Are you considering writing a nonfiction book? Ask yourself these three questions: Who will suffer if you don’t write this book? How much will they suffer? How much do I care about their suffering? You can learn one thing from this exercise right away. If your first answer to “Who will suffer” is “me, the…
I read and edit a lot of nonfiction content — business books, blog posts, advice, and so on. Poor choices in tone often undermine authors’ credibility. Your tone should be expert and authoritative, but not dull. What is tone? Tone is the way in which an author’s prose choices communicate the author’s relationship with the…
Timely books tap into readers’ urgent needs. They also become obsolete more quickly. Timeless books have a longer shelf life, but they’re harder to promote. Here’s how to think about them. Use strategic thinking to extend the life of timely books Now would be a great time for a book about hybrid work, autonomous cars,…
I had a half-written book. It had languished for a while. I felt stuck. This is how I brought it back to life — without wasting all the work I’d done. Why my book was stuck A while back, I’d started a book titled How to Write a Business Book That Matters: A Comprehensive Guide…
Did these really happen? I’m not saying. What kind of work do you do?I’m an author.What’s your day job?— What do you do?I’m an author.Really. Wow. Do you know Stephen King?No.Malcolm Gladwell! Do you know Malcolm Gladwell?We both presented to the same group once.What’s he like?Skinny. Glib.— What’s your job?I’m an author.Do you write fiction?Not…
Business books are made of ideas and frameworks, stories, proof points, argumentation, and advice. That’s what you need to build one. So what does it take to assemble all of that? Let’s examine a 50,000-word book, which is typical these days (somewhat shorter than in past years). A hardback typically has 250 words per page,…
Chapter 1 of your business book should be the “scare the crap out of you” chapter. There are two ways to do that: fear and greed. Which should you use? Why “scare the crap out of you”? Business books intended to create action must include an idea or an insight that matters to the reader….
The process by which agents pitch publishers can be confusing, as it’s often characterized by periods of waiting followed by rapid shifts in perspective. I’ll explain not only what happens, but how long it takes. For the purposes of this blog post, I’ll assume that you already have already written a proposal and secured a…
There are two kinds of authors. Planners meticulously plan what they’re going to research and write before they start writing. Pantsers (think “seat-of-the-pants” writers) start writing and see where things go. While these terms come from fiction, they also apply to nonfiction writers. It’s tempting to start writing by, well, writing. But setting out to…