Steve Jobs Back Cover Photo by Doug Menuez Unveiled
Hot off the press from @Pogue . Great to see the Steve Jobs back cover image by 📸 Doug Menuez. https://t.co/5TcVubxye6 https://t.co/LhrSI8PnyH
Kafka Shows Bureaucracy Isn't Just Banal
It is a mistake to confuse the banal with bureaucracy. Try this: 1. Read "The Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka. 2. Then, read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. "The Hunger Artist" is the far superior work, by the way.
Kids' Dictionary Drops Nature Words, Sparks Backlash
When the Oxford children's dictionary discarded dozens of nature-words—"dandelion," "fern," "starling"—as irrelevant to children's imagination and replaced them with words like "broadband" and "cut-and-paste," this inspired act of resistance was born: https://t.co/Is4zFAQqc6
Choose POV for Story, Not Sales Advantage
I'm genuinely flummoxed why 1st person vs 3rd person POV is suddenly a big issue. I've had books in both for my whole career, and there's no real sales advantage or disadvantage I can tell. The upcoming book starts off...
New Book Empowers Early‑Career Professionals Into Lucrative Real Estate
When a (smart, accomplished) friend puts in the effort to write a book, I buy the book
Data‑Driven Guide to Mastering Literary Querying
I've been working on this massive project quietly for almost two years, and I'm SO excited to finally share it. 🎉 I wrote a book with the creator of QueryTracker, the #1 tool writers use to research and track agent submissions. If...
NYT Bestseller List: Small Sales, Big Misconceptions
This is getting a lot of pub. Let's explain why the NYT bestseller is confusing... The NYT list tracks 1 week of sales (and it's subjective not entirely based on sales data.) What it takes to make that list varies based...
Night Night Fawn: A Remarkably Extraordinary New Novel
Jordy Rosenberg’s new novel Night Night Fawn is extraordinary. I wrote about it here: https://www.themarisreview.com/the-maris-review-vol-95/
Annual Review: Gratitude First, Long‑Term Growth Unlocked
My new book is available for pre-order 🎉 "Life in Perspective: The Art and Power of the Annual Life Review" comes out Nov. 3 in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook This book distills nearly two decades of practicing annual reviews into a...
LinkedIn Message Sparked $270M Exit Journey
I just published Gleamer’s $270M Acquisition, Investing as a Radiologist, and My First Exit — It All Started with a LinkedIn message ... https://t.co/uwm9lCUsdm
Podcast Guesting Supercharges Nonfiction Book Launch
Therapist and nonfiction author Oona Metz was a guest on over 50 podcasts prior to her book's launch. Here's what she learned: https://janefriedman.com/how-to-use-podcast-guesting-to-promote-your-nonfiction-book/
Live Drawing Session for My Universe-Spanning Book
Since mid-2023, I’ve been working on a book about everything—from the Big Bang to the end of the universe. I’m currently in the drawing phase and will be doing them publicly today—sharing my screen on an all-day livestream starting at...
Build Power, Position
Six years ago, I released Power Shift into the world… Six years later, the message still stands: You don’t wait for power. You build it. You don’t chase opportunity. You position yourself for it. I’m grateful for every reader who didn’t just read the...
Le Guin: Menopause Signals Rebirth, Elders Empower Society
Ursula K. Le Guin on change, menopause as rebirth, and the civilizational value of elders https://t.co/F7JRCwG833
Combine Fragments Wisely: Early Advice From Published Authors
Published authors: what’s your best piece of advice? I’m starting to enter writing contests using fragments of essays and passages I’ve written over the past couple of years. Binding them together into one cohesive essay is a challenge, but I’d love...
Memoir Hype Repeats: Publishers Skip Vetting, Celebrities Amplify
It seems like this story gets repeated every few years. Someone writes a memoir. The book publisher does no due diligence to determine the story's credibility. Oprah and other celebrities heavily promote the book. Then questions arise. https://t.co/zCywhXJble
Freedom of Movement Remains Core American Value, YIMBY Book Shows
There's actually a whole YIMBY book wrestling with this question—it's called Stuck by Yoni Appelbaum and it's fantastic—and the answer is that freedom of movement is a core value of American political life.
