Answer This One Question and You Will Live a Better Story
Why do we go to movies?” he asked the audience. “Escape!” someone shouted. “An experience!” “Yes,” the speaker said, “we go for those reasons, but we also go for clarity.” I’m here in Chicago for Donald Miller’s Storyline conference as I write this, and I think Don nails it in the above exchange. We go to […]
16 Proven, Powerful Methods to Grow Your Email List
I’ve got a platform,” writers sometimes tell me. “I’m on Twitter and Facebook. I’ve got a blog.” But here’s the litmus test for whether you have a platform: If a publisher sent a pallet of books to your garage, how many of them could you move on the strength of your own connections? This question puts […]
What if the Best Thing You Can Do for Your Writing Has Nothing to Do with Your Writing?
We write who we are. Or at the very least, we write from who we are. In the same way that beautiful gardens and happy productive children don’t just happen, neither does good writing. All of these are products of an environment. How’s Your Writing Ecosystem? So what if you took an ecosystems approach to […]
Give Me 79 Seconds — And I’ll Help You Stay Motivated on Your Passion Project
Wait, what? We need to stay motivated on our passion projects? Yes! No matter how much we love what we’re doing, we get tired. Or we get distracted. Or both! In this 79-second video I share an essential tool for creatives…
Why Even New Bloggers Should Make Building a Team a Priority
[guestpost]This is a guest post by blogging expert and entrepreneur Rebecca Livermore. Rebecca is the owner of Professional Content Creation and the author of Blogger’s Quick Guide to Working with a Team.[/guestpost] If you’re fairly new to blogging, the thought of building a team may never have even crossed your mind. After all, blogging is […]
How to Get a Book Deal When You Don’t Have a Platform
When my wife read my blog post about the importance of platform and Google search ranking for writers, she replied, “It makes me sad. I wish platform/Google weren’t so paramount.” She spoke for legions of writers, I expect. “Why can’t I just write a good book?” “I’m a writer, not a marketer. Why do I have to be both?” […]
5 Ways to Impress a Book Publisher in Half a Second
I just noticed something I have been doing habitually for well over ten years. Whenever I review a book proposal, one of the first things I do is Google the author’s name. I do this because a book deal is a business partnership. When we sign an author, we’re excited about the author’s voice and […]
Can We Be Both Spiritual and Successful?
The other day I walked past my bookshelf, and this juxtaposition caught my eye—two books that have no business being next to each other. The one is an Advent devotional titled Preparing for Jesus: Meditations on the Coming of Christ, Advent, Christmas and the Kingdom by accomplished writer and National Book Award winner Walt Wangerin. […]
How to Turn Your Blog Posts into a Book Publishers Will Love
As editorial director for a major trade book publisher, I regularly receive questions like this: Is it okay to blog content that I want to use in my book? Will publishers mind if my blog content ends up in my book? If my book proposal is for a book based on my blog, will publishers […]
The Best Business Book I’ve Read in a Long Time
Becoming an entrepreneur has done a lot more than pay the bills over the years, it’s saved my life.” That’s the first line of a wonderful little book by Inc. columnist Timothy Askew, The Poetry of Small Business: An Accidental Entrepreneur’s Search for Meaning. As I make my way into entrepreneurism, I find myself hungry […]