According to one writer, 97 percent of the people who start a book never finish that book. I don’t know if that precise number is correct, but I do think the proportion’s about right. I spend my days working with mid-career businesspeople who are writing a book. They’re doing it to improve their reputation and » Read More
Category: Writing A Book
Learning While Writing a Book
Jeff Senne and I wrote two of the first books about how businesses could use the internet. Jeff liked to say writing a book was like getting a PhD. That’s certainly not true. In fact, if you get a PhD, you also write a book called a dissertation. But even if writing a book is not like getting a PhD, it is a time when you » Read More
Writing a Book: It’s Not Magic to the Magician
It was our first weekend at the beach since before COVID. Even though the weather was overcast and wet, the company was great. We spent most of Saturday afternoon sitting on the porch and talking about all kinds of things. Then, my host said, “I could never do what you do.” I’ve heard that song before. Lots of people » Read More
You Can’t Finish a Book if You Don’t Start It
I talk to dozens of them every year. Sometimes, they’re people who call me and want to write a book but who just never get started. Sometimes, they’re people I meet at parties who say they’ve always wanted to write a book but who never did. Sometimes, they’re the people who tell me what a great book they could have » Read More
Writing a Book: The Important Final Chapter
Writing a good book is a long slog. It takes months of hard work to pull things together and make your thinking clear. It’s natural end to let up a bit as you get toward the. Don’t do it. This Is Not the Time to Slack Off When I ran track, we learned to “run through the tape.” Our coaches wanted us to ease up only » Read More