Why I love text more than other medium, how Amazon prices, a machine reads your book pitch, plus three people to follow, three books to read, and witty link. Why text is good and books are best There’s an explosion in content. Blogs, Substacks, Medium posts, Threads, Podcasts, vlogs, you name it. Which format is…
As I’ve written, the advantage that human writers have over AI is wit. Ergo, if you want to continue to make a career of writing, you must develop your wit. Is that even possible? Yes. I’ll explain. What is wit? Wit is the ability, not just to inform, but to delight readers with your writing….
I was fascinated to read how silliness and puns energized the people of Somerville, Massachusetts to solve a common problem — and it made me wonder about whether home-grown humor could to save the world from everything else that threatens it. A grate idea in Somerville Here’s Boston Globe writer Steve Annear on how Somerville…
If you’re going to hire me (or anyone else) to help you writing or editing your book, I’m going to ask a bunch of seemingly invasive questions. There are good reasons for those uncomfortable questions. In fact, I’ll go further: if you’re working with a writer, editor, or coach who doesn’t ask these sorts of…
The Times and the Journal have weighed in: people posting “commenting for reach” or CFBR (commenting for better reach) on layoff posts is now officially a phenomenon on LinkedIn. Seriously: For convenience, you can bookmark this post and reread it each time any social network experiences a “phenomenon.” Just change the specifics and it will…
How growth destroys everything good; the end of bestsellers; if you tell truth under oath you can’t lie in print; plus three people to follow, three books to read, and a warm plug. Growth is the inverse of quality The idea of growth is baked into everything that happens in our capitalist economy. We’ve internalized…
Everyone knows that freelancers pitching for business need to make sure their sites and social media presence look sharp and professional. But have you considered that, as a potential client of a freelancer, you need to curate your own image, too? How I vet potential clients Two things: First, freelancers like me hate to waste…
Many of us love “The Great British Baking Show.” But it’s also full of lessons for a moral education: And finally . . . There sure are a lot of ways to speak “English” . . .
I use a variety of tools to plan writing projects. These are usually based on intermediate deliverables and milestones, like plans and treatments. They’re great tools — but they’re only tools. Optimizing the intermediate deliverables is a wasteful fetish. Useful planning tools It’s a big mistake to begin a book without careful planning. Here’s a…