The FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year longlist has been announced: https://ig.ft.com/sites/business-book-award/books/2017. It’s heavy on finance and economics, with a side dose of technology. Only 4 of the 17 books on the list are by women, but that’s a fair or even a better-than-fair reflection of the numbers of business books written by women in […]
Continue readingToday’s blog is a guest post over at BookMachine, inspired by Matt Watkinson’s view on how to design a book as a reader-centric experience. https://bookmachine.org/2017/08/16/editor-reader-experience-champion/
Continue readingA real accolade for this week’s podcast episode: my Mum, who’s listened to pretty much all of them, reckons this one is the best yet. Matt Watkinson began his career as a designer, and his background is in customer and user experience. Which explains why his books are so beautifully designed for the reader. ‘If […]
Continue readingThere’s lots of reasons to write a book, but one I hear again and again is ‘to get speaking gigs’. There’s no doubt that a book makes you more interesting to anyone who needs to book a speaker: it’s proof that you’ve developed your thinking and have something to say. Even the fact that you’re […]
Continue readingThis was me yesterday morning, as the sun rose… ….and this was me yesterday evening, as the sun set. I know you’re probably struggling to spot the difference, so I’ll help you out: in the top picture I’ve not yet FINISHED MY BOOK!!!!!!!! (With thanks to Bec Evans for the pictures, and for inviting me […]
Continue readingWhen you complete a book proposal form for a publisher, one of the key fields you must complete is ‘extent’: how long will your book be, in thousands of words? Publishers need this information so they can create a p&l, a profit and loss spreadsheet for your book, to see if they can make a […]
Continue readingI am having a glorious few days holed up Devon with my friend Bec who’s house/dog/kitten-sitting for a friend. The house is incredibly beautiful, the location is peaceful, and we’re both of us focused entirely on our separate projects. My aim is to completely (FINALLY!) finish the full first draft of This Book Means Business […]
Continue readingI think we’ve always known that reading is a qualitatively different (by which I mean better) way of getting your entertainment than watching TV, say, but now it’s official. Kingston University student Rose Turner has conducted research that proves that regular readers of novels are kinder with better social skills than those who get their […]
Continue readingBig companies have boards of directors, which provide governance, a wide range of expertise and access to useful networks. When they work well, board meetings are focused, challenging, supportive and collaborative. (That’s a big ask, and they don’t always work well.) Creating a board of directors for your book is a bit over the top, […]
Continue readingFor years I’ve been encouraging authors to get other people involved in their books way before publication. There are a number of reeasons for this: accountability – as soon as you tell other people you’re writing a book you feel an obligation to make some progress, if only to save embarassment when they ask how […]
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