It is surprisingly difficult to be able to explain what a project is really about while you are working on it. If you are not careful, you can write and publish an entire book, get it into bookstores, and even have some readers and still have a difficult time explaining what it is. Worse still,…
Playbook
The Rule of 30,000: How to Evaluate the Market for Your Book Idea (Steve Scott)
How do you know if there is an audience for a book about a topic that you want to write about? After you spend months writing a book, how will you know that there will be readers to buy it? Steve Scott, whose series of habit books consistently put him at the top of the…
The Ten Person Test: How to Get Feedback on Your Book
The other day someone asked me how they could get published. That’s a big question! There are so many different ways to get published today. Further into the conversation she asked, “So, should I get an agent?” That’s getting ahead of herself. Before you get an agent or an editor, get feedback on your writing….
Maker's Schedule, Marketer's Schedule, and Manager's Schedule: How Creative to Organize Your Day as a Writer
One of Y-Combinator founder Paul Graham’s most popular essays for startup founders is “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule.” The basic premise is that tech startup founders, who have typically come from programming backgrounds, have to make a mental shift from a maker’s schedule to a manager’s schedule where more time is spent in meetings. At some…
The HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired) Strategy: How to Respond Temper Tantrums
Sometimes there is no amount of talking through a tantrum. Your child may not be thinking straight for another, more basic reason. I heard about this little trick in the audiobook of Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson’s The Whole-Brain Child: HALT and ask yourself: Hungry: Is my child hungry? Angry: Is my child angry?…
