing Generation Z gives managers at all levels a plan for getting quality work from Gen Z employees while avoiding cultural clashes at the office.

Gen Z is highly educated, extraordinarily tech-savvy, eager to meet expectations, and loyal to employers, but many Gen Z workers have never been trained in the basics of professionalism, workplace communication, and the unwritten social rules older generations instinctively expect. Managing Generation Z teaches managers how to bridge the communication styles between Gen Z and older colleagues, how to train Gen Z staff to make work objectives clear, and how to evaluate and correct Gen Z employees so they will listen, accept, learn, and improve.

Like having an expert HR manager at your fingertips, Managing Generation Z is essential reading for both front-line supervisors and C-level executives who want to get the most from the newest generation in the workforce.

A movement plan to fight sitting disease and premature aging

Science has proven that sitting too much is bad for your health, but what can you do about it if you're stuck at your desk all day? "Designed to Move" gives deskbound professionals a practical, easy-to-follow movement plan to fight the debilitating and life-shortening effects of sitting disease.  Dr. Joan Vernikos, former director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division, draws on decades of scientific research on astronauts to show readers how to use gravity-based movement to counteract the effects of prolonged sitting and maintain lifelong good health.

Written for everyone who spends most of their lives sitting in chairs, "Designed to Move" provides readers with a science-backed health program that helps people stay healthy while at work. Expanding upon her groundbreaking previous book, "Sitting Kills, Moving Heals," Dr. Vernikos shows how developing simple new lifestyle habits at the office can reverse the symptoms of sitting disease and even aging itself, and lead to a life of bountiful health.

Wounded in the line of duty and paralyzed, police officer Brandon Hultink made an amazing journey from despair to hope.

"I can still remember the taste of metal in my mouth from the barrel of the gun ..." After the shoot-out that put him in a wheelchair, police officer Brandon Hultink was ready to put an end to it all. In his frank and compelling memoir The Backpack, Hultink tells how he came to the worst moment of his life, and how faith in God and the humility to accept help brought him out of depression, addiction, and the wheelchair and back into successful life.

But Hultink's story isn't his alone—it is also the story of the thousands of police officers who struggle with depression and post-traumatic stress. Cops don't do touchy-feely; they stuff every trauma into a metaphorical "backpack" until the burden overwhelms them. Hultink writes unflinchingly of the mental health crisis affecting police officers and offers proposals for improving mental health services for police.

An intensely personal story of anguish and survival, The Backpack offers hope to everyone—police and civilian alike—who struggles with depression and pain.

Updated with all-new information for 2019!

With efficiency and a touch of humor, this valuable guidebook offers information on the difficult subject of planning for one's own death or organizing funerals for loved ones. Topics ranging from cremation, burial, caskets, services, and organ donation are explored, and each section offers data, definitions, examples, pros and cons, and helpful worksheets for narrowing down the best options. Numerous sidebars that offer engaging and occasionally bizarre facts on the death industry are also included. Emphasizing practicality and frugality, a bevy of money-saving steps are explored, citing that if smart choices are made beforehand then expensive choices made in grief can be avoided. Ideal for the time-constrained, this comprehensive resource presents fast facts in an easy-to-read format, while helpful links for each topic are compiled in an accompanying website. Readers will benefit from the peace of mind that follows the creation of a structured plan to reduce the financial burdens and emotional distress on loved ones left behind.

Help and hope for parents of children with learning differences.

Every child can succeed in school and life, but some children need more help than others. For over 40 years, internationally acclaimed reading specialist and student advocate Dr. Victoria E. Waller has helped children who have trouble reading, who can't sit still in class, who don't feel like they can participate—children whom teachers have all but given up on. In Yes! Your Child Can, Dr. Waller shares with parents, teachers, and therapists her proven techniques to create success for children with learning differences and draw out the singular genius within your child.

