I’m about one month from the publication date for my new book Build a Better Business Book, and I’ve built an ad-hoc collaboration environment for the launch promotion. I’ll describe what I’ve built. I’m hoping it may be a model for some of your own book promotion efforts. Promotion strategy for my book launch My…
I set out to help authors. Fifteen years and 50 books later, I keep hearing the same questions — about everything from how to create ideas to how to select a publishing path to how to do book promotion. So I put everything I knew in one place: my new book Build a Better Business…
Reading a book aloud is a great way to catch errors. Of course, no one has the patience to do that at the end of a book production process. But you can take advantage of it if you’re narrating your own audiobook. It’s all a question of timing. Arrange the timing of your audiobook narration…
If you don’t love your book, it’s going to suck. What do I mean by love? People write books for all sorts of reasons. Some are self-serving (“This will make me famous!”). Some are mundane (“This will get me tenure.”). And some, of course, are written for love. Without the love, the book is unlikely…
It’s a terrible spot to be in: a friend has asked you to provide an endorsement blurb for their book, but when you begin to read it, you realize it’s no good. Whether the premise is wrong, the organization is poor, or the writing is tedious, it’s not a book you want your name on….
Every book has an acknowledgments page where you thank the people who helped you. Authors I work with have an unreasonable phobia about this. I have no idea why. Maybe it’s because they have to write like genuine humans and cast aside the expert or academic veneer, which can can be scary. On several occasions,…
Google Docs is a pain for book collaboration. That was the general sentiment in a recent discussion I had with a bunch of writers, editors, and ghostwriters. If you’re going to use Google Docs, learn about access control. That’s the key to collaborating without driving each other bonkers. The challenge writers and editors face with…
Are you contemplating starting the journey to writing a new book? It’s intimidating, I know. If you have some idea of what you want to write, here are five steps you can take to move that idea forward. 1 Talk to smart people Who do you know that’s knowledgeable about your topic? If you’re writing…
There are plenty of situations in which it makes sense to give your book away for free — in conjunction with a speech, for example, or as a thank you, or to solicit a review. But be careful that you don’t do it in a way that communicates, “My book has no value.” A textbook…