If you’re seeking people to provide quote endorsements for your book — blurbs — the biggest mistake you can make is treating them all alike. Each type of blurber requires a different approach. Before approaching these targets, you need to prepare a short description of the book as well as a PDF copy of the…
When I pitch myself for a freelance writing or editing job, I almost always win. Why? Because I am selective about the gigs I pursue, have sterling qualifications, and typically come recommended by someone the potential client trusts. But I just lost out on a job — a big one that I really wanted. I…
This post is about the changes in my work and this blog starting in 2022, including two new books. Time to reexamine my work Historically, I’ve remade my career every seven to ten years. Things change in your life and your work; it’s best to be thinking about it before it gets stale. I’ve remade…
If you love Mel Brooks, you’ll love his new autobiography All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business. If you don’t love Mel Brooks, forget it, you’ll hate it. Here’s the deal with this book. Mel Brooks is an egomaniac. Mel Brooks thinks Mel Brooks is the greatest thing ever. Yes, it’s a joke…
I’m an editor. That means I’m going to read what you write and then tell you that it is wrong. You might think people would resist that. But in fact, the opposite is true. I recently did a detailed and highly critical edit of documents by two very smart people. I then met with them…
I’ve written about the reader question method of organizing a nonfiction book, with one question for each chapter. Now let’s go deeper. Which questions make for the best chapters? A recap of the reader question method As I describe in an earlier post, the reader question method is ideal for an advice or how-to book….
“I want to write a book,” you say. “That’s a huge undertaking,” your author friend responds. But how big is “huge?” Here’s a detailed way to think about the time it will take. How to use this planning tool To make your planning more effective, I have created a publicly available spreadsheet showing book tasks…
When it comes to book sales, does a social media following guarantee sales? Of course not. That’s what’s behind the New York Times piece, “Millions of Followers? For Book Sales, ‘It’s Unreliable.’ ,” a naive and oversimplified take on what it takes to sell books. How books sell In the olden days — before COVID…
I listened to Malcolm Gladwell and Paul Headlam’s new five-hour audiobook Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon. It fascinated, entertained, and touched me — even though it had a little more Gladwell in it than we really needed. This is an audiobook unlike any other If you’re interested in “Miracle and Wonder,” you need…