Newsletter 58: The five ways brilliant people are different, why St. Martin’s press isn’t doomed, and Kamala Harris’ — er Harris’s — er, hmm. Plus three books to read and three people to follow. Five-fold brilliance In our work, we sometimes encounter individuals who inspire us. They seem to have such creativity and clarity about…
When you get to be as old as I am, you learn to ask questions before buying anything. The biggest one is, how much is this thing going to cost to maintain? Is this $300 gadget really worth it? How often does it break down? How hard is it to fix? Who can fix it?…
After hundreds of freelance writing and editing jobs, I’ve begun to see that they fall into three categories: Of course, I prefer successes. And to be honest, I’m fine with challenges, although I often take away lessons from them about planning, pricing, and communication. My workload is not so overwhelming that a few extra-challenging projects…
If you’re a good writer, you should edit others. And if you’re an editor, you should write your own pieces. It’s not just a way to give back. It’s a way to expand your skills and your perspective. Why writers should edit If you love writing, do some editing. Work with others who are writing…
Use ChatGPT to close more leads! Use ChatGPT to write more blog posts! Umm, no. Here are some clickbait headlines that, if you see them, you should immediately stop following the source: Creating makes us human ChatGPT and similar tools are good helpers. They can read and summarize vast amounts of information. ChatGPT is good…
Since I’ve been in a few digital fights lately . . . If you disagree with me and you choose to pick a fight in a public digital space (a social network or my blog, for example), I will respond based on logic, data, and examples. I will not bring your character into it. If…
I woke up this morning with a great idea on how to revise a chapter I’m working on. By the end of today, it’s going to be much better. This doesn’t happen by accident. Here’s how to prepare properly so lightning can strike. What must be in place for an inspiring rewrite Before an inspiring…
If you are an expert, you need to serve all the clients in your audience. You need a diverse portfolio of examples to draw on, so you can answer any question. All of your examples will be in some way similar, because they all relate to people similarly situation to your audience. For example, they…
Now that we all see each other on video calls, it’s inevitable that you’ll observe other people and form impressions. When is it to make a comment about how someone looks? Let’s make this simple. The answer, with a few narrow exceptions, is, never. I was recently on a video call with the CEO of…