Ethics Chapter Misses Depth, Confuses Relevance with Legitimacy
I still give the book Understanding Deep Learning by Simon J.D. Prince a good recommendation, but chapter 21: Deep learning and Ethics was sloppy. It could have been a chapter to really dig in on case studies, but it was...
AI‑written Stories About AI Job Takeover Go Viral Unnoticed
It's a kind of interesting literary development that one of the most popular kinds of LLM-written content is fiction about LLMs replacing all the jobs. These stories reliably do numbers, and apparently their audience doesn't notice or care that it's...
Uncover Leadership Tactics Business Schools Overlook
What are we reading? Title: “The leaders toolkit - Tools, strategies and tactics they never teach you at business school” Author: Dave Berkus @daveberkus #Books #Sales #Marketing #SocialSelling #leadership https://t.co/qHyodV8wap https://t.co/1l5eP8RF1O
The Perfect Book Beats Advice and Money
Sometimes the greatest gift you can give someone isn’t advice or money but the right book at the right time.
Rediscover Fairy Tales When You’re Old Enough
CS Lewis with one of my favorite dedications ever written, “But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” https://t.co/tC3Ytu8L2Z
The Past Wasn't Golden: Preindustrial Life Was Brutal
The Grim Truth About the “Good Old Days” by Chelsea Follett @chellivia (one of the best essays debunking pristine antiquity). "A popular saying holds that “the past is a foreign country,” and based on recorded accounts, it is not one...
Anna’s Archive Accused of Supplying Pirated Content to AI Firms
"Anna’s Archive is actively advertising that it will provide high speed access to—and indeed has already supplied stolen works of authorship to—developers of large language model AI systems and data brokers." Uuuuuuuugh https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/99880-publishers-charge-anna-s-archive-with-copyright-infringement.html
Finalists Celebrate Community at Asbury Book Co‑Op
Had a lot of fun with the other finalists at the Asbury Book Co-Op event Saturday night. Read from my essay “Lobsternacht.” https://t.co/dcgHZCRQ9u
Inside the True Process of Honoring Fallen Soldiers
Apropos of nothing, if you want an accurate portrayal of a US military dignified transfer and understand what actually happens in processing and honoring the country's fallen warriors (plus find out what happens when a dead soldier wakes up in...
Write What Fascinates You, Not Just About Writing
From @bpoppenheimer: In 1959, a seventh-grader named Thomasine was wrestling with how to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. At her teacher’s suggestion, she wrote a letter to her favorite writer, C.S. Lewis, asking for his advice. “Dear Thomasine,” Lewis...
Timeless Book Recommendation Still Ranks in My Top Five
19 years ago, a Metro magazine reporter in Washington DC was interviewing bar patrons about the best book they'd read recently. This was my answer, and 19 years later I'd still put it in my top 5. https://t.co/oy9uUMfbee
George Saunders: 3 Antidotes to Suffering Through Kindness
How to be an instrument of kindness in a harsh world – George Saunders on unthinking the mind, unstorying the self, and the 3 antidotes to your suffering https://t.co/DUCgC3JHbu
Poetic Meditations on Time, Love, and Wonder
This week oasis of small sanities, in one place – Pablo Neruda on how to hold time; the figments of love and the hallucinations of reason; the aurora borealis and the polar expedition saved by wonder: https://t.co/lvthiGXFPS https://t.co/SGPhzPIJb2
Real HR: A Survival Guide for Tough Layoffs
I wrote a book for people in HR who’ve ever been asked to "just get it over with" during a layoff. The folks who have gotten blamed for things they didn’t approve. The ones who ever had a day when...
Adopt Tim Ferriss' Routine to Boost Writing Focus
Tim Ferriss is one of the most popular writers of the 21st century. His books have sold over 3,000,000 copies. So, I studied his daily writing routine. Give this a try to free up your mental bandwidth to focus on your writing: https://t.co/ort25dJkSj
Power Corrupts: Dark Satire of Ghetto Authority
WHAT THE HELL... "This 1979 classic tells the darkly humorous story of I.C. Trumpelman, a man whose fancy determines the fate of others. Chosen as the head of a Judenrat, Trumpelman thrives on the power granted him and creates an authoritarian...
