Basketball’s Boston Celtics — picked by many as the most talented team in the NBA playoffs — stunk up the joint last night with a weak, low-effort home game against the Philadelphia 76ers and Joel Embiid, the most valuable player in the whole league. First-year coach Joe Mazzulla was on the hot seat to explain…
I set out to help authors. Fifteen years and 50 books later, I keep hearing the same questions — about everything from how to create ideas to how to select a publishing path to how to do book promotion. So I put everything I knew in one place: my new book Build a Better Business…
Logline: When a band of smart thieves successfully steals a $1 trillion coin minted by the US government, they hold the country hostage in a daring game of cat-and-mouse. Opening Scene: We see the interior of the US Treasury building in Washington D.C. – an ornate and imposing structure filled with busy bureaucrats and security…
Spring is a great time to renew the way you present yourself to the world. So welcome to my new online home. I’m rebranding. If you were subscribed to my former site at withoutbullshit.com, I’ve automatically subscribed you to the new site at bernoff.com. All my future updates will come from here; there will be…
I homeschooled my children. More accurately, my wife and I homeschooled them; I taught some writing and some high-school level math, and she did most of the rest. Teaching in school now all too often is some teacher delivering rote assignments to students who do them by rote. I worry that, as bad as that…
Write what you mean. It’s my most fundamental writing advice. Tucker Carlson apparently did that. According to a text revealed by the New York Times, here’s a text that Tucker Carlson sent the day after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol: Tucker Carlson January 7, 2021 — 04:18:04 PM UTC A couple of weeks ago, I…
Reading a book aloud is a great way to catch errors. Of course, no one has the patience to do that at the end of a book production process. But you can take advantage of it if you’re narrating your own audiobook. It’s all a question of timing. Arrange the timing of your audiobook narration…
If you don’t love your book, it’s going to suck. What do I mean by love? People write books for all sorts of reasons. Some are self-serving (“This will make me famous!”). Some are mundane (“This will get me tenure.”). And some, of course, are written for love. Without the love, the book is unlikely…
There are three sources of business for a freelancer: repeat business, referrals, and leads. Repeat business is great, referrals are very good, and leads are problematic. How do you want to spend your time? Here’s a definition of a successful freelance business: Spending your time doing what you do best for people who appreciate it,…