In compassionate, nontechnical, easy-to-understand language, Yes! Your Child Can gives step-by-step guidance on how to help your child achieve in school and build lifelong intellectual confidence. Drawing on the latest science and her own wide-ranging experience, Dr. Waller explains why it's important to pay attention to your first gut feeling that your child may need extra help and shows how to navigate testing, medication, and choosing a team to help your child.

Most importantly, Yes! Your Child Can shows you how to use your child's natural strengths and passions to build their academic, social, and personal confidence. Dr. Waller empowers parents to let their children follow their own interests, whether that's learning about sharks, reading to the dog, or building with Legos and writing about their creations. With Dr. Waller's help, learning can be motivating and fun. Dr. Waller's techniques are smart, caring, and effective with any child, no matter their current or past educational difficulties.

Respectful, compassionate, and offering real help, Yes! Your Child Can is the first book every parent of a child with learning differences should read.

An urgent warning to parents about the crippling dangers of B12 deficiency...

Your child is unsocial, moody, and not hitting standard development milestones. Is it autism? A developmental disability? Or could it be as simple as B12 deficiency? Millions of children and adolescents are at risk of developing serious neurological disorders caused by B12 deficiency, yet B12 deficiency often goes misdiagnosed as autism, depression, and mental illness. B12 deficiency is treatable—but if you don’t catch B12 deficiency in time, it can cause permanent nerve damage and disability.

Could It Be B12? Pediatric Edition is the only book for parents that offers a complete guide to detecting and preventing pediatric disorders caused by B12 deficiency. Written by Sally Pacholok and Dr. Jeffrey Stuart, authors of the acclaimed Could It Be B12?, this book offers parents critical information about protecting children from B12 deficiency from early fetal development through adolescence.

Written in a highly accessible style that makes complex medical information clear to general readers, Could It Be B12? Pediatric Edition presents strategies for healthy nutrition for mothers during pregnancy and breastfeeding, early intervention for infants and young children, and detecting subtle to severe symptoms of B12 deficiency in older children and teenagers. Could It Be B12? Pediatric Edition will help readers learns the warning signs of childhood B12 deficiency, prevent serious injury with timely intervention, and work with health care professionals to get effective treatment for their children.

Thoroughly researched, clearly written, and backed with hard scientific data, medical journal citations, and numerous case studies, Could It Be B12? Pediatric Edition is a must-read for all parents and expectant parents.

Learn About the Five Essential Legal Documents You Need to Set Up by Age 55!

Many people discover too late that they need some essential legal documents to deal with common health and end of life issues. Failing to prepare these documents ahead of time can create major legal headaches that often require expensive trips to court to resolve.

Written by expert attorneys in the fields of elder law and estate planning, 5@55 is a slim, easy-to-read guide to the five most important legal documents you should have by age 55:

1. Healthcare Advance Directive
2. Living Will
3. Power of Attorney
4. Last Will and Testament
5. Authorization to Access Electronic Records and Media Sites.

These are the documents that everyone says they’ll get to “eventually.” But “eventually” all too often turns to “never.” Setting a deadline of age 55 to draft these essential documents ensures that they’ll be ready before you need them—and avoid nasty and costly surprises.

With full descriptions of each document, explanations of why you need it, and sample documents you can adapt to your own needs, 5@55 is a must-have manual for the second half of life.

A genius to rival Edison, a personality as intriguing as Tesla, Charles Proteus Steinmetz was a key figure in creating the modern world.

Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla have the glory, but perhaps the greatest electrical wizard of them all was Charles Proteus Steinmetz. Revered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a genius, but largely forgotten today, Steinmetz made the modern world possible through his revolutionary work on AC electricity transmission, the technology underlying today’s power grid. More than just a great scientist and engineer, Steinmetz was also one of the most colorful characters in American life.

