Your motivation matters
Can I ask you a question? Why do you want to write a book? Seriously, do you even know? What's your purpose for doing so? • To create a beautiful work of art? • To tell your life story? • To...
The painful book-writing process
Dr. Serena Sterling wasn’t sure she’d ever finish her book project. There were times, as her content developer, I wasn’t sure she would either. Because Serena wasn’t just writing about her business–helping people overcome chronic physical and/or emotional pain–she was...
Last kid to get picked for the team
Do you remember when you were in grade school and you had to line up in the gym and wait to get picked for a team? There you'd stand for a dog's age as every other kid but you got chosen. Man, that feeling of not being quite good enough! Maybe you don't remember that...
One more way to spot a newbie
Lately, I’ve had my head in manuscripts just rife with purple prose. Purple prose, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is writing that’s so extravagant, ornate, or flowery, it breaks the flow and draws excessive attention to itself. Purple prose is...
Why Does It Matter Really
Why does it matter, really? I have this really wise friend who also happens to be a clinical psychologist specializing in the science of change.
The book first, or the course?The book first, or the course?The book first, or the course?
The book first, or the course?
This fly-by-night actor who knows bupkiss
I once had a conversation with an actor who wanted to write a book about public speaking. I'll call her Gloria, even though that's not her name. Gloria had figured out, thanks to years of professional training and experience, how to be comfortable on stage while...
The girl in the puffy red coat
You know how, at the start of a big endeavor, you worry that you’ll never drive it to completion? That you're about to bite off more than you can chew and delude yourself in general? How embarrassing the very thought of failing to finish what you started feels?...
This is the kind of argument you want
A lot of manuscripts slide across my desk each week, which shouldn't surprise anyone seeing as I run a publishing house. After all these years in the business, I can identify why a particular book draws me in and where another immediately goes off the rails. I mean, I...
Mean literary agents
I've been having the same conversation a lot lately. It goes something like this: A nice professional has gone to the trouble of crafting a book proposal, honing a query letter, even landing a call with an agent or two, only to be told one thing. "Your book will never...