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  • 4 Books for Entrepreneurs Looking to Break the Mold | Entrepreneur

    4 Books for Entrepreneurs Looking to Break the Mold | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Most new businesses fail within a decade. The actual rate depends on your data source — there are lots of small businesses, which means there are lots of small business data sets — and your time horizon.

    Many more businesses stagger on, neither thriving nor failing. If we’re being generous, we might call them “boring.” If we’re feeling punchy, we might call them “zombie companies.”

    No entrepreneur sets out to run a zombie company. Or a failed business, for that matter. While doing things differently than your peers isn’t a guarantee against either fate, it’s more likely to get your enterprise noticed and to achieve escape velocity before it runs out of capital, talent or both.

    Read these four new books to gain the confidence and capability to chart your own course as an entrepreneur.

    Related: The True Failure Rate of Small Businesses

    1. Build the Fort: The Startup Community Builder’s Field Guide by Chris Heivly

    Every city wants to be the next breeding ground for unicorn startups. But even at this late stage of the tech revolution, we can count America’s true startup meccas on both hands: Seattle, the Bay Area, Boston, Austin, New York, North Carolina’s Research Triangle and maybe Denver-Boulder, if we’re feeling generous.

    What gives? Time and again, it’s not geography that’s the problem. It’s entrepreneurs getting in their own way as they try to build the next big thing.

    Chris Heivly’s latest book asks entrepreneurs looking to find (or build) a thriving startup community to stop being so adult about it. He implores them to get back to basics, literally, by channeling their inner child and building a “fort” that attracts talented, ambitious neighbors — and just maybe turns their corner of the world into the next Silicon Valley.

    Heivly knows what he’s talking about. Back in 2009, he started Raleigh-Durham’s Triangle Startup Factory. The following year, he launched a long-running accelerator program where he met Brad Feld and David Cohen, one-half of Techstars’ founding team. Inspired by their work, he spent the next decade creating “numerous founder-oriented activities,” which he writes “helped propel the region into one of the fastest-growing startup communities in the world.” (He’s not wrong: Venture capital has flooded the Triangle since 2018, and local startups raised over $3 billion in 2022 alone.)

    Building a world-class startup ecosystem is complicated, and Build the Fort won’t guarantee rocket-ship growth for your hometown. But it offers an actionable, easy-to-understand and, most importantly, fun toolkit for entrepreneurs eager to build dynamic early-stage communities.

    Related: 4 Books for Entrepreneurs Seeking to Challenge the Status Quo

    2. Your Multimillion-Dollar Exit: The Entrepreneur’s Business Success(ion) Exit Planner by Wayne Zell

    The typical founder is reluctant to contemplate their exit strategy.

    Writing for Harvard Business Review, Tourag Parang identifies five behavioral root causes of “exit avoidance,” including: optimism bias (believing they’ll succeed where most founders fail), present bias (prioritizing short-term gain at the expense of longer-term growth), signaling problems (assuming investors don’t want to work with entrepreneurs eyeing the exits), risk-taking mythology (believing risk mitigation is a sign of weakness) and acquisition failure mythology (overinterpreting rare but high-profile stories of post-acquisition implosions).

    For some, exit avoidance is almost pathological. The longer it continues, the greater the threat it poses to the business.

    Wayne Zell’s new book tackles exit avoidance head-on. Zell’s blunt, powerful prose loops founders and growth-minded executives in on the dangers of waiting too long to develop an exit plan, then walks them through the pillars of a successful strategy.

    Your Multimillion-Dollar Exit covers preparing for “unexpected” exits (death and disability), leveraging a high-quality team to advance your exit strategy, reducing the tax hit from a sale or transfer, avoiding common pitfalls that erode business value, negotiating like an investment banker and more. By the end, you’ll understand your business’ potential value and have the tools to unlock it.

    Related: Want Your Succession Plan to Succeed? Avoid These 8 Stumbling Blocks.

    3. We Are All Stakeholders: Culture, Politics, and Radical Accountability in the Boardroom by Shireen Muhiudeen

    The political backlash to environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing is growing, but the problems that gave rise to it in the first place aren’t going away. On the environmental front, at least, they’re steadily worsening, and no amount of political wish-casting can change that.