Standing just four feet tall with a pronounced spine curvature, Steinmetz was as well known for his fiery political opinions, his fierce advocacy for social progress and education, his unusual home life, and his private menagerie as for his technical achievements. The first full biography of Steinmetz in many years, Charles Proteus Steinmetz: The Electrical Wizard of Schenectady brings the life, passions, and scientific achievement of this remarkable man to a new generation.

Your chair is killing you! A wake-up call to sedentary Americans.

This groundbreaking new medical work demonstrates how modern sedentary lifestyles contribute to poor health, obesity, and diabetes, and how health can be dramatically improved by continuous, low-intensity, movement that challenges the force of gravity. Citing her original NASA research on how weightlessness weakens astronauts' muscles, bones, and overall health, the author presents a simple and effective plan for maintaining good health throughout life by developing new lifestyle habits of frequent gravity-challenging movement. Written for everyone who spends most of their lives sitting in chairs, at desks, and in cars, this practical, easy-to-follow action plan outlines simple gravity-challenging activities such as standing up frequently, stretching, walking, and dancing that are more healthful and effective than conventional diet and exercise regimens.

A must-read guide for all law enforcement officers who want to advance their careers

Whether you want to get a promotion or improve your performance at any rank, Someone Once Said offers fundamental principles of leadership that every law enforcement officer should know.

Written by a veteran law enforcement agency director, Someone Once Said examines the real-world issues of managing police officers and how applying proven leadership techniques can help officers at every level generate effective, measurable results. Quotes from management experts, senior law enforcement officers, generals, statesmen, business leaders, and philosophers give short and memorable lessons about how to lead and inspire.

Someone Once Said will help you excel as a:

• Supervisor: At the first level of leadership, your job is to ensure your officers follow directives set by higher leadership and to learn to lead through encouragement, not bossing.
• Manager: At the middle level of leadership, you supervise programs rather than people, ensuring that general directives are effectively implemented. You will have to learn planning, administration, and taking charge of your own career development.
• Leader: The highest level of leadership is also the highest level of responsibility. The success of your agency and the safety of the public you protect rests entirely on you. Your biggest challenges will be building effective teams and creating an organizational culture that inspires excellence.

Not as dry or as formal as a textbook, Someone Once Said is a quick, entertaining read that will help you formulate your own leadership philosophy and apply it successfully throughout your career.

A diagnosis and a prescription for a generation of young men in crisis, Be the Awesome Man is a must-read guide for young men who want to achieve lasting success and personal happiness.

Young men are underachieving in unprecedented numbers. More and more young men are not attaining standard benchmarks of maturity, such as entering and graduating from higher education, finding a career, establishing their financial independence, and living on their own. Be the Awesome Man approaches the challenges of being a young man from a unique and practical perspective. Written in a sensible, easy-to-read format, Be the Awesome Man delves into the roots of male underachievement and provides practical guidance for young men and their parents, teachers, ministers, coaches, and other mentors.

Drawing on real-world experience as a coach, mentor, and father, author Dennis Gazarek provides methods to counter the negative influences that encourage underachievement, and shows how effective decision making can lead to a better life. Be the Awesome Man emphasizes that freedom requires responsibility and offers specific guides and advice for taking full responsibility and control over one's life.

Combining old-fashioned wisdom, a critical analysis of modern culture, and a pragmatic program of character development, Be the Awesome Man offers a better way of life for young men who want to break out of mediocrity and underachievement.

A veteran police officer gives his thoughtful, balanced views on police shootings, racial profiling, community relations, and every other aspect of policing—and he’ll change what you think about the police.

From the author of the acclaimed 400 Things Cops Know, Police Craft is a thought-provoking and revelatory examination of policing in America, as seen by a working police officer. Adam Plantinga, a 17-year veteran sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department, gives an inside view of the police officer’s job, from handling evidence and conducting interrogations to coping with danger, violence, and death. Not hesitating to confront controversial issues, Plantinga presents the police officer’s views on police shootings, racial profiling, and relationships between police and the community—and offers reasoned proposals on what the police and the public can do better.

