I love audiobooks. Here are a few thoughts about consuming them, and creating them. Audio occupies the mind when the body is doing something else I don’t listen to music much. (Yeah, I know, that makes me a psycho.) I’ve listened to business books, light nonfiction, heavy analytical nonfiction, and fiction books. I’m listening to…
The estimable Maggie Langrick, founder and CEO at the publisher Wonderwell, spent an hour interviewing me about everything about books. We talked about how to plan, how to write, how to promote, and basically, how to succeed as an author. It’s long. But it’s full of goodies, because Maggie knows just what to ask. Enjoy.
More than anything else, I work with authors on books. It is endlessly fascinating, deeply rewarding, and occasionally frustrating, but always, always worth it. I have always loved reading. I have always wanted to write books. When I was 48, I said to myself, “If I don’t write a book by the time I am…
When it comes to book sales, does a social media following guarantee sales? Of course not. That’s what’s behind the New York Times piece, “Millions of Followers? For Book Sales, ‘It’s Unreliable.’ ,” a naive and oversimplified take on what it takes to sell books. How books sell In the olden days — before COVID…
If you’re a business book author, you are probably imagining your book on the shelf in the local Barnes & Noble, independent bookstore, or airport bookstore. But before you pursue that vision, you ought to think it through, because attaining bookstore placement comes with lots of challenges. As context for this discussion, consider two sales…
Books are great individually. But in big bunches, they’re not as sacred as they once were. I’m in the process of moving and I have a lot of books. I’ve been collecting science fiction books since I was a teenager — I’ve accumulated hundreds of hardbacks and hundreds more in paperback, with special bookcases to…
I have been in love with Dr. Seuss since childhood, and happily raised my own children on his lyrical work. Much of his imagery is delightful because it is so exaggerated; some of it is racist. If you want to understand why the company that manages his content has ceased to publish some of his…
A Maryland bookseller will outfit your bookshelf with books of any description — liberal history, musty old tomes, or just “green.” What are the moral implications of treating books as objects and not content? Politico describes Books by the Foot‘s business. Its clients vary. Some are set decorators for movies and plays. Others are people…
Trademarks confuse writers. Here are some tips on how to address trademarks in prose — and whether you ought to protect your own special names for things with them. Start with this: I’m not a lawyer. I hope you find this helpful — it’s based on decades of experience as a writer — but if…