    The political dynamics around ESG are a sort of funhouse mirror of the dynamics inside many boardrooms, both at early-stage startups wondering whether ESG detracts from growth and at mature companies used to doing things a certain way. The “old guard” eagerly minimizes the risks of business as usual. And it retains tremendous power in boardrooms across America.

    Shireen Muhiudeen’s newest book offers an optimistic vision and an actionable blueprint for entrepreneurs and corporate leaders ready to push back on the old guard and build more transparent, sustainable and diverse organizations. It focuses not just on implementing an ESG lens but on transforming corporate culture with an eye to radical transparency and globally-minded decision-making. It’s a must-read for leaders tired enough of the status quo to break the mold as they reinvent it.

    4. Find Your Clear Vision: A New Mindset to Create a Vibrant Personal or Professional Brand with Purpose by Lisa Guillot

    It’s a heavy lift to change the dynamics of a fossilized boardroom. So is changing your personal mindset and its impact on the world. But at least you don’t have to get buy-in from anyone else to reinvent yourself.

    That’s the gist of Lisa Guillot’s new book. She writes Find Your Clear Vision for entrepreneurs and executives who are more than ready to make fundamental changes to their professional and personal lives but have no idea how to implement those changes. Or even where to start.

    Guillot’s Clear Vision Framework argues for a holistic approach to personal reinvention, one that weaves spirituality, creativity, brand strategy and professional development. She states that we’re more than the sum of our professional credentials and past roles and that focusing too narrowly on traditional measures of success can actually prevent us from reaching our full potential. Sometimes, the easiest path forward is not the best — and that’s okay.

    Related: How to Build a Successful Personal Brand in 5 Simple Steps

    No business leader or entrepreneur starts their journey thinking that their business will go stale or fail. But, if leaders are willing to adopt practices that help their business stand out and break the mold of predictability, they have a better chance of prevailing. If you are looking to step out of the more conventional patterns of practice in your given industry, these new books can help be your guide.

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    Peter Daisyme

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  • This Thriller Tells The Story Of A Nigerwife Whose Perfect Life Is Falling Apart

    This Thriller Tells The Story Of A Nigerwife Whose Perfect Life Is Falling Apart

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    Right on time for summer, Vanessa Walters’ thriller debut novel “The Nigerwife” is the perfect beach-ready read. Set in modern-day Lagos, Nigeria, we are introduced to a rarely-known world of the nigerwives — uber-wealthy ex-pat stay-at-home wives who left their home countries and former lives for Nigerian-born husbands. Now, they spend their days in glorious mansions, dripping in lavish jewels and designer clothes and seemingly not a care in the world.

    But for Nicole Oruwari, that facade of her perfect life with her handsome husband Tonye and two sons has finally come crumbling down. Then, one night, she goes missing from a boat in the affluent Ikoyi harbor. Terrified, her estranged aunt, Claudine, who raised her back in London, is determined to get to the bottom of her niece’s disappearance and bring her home — alive. But as soon as Claudine arrives, she realizes nothing is what it seems, especially regarding Nicole’s in-laws. Oscillating between the past and the present and Nicole and Auntie Claudine’s perspective, “The Nigerwife” catapults you into a world that most of us have never seen before — and will have you glued to every page.

    For Walters, who currently lives in Brooklyn, her book also served as a way to explore her own identity, not just as a Black Brit with Caribbean roots, but as a former nigerwife. Through her critical yet empathetic lens, that authenticity is brilliantly weaved throughout the book as she captures the beauty and chaos of Lagos, all while fearlessly tacking a slew of themes, including generational trauma, colorism, misogyny, the Diaspora and colonialism. It’s no wonder Amy Aniobi bought the book’s rights and is developing it into a series for HBO.

    HuffPost chatted with Walters about what inspired her to write this book, tackling the complexities of the Diaspora and her excitement to see “The Nigerwife” on the small screen.

    What inspired you to write this book?

