Last week I woke up at 4:00 am with a brilliant idea of what to write for the opening of a book proposal for a client. Every sentence was clear in my mind — at least to the extent that one can have clarity of mind at four in the morning. Was it worth getting…
Newsletter 99: The incredible benefits of creating a book with a wicked smart thinking partner. Plus, AI learns from really old books, authors make TikToks of scrawling edits, three people to follow and three books to read. What I learned from my intellectual soulmates I’ve written nine books and am working on another. Only two…
You’re an author who wants to change the world. Just like every other author. Writing a book is a big effort. You think it’s worth it because you want to change the world. And I’m sure you’re right. Whatever the world is that you want to change — the world of partisan politics, the world…
Reviewers are a pain in the butt. I’m not talking about people who write reviews of your book on Amazon or Goodreads. I’m talking about people who offer their opinions as part of your book creation process. Unless you know who they are and manage them proactively, they will create angst and chaos. To avoid…
If you’re creating a nonfiction book collaboratively, a good collaboration design will save you endless hours of work. An unwise collaboration design is not only wasteful, but will generate a poor result. Today, I look at the actual costs and benefits of good or poor collaboration design. What is collaboration design and why does it…
A nonfiction book proposal that attracts traditional publishers shows three things: Authors are very focused on the first two. Publishers are very focused on the last. Traditional publishers are very tough to convince these days. Advances are down. Expectations are up. If you’re an author, hybrid publishing is a faster and easier option, although it’s…
Newsletter 97: Two decades of persistent value from my long analyst gig. Plus, in defense of a dash, hallucinatory “formatting issues,” three people to follow and three books to read. How 20 years at Forrester changed my life I spent 20 years at one company: Forrester. It’s been 10 years since I left. When I…
If you’re a professional writer — say, a writer writing for an editor, or a ghostwriter writing for a client — you need to understand the psychology of book drafts. You may look at your drafts one way, while your editor or client sees them another. You’ll have less angst in your life if you…
All ghostwriters are good writers. That’s what clients imagine they are paying for. The challenge, of course, is that good writers — even great writers — are as common as robins in the spring. What gets ghostwriters work, of course, is referrals. And what gets referrals are the skills they have other than writing. These…