I turn jobs down. It happens all the time. After five years as a freelance writer, editor, and coach, I can tell when you and your manuscript are going to be a problem — and more importantly, when I can’t help you. If I pass you off to another editor, you’re probably fine. But if…
Every book proposal includes “comps” — competing books. You need to show the potential publisher that you know what other books are out there and how you can differentiate your book from other similar books. Why you need comps There are three reasons to include comps in your proposal. Show you know your market and…
I’m grateful to Chris Taylor, who wrote a piece on Mashable that breaks down everything you learn from self-help books — and why they’re all the same. If you’re an author, you may find it depressing. Especially if your ideas are ordinary. The piece is called “Every self-help book ever, boiled down to 11 simple…
You’ve written (or plan to write) 40,000 to 70,000 words of brilliant prose. Publishers — and readers — will bring a set of expectations regarding structure to the work. Publishers expect you to know how books are organized, but they rarely discuss those conventions explicitly. So let’s break down how nonfiction books are organized. Chapters…
Have you had an interesting life? Could others benefit from your experiences? Then you might write a memoir. But how should you structure it? Let’s look at two ways to structure a memoir filled with valuable lessons. I’m working with several authors on memoirs right now, and I developed these approaches to help them. One…
A friend and fellow author recently asked me to be his coauthor on a topic close to his heart. I said no. Quickly. It has nothing to do with him. It has to do with the nature of coauthoring. What a coauthor is, and why I won’t be yours I’ve coauthored three books. Here’s the…
Evangelos Simoudis has seen the future of transportation. His new book Transportation Transformation: How Autonomous Mobility Will Fuel New Value Chains is the most insightful analysis of the future of transportation that you’ll ever read. Simoudis created this text based on exhaustive research over a period of years and connections with some of the most…
If you hope to write a book and get it traditionally published, one option is to write for an established publishing franchise, like Wiley’s “For Dummies” series. If you’re a fast writer and are ready to follow the series format and instructions carefully, it’s one of the quickest ways to get yourself into print. To…
If you are or hope to be an author, there are people who make their living by manipulating people like you. They are hoping to sell you something, based on your dream. It annoys the crap out of me to see people preying on authors by telling them things that are not true. For example:…