In Defense of Real Books
It’s very trendy to publish a book these days. Last year, 300,000 books were published traditionally, and more than 700,000 books were self-published. That’s right: over a million new books were unleashed on readers in 2016 alone. Fiction writing has always been a...
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How to Write a World-Changing Manifesto
When I sit down to work with a new author, I always ask them about their goals for their book, and invariably I get a version of the same answer: They want to make a difference in people’s lives. Very often, they want to change the way people think, elevate a...
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New Guidelines in the Chicago Manual of Style are an Enlightened Step Forward
This week the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) announced the changes that will be made to its upcoming new edition, which comes out in September. As an editor, a publisher, and a progressive idealist, I am applauding one of those changes in particular: approval of the...
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How to Write a Killer Book Introduction
Of all the book chapters you will write, your introduction is likely to confound you the most. What should go in it? How long should it be? Is anyone even going to read it? Most authors find themselves scratching their heads over questions like these. I hope to answer...
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Here’s Why So Many Women Are in Agony Over the Election of Donald Trump
I woke up crying the morning after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. It happened because I’d been crying in my dream, of course. I was at Hillary Clinton’s campaign headquarters with some close friends and other women, watching...
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How I Discovered the Art of Entrepreneurship
In 2004 a casual acquaintance made an audacious statement to me. A music producer with a chinstrap beard that was way ahead of its time, Dave was the father of one of my daughter’s friends. I was chatting with him by the school gates and fretting about my...
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3 Essential Questions to Ask a Hybrid Publisher
What the heck is a hybrid publisher, anyway? And how do you know if you’ve found a good one? At its best, hybrid publishing offers many of the benefits of being published by a traditional publisher — including access to market (i.e. brick-and-mortar bookstores), high...
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Announcing my forthcoming book
I have an announcement to make. I am writing a book. I’m writing a book about writing a book. (To which Paris, our marketing and communications coordinator, said: “That’s so meta…”) This should be a cinch for me. I have been an editor for nearly twenty years, over...
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How to turn fear into fuel for your writing.
Writing is scary. It means exposure – putting ourselves out there to be judged, criticized, mocked, ignored, enjoyed, learned from and admired. And it’s not only what we have to say that makes us anxious; we also worry about how we say it. We are afraid that our ideas...
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Big dreams begin with baby steps.
When your dreams are huge (as the best dreams are), it can be hard to clearly see the path you need to follow to reach them. They might seem far away and out of reach, like a mountain peak from which you are separated by a deep and twisting valley. You know exactly...
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Hi there!
my best day job ever
I'm the founder and publisher at LifeTree Media, a hybrid publishing company specializing in books that help, heal and inspire.