Today is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year, allegedly. Not on this site. Today we’re celebrating two brilliant new books officially published by Practical Inspiration Publishing. The first is by Maria Hocking, a transformational coach with an incredible personal story. Here’s what readers are saying about Strip Naked and Re-Dress with Happiness: How […]
Continue readingThad McIlroy, the brains behind TheFutureOfPublishing.com, has released a fascinating report into publishing start-ups in the US. It makes sobering reading. I remember being the contact at the big publishing house, being approached by start-ups keen to use our content and partner to reach our markets, trying to assess if these passionate young men (they were […]
Continue readingWe’re talking about titles and subtitles today in the 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge: it’s a hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-the-neck moment for some challengers who have absolutely nailed it, others know they’re getting close but it’s not quite there yet. They have a working title, and at this stage, that’s good enough. Titles are funny things. I had […]
Continue readingDay 3 is probably the hardest day of the entire 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge. I ask challengers to distil their complex, nuanced book idea down into a single sentence or two, the summary. I’m not a monster, I give them a process to help them do it, but process or no process it’s a […]
Continue readingDay 2 of the 10-day business book proposal challenge is all about the target market. It’s a tough task, probably one of the toughest (along with tomorrow’s, but shhhh, I don’t have the heart to tell them that right now), but definitely one of the most valuable. It’s all about getting really clear on who […]
Continue readingToday’s blog is a guest post over at Birds on the Blog: http://birdsontheblog.co.uk/writing-book-first-build-platform/. ‘…a book is part of your bigger platform, not a standalone. To get readers, let alone publishers, interested in your book to the point where they’re willing to spend time and money on it, you have to secure their attention and trust. And […]
Continue readingThe 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge starts on Monday, and the Facebook group is already pretty busy. One of the tasks the challengers will be working on next week is creating a synopsis of their book, which is fearsome hard, so I decided to get them limbering up today by asking: ‘How are you feeling […]
Continue readingIt was inevitable: after a hard day with your adult colouring books, all you want is to cuddle down and listen to an adult bedtime story. App developer Calm has learned the lessons from the recent colouring-book craze and repackaged bedtime stories as tools for mindfulness and better sleep: https://www.thememo.com/2016/12/08/calm-app-sleep-stories-mindfulness-app-meditation-app-bedtime-story/. Don’t they know Radio […]
Continue readingI’m a big fan of Reedsy, the publishing professionals online marketplace. I was on the panel of judges that awarded them the 2016 Quantum Innovation Award (against some VERY stiff competition) – we were impressed by the way they serve both the new indie author community and traditional publishers so effectively, a neat trick which […]
Continue reading‘It was really useful. I came away with two or three ideas for a book and I’m clearer now about which one I’m going to pursue first and how it fits with my business.’ That was Glenda Shawley, speaking after the Year of the Book workshop back in January. She’d just spent an afternoon with […]
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