    Like Nicole, I’m a London girl, and that’s where all my family is, but then I was plunged into a very different life in Lagos. Ultimately, over the years, I had some profound existential questions about life that I’d never had before about community, identity and marriage. I couldn’t read about these things anywhere else. I know firsthand this sense that you’re totally dependent on your husband. Therefore, this sparked questions about what marriage is, what it’s supposed to be, and growing as a person. So being a writer, this is the natural medium for talking through these things and telling the stories of the women I met over the years.

    The book cover of “The Nigerwife” by Vanessa Walters.

    I also wrote this book for the same reason I wrote my first YA book, “Rude Girls,” when I was 16 — I wanted to read about girls like me. Back then, I wrote it so my friends had something to read, but this time, I was more intentional. I wanted to articulate this experience for the wider world.

    Having been a nigerwife, what are some of the personal experiences that you and Nicole share?

    Absolutely. I was part of the nigerwife community for over seven years, and I believe there’s a universal nigerwife experience, especially around cultural isolation and lack of community. Being from London, growing up with a certain generation, we all listened to the same music and wore the same clothes. In Lagos, nobody could understand me in that way or sing the same lyrics to a song with the same joy my friends in London would. I felt that I had been forgotten. I was no longer part of the particular community I came from. That’s Nicole’s story, and it’s very poignant and important to tell. It’s not easy to articulate because it’s such a specific experience because most people don’t travel that far from their homes. But even in that, readers can still relate to this story.

    I also come from a big, complicated family like the Roberts family — definitely not as dramatic, but still one that’s been complicated by years of separation and trauma. My mother was a barrel child (a child whose parents migrated to another country to work, leaving them behind), and my great-great-grandmother was a sugar cane worker, seemingly in slavery-like conditions. How does one live and love when they have a whole life with this level of labor? So looking at my own family paved the way for these characters to come to life and for me to explore similar issues.

    I love how in your book, the city of Lagos is more than just the setting; it’s like its own character.

    Lagos is such a thrilling city — a very dramatic city. There’s also so much tension there, partly because of these huge extremes of wealth and circumstance. It reminds me of New York, but here, we shout about it from every rooftop. We’re always having conversations about struggle and trauma, which is one of the most beautiful things about living in New York. But in Lagos, these topics become taboo because of the patriarchy and the more traditional aspects of society, along with this projection of wellness and social success. Poverty becomes taboo. Hardship becomes taboo. All that helps create this tension between the outward perception and what’s really happening.

    This book also shows the dark side of marriage — one riddled with control, mistrust, infidelity and a lack of connection. What real-life advice do you want readers to take away from Nicole and Tonye’s relationship?

    Marriage is complicated, and I intentionally made Nicole a very complicated and, at times, selfish character. She has an affair with someone who clearly isn’t the love of her life, but she also wants freedom because she doesn’t always have that in her marriage.

    I didn’t want to make Tonye a textbook villain, but he makes a lot of mistakes. Yes, he’s good-looking with tons of money, but he isn’t perfect. I wanted to ask questions about what marriage is and how it can go wrong and even under the “best” of circumstances. In a place like Lagos, where there are a lot of labels on people, traditions, and boxes to fit in, how does this impact their marriage?

    We go into marriage as individuals and think we have this blueprint, but it only sometimes matches up. Marriage can be amazing and freeing, but it can also feel like being in a straightjacket. (Laughs) Whatever it is, people need to be honest with themselves. Did you make a mistake? Did you give up on yourself and your desires? Are you being respected? Please, don’t be locked into a mistake for the rest of your life because you believe marriage is everything.

    You also don’t shy away from the Diaspora wars between Americans, Brits, Caribbeans, Africans, etc. Which we know can be a little too real sometimes on Twitter. Remember the whole tea kettle fiasco? (Laughs) Why was including that important?

    It was almost easier to have these conversations in a fictional way in the book than in real life. This way, we can enjoy the exploration and find our own answers. But, I am always interested in observing people and am curious to know why we are the way that we are and how where we come from plays a role in that. It’s fascinating. I remember moving to Nigeria and having people tell me they didn’t realize they were Black until they lived abroad as teens. Before then, they never had to think of themselves that way. But it was more just that because, as a descendant of enslaved people, watching these same people dismiss racism because they didn’t understand it the same way was not an easy conversation to have. How do you know the struggles of colonialism and all the terrible things the British did in Africa and diminish it because you didn’t have the same ancestry as the Caribbean or African-American people?

