It’s Day 2 of the 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge, and we’re focusing on defining and evidencing the target market. This is a tough job, one of the chewiest of the whole challenge (and that’s saying something….) but it’s also one of the most valuable. The typical mistake most non-fiction authors make is to keep […]
Continue readingThe 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge kicked off today, and looks like being another group full of interesting people with something significant to say: really looking forward to the next two weeks. One business owner introduced herself but reflected on the timing of the challenge and her sense that maybe it wasn’t somehow appropriate to […]
Continue readingIn the wake of yesterday’s attacks in London, on the night of the benefit concert after the attack in Manchester, and with so much being said on both traditional and social meda it’s hard to know what to add. We’re all heartsick and scared, and yet we are all cheered too by the helpers, the […]
Continue readingAfter the colouring books for grown-ups trend there have been a few attempts to find the Next Big Thing that could be smuggled in under the ‘mindfulness’ banner: dot-to-dot was one of the most dismal, in my opinion, but I’m more cheerful about a new title in the works from Pan Macmillan’s Bluebird imprint: Scriptorium: Healing […]
Continue readingHow many times have you said that over the last year/month/week/day? If your life is like mine, saying yes to one thing means saying no to something else, so you need to budget your time carefully. I spend my life helping people create books and put out regular content to build their business, knowing […]
Continue readingIf you’ve got a brand, it’s a good idea to make sure your assets – your artwork, website copy, even premises etc – match up. So if you’re going to call your company ‘Scholars Punting’ and convey the impression that you’re a learned bunch, an offshoot of Cambridge University, staffed by the brightest and best […]
Continue readingDelighted to hear that one of my This Book Means Business bootcampers has taken the massive step of setting up a beta group to feed back on her book as she writes it. She got eight people from her target market in a room together, most of them strangers to her beforehand. She reports: ‘They […]
Continue readingI’m preparing Episode 61 of The Extraordinary Business Book podcast, which will go live on Monday (I’m sure you know that, since you’re probably subscribed on iTunes, I just mention it in passing). It’s a conversation with Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist, presenter of More or Less on Radio 4, and author of Messy. And […]
Continue readingThis is good. Reedsy, the online marketplace for writers, has launched a new charity campaign, #IWriteBecause. For everyone who uploads a video explaining why they write, Reedsy will donate $10 to Room to Read, a not-for-profit organisation promoting literacy and girls’ education in Africa and Asia. I’ve not done mine yet but I will – […]
Continue readingMore soundtrack insights: it turns out Daniel Priestly (author of Key Person of Influence, The Entrepreneur Revolution and Oversubscribed) also has a writing playlist, and while Caroline Webb (author of How to Have a Good Day) favours deep house (or Haydn), he is a fan of trance music. My musical tastes are eclectic but unsophisticated. […]
Continue reading