Hack writers will be replaced by AI. If your ideas are pedestrian and your writing is boring, you may as well give up. All the more reason to stand out. Bold authors get noticed. Timid, workaday writers don’t. And if you don’t get noticed as a writer, you won’t accomplish your goals. There are basically…
The call came in to my mobile phone. An author wanted my help. But after 15 minutes, I still couldn’t figure out what her book idea was about. If you want anyone to take your potential nonfiction book idea seriously, you have to be able to answer four simple questions — hopefully without thinking very…
If you are a writer, your job is now in danger. ChatGPT can do a decent job of doing what you do. Oh sure, it has shortcomings — it doesn’t know the difference between truth and fakery, and it’s got no soul. But if you write generic content, AI can now do your job nearly…
Sure, it sounds attractive to be a “thought leader.” You just hold yourself out as an expert on something and then post a lot on social media and wait for the speaking and consulting gigs come pouring in, right? Not quite. There are a lot of pretenders out there. And there are a lot of…
Is your book the same as other books on the market? If so, why are you bothering to write it? Every book needs to be differentiated. Every book needs a superlative. It must be the first, best, biggest, most comprehensive, most practical, most intriguing, or best illustrated book of its kind. This is not something…
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…
Experts build their business on an idea. If the idea is a platitude, they don’t deserve respect — and they won’t get clients. I am so sick of the aspiring thought leaders on social media sharing platitudes and imagining they are insights. “You must put the customer first.” Oh, now I see. I was putting…