    But I also found that having this understanding of race versus the Caribbean or African-American experience can impact your understanding of feminism and other issues. They’re all connected.

    Finally, the book is being developed into a drama series for HBO, thanks to “Insecure” and “Rap Sh*t” writer-director Amy Aniobi. How excited are you for this story to come to the small screen?

    It’s a dream. Actually, it’s a dream because this wasn’t even a dream I had before. And Amy is a total inspiration, boss chic. Look at “Insecure.” So many older Black women “grew up” on that show whether they’ve seen it or not; we’ve all been influenced by that show and how we see ourselves as Black women. Most importantly, that show really encouraged me to even tell this story.

    Amy is going to bring her writing and directing talent and nuance to this. Plus, she’s Nigerian, and I know she will approach it with that perspective. This is why having Black women in the room is so important. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

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  • 3 Paths to Publishing a Book — and the Pros and Cons of Each | Entrepreneur

    3 Paths to Publishing a Book — and the Pros and Cons of Each | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As a lifelong book publisher who coaches entrepreneurs and business executives who want to write and publish a book, I’m often asked which is the best path to getting published. Getting published and finding readers is certainly an impressive way to expand your reach as an entrepreneur. It gives you added credibility and authority as an expert in your field. But before you get published, you should carefully consider the best and most appropriate publishing model. —

    In this article, we will explore the three most commonly used ways to publish a book. There are traditional routes to taking a book to market, DIY approaches, and hybrid publishing models. While there’s no single best way to publish your book, there are certainly advantages and disadvantages to each strategy. Depending on your unique situation, and with a little due diligence, you can effectively reach readers and expand your influence.

    Related: Top 7 Questions About Publishing a Book That Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

    Traditional publishing models

    Traditional publishers offer book contracts that cost nothing to the author. In fact, the publisher pays the author for the rights to license their words and publish their book. Examples of traditional publishers include Random House, Harper Collins and Simon and Schuster. A traditional publishing contract can be lucrative for the author. When you show people that you’ve been published by a large, traditional publishing house, that can be quite impressive.

    There are, however, several disadvantages. First, it’s exceedingly difficult to get an offer from a traditional publisher, and it usually involves a years-long process. Second, while you will get paid, it’s usually not much money. The average royalty paid to authors by traditional publishers is less than 20%, which means you may earn quarters per sale, not even dollars. Finally, you will lose control over your words and book. Traditional publishing contracts are inflexible in this way. As an entrepreneur, you may not like to be contractually boxed in.

    Self-publishing models

    Self-publishing, also referred to as DIY publishing, has fast become a credible alternate path to getting published. When you self-publish a book, you manage the entire process from writing and editorial to design to print production to distribution by yourself. Many self-published authors find help from individual contractors who specialize in publishing or from self-publishing companies. The primary benefit to self-publishing is that the author controls the process and retains all rights and ownership of their book. There are many self-publishing pitfalls, however, which often derail a DIY self-publishing project. Book publishing is a complex, time-consuming and ever-changing industry. If you don’t thoroughly understand what you’re doing, you’ll waste resources and never find readers.

    As a busy entrepreneur, you may not want to spend the time needed to manage editors, designers, printers and distributors. You certainly don’t want to be embarrassed by your book, if indeed it doesn’t look professional or read well. So, while self-publishing might be an attractive alternative, it might be wise to find publishing professionals to make you shine. Still, you may find success by self-publishing.

    Related: 10 Steps to Self-Publish Your Book Like a Bestseller

    Hybrid publishing models

    A third path to getting published is commonly referred to as the hybrid model, which combines the best of traditional publishing and DIY self-publishing. Hybrid publishing companies behave like traditional publishing companies in all respects, except that they publish books using an author-subsidized business model, as opposed to financing all costs themselves and, in exchange, return a higher-than-industry-standard share of sales proceeds to the author. A hybrid publisher makes income from a combination of publishing services and book sales.

    Although hybrid publishing companies are author-subsidized, they are different from self-publishing models in that hybrid publishers adhere — without exception — to certain criteria, including (and most importantly) a high-quality book with worldwide distribution. Hybrid publishers are different than self-publishers in that they aim to publish books that sell well in the marketplace.

