Novel Handbook
Novels break in ways short stories never do. The forgiving short form lets you get away with murder. Eighty thousand words exposes everything: consistency, a
Tag: Book Writing
Writing a book is a long project with a thousand small decisions, and most of them are invisible until you are standing in front of them. This tag collects articles on the whole arc of book writing: planning, drafting, structure, stamina, and getting a manuscript across the finish line. The advice comes from decades of doing it for myself and for clients.
Book MarketingWhat a Book Costs Before Anybody Buys One
Most first-time authors budget for the writing and nothing else. The writing is rarely the largest line.
Book WritingCybersecurity, Memoir and Philosophy Are the Same Job
People assume the range is a problem. What transfers between a security book and a memoir is almost everything that matters.
BloggingYour Book Needs a Better Reason Than I Wrote Some Stuff and People Liked It
Quantity is not quality, and an archive is not a book. The difference is whether it solves a problem for a group of people.
Book WritingThree of My Books Should Not Exist
Not because they were badly made. Because the reason for making them was wrong, and no amount of craft fixes that.
Book MarketingOne Book Answers a Question. A Series Answers the Next One.
A reader who finishes a book you wrote has just told you something. A series is the only format that responds to it.
Book MarketingFinishing Is a Separate Skill From Writing
Almost nobody stops writing a book because they cannot write. They stop at one of three predictable places.
Authority Through AuthorshipI Will Tell You When Your Book Idea Is Bad
Most people in this trade will not tell you your idea is weak. They will take the deposit and find out with you.
Book WritingThe People Getting Attacked Are the Ones Nobody Writes For
There is a great deal of security writing and almost none of it is addressed to the people losing money.
Book WritingEverything I Get Wrong in My Own Books, I Stop Doing in Yours
A ghostwriter who never publishes under their own name never has to live with the consequences of a bad structural decision.
AIAI Cannot Give You the One Thing Only You Have
Ask for an illustrative example and you get a plausible composite. Plausible composites are exactly what readers stop believing.
AIAI Does Not Know You, and That Is the Whole Problem
A model knows what people in your field generally say. That is the one thing your book must not be.