Authors can’t do everything. What should they hire others to do for them? Assuming you’re working with a publisher rather than self-publishing, here’s a list, ranging from tasks you really shouldn’t outsource to those you probably ought to. Do this yourself. Here’s what you can’t or shouldn’t delegate. You could outsource these tasks, but don’t…
Even when your manuscript is done, the book is not. After you hand in the manuscript, your publisher (or if you’re self-published, whoever you hired to lay out the pages and put it into online bookstores) still has to copy edit the book, lay out the pages, and get it printed and available for distribution….
I lost about $18,000 this week, and gave myself a whole lot of extra work for which I’ll get paid nothing. And I regret none of it. Promises I do quality writing and editing work. I meet deadlines and never break promises. I suppose I do this to maintain my reputation. But as I think…
There are two good ways to get people to believe in your book. First, show them all the good things in the book. Publish excerpts. Write bylined articles. Preview the content. Second, have other people tell the world how good the book is. Collect blurb quotes from prominent people. Get people to write reviews on…
As you structure your book, deductive logic is leading you astray — especially if you are an academic. State big conclusions first, if you want readers to keep reading. The logical, and wrong, way to structure a nonfiction book Here is the logical way to structure a book: Very nice. Very easy to follow. Very…
Think about a book that comes to mind. It might be a book you’ve received as a gift, a book you bought long ago, a book you stumbled upon in your bookcase. How does the book make you feel? Excited, as if a whole new world has been revealed? Intrigued by new ideas? Relieved that…
One of the most creative things I do is to help authors select titles and subtitles for their books. While doing a book titling brainstorm yesterday, I asked the AI writing tool ChatGPT to come up with suggestions; it did a creditable job and generated some subtitle text we may end up using. But is…
Why should authors put in the work to create a better book? The goal of a business book is to help the reader to succeed. Everything about it should support that goal. That means maximizing the value of the reader experience. Let’s call it RX, by analogy with CX (customer experience) and UX (user experience)….
When it comes to hiring a writer to write a book that you don’t have the time or skill to write yourself, how hard could that writing job actually be? The writer doesn’t even have to come up with anything original, since it’s somebody else’s content. Why should that be expensive? Well, consider a few…