    Which is the best publishing model for entrepreneurs?

    Writing and publishing a book is a lot like starting your own business. You have to do your own discovery and due diligence before you decide how to take your book to market. There’s not necessarily a best book publishing model for any author, including entrepreneurs. You may want to wait and pursue a big publishing contract from a respected publishing house, you may want to work fast and furiously on a self-published book, or you may want to find a quality hybrid book publisher that can take your book to market in a high-quality and professional manner.

    Whichever way you ultimately publish your book, you can be assured there is probably no better way to build a platform and increase your influence. People place authors on pedestals, and even the media often seeks out authors for interviews and as authorities to comment on topics relating to business and entrepreneurship. It’s a surefire way to market yourself and your business — and since books will never go out of style, once you publish a book, you can enjoy the benefits for many years to come.

    Related: Self-Publishing or Traditional Publishing: Which Is Best for You?

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    Tom Freiling

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  • 11 New Books to Read in May

    11 New Books to Read in May

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    “I still have so much work to do,” says Aurora James. But the Toronto-born, New York–based 38-year-old is already doing a lot. The creative director and founder of the brand Brother Vellies, beloved for its artisanal accessories that maintain African design practices—Zendaya and Beyoncé have both walked red carpets in the brand’s footwear—is the one who came up with the Fifteen Percent Pledge, a nonprofit dedicated in part to encouraging retailers to stock Black-owned brands. She was responsible for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Tax the Rich” dress at the 2021 Met Gala. And this month, with the release of her memoir, she adds author to her list of credentials. Wildflower (Crown) details a tumultuous upbringing—after relocating to Jamaica as a child, she watched her mother, James’s earliest fashion inspiration, suffer domestic abuse—and the eventual solace she found in creativity. James hopes the book illustrates how she’s worked within a constricted system. “This is the country we are in. This is the game that we are playing,” she says. “It does not mean that we can’t rewrite some of those rules. It does not mean that we cannot get across this mountain together.” That togetherness is paramount. “We are not on our own. We’re also on the wings of our ancestors.”

    After book demands recede, James plans to expand Brother Vellies, which already sells at Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, along with its flagship store in Brooklyn—she’d like it to become a household name. She also hopes that her best-known project will become obsolete. “I think the pledge needs to work itself out of relevancy,” she says. “We need to get to a place where 15 percent is just a given. We are not there yet.”

    More Nonfiction

    Four books plumb intimacy of all kinds

    ‘Taking Care’ by Sarah DiGregorio

    This probing history of nurses (Harper) situates the profession as radical, necessary health care—but plagued, too, by structural inequities from sexism to racism.

    ‘A Living Remedy’ by Nicole Chung

    Having lost her parents to varied failures of the American health care system, Chung has situated a portrait of grief, rage, and love against a backdrop of a middle class in flux. (Ecco)

    ‘Lesbian Love Story’ by Amelia Possanza

    In this warmhearted and sexy memoir (Catapult), Possanza combs through Bushwick bars and Hadrian’s library for stories of queer love.

    ‘Irma’ by Terry McDonell

    McDonell’s father died young, a pilot killed during WW II. As he raises his own sons, he reflects on his mother’s relentless optimism and strength. (Harper) —Keziah Weir

    New Fiction

    Manuscripts lost, found, and stolen—and more fresh fiction

    ‘The Late Americans’ by Brandon Taylor

    Brandon Taylor’s finely rendered sophomore novel excavates relationships, from lust to soured love, among a group of Iowa City grad students (writers, dancers, and more) and town residents. (Riverhead)

    ‘The Covenant of Water’ by Abraham Verghese

    In Kerala, South India, a surviving daughter (and neurosurgeon) seeks the cause of her family’s multigenerational drowning curse in Abraham Verghese’s surreal and sweeping epic. (Grove)

    ‘Yellowface’ by R. F. Kuang

    In this publishing world send-up from bestseller R.F. Kuang, a Chinese American literary sensation dies and a middling white contemporary steals her unpublished manuscript—part ghost story, part farce. (William Morrow)

