Advice from the Masters: Dale Carnegie

Nov 23, 2016 | Writing A Book

Dale Carnegie died more than sixty years ago. His book, How to Win Friends and Influence People was published 80 years ago and is still in print. It may be the best selling business book of all time. It is certainly one of the most influential.

There’s a section at the front of the book called “How This Book as Written and Why.” Carnegie describes how the most-requested subject for adult education was human relations, how several prominent people called it the most valuable skill and all the research that had been done to establish that importance. Then he quotes an expert of the day who said that no such book existed. Carnegie continues.

“I myself had been searching for years to discover a practical, working handbook on human relations. Since no such book existed, I decided to write one for use in my own courses. And here it is. I hope you like it.”

There are lots of subjects out there that people want to learn about. They will buy and read a good book on one of those subjects. Will you be the one to write it?

Want more? Check out the complete list of Advice from the Masters posts

If you want even more writing advice from writers, check out Jon Winokur’s blog, “AdvicetoWriters.”