You should make friends with authors who write in the same sphere as you, even if your approaches differ or your books compete. Why? Because readers of competing books are far more likely to want to read yours — and because together, you’ll be defining a perspective worth considering and publicizing. And, of course, because…
Election forecaster and statistics pundit Nate Silver has a new book out. It’s called On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything and it’s billed as an investigation of “the River,” the “community of like-minded people whose mastery of risk allows them to shape–and dominate–so much of modern life.” Like any author, Silver and his…
I hear it so often, it’s almost a cliché. “Wow, writing a book was way more work than I expected it to be.” I’ve almost given up on explaining why this is. Almost . . . but not quite. So if you want to know what unexpected work you really should have expected — and…
In her article “Everyone’s a sellout now,” Vox’s Rebecca Jennings laments the poor, sad situation of authors who’ve found that only by selling out and promoting themselves can they generate books sales. Some notable excerpts: The internet has made it so that no matter who you are or what you do — from nine-to-five middle…
Print this out and share with your book promotion team:
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…
Authors have questions. Once they start working on a book, the same things seem to come up over and over. So let’s get you some answers. Is my idea worth writing a book about? An idea worthy of a whole book should be big enough to have a set of nonobvious consequences. You should have…
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…