Life is simple is you write a nonfiction book all on your own. There’s nobody to check with and nobody to slow you down. But for books that make an impact, it’s usually a team effort. I just turned in a manuscript to a publisher for a book project that included a ghostwriter (me), an…
Newsletter 61: As traditional publishing declines, hybrid is a viable alternative for serious authors. Plus, Amazon and B&N flush misleading book summaries, the Internet Archive faces another copyright setback, three people to follow and three books to read. It’s time to fully embrace hybrid publishing A hybrid publisher is a publisher you pay to publish…
I love working with graphic designers. First off, they have a talent I completely lack. You describe what you want, then something beautiful comes out. That feels like magic to me. Second, they’re problem solvers. I solve communication problems with text. They solve them with graphics. The process is similar and the goals are similar,…
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,…