I may tell you to work with another professional for a service I don’t offer. Sometimes I get paid a bounty for this. Here’s why I always disclose those payments. When an author comes to me, sometimes I can help them, sometime I can’t. They might need a different kind of editor, an illustrator, a…
You finally got a literary agent to engage about your book proposal. Now they’re no longer getting back to you and things are stalled. How can you move forward? The first thing you need to accept is that, as friendly as agents may seem, they are transactional by nature, because they only get paid if…
I’m on track for a very good year in a very bad year. How did I get here? By helping people that need help — and saying “yes” as much as possible. This is a terrible year for many of us. Some of our friends are sick, and many of us have lost our jobs….
Evangelos Simoudis has seen the future of transportation. His new book Transportation Transformation: How Autonomous Mobility Will Fuel New Value Chains is the most insightful analysis of the future of transportation that you’ll ever read. Simoudis created this text based on exhaustive research over a period of years and connections with some of the most…
If you hope to write a book and get it traditionally published, one option is to write for an established publishing franchise, like Wiley’s “For Dummies” series. If you’re a fast writer and are ready to follow the series format and instructions carefully, it’s one of the quickest ways to get yourself into print. To…
If you are or hope to be an author, there are people who make their living by manipulating people like you. They are hoping to sell you something, based on your dream. It annoys the crap out of me to see people preying on authors by telling them things that are not true. For example:…
I posted this on Facebook: Helping an author come up with the perfect book title is better than sex. I think the responses revealed more about other people than they do about me. Yes, I love my job. One of the best parts of that is working with authors. One of the best parts of…
Thirteen years ago I made a fateful decision. I’ve been thinking about how it paid off in the rich connections with people that it led to. I was 48 years old in 2007 and determined to publish my first book by the time I was 50. I took the plunge: I made a deal with…
I’ve been studying successful book launches. The key is a self-reinforcing surge built on ideas and people, together. Let’s start with preliminary results from my author survey. Among 172 published nonfiction authors, the most successful book promotion tactics were the following (in this order): Public speaking engagements. Solicit back-cover blurbs. Encourage people to post Amazon…