What do we do when spam enters our e-mails? We delete it, and we tend to do the same—or should—for the human version Austin Kleon writes about, as association with this type of people is constricting.

This was my takeaway from the discussion of “human spam” in chapter 7 of his book Show Your Work! E-mail spam isn’t beneficial, and neither is human spam.

Please, judge my book by its cover—first.

At least that's what authors who self-publish should think despite the renowned cliché, as they should feel comfortable enough with the cover of their book to have people make judgements about it, and also feel confident that people will find their cover appealing and move on to what's inside.

And Chapter 10 of APE makes me feel better that if the time comes to create my own book cover, I'll have it... well... covered.

A writer's biggest concern should naturally be the contents of a book on the inside, but many people won't give a book a second look if its cover is shabby and therefore won't read the glorious words an author worked painstakingly to write.

Aspects of Austin Kleon’s concepts in Chapter 5 of Show Your Work are simple, yet difficult for some to realize and enact without reading his work that make his ideas apparent.

Titled “Tell Good Stories”, Kleon underlines the importance of professionals knowing their audience, which is basic considering an audience consists of people paying to read, listen, watch, etc.

However, it is up to the writer to parlay and hoist the value of their work by communicating contextual — and hopefully enticing — information about it.

I am part of the statistic.

Chapter 4, “The Ascent of Ebooks,” provides a breakdown of the revenue generated from the sale of different types of books (trade, textbook, professional, scholarly, and other), and I am among the 51 percent of the market who has purchased a book under the trade category (adult fiction, adult nonfiction, juvenile fiction, and juvenile nonfiction).

I am not, however, a contributor to the $2.1 billion in profits made by ebooks in the adult-fiction category, or any other, as paperback and hardcover books line my bookshelf and backpack.

That should change, though, and the most important thing I learned about the future of the book in the three chapters we read is the exact reasons ebooks are on the rise.

Because I am an amateur in many regards, narrowing this blog to a single topic took consideration. After deciding to dedicate the following words to my novelty as an editor, Austin Kleon's quote under the heading "Be An Amateur" struck as applicable to the topic of this blog: "The world is changing at such a rapid rate that it's turning us all into amateurs."