Hard-boiled, humorous, and compassionate, Plantinga wrestles with the complexities and contradictions of a job he loves in which he witnesses so much suffering. Transcending today’s strident pro-cop/anti-cop rhetoric, Police Craft will give every reader a greater respect for the police and greater understanding of the job they do.

The 21st-century guidebook of life safety skills for teens, their parents, and other caregivers, covering physical safety, sexual consent, social media, your rights with the police, situational awareness, dating violence, smartphones, and more.

Gold Winner, IBPA Ben Franklin Award for Best Parenting & Family Book of the Year
Gold Winner, NIEA Award for Best Parenting & Family Book of the Year
Silver Winner, Foreword INDIE Award, Family & Relationships

Young people coming of age today face new risks, expectations, and laws that didn't exist when their parents were young. What They Don't Teach Teens provides teens, tweens, and young adults with up-to-date, realistic strategies to protect themselves against the pitfalls of modern adolescence.

Author Jonathan Cristall, once a troubled teen himself and now a veteran prosecutor for the City of Los Angeles and a sexual violence prevention instructor, works extensively with teenagers and their families to teach physical, digital, emotional, and legal safety skills. Drawing on Cristall's hands-on experience, What They Don't Teach Teens gives parents and other caregivers techniques for talking to their children about these urgent issues.

What They Don't Teach Teens gives sound advice on police interactions and personal safety (your constitutional rights, what to do/not do when stopped by the police while driving, situational awareness, street robberies, gun violence); sexual violence and misconduct (sexual consent, sexual harassment prevention, dating violence, sextortion); and staying safer online (digital footprint and citizenship, cyberbullying, underage sexting, online porn).

A must-read for all families, What They Don't Teach Teens is filled with practical guidance, thoughtful insight, and simple-to-use tips and tactics that will empower young people to make good choices now and into the future.

"The new bible for crime writers." —The Wall Street Journal

How does it feel to be in a high-speed car chase? What is it like to shoot someone? What do cops really think about the citizens they serve? Nearly everyone has wondered what it's like to be a police officer, but no civilian really understands what happens on the job. 400 Things Cops Know shows police work on the inside, from the viewpoint of the regular cop on the beat—a profession that can range from rewarding to bizarre to terrifying, all within the course of an eight-hour shift. Written by veteran police sergeant Adam Plantinga, 400 Things Cops Know brings the reader into life the way cops experience it—a life of danger, frustration, occasional triumph, and plenty of grindingly hard routine work.

In a laconic, no-nonsense, dryly humorous style, Plantinga tells what he's learned from 13 years as a patrolman, from the everyday to the exotic—how to know at a glance when a suspect is carrying a weapon or is going to attack, how to kick a door down, how to drive in a car chase without recklessly endangering the public, why you should always carry cigarettes, even if you don't smoke (offering a smoke is the best way to lure a suicide to safety), and what to do if you find a severed limb (don't put it on ice—you need to keep it dry.)

400 Things Cops Know deglamorizes police work, showing the gritty, stressful, sometimes disgusting reality of life on patrol, from the possibility of infection—criminals don't always practice good hygiene—to the physical, psychological, and emotional toll of police work. Plantinga shows what cops experience of death, the legal system, violence, prostitution, drug use, the social causes and consequences of crime, alcoholism, and more. Sometimes heartbreaking and often hilarious, 400 Things Cops Know is an eye-opening revelation of what life on the beat is really all about.

Essentials of Thought Leadership and Content Marketing is a comprehensive, practical, step-by-step guide to achieving content marketing success.

What’s the connection between thought leadership and increased sales? Consistent strategy. Thought leadership and content marketing can be powerful tools for your business, but to use them to their fullest potential, you need to have a plan. Essentials of Thought Leadership and Content Marketing helps you create a comprehensive and rigorous content marketing strategy in which every piece works together to meet your business goals.

