How to Protect Your Book: A Complete Guide to IP, Copyright & Author Rights Across Canada, the USA, the UK, Australia & New Zealand
You’ve spent months — or years — turning everything you know into a book. Before that book goes anywhere near a publisher, printer, or the public, there’s a conversation we need to have. Not a legal lecture. A practical, plain-English guide to what protects your work, what doesn’t, and exactly what you need to do depending on where you live and where you plan to publish. This is the IP guide I wish I’d had from day one.
The Storykeeper Manifesto: Why Your Most Powerful Business Asset Hasn’t Been Written Yet
There is a word I use for the humans I work with. Not clients. Not authors. Storykeepers. You are someone who has spent decades accumulating something the world needs and hasn’t yet found a way to access. The wisdom is real. The experience is hard-won. The impact is waiting. The only thing missing is the vehicle — the book that releases it from inside you and puts it where it belongs: in the hands of the people who are ready for exactly what you know.
The Difference Between a Book Coach and a Ghostwriter — And How to Know Which One You Need
This is one of the most common questions I get — and it deserves a cleaner answer than most people give it. A book coach and a ghostwriter do genuinely different things. The right choice depends not on preference or budget alone, but on a specific set of questions about your goals, your timeline, your existing writing capacity, and what you want your relationship with the finished book to feel like. Here’s the framework I use with every prospective client before we ever discuss working together.
How AI Is Changing Publishing — And What It Means for Your Book
AI has entered every corner of publishing, and the conversations around it range from breathless enthusiasm to outright panic. After thirty years in this industry, my view is more measured than either. AI is changing some things significantly and leaving others entirely untouched — and knowing the difference is one of the most useful strategic advantages a 2026 author can have. Here’s what’s actually happening, what it means for your book, and where the irreplaceable human element sits.
The Audiobook Opportunity Most Authors Are Leaving on the Table
The audiobook market reached $2.22 billion in 2024 and is growing at a rate that has left print and ebooks well behind. More than half of all Americans have now listened to an audiobook — and the fastest-growing segment is nonfiction. If you’re writing a business book, a memoir, or an expert methodology and you haven’t thought about the audio version yet, this is the conversation you need to have before you finish the manuscript.
Your Book Is a Business Asset — Here’s the Data to Prove It
Most people think of a book as a passion project — something you do when you have time, when the business is established, when the conditions are right. The research disagrees. A published book is one of the highest-ROI business assets a founder, executive, or expert can own. Here’s the data — and what it means for whether your book should be next year’s goal or this year’s.
Why Your Book Isn’t Getting Written (And What to Do About It)
You’ve started the book. More than once, probably. You have notes in four different places, a half-finished introduction somewhere in your downloads folder, and a running list of chapter ideas that felt brilliant at 2am and slightly less brilliant in the morning. The book isn’t getting written — and deep down you suspect the problem isn’t time, or discipline, or talent. You’re right. Here’s what the problem actually is.
What Happens After You Write Your Book? The Launch Strategy Most Authors Miss
Most authors spend years writing a book and three weeks thinking about how to launch it. The book arrives quietly. A few hundred copies sell. The speaking enquiries don’t materialise. The business doesn’t shift. And the author is left wondering what went wrong — not realising that the launch strategy needed to start before the last chapter was written. Here’s what actually works.
How to Build Your Author Platform Before Your Book Is Written
The single most common reason traditionally published books get rejected isn’t the writing. It isn’t the idea. It’s the platform — or the absence of one. Publishers in 2026 expect authors to arrive with an audience already built. But platform building doesn’t have to wait for a publishing deal, and it doesn’t require a massive following. It requires the right strategy, started at the right time. That time is now.
Is Ghostwriting Ethical? The Truth About Who Actually Writes Bestsellers
Ghostwriting is one of publishing’s worst-kept secrets and most misunderstood practices. The moral panic around it resurfaces every few years — usually when a public figure’s book gets attributed to a ghost. Here’s what thirty years inside the industry has taught me about the ethics, the reality, and why the question itself is based on a misunderstanding of what authorship actually is.
What Makes a New York Times Bestseller — And Does It Actually Matter?
I’ve helped create four New York Times bestselling books. I can tell you exactly what it takes to hit the list — and I can also tell you that for most business authors, thought leaders, and experts, the NYT list is the wrong goal. Not because it doesn’t matter. Because there’s something that matters more, and confusing the two is one of the most expensive mistakes in publishing.
How to Turn Your Business Into a Book (Without It Reading Like a Case Study)
The most common mistake I see business leaders make when writing a book is trying to document their business instead of telling their story. Documentation produces case studies. Story produces books that change things. Here’s the difference — and how to write a business book that captures your expertise without losing the human being behind it.