Reality vs Perception: From Zeno to Borges
Superb read on the endless tug-of-war between human nature and the nature of reality, from Zeno's paradox to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle to Borges's mirror https://t.co/jNaaCY1w60
Love Transforms Perception, Revealing a Golden Light
Letting in the golden light – Oliver Sacks on how love changes what we see https://t.co/VRmelozj2f
Finish Draft, Then Revise—Don’t Submit Immediately
One of the biggest mistakes I see writers making is submitting their projects too soon. Typing THE END feels so good. Finishing the first draft of a book is an accomplishment – and worth celebrating But it’s not time to dash...
Turning Passionate Book Talk Into Click‑Worthy Content
What if I learned how to write about books I love in a way people actually liked? 🤪 40k+ views and 2 likes is actually so embarrassing. ☠️
From Dropout to Nobel: Lessing's Timeless Reading Wisdom
Doris Lessing was 14 when she dropped out of school and 88 when she won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her abiding wisdom on how to read a book and how to read the world https://t.co/LlU7CVEqUQ
Found Rare Out‑of‑Print Novel
Your girl got her hands on a used library copy of the out of print novel (co-authored by my @lafilmcritics colleague/ friend Stephen Farber) on the John Landis’ Twilight Zone Movie deaths, Outrageous Conduct.
Congress Targets School Book Bans on Gender Identity
A new bill in Congress would punish schools for letting students read about gender identity — and “lascivious dancing.” Book bans aren’t fading. They’re evolving. Today’s newsletter: https://roncharles.substack.com/p/now-congress-is-coming-for-the-books
Buying Books ≠ Reading Them: Separate Hobbies
Friendly reminder: Buying books and reading books are two different hobbies. (visual by my friend @ash_lmb) https://t.co/h9Z2zH8iYk
24 Books That Shaped Gabriel García Márquez’s Visionary Mind
“Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.” Gabriel García Márquez would have been 99 today. His formative reading list of 24 books that shaped his visionary mind: https://t.co/V3XOJsbWvG
Fans Demand Spoilers yet Blame Authors for Avoiding Them
Y’all get mad about spoilers and then also get mad at an author for not answering your questions THAT MIGHT BE SPOILERS.
Escape Algorithmic Tyranny with Marginalian’s Human‑Centred Newsletter
For an act of resistance to the tyranny of algorithms, try the Marginalian newsletter—undistracted notes on the search for meaning, free, ad-free, AI-free, fully human since 2006: https://t.co/8ApDA5YPF6
AI Novel Apps Are Gimmicky, Not Creative Boosts
Every week, someone asks me to promote their “AI for novelists” app. I decline them all, and if the main function is to generate the text/story, I die a little. But I’m genuinely curious: is anyone finding these apps helpful? Not...
Show Characters' Inner Worlds: Practical Steps for Interiority
Some readers asked me how to practically add interiority to fiction. So, I wrote a post on it that is probably writing 101 for many but hopefully of interest to others: https://countercraft.substack.com/p/the-view-from-inside-on-adding-interiority
Reading Goals: Diversity Over Competition
Last year was STACKED 📚 Grateful to be featured in @guardian chatting all things reading goals, particularly the importance of reading diversely and only competing with yourself Photos by misskatiepeters Words by @emmalofty Clothes by cathcartlondon
First National Book Ban Targets Trans Youth, Act Now
I wrote about the first national book banning bill, which effectively seeks to erase trans people. At the end I include a link to let your reps know that you oppose this bill and all it stands for. https://lithub.com/why-we-must-fight-to-stop-hr-7661-before-it-destroys-the-lives-of-american-children/
Use Principles Over Formulas to Structure Your Story
Try searching for “how to structure a story” and you'll get a panoply of instructions: Hero’s Journey Three-act structure Save the Cat Snowflake method Freytag’s Pyramid Fichtean Curve What do you do with them? Tiffany Yates Martin advises: https://janefriedman.com/base-your-story-structure-on-principles-not-systems/
Kundera Explores Life’s Ambivalence and Love’s Uncertainty
How do we know what we want – Milan Kundera on the central ambivalences of life and love https://t.co/YiTk12J73j