In this post you’ll learn a little bit about Jews and a little bit about Passover and a little bit about public relations. Start with this pitch that arrived in my email. Show up to Passover with this Kosher snack! PS we’re on Amazon. Hi Josh, Passover is right around the corner, so it’s time…
A lot goes on at once when I edit a document. I am attempting to accomplish two goals simultaneously. First, make the document better. And second, make the writer a better writer. How this works Here’s how I edit a document. First I give it a cursory once over, just to see the general shape,…
You have a conscience. You know what the right thing to do is. But the right thing is going to cost you. Do you still do the right thing? Today I’m going to tell you how doing the right thing paid off for me in unexpected ways. Because it turns out that people notice integrity,…
Valentine’s Day purports to be a celebration of love. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. It is a celebration of guilt. Consider all the people who feel bad on Valentine’s Day, because they’re not in a “traditional” relationship like the ones shown in greeting cards and on romantic TV shows. Well, what about the…
Here’s why. I don’t have to keep my workspace tidy. I can choose which clients to work with and which not to. Nobody tells me what to do. I can work late if I want and sleep late if I want. Nobody cares when I do the work. I can charge whatever I want. I…
People (including my relatives) wonder why I write so much about topics like my personal life and my health. It’s very simple. I have a blogger’s creed. It looks like this: If you learn something that would be valuable to others, share it. Privacy There’s an exception. I won’t violate the privacy of my family…
I lost about $18,000 this week, and gave myself a whole lot of extra work for which I’ll get paid nothing. And I regret none of it. Promises I do quality writing and editing work. I meet deadlines and never break promises. I suppose I do this to maintain my reputation. But as I think…
Waiting rooms suck. Think of every waiting room you’ve ever been in: doctor’s office, dentist’s office, motor vehicle department, car dealership, train station, bus station, airport — they’re all terrible. Every waiting room sends the same message: your time is worth less than something else. It might be the doctor’s time, the motor vehicle people’s…
One of the most creative things I do is to help authors select titles and subtitles for their books. While doing a book titling brainstorm yesterday, I asked the AI writing tool ChatGPT to come up with suggestions; it did a creditable job and generated some subtitle text we may end up using. But is…