Will Your Writing be Around in One Hundred Years? Four years ago, my mom found an old book in her basement. My great grandfather’s name was written on the inside cover, along with his address in Chicago. The book was published in 1914. Yes, that’s right, 1914—over one hundred years ago. That’s a long-lasting book. […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD How does your company handle cancellations? Do you allow anyone to process terminations, quickly and without hassle? Or do you have a specific “cancellation” strategy, with a team assigned and trained to follow an exact protocol? Either approach has its strengths and limitations; both fall short of the customer’s best […]
Selecting the Right Beta Reader is Key to Receiving Helpful Feedback We’ve talked about the importance of having a beta reader to give feedback on our books. I hope you’re as sold on the idea as I am. The next step is finding beta readers—not just anyone but the right ones. If we pick a […]
5 Key Contributors to Answering Service Success By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Over the years I’ve seen some answering services get larger, while others didn’t. Before we attribute the difference to bad timing, being in the wrong place, or poor luck, let’s consider some characteristics that can contribute to answering service success. This isn’t a […]
The more people who provide feedback on our books the better. Of course, to be of benefit, this needs to happen before publication, when there is time to make changes. Although review by various types of editors (each pass focusing on different elements) is essential, basic feedback is first needed to work out the kinks, […]
It’s not a matter of if we lose some of our writing but of when. Backing up our files is essential. In addition to using some of the file backup options listed below, each time I finish a writing session, I make copies of the document on my computer and another on a second computer. […]
I’ve heard many credible sources advise not to include prologues in our books. Yet, writers continue to write them, and publishers continue to publish them. Does that mean we can safely disregard this advice? I think not. Here’s why: I understand most readers skip prologues. That’s telling. Even more, I’ve read e-books that opened to […]
Last week we acknowledged no one has all the skills required to self-publish a book. The only solution is to pay a team of people to handle the critical tasks of book publishing. This includes cover design, editing, interior layout, photography, and so on. Or is there another way? Although it would take great effort, […]
Key Lessons in Customer Service By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD When my internet service goes down, I seldom call customer service to report it. I simply don’t have the time to waste with my provider’s nonsensical troubleshooting process. Instead, I usually wait in hope that someone else will report the outage and achieve a timely […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD There was a local coffee shop that I frequent, which given that I don’t drink coffee seems a bit strange. Even so, it was a great place for meetings and I generally found myself there at least once a week. I noticed a free newspaper there. Actually, calling it a […]