When I wrote a book, I expected it to generate leads for my business. This is also a goal for 30% of the business authors I surveyed, so it’s not unusual. Even though the book has only been out for a few weeks, it’s delivered benefits for my consulting business that go far beyond book-generated…
The most common mistake authors make is to fail to promote their books. No, people will not discover your book just because it is great. And no, your publisher will not do all the work and tell you what to do. You have to do it yourself. This is hard for authors because the work…
I need to admit, this is a challenging moment for me. I’m coming out of the tail end of a bout of COVID-19. While I was sick, I followed everyone’s advice and did, basically, almost nothing but rest. But that further squeezed my book launch into the weeks that followed. This week and next, I’m…
Promoting your nonfiction book seems like ego-stoking work of the most extreme sort. Me, me, me! Pay attention to me! My book is great! In truth, though, successful book promotion is a work of service and selflessness. Why selfless beats selfish in book promotion Start with the book itself. Your book will succeed to the…
Copywriters can be hard to read. What you’re explaining your idea and they make a remark, what do they actually mean? Here’s a handy translation guide. “Tell me more.” That made absolutely no sense. “Whoa, that confused me a little bit.” Using that many jargon words in a sentence should be illegal. [Blank stare.] I’m…
My friend Merlina McGovern — the smartest copy editor I’ve ever worked with — got laid off from my old company last month. After 16 years working for Forrester, she’s starting a business as a freelancer. She had questions, so we talked. Since any freelancer starting a business might have similar questions, let’s walk through…
If you’re going to wade into controversial public discourse, you’d better be prepared for the controversy. Otherwise, you could end up like Bethany Mandel, the author who humiliated herself on video, then made things worse by writing a vacuous essay about how bad it felt. Bethany Mandel is the coauthor of Stolen Youth: How Radicals…
As a consumer, you probably subscribe to a lot of ongoing (monthly or yearly) services. If regulations required you to proactively renew them, we’d wash a lot of stupid, poor corporate behavior out of the system. Should this be the law? Let’s explore what it might mean. What do you subscribe to? What do you…
An advocacy group called “The Dawn Project” aired an ad challenging the safety of Tesla’s Full Self Driving feature during the Super Bowl. The ad is a good example of dishonest fearmongering. Before I analyze the ad, let me clarify two things. First, this ad appeared, not nationally, but in local markets like Washington, DC…