A small crowd of authors and prospective authors recently connected with me on LinkedIn. Based on their comments, apparently a highly respected publishing industry expert had mentioned me as a qualified nonfiction book expert during a workshop she gave and prompted them to connect with me. That’s very nice, and a gratifying reflection on my…
I’m in an unusual situation. I have a lot of accumulated knowledge, especially about books and publishing. I have plenty of work to do, but my time is mostly flexible; I’m not meeting people all day long. And I’m extremely curious about just about everything. This means that if you ask to meet with me,…
I spent the last six months preparing for the Webinar I was supposed to give yesterday. Then I didn’t give it. Here’s how it went down. Between April and yesterday, several colleagues, sponsors, and I slaved over a report about the ROI of business books. Once the report was complete, I did a private Zoom…
Newsletter 66: Why polls captivate us; AI fails at reasoning; the valued discipline of writing, plus three people to follow, three books to read, and a free report on how business books generate revenue and profit. About that presidential horse race Why are we so fascinated with polls? Well, put that aside for a minute….
I have to continually remind myself that the rest of the world doesn’t operate on the same principles that I do. My principles are so entwined with who I am that I’ve internalized them. It’s “the curse of knowledge” but for business philosophy. So it’s a worthwhile exercise to write them down. My principles Do…
The second line in my bio is this: “He has contributed to more than 50 book projects that have generated over $20 million for their authors.” A recent reader of this blog seemed skeptical of whether such a statement could possibly be true. Given all the exaggerated claims out there from people about their supposed…
Honest-to-freaking-God, I don’t want to stop working. There’s no reason to retire. Working is rewarding, and I’m still capable of being creative and useful. Why would I let all that experience and creativity go to waste? I’ll tell you what I’m letting go of. Multitasking. My workload now is set up so that I can…
Every company must balance its efforts between creating useful products or services and promoting and marketing those offerings. The same is true for individuals like me (consultants, authors, influencers, “thought leaders”). We can spend time building and stoking our audience, or we can spend time developing insights and serving customers with them. Having published a…
Over the course of my career, I tended to work long, hard, and intensely at my jobs. I was obsessed with making a contribution that would matter greatly to a large number of people. I wanted to leave a mark. Looking back, I did leave a mark. Just not in the way I had planned….