    ‘The Guest’ by Emma Cline

    Emma Cline serves glitz and unease: Following a romantic tryst gone awry, a 22-year-old charms her way into the Hamptons houses of unwitting strangers, leaving destruction in her wake. (Random House)

    ‘The Seventy-Five Folios and Other Unpublished Manuscripts’ by Marcel Proust

    Marcel Proust’s recently discovered early manuscripts for his classic magnum opus now appear in English, edited by Nathalie Mauriac Dyer and translated by Sam Taylor. (Harvard)

    ‘The Prodigal Women: A Novel’ by Nancy Hale

    First published in 1942, former VF contributor Nancy Hale’s intimate and incisive novel of three 20th-century women coming of age is back in print. (Library of America)—Keziah Weir

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    Keziah Weir , Kia D. Goosby

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  • Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret: Why Judy Blume’s taboo-breaking books ‘get’ teenagers like no others

    Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret: Why Judy Blume’s taboo-breaking books ‘get’ teenagers like no others

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    “We’ve always looked to her as somebody who could speak out on these issues and be listened to,” says Chris Finan, executive director of the NCAC. It’s important to remember, he says, that all the attacks against her books ultimately failed. Her books became bestsellers. “No one was writing about this stuff at the time. There was this huge demand and thirst for this information.”

    “She won that battle which encourages us to believe that these current battles will also be won,” he says, in reference to conservative attacks on books about LGBTQ issues. 

    Only recently, Blume affirmed her allyship with the trans community. “Anything to the contrary is total bullshit,” she said in a statement following an interview with The Times, which was headlined: Judy Blume: ‘I’m behind JK Rowling 100 per cent’, and had sparked controversy online.

    Worthington and Michael think Blume’s books remain so popular in part because the kids who grew up on them now have children and even grandchildren of their own. “If you read a book together with your kid, it’s an opportunity to have conversations and bond and grow closer,” says Michael. 

    That’s only one factor, though. The books, while rooted in the time they were written, have a timeless quality because the things teenagers worry about are largely the same and few writers understand that the way Blume does. For the podcast, Michael and Worthington have read a lot of what they call “Judy-adjacent” books, but nothing quite matches up. “Judy has this special connection to the inner thoughts of children and teens,” says Michael. “She remembers what it feels like, in a way that I just don’t think a lot of writers can do.”

    Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is in cinemas in the US now, and in the UK from 19 May. Judy Blume Forever is on Amazon Prime Video now.

    If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

    And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

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  • ‘I honestly don’t know if this is the last time’ — America’s great peacemaker returns to Belfast

    ‘I honestly don’t know if this is the last time’ — America’s great peacemaker returns to Belfast

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    BELFAST — He fought for peace in Northern Ireland — and now George Mitchell is fighting for his life.

    The former U.S. Senate majority leader from Maine, who became a diplomatic superhero in Northern Ireland after leading years of painstaking talks to produce the Good Friday Agreement, may be visiting his adopted homeland for the final time.

    He hopes not. But, as Mitchell reflected in an interview with POLITICO, he simply cannot know.

    Welcomed by well-wishers young and old this week as he returned to Belfast and to Queen’s University, where he served as chancellor for a decade following his peacemaking triumph in 1998, Mitchell opened a conference marking the accord’s 25th anniversary.

    For nearly 45 minutes, Mitchell argued passionately for the power of compromise, his message leavened with well-timed jokes poking fun at the entrenched attitudes — and tough-to-decipher vowels — that tested him in Northern Ireland.

    You’d never have known that Mitchell, 89, was making his first public speech in three years — nor that he had only recently ended years of chemotherapy in a battle with leukemia that came close to killing him.

    “This is a gift by the grace of God to be able to come back here. I’ve had a rough couple of years,” he said.

    “I retired from my law firm at the end of 2019, planning with my wife a life of travel and doing a lot of things that we hadn’t done. Then COVID hit and I was almost immediately diagnosed with acute leukemia. So I’ve been pretty sick. I haven’t been able to do very much.

    “Initially I underwent intensive chemotherapy, which was very severe. I didn’t read a newspaper, I didn’t watch a minute of television. I was bedridden and very, very sick for about three months. Then I was on chemo for about two-and-a-half years,” he said. “The doctors said to me: ‘There’s a limit to how much chemotherapy you can take. We have to take you off.’ The disease may return. It may be six months, it may be two years — or who knows.”

