What Happens After the Retreat: The Publishing Roadmap
Day 4 ends and then Tuesday happens. This is the part of the retreat nobody puts in the brochure.
Most Books Shouldn’t Be Books
A ghostwriter talking you out of a book. The 4-minute test that tells you whether you have a book, an article, a talk, a course, or nothing yet.
4 Million Books Came Out Last Year. Almost None Are Your Competition.
Bowker counted 4 million US titles last year. 90% of self-published books sell under 100 copies. Here is how to count the dozen that genuinely compete with yours.
Your Association Is Sitting on 200 Books
Open your membership directory and read it as a publisher’s catalogue. Why member author programmes die, what they’re worth to your board, and the 1 question to ask 10 members this week.
The Audiobook Story Nobody’s Telling Isn’t the Robot Voice
Making an audiobook got 73% cheaper. That is the least interesting thing that happened. Spotify moved production inside distribution, and that changes what you should do about yours.
How to Brief a Speaker So You Get the Talk You Actually Wanted
The worst brief I ever got was 4 words long. What to send a speaker, what to ask for, and the 3 things that guarantee you have booked a dud.
The Table of Stories
I always wanted a seat at that table. Nobody pulled out the chair, so I built my own. On truth-telling, community, and what happens when you ask a better question.
What We Pass Down: On Books, Handwriting, and What We Leave Behind
There is a box of my mother’s books in my office I have not been able to open. On personal libraries, marginalia, and why books are the real heirlooms.
Traditions Reimagined: Rituals Without Borders
30 years as a digital nomad taught me this: the haka, the sauna, the drum, the passeggiata, the forest. Rituals are portable. Here is how to bring them home.
The Stories We Carry
Older than language, stronger than borders. Why storytelling is the only tradition that belongs to everyone and excludes no one.
Writing as Healing: The Quiet Medicine of Telling the Truth
I was a child processing death in the late 80s, before anyone had language for it. So I wrote. Here is what writing actually does to grief.
The Quiet Ones Move the World
The advisors, the writers, the fixers, the ghostwriters. The people who never need the spotlight are the ones holding the whole thing up.