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…
Writing your own bio ought to be easy — after all, what do you know better than your own accomplishments? Even so, this essential little book element is often problematic for authors. Here are a few tips to help you make your “About the Author” exactly right. Reflect It’s good to take a look at…
If you are writing a nonfiction book, you probably have lots of knowledge about your subject matter. But when it comes time to put that into a book, you need to know two more things. Unless you get both right, you’ll struggle to be successful. If writing a book is a journey, the mindset relates…
The most demoralizing problems in a nonfiction book happen near the end of the project. A setback at the point when you were hoping to be moving the book to its completion might force you to redo a lot of the work you already did. Here’s a list of what might go wrong, how to…
There are lots of reasons that people write books. One is to get business — speeches, workshops, consulting, or leads. Once you understand how that works, you’ll know how much effort to put into your book, and what kind of book it should be. Five ways books generate business Consider the marketing funnel — and…
At my previous employer, Forrester, there was a dedicated commitment to both quality of analysis and quality of writing. This meant that your editor took what you wrote and critiqued the crap out of it, and you had to learn to make it better to meet that high bar. My boss at the time, Emily,…
Election forecaster and statistics pundit Nate Silver has a new book out. It’s called On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything and it’s billed as an investigation of “the River,” the “community of like-minded people whose mastery of risk allows them to shape–and dominate–so much of modern life.” Like any author, Silver and his…
The word “editor” conjures up a wizened little man or woman with a red pencil, finding all the places you wrote “which” when you should have used “that.” That is so far from what a good developmental editor does, which is to make a manuscript better. A great editor goes further, making a piece of…
If it’s a memoir or you’re a celebrity, yes. Otherwise, no. Why you shouldn’t put yourself on your book jacket Your book isn’t about you. If the book jacket is about you, you send the wrong message. Your book is about how you will solve your audience’s problem. The book title, subtitle, and cover image…