I work with a lot of aspiring authors. Many of them have exciting and promising ideas. “Can’t the acquisitions editors at these publishers see the promise of my idea?”, they ask? No, they can’t. Editors who invested in the promise of books have been burned. A lot. Authors routinely fail to live up to that…
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….
Months ago, I joined up with four author service organizations — Amplify Publishing, Gotham Ghostwriters, Thought Leadership Leverage, and Smith Publicity — to undertake the first-ever large-scale study of the return on investment from business and thought leadership books. Today, we release the results of that study free to the public. You can download your…
Newsletter 65. Raise your right hand and promise to edit faithfully. Plus, Tucker Max spills the truth, Jane Friedman reveals the fakes, and the copyright office in the crosshairs. The editor’s oath Doctors take a Hippocratic oath, a set of promises to their patients. This is necessary because the patient needs to know the doctor…
Today, a little something different. Look at the graphic below. It includes the names of 16 writers I admire. Can you classify them into four groups of four? In true New York Times Connections style, there are maddening overlaps, on purpose. I’ve embedded the code for this below — if it works, you can play…
My fellow authors: It has been a dark time in the world of books. Influencers and big-name keynote speakers have flooded our world. And publishers’ reputations continue to decline. But I’m here to promise you that, with my help, better days ahead. If you select me as your book coach, consultant, and consiglieri, your prayers…
You should make friends with authors who write in the same sphere as you, even if your approaches differ or your books compete. Why? Because readers of competing books are far more likely to want to read yours — and because together, you’ll be defining a perspective worth considering and publicizing. And, of course, because…
In the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Stanford University researchers Mohamed A. Hussein and Zakary L. Tormala published a paper titled “You versus we: How pronoun use shapes perceptions of receptiveness.” Thinkers and authors including Daniel Pink and Tamsen Webster have cited the study as justification for using “we” in persuasive contexts. Is this research…
Newsletter 63: A revolutionary new take on management; the lie that Harris and Trump agree on; five ways to write a book. Plus three people to follow and three books to read. What if you actually asked your people what they wanted? Today’s newsletter is a little different. It’s dedicated to my review of a…