Self-help is a huge genre of business books. They mostly leave me flat. I admit I’m biased. I started with advantages both economic and talentwise. I’ve always believed I could do things — at least academic and career-type things — so doubt was rarely a problem. But put my biases aside for a moment. I…
I’m grateful to Chris Taylor, who wrote a piece on Mashable that breaks down everything you learn from self-help books — and why they’re all the same. If you’re an author, you may find it depressing. Especially if your ideas are ordinary. The piece is called “Every self-help book ever, boiled down to 11 simple…
If you’re writing a book, there’s no perfect publishing model — there are always tradeoffs. Should you self-publish, pursue a traditional publisher, or approach a hybrid publishing model? Try these models on for size; see which one fits best. Traditional publishing Traditional publishers like Random House, Wiley, or HarperCollins — or smaller independent publishers —…
You know that nagging feeling you have, that you ought to be doing something different, or doing things differently? Laura Gassner Otting’s Limitless tells you what that’s about and what to do about it. It’s short, pointed, helpful, and well worth reading. The full title of this book is Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve…
They tell fiction authors to “write what you know.” The same obviously applies to non-fiction. But it’s all too easy to go from that to “Write about yourself” — especially when it comes to self-help books. If you know about marketing strategy, write about marketing strategy. If you know about startups, write about startups. Just…