Academics and researchers have the luxury of working deeply for years on a topic. Often, in their work, they discover truths that have the potential to excite a more general audience, breaking out of their tight academic circles. But to succeed with a book on these topics, they need a very different approach than has…
Choosing a ghostwriter is a process fraught with worry. You’re about to put your most cherished ideas — and the business goals that depend on your book — in the hands of a stranger. As with any other hiring process, there’s no set guide on how to do it. And what makes it even more…
Nonfiction authors tell me, “I want to be like Malcolm Gladwell.” So they look at Gladwell’s output and draw lessons from it. Here are are Gladwell’s books and their topics: The Tipping Point (2000) — the spread of ideasBlink (2005) — perceptionOutliers (2008) — what leads to successWhat the Dog Saw (2009) — essaysDavid and…
You may have read that the publisher HarperCollins was offering payments to authors to license their books for AI training. Well, it’s really happening. They contacted my agent, who forwarded their offer to have me license my 2016 book Writing Without Bullshit. I signed the contract and a month or so later I got the…
Authors worry. A lot. Will I get a publisher? How big an advance? What if I don’t get a publisher? Is this the right title? No really, is this the right title? Does my writing suck? Is my idea commonplace? Am I the right person to write this? Do I need a coauthor? Do I…
Face it. Your publisher doesn’t care about you. You have an incredible idea that will change the world. Your publisher doesn’t care. You can write with such deftness and skill that readers will be captivated. Your publisher doesn’t care. You’ve conducted three years of painstaking research. They don’t care. You have incredible ideas on how…
Newsletter 89: Why charm, competence, and respect aren’t just good for business, but are a way of life. Plus Shopify won’t hire for what AI can do better; suing Trump to preserve libraries, Amazon recaps books with AI, plus three people to follow and three books to read. Charm, Competence, Respect How in heck was…
Business and nonfiction books span a vast universe, from million-selling juggernauts to dashed-off self-published quickies. If you are planning or writing a business book, you need to calibrate your level of ambition. It’s fine for the lead in the local production of “Our Town” to dream of being the star of a tentpole studio action…
Authors dream. Their dreams are fueled by watching their peers with books achieving choice speaking slots, huge following on social media, successful and growing consulting businesses, and the like. So they plan to write a book. Will they have the same level of success? It’s possible. But it’s far from certain. The bad news about…