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Talking to M. - Notes

asked me: Who do you know at Oxford who knows someone at OUP?

Is it ok to blog? ….ok? Yes. see e.g. “How to blog a book” example… Crossways The Gospels Mark started as a series of blog posts

Motivation / Mental State:

  • “How to write A LOT” https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Lot-Practical-Productive/dp/1591477433

  • “Professors as Writers” https://www.amazon.com/Professors-Writers-Self-Help-Productive-Writing/dp/091350713X

  • “Deep Work” Cal Newport: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692

  • “The Slow Professor”: https://www.amazon.com/Slow-Professor-Challenging-Culture-Academy/dp/1487521855/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38VJJNJX5FGUL&dchild=1&keywords=the+slow+professor&qid=1600727065&s=books&sprefix=the+slow+pro%2Cstripbooks%2C162&sr=1-1

  • “The One Thing” by Gary Keller: https://www.amazon.com/ONE-Thing-Surprisingly-Extraordinary-Results/dp/1885167776

  • “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown: https://gregmckeown.com/book/

  • Cal Newport: “Digital Minimalism” https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Minimalism-Choosing-Focused-Noisy/dp/0525536515/ref=sr_1_3?crid=PJP8WZQ9H30F&dchild=1&keywords=digital+minimalism&qid=1600727136&s=books&sprefix=digital+m%2Cstripbooks%2C170&sr=1-3

  • William Zinsser “Writing Well” https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-Classic-Guide-Nonfiction/dp/0060891548

Speed reading:

  • Not subvocalizing
  • Have a speedreading practice book.
  • Practice not going back
  • Mortimer Adler: “How to Read a Book”, different ways of reading for different purposes

Interviews: Hossenfelder: Lost in Math: bunch of interviews. Would Sabine have any ideas to share on writing pop sci book…

Image rights: depends on the publisher. Publisher directed him how to do it.

Advances: T.N. ca. 55k over 3 books, agent 15%. Smaller company: 7k. For very-academic press, no advance.

How full of a proposal / precis do I need? / Precis, how much to prepare? Level of detail depends on publisher…

Getting promotional blurbs/quotes from people: M. cold-emailed some people. His agent reached out for blurb… anybody who has a connection,,,, before you have advance reader copy.

Footnotes / endnotes. Publisher determines that.

A lot of what you’ll have to do is learn how to market the idea.

“You can’t understand how hard it is to explain something.”

Other writers’ advice: “Assume that your reader is stupid, lazy, and mean.” :

  • stupid: you gotta clarify
  • lazy: they’ll put the book down
  • mean: if they can misinterpret it, they will

Know that You’re not trying to write the last word on this. …here it is as best as I can do it now, and I’m going to have to be ok with this, having learned stuff. 80/20 rule

References