People can’t buy and read a book they don’t know exists. And they can’t know it exists unless you – or someone else who knows about it – tells them. But many of the writers…
The answer, as with most things, is that it depends. Kazuo Ishiguro wrote The Remains of the Day in four weeks. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his first Sherlock Holmes book in three. Robert Louis Stephenson…
It feels like that some days, doesn’t it? Yeah. Bastards. But that’s not the kind of tool I mean. I’m talking about the word in its most literal usage: anything used as a means of…
Remember Paper Clip Guy? He used to pop up in MS Word: "I see you're writing a letter! Do you need help?" When you write a book, the Universe is, essentially, Paper Clip Guy. "I…
I tell my clients this story, courtesy of Aaron Sorkin's Leo McGarry on The West Wing: "This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't…
Would you still want to write your book if I told you that doing so was going to change your life, change you, in ways you can't predict? That you will come out the other…
First you write the book, then you hire an editor, right? Wrong. There are many kinds of editors, and the one you're thinking of is a line editor - someone who goes over the manuscript…
"How big does your platform have to be to get a book deal?" All a platform means to an agent or publisher is the number of books you're likely to be able to sell to…
"Your book is coming out next spring!"This is one of the sweetest missives a writer can receive. Especially those of us who always knew - who hoped - we'd one day write a book. When…
Some authors see their books primarily as brochures for their businesses. They give readers an overview of their coaching programs or services with just enough detail to get people interested in hiring them, but not…
