Yesterday in the 10-day book proposal challenge we were focusing on the marketing plan for the book, which is something of a Marmite task. One participant in particular approached it with a feeling of dread, but was pleasantly surprised. ‘When I saw today’s task my heart sank – so I’m surprised with what laying this out […]
Continue readingIt’s the end of Setptember and I’m back up at Oxford Brookes, teaching on the MA in Publishing Editorial module every Tuesday afternoon. One of the ice-breakers my colleague Beverley Tarquini does with the new cohort of students each year is to get them all talking about what they’re reading, what books they like in […]
Continue readingThe Extraordinary Business Book Club Facebook group just hit 500 members (in fact it’s at 503 as I write). So far there’s no sign of Mark Zuckerberg bringing me champagne and flowers, but I’m sure he’s on his way. I founded the group last year as World-Changing Writers, ahead of the online summit of the same […]
Continue readingIt’s Day 5 of my 10-day business book proposal challenge, SO much great work going on in the group and some amazing titles taking shape. Today’s task was all about your author biography, and people are finding that this has benefits way beyond simply putting their proposal together. Here’s what one participant said: ‘Making this […]
Continue readingAfter the excitement of the IPG Autumn Conference yesterday, a more sober but no less interesting IPG Board Meeting today at the offices of Harbottle & Lewis, sponsors of the forthcoming IPG Independent Publishing Report. We saw some of the top-line findings reported by Nielsen’s Jo Henry at the conference yesterday and today discussed the […]
Continue readingThis week’s Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast episode features Giles Colborne, one of the world’s leading experts in user experience. His book Simple and Usable is, as you might expect, utterly beautiful from a design perspective. I asked him about the parallels between user experience design and writing: AJ: It made me laugh when you […]
Continue readingThis is Day 1 of a who-knows-how-long-streak. Here’s the blog post that kicked it all off: the decision to commit to run and blog every day emerged in the process of writing this article… http://birdsontheblog.co.uk/what-seth-and-ron-taught-me-about-streaking/ And it’s all Seth Godin’s fault.
Continue readingFor publishers, the proposal is the business case for the book and for you as its author. It tells them whether you’re both worth taking a risk on: does the book have a strong concept and a clear market? Have you really thought it through? In this LinkedIn post I invite you to take part in […]
Continue readingRachel Bridge, author of Ambition: Why it’s good to want more and how to get it, is an extraordinary woman. I interviewed her on the Extraordinary Book Club Podcast recently, and her energetic, creative approach to writing made me reflect on how things are changing across the board. Rachel and I hooked up in the […]
Continue readingMight online bookstores one day become passé? The social web is where we share ideas and consume content, and increasingly it’s where we purchase, too. In the Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast this week I talk to Marcus Woodburn, Vice President Digital Products at Ingram Content Group, about Aer.io, their new social selling tool (Ingram was an early […]
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