After you’ve written your proposal and sent it to publishers, the future of your book is in their hands.
If you’ve done your job effectively, you will receive an offer (or hopefully, offers) to purchase the rights to your book.
Almost all offers come in one of three ways:
You should think of the people you’re working with at each stage of the publishing process as your publishing team.
Each one contributes something different and has different interests, but what you all have in common is the desire to see your book through to publication and on to the greatest possible success.
This guide is also available in Spanish. In 2016, I read 57 books. I read like I was running out of time. It felt like an achievement, yet by the end of the year, I could scarcely recall even one useful idea from each book. That moment was a turning point. I realized very little…
Your proposal is like a business plan for your book. It needs to justify why your book is worth not just years of your time and effort, but the time and effort of dozens of professionals around the country (and maybe even around the world) who will be needed to get your book on shelves….
Publishing a book is like running for political office.
There are a lot of people out there who you want to take a certain action, at a certain time and place in the future. With political campaigning, that action is to vote. With book campaigning, it is to buy your book.
In the beginning, is a message.
You have something to say. A message that wants to get out of you. That needs to get out of you or else it will keep you up every night and drive you crazy.
I recently signed a six-figure book deal with Simon & Schuster for my book Building a Second Brain.
As a first-time author, and in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in a generation, this is a spectacular outcome. It took a year of hard work, a team of editors and advisors, and countless
I couldn’t be more proud to announce that I’ve signed a six-figure book deal with Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, to publish my book Building a Second Brain. Subscribe below to get updates on my progress, sneak peeks at early chapters, and bonus resources to help you build your Second Brain now:…
On Thursday, March 26 at 5pm ET I joined Srini Rao for an in-depth workshop on Progressive Summarization, my technique for highlighting the information you consume and turning it into bite-sized nuggets of wisdom. Srini is the founder of The Unmistakable Creative, a blog and podcast for creative people who don’t accept the status quo. He’s…
On Thursday, March 19, at 9am ET, I will be interviewing Sönke Ahrens, author of the breakout book How To Take Smart Notes. This is your chance to ask him your burning questions on note-taking and non-fiction writing. Ahrens is a Lecturer in Philosophy of Education at the University of Duisburg-Essen and also coaches students,…
I long ago stopped reading books on note-taking. They were always too vague and boring, full of platitudes that had little to do with the world outside academia. I especially avoided “how-to” style books on the subject. They would often list dozens of tips and tricks that had little to do with each other. There…
I’m proud to announce my new book, The Heart is the Bottleneck. In this book, I explore and dissect a wide range of topics related to productivity and personal effectiveness. From note-taking and writing, to creativity and curation, to being a digital nomad and working with a virtual assistant. Tying together these topics is the…