Archive for February 2026
Telling the 1 Outsider’s Great Story
When I meet with my business advisor, I update him on how things are going with my outsider clients or prospects. Instead of mentioning them by name (because he can’t keep track), I tend to use occupational or identification shorthand: therapist, Bronx Brother, sex worker, surfer, crypto guy, schoolteacher, Realtor, police brutality victim, impostor, guy…
Read MoreNarrative Nonfiction’s 9 Great Parts
I am close to completing a nonfiction manuscript about two brothers from the Bronx, the younger one who joined a gang and the older one who didn’t, and the lives they led as a result of that one fundamental choice. It’s violent, coarse, graphic, and it’s filled with the foul language they used on the…
Read MoreAn LLM is Just 1 Big Word Calculator
I recently attended a monthly meeting with Ally Machate, who runs The Writers Ally, a book editing, publishing, and marketing firm. People ask her anything related to the book publishing and editing worlds. One guy asked about artificial intelligence, and in listening to Ally’s reply, something dawned on me about large language models, or LLMs.…
Read More5 Dangerous Contract Spots
When somebody agrees to work with me and I send out a contract, what happens next is always a crapshoot. Sometimes, the person signs the contract, no questions asked. Sometimes, her or she will want to negotiate particular sections, paragraphs, or clauses. I’m always willing to listen to their concerns, and I usually accommodate them…
Read MoreWhy Credit 1 Great Ghostwriter
As I’ve written previously, the ghostwriting default is anonymity. But that doesn’t mean a ghostwriter always has to remain behind the scenes. More and more, authors that use ghostwriters are crediting them. When you see a celebrity memoir, you might see the celebrity’s name and a different, less-familiar name. That name is often the credited…
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