At BBG, we are frequently asked how we will mimic an author/client’s voice. It’s important, whether our task is developmental editing, a full rewrite, or original ghostwriting. It’s an especially important question if Jack and I are both working on the same book, as we recently did. At the beginning of each book project, we […]
It’s hard to understand why Jonah Lehrer, an accomplished and wildly successful 31-year-old journalist – a Columbia graduate, Rhodes scholar, staff writer for The New Yorker, author of three successful books and articles in all kinds of prestigious publications – would shoot himself in the foot and his career in the head by fabricating, borrowing, […]
The state of the art of writing in the business world is neither stately nor artistic. It’s awful. NBC Nightly News interviewed me some years ago about business writing following a prior interview in The New York Times. Last week The Times published Helen Sword’s article on zombie nouns, her name for nominalizations. That’s a […]
“What in the heck does Higgs boson have to do with my book?” you may be asking. Higgs boson is some little tiny thingamajig physicists imagine exists. Or at least have determined that it doesn’t not exist. So now they think they know what it is. Everybody’s excited about it, even if they don’t really […]
Recently I replied to an aspiring writer on a Linked In group. “How can I get started?” she asked. Then I read some of the ill-advised comments. I had to reply. Here’s an adaptation of the list applied to aspiring business book authors. 1. Sweat grammar. Traditional Standard English grammar is essential. Americans incorrectly use […]