The Authors Guild surveyed 5,700 authors: $10k median full-time book income. Treat that as true, then measure the column that actually pays. Peter Merrett doubled his speaking fee.
Publishing Strategy
Day 4 ends and then Tuesday happens. This is the part of the retreat nobody puts in the brochure.
Bowker counted four million US titles last year. Ninety percent of self-published books sell under a hundred copies. Here is how to count the dozen that genuinely compete with yours.
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 one question to ask ten members this week.
The Authors Guild will certify that no machine wrote your book. It says nothing about whether you did. A ghostwriter on the clause the whole industry is too squeamish to write.
AI writes competent sentences. It cannot have been in the room. Why purely AI-generated text can't hold copyright, what Author Intelligence actually is, and the one question that tells you whether your book is safe.
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.
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 book proposal is one of the most misunderstood documents in publishing. Some authors spend months writing one they never needed. Others query agents for years without one and wonder why no one bites. If you are a nonfiction author — a founder, a leader, a coach, a consultant, a person with a story and a methodology — the question of whether you need a proposal, and what should be in it, is one of the most important questions you will answer before your book reaches readers. This is the guide.
You Googled "how to publish a book" and now you're more confused than when you started. Traditional. Self. Hybrid. Vanity. Assisted. Partner. The terminology alone is enough to close the tab and go back to not writing the book. After thirty years as a publishing strategist and ghostwriter, here's the clearest, most honest breakdown of the three real options — and the one question that makes the choice obvious.
If you've been paying attention to publishing news lately, you've seen the headlines. Fiction is booming. Nonfiction is declining. Romantasy is outselling memoirs. And somewhere in the back of your mind, a question has formed that you haven't quite let yourself finish: 'Maybe this isn't the right time for my book.' Let me stop you right there. Because the story the headlines are telling is not the story that applies to you.
