John Logan, the scriptwriter behind two of the latest James Bond movies, is worried that when Amazon buys MGM, it will ruin 007. But data and corporate control doesn’t necessarily ruin creativity. It all depends on who’s making the creative decisions. John Logan’s lament for 007 Here’s some of what John Logan, co-writer of “Skyfall”…
Amazon is an indispensable partner for any author. It’s also a problematic company whose dominance of the publishing business threatens everyone from independent bookstores to self-published authors. What’s an author to do? You could boycott Amazon completely. I have a friend who’s doing that. But if you’re an author, completely avoiding Amazon is going to…
I see bad writing all the time. But it takes a prodigious talent to violate every writing principle in a single paragraph at the start of a serious nonfiction book. A book has one chance to grab you by the throat on Page One. If Page One is boring, you can assume the whole book…
If you’re writing a memoir, some parts of your life were probably exciting. Other parts, maybe, not so much. How can you craft all of that into a package worth reading? The problem is that no one’s life is a Hollywood epic. Stuff happens; we do stuff. Some of it is fun. Some of it…
If you are seeking to create influence and change with an original idea, you must read Tamsen Webster’s Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible. It’s short, it’s actionable, and it’s brilliant. Here’s how to know if this book is for you: You have an idea and you want to spread it as…
Your writing would be better if it were shorter. In my survey of business writers, the top complaint about what they read is that it’s too long. The top complaint about what they write is also that it is too long. We know we have a wordiness problem. But how do you edit things down?…
Nonfiction books should start with a bang. Introductions are boring. Ergo, don’t start with an introduction. Despite the logic of this, many business and nonfiction writers start their books with an introduction. They either think it’s required, or fall victim to the fallacy that, having created a book, they need to somehow explain it. Why…
I bet you never thought of a table of contents as sexy. But it is, or at least it ought to be. A table of contents is an invitation to go further, to create a new relationship. If that’s what you want, then being sexy is a good strategy. A potential book buyer peruses the…
It’s a publishing truism that your book must sell 10,000 copies to be successful. It’s wrong. And it’s also very hard. So let’s take a look at whether you need to sell 10,000 copies, and what it would take to do that. Can you succeed without selling 10,000 copies? The analysis I’m going to share…