I never compromise on price. Among editors or writers for hire, I am among the most costly. The number of leads I receive is low. The number who go forward with me is even lower. Still, I am busy doing work I love, and I get paid well for it. Much more important to me…
Someone I love dearly is having surgery today. You were probably starting your day by thinking about what happened 17 years ago. I will be starting my day thinking about what will happen this afternoon. I am a very public person in my professional life, and a very private person in my family life. So…
This is a busy week of speaking for me, with two speeches about Truth and Influence. I’ll show you how to think clearly and promote your ideas without losing your integrity. If you’re in Cleveland at Content Marketing World, see me at 10:15 am tomorrow, Wednesday 5 September. The topic is “How to Think Like…
I’m working today. A lot of you have today off. But I’d never trade my independent life for a job again. Here’s what it means to be an independent freelancer. It means I get to savor the joy of concentrating on work for a whole day today while the rest of you are at the…
There’s a graphic making the rounds; I first saw it posted by Jeremiah Owyang. It’s about the “Japanese concept” of Ikigai, or “a reason for being.” This graphic attracts us because the circles — what you’re good at, what you love, what the world needs, and what you can make money at — are…
In the last decade I’ve been intimately involved with 11 nonfiction book projects. I wrote or cowrote four, edited five, and ghostwrote one-and-a-half (one is not yet complete). These were the most rewarding experiences in my career. Here’s what I learned: the keys to success in a book project are planning, passion, trust, perseverance, and…
I hate fluff. I also hate wimpiness, cliched platitudes, endless bloviation, and bad grammar. This affects how I behave as an editor. It reduces the number of clients I have, and changes the way I approach content. Let’s say you come to me with a potential editing job. I look at what needs to be…
On Monday, in Helsinki, Trump said he couldn’t see why Russia would hack our elections. Yesterday, he said he was wrong. Even if you believe him, switching from denial to acceptance isn’t a step forward. Let’s look at the transcripts. At the joint press conference in Helsinki, Vladimir Putin denied interfering in the election: Putin:…
There’s a new Bitcoin blackmail scam circulating — this time based on passwords from website breaches. This extortion email is likely to be less effective than the paper letters because it’s full of obvious errors. My post last April about the Bitcoin blackmail letter in my mailbox has become popular. It generates over 300 views…