While you’re thinking about the content of your book and its structure, scope, tone and so on, don’t forget the prelims and endmatter, and particularly the foreword (NB NOT ‘forward’, it’s the ‘word’ to the reader that goes be’fore’ the main text). Why bother with a foreword? Here are just a few reasons: Credibility. […]
Continue readingOne of my favourite tools for business thinking isn’t one of the models I learned on my MBA course, it’s a poem from Rudyard Kipling: I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. And it all starts with […]
Continue readingSitting staring at a blank Word document can be a killer. That’s a lot of white space to fill. If you want to feel better about that, you have two options: 1. turn up the font size to 50, OR 2. make the white space smaller. Allow me to introduce: the Powerpoint slide. If you’re […]
Continue readingToday’s blog is over at BookMachine – it’s all about HarperCollins’s clever new initiative BookGig. https://bookmachine.org/2016/10/12/bookgig-the-publisher-agnostic-initiative-launched-by-harpercollins/
Continue readingHere’s the thing about competitions and challenges: they are super-motivating (to most people – I get that it’s not everyone’s bag) and someone will be utterly delighted at the end. But the thing about having a winner is that it means you have to have people who are NOT winners, and that – to borrow […]
Continue readingWhat’s the difference between a foreword, a preface and an introduction? Well, I’m not sure there are legal definitions, exactly, but here’s the generally understood convention: A foreword is written by someone other than the author, typically a luminary in the field, and talks about how important this topic is and what a fabulous job […]
Continue readingToday’s the day: particpants in the 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge have until midnight tonight to upload their proposal into our Facebook group to be in with a chance of winning a publishing deal. There are seven so far, with another six or seven promised by the deadline. I can’t WAIT to read them – […]
Continue readingToday’s blog post is over at Birds on the Blog: what lies behind our decision to buy? http://birdsontheblog.co.uk/dont-sell-me-a-product-give-me-an-experience/
Continue readingEvery month I write a ‘Digital Digest’ for the Independent Publishers Guild and this month there was a slew of statistics that, on the surface at least, are hard to swallow for a digital publishing enthusiast like myself. I had a bet with our production director back in 2010 that half our revenues would be […]
Continue readingYesterday I interviewed Andy Cope, author of The Art of Being Brilliant and The Little Book of Emotional Intelligence, for The Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast.* I was particularly interested in how the books work alongside the movement – The Art of Brilliance is a training and coaching company working with businesses, schools and communities […]
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