Comprehensive, results-oriented, and practical, Essentials of Thought Leadership and Content Marketing covers every aspect of content marketing: researching customer needs; identifying your company’s areas of expertise; generating thought leadership articles and other content; communicating content through email, social media, web marketing, and traditional media; evaluating response; generating sales leads; and measuring results. More important, Essentials of Thought Leadership and Content Marketing shows how to coordinate these strategic elements to an overall plan. Interviews with business leaders and case studies show how content marketing concepts work in the real world.

The ideal book for marketers, advertising professionals, entrepreneurs, and anyone who works with content marketing—whether in B2B or B2C business, for-profit or nonprofit—Essentials of Thought Leadership and Content Marketing is a practical, step-by-step guide to achieving your content marketing goals.

Getting good PR is easier—and cheaper—than you think!

If you want to get media attention, you don’t need to spend a dime—and you definitely don’t have to pay someone to do the work for you. Here’s how to do it yourself.

In DIY Public Relations, PR and marketing expert Dan Shortridge lays out a roadmap for your local organization, small business, or nonprofit to tell its story and spread the word. If you don’t have a communications and marketing staff, if you’re just getting started in your PR career, or if you’ve just been told to “get us on the news,” this is the book to read.

Full of hands-on advice scaled to the local level, it draws on the author’s more than 20 years of experience in community journalism and state-level PR to show how to ace a media interview, organize a successful press event, and steer your organization through a crisis.

“Getting your news out there isn’t about making friends with reporters or having a giant list of contacts—it’s about having a good story and telling it in the most effective way possible,” says Shortridge, who’s helped advise nonprofits, small businesses, and government agencies. “You don’t need a lot of money—or any money—and you can do it all yourself with some simple tools and by following these techniques.”

Business owners, PR and marketing professionals and nonprofit leaders will share their insights and tips to maximize positive publicity. You’ll learn about how to research targeted media outlets, pick the best time for reaching out, handle all the tiny details with confidence, and write a news release so an editor will run your story without changing a word.

With field-tested advice on every page drawn from newsrooms and PR people from around the country, readers will get practical guidance on how to:

• Pitch a story and stick the landing for success
• Adapt one of 14 specific story angles perfect for local organizations
• Make those first connections with local reporters
• Use bridging statements to handle a tough question
• Write well and clearly using seven simple steps
• Avoid saying “no comment” even when you don’t want to comment
• Attract and take care of elected officials and other VIPs
• Define, research, and reach your audience
• Be consistent with your media outreach
• Build a crisis communications plan that will let you sleep at night

One key chapter focuses on repurposing materials for the media into content for annual reports, social media, website copy, and newsletters—showing how PR can fit seamlessly into an overall marketing plan. Another chapter contains 16 tried-and-true tips on what not to do when working with the media, including playing secretive games or falling for scams.

As a bonus, it features a toolkit with examples and templates for writing a hard news announcement, event preview, media advisory, calendar item, staff promotion or hiring news, and crisis statements. DIY Public Relations is your complete guide for media success.

You loved your college major. You worked hard to earn your degree. And now your day job doesn’t fully use your education, engage your mind, or feed your soul. But there are still limitless opportunities to do intellectually serious work—work that will win you professional recognition, travel opportunities, and even publication in peer-reviewed journals. All you have to do is create your own academic opportunities, and Passion Projects for Smart People will show you exactly how to do it.

The perfect career guide for the era of the Ph.D. barista, the underpaid adjunct, and the gig economy, Passion Projects for Smart People will help you take charge of your career and your life. Written by a high school science teacher who has done field work on five continents, published in professional journals, and worked with NASA, Passion Projects for Smart People details how to turn side projects into career-development opportunities. Passion Projects for Smart People shows you how to develop your own research and creative projects; form collaborations with universities and public agencies; apply for grants and professional experience opportunities; travel around the world for free; and develop your career as a teacher and mentor.