I strongly recommend that you take a look at Eric Schwartzman’s new article in Fast Company, “Bot farms invade social media to hijack popular sentiment.” Schwartzman’s deeply researched piece explains how malign actors are using banks of actual mobile phones, spoofed to appear as actual independent people, to manipulate sentiment about everything from actions in…
It is wasteful and ill-considered to write a nonfiction book without considering the competitive landscape. The people who read your book or are considering publishing it have likely already encountered competing books with a similar message for the same audience. You need to know how your book will fit in and how it will stand…
Newsletter 91: Why all writers should think like reporters, a clever writer’s AI hacks, scientific proof that ChatGPT steals books, plus three people to follow and three very timely books to read. Think like a journalist I didn’t go to journalism school. I wish I had, though, because so many of the lessons I’ve learned…
When I was an analyst, my job working with senior executives in companies was clear-cut. I would use my knowledge of their markets to develop advice for them, parachute into their companies, present my ideas, and answer their questions. Then I would leave. Implementation was their problem. I was extremely honest and often blunt, but…
Academics and researchers have the luxury of working deeply for years on a topic. Often, in their work, they discover truths that have the potential to excite a more general audience, breaking out of their tight academic circles. But to succeed with a book on these topics, they need a very different approach than has…
Choosing a ghostwriter is a process fraught with worry. You’re about to put your most cherished ideas — and the business goals that depend on your book — in the hands of a stranger. As with any other hiring process, there’s no set guide on how to do it. And what makes it even more…
Nonfiction authors tell me, “I want to be like Malcolm Gladwell.” So they look at Gladwell’s output and draw lessons from it. Here are are Gladwell’s books and their topics: The Tipping Point (2000) — the spread of ideasBlink (2005) — perceptionOutliers (2008) — what leads to successWhat the Dog Saw (2009) — essaysDavid and…
Newsletter 90: Why writers think like imposters, what it’s like when the Supreme Court argues about your book, Harvard’s $53 billion in “f– you!” money, plus three people to follow and three books to read. How to write anything with confidence I have many author clients who say they are bad writers. That may be…
You may have read that the publisher HarperCollins was offering payments to authors to license their books for AI training. Well, it’s really happening. They contacted my agent, who forwarded their offer to have me license my 2016 book Writing Without Bullshit. I signed the contract and a month or so later I got the…