A small crowd of authors and prospective authors recently connected with me on LinkedIn. Based on their comments, apparently a highly respected publishing industry expert had mentioned me as a qualified nonfiction book expert during a workshop she gave and prompted them to connect with me. That’s very nice, and a gratifying reflection on my…
Publishers nearly always disappoint authors. Sometimes, that’s because authors — especially rookies — have naive expectations. Other times, it’s because the publishers failed to do the basics of their jobs. If you’re an author, you need to know the difference, because railing against the way the publishing industry traditionally works is futile. So here’s a…
I may or may not have struck out on my current ghostwriting project. We’re in the early stages, and it’s not yet committed. And so far, the client has suggested some very challenging objectives for the writing, and rejected significant elements of the tone I’ve been using. When problems arise in any freelance project, it’s…
Books take a while to write and publish. Technology changes quickly. You can still publish a book-length perspective on fast-changing technology, but you’ll need to make wise choices about your publishing model — and should consider an annually updated edition. This topic is top-of-mind now as many business authors are writing about artificial intelligence, a…
You’ve probably heard that the real money from publishing a business book comes from sources other than the book: speaking, consulting, workshops, courses, and sales for your organization. Now that we have completed the Business Book ROI Study, I thought I’d see whether the survey data backed that up. What it shows is that the…
Newsletter 71. Why technology’s long-term impact is unknowable, HarperCollins pays you to train AI on your books, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s imaginary world, plus three people to follow and three books to read. Everyone predicting the AI future is wrong I spent last Friday at MIT, attending a conference called “BIG.AI@MIT” (Business Implications of Generative…
Writing teacher Stephen Lane’s essay in the Boston Globe is titled “AI in the classroom could spare educators from having to teach writing.” There are two reasons to teach writing. First, it is a skill that students will need as adults, even in a world drenched in AI tools. And second, learning to write is…
I write. I edit. I ghostwrite. I also use AI — carefully — to help me with ideation and summarize research content. But I don’t substitute AI for own abilities. Unfortunately for the quality of the text I work on, my clients have made different choices. Here are two examples — an author that used…
I’m in the trail stages of a serious nonfiction ghostwriting project right now. It’s a great project; I really want to do it. The author has asked for the impossible. He wants writing that’s captivating and compelling, but the source material, while excellent, isn’t very sexy. I could keep trying to rewrite things until something…