How important are bookstores to business authors?

How important are bookstores to business authors?

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…

Use the “reader question method” to plan and organize your business book

Use the “reader question method” to plan and organize your business book

If you are writing a book as an expert on a topic, you may be having challenges with organizing your content. You should build your table of contents around the questions your reader will ask. The wrong way to organize your book I was recently helping a consultant who was planning a book on a…

For maximum impact, keep your case studies pure and unsullied by argumentation

For maximum impact, keep your case studies pure and unsullied by argumentation

Great business books include case study stories. They also include frameworks and analysis. For maximum effectiveness, never mingle the two. Here’s an example to clarify what I mean. In The Age of Intent, the book I ghost wrote about artificial intelligence last year, there is a story at the start of the customer service chapter…

The pronoun conundrum: “we” vs. “you” in business advice

The pronoun conundrum: “we” vs. “you” in business advice

Business books are full of advice. They’re also full of pronouns — and pronoun-driven confusion — around when to use “we” and when to use “you.” Start with this: you should write directly to the reader. Compare the following two alternatives: Marketers must spend less time on SEO and more time on the creation of…

The 12 immutable stages of business book creation

The 12 immutable stages of business book creation

A veteran author knows the 12 stages. Rookies often don’t. But if you’re an author, you’ll inevitably experience them, regardless of whether you’re ready. So get ready. 1 Idle flirtation “That’s a cool idea.” “That could be a book.” “I think I could write about that.” Like all flirtations, this one is titillating and intriguing…