    ‘Nothing in politics is impossible’

    Mitchell now describes himself as pain-free and in remission.

    He spoke in a Queen’s office overlooking the university’s entrance, where a bronze bust honoring him has just been unveiled by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the former British and Irish prime ministers, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern. In April 1998, the two premiers joined Mitchell for the intensive final days of the talks in Belfast, while Clinton cajoled Northern Ireland’s polarized politicians by phone from the White House.

    Several other figures who helped deliver that breakthrough are no longer alive, including Northern Ireland’s joint Nobel Peace Prize laureates from 1998, John Hume and David Trimble, both of whom have died since the last Good Friday commemorations five years ago.

    George Mitchell (C) attends a gala marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement | Pool photo by Charles McQuillan/AFP via Getty Images

    In his speech, Mitchell paid equal tribute to Hume, the moderate Irish nationalist leader who opposed Irish Republican Army violence and laid the intellectual architecture for the Good Friday deal; and Trimble, the prickly legal scholar who risked splitting his Ulster Unionist Party by accepting a deal that allowed IRA prisoners to walk free and ex-IRA chiefs to join a new cross-community government without clear-cut guarantees the outlawed group would disarm.

    “Without John Hume, there would not have been a peace process. Without David Trimble, there would not have been a peace agreement,” Mitchell said to thunderous applause from the crowd, among them most of today’s crop of British unionist, Irish nationalist and middle-ground leaders.

    Left unsaid was that others wanted to see Mitchell himself share that same Nobel prize, given his central role in sustaining hope in the talks after what U.S. President Joe Biden last week described as “700 days of failure.”

    Indeed, it has been a common refrain this week among those now seeking to revive Northern Ireland’s shuttered regional government — the centerpiece of a much broader Good Friday package that included police reform, prisoner releases and paramilitary disarmament — that they wish Mitchell was still in the market for one more Belfast mission.

    Mitchell offered only raised eyebrows and a wry smile when asked if he’d like to lead one more round of talks at Stormont, the government complex overlooking Belfast.

    But he expressed unreserved optimism that the Democratic Unionists — the party that physically tried to block him from taking his chair when the talks began in June 1996, and spent years condemning the peace process as a sellout to IRA terror — will find a way to return to a cross-community government with the Irish republicans of Sinn Féin.

    The DUP has refused to revive the coalition government since May 2022 elections, citing its opposition to post-Brexit trade rules that treat Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the U.K.

    Mitchell thinks Northern Ireland’s political fundamentals have evolved since he wrote, in his 1999 book “Making Peace,” that the Good Friday Agreement became possible only because the DUP had abandoned the talks the year before.

    “Times and circumstances change,” he said. “Nothing in politics is impossible.

    “Political parties change and evolve. Does the Republican Party in the United States today reflect the views of the Republican Party of 20 or even 10 years ago? Does the Democratic Party? The challenge of leadership is to recognize that and to deal with change, all in the broader public interest.”

    He also rejected any notion that blame for the current Stormont impasse lies entirely with the DUP. “There isn’t any one villain,” he said. “Everybody’s trying to do what they think is best. The question is: What is best?”

    Mitchell stressed that “100 percenters” — people who see “any compromise as weakness” — exist in pretty much every political party on earth, including his own Democrats. And he said no American politician should criticize the depth of political division in Northern Ireland given that, today, the divide in U.S. politics has grown arguably even more noxious.

    Former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and George Mitchell shake hands during a photocall at the BBC studios, in Belfast in 2008 | Peter Muhly/AFP via Getty Images

    Leaders in any democracy, he said, must be ready to absorb criticism from within their own ranks and keep striving for common ground.

    “You can’t let the first ‘no’ be the final answer,” he said. “Or the second ‘no,’ or the seventh ‘no.’ You just have to treat everyone with respect and keep at it.”

    A final goodbye

    Mitchell came face to face with his own mortality during Monday’s unveiling of his bronze bust, drawing big laughs from the crowd as he observed: “When you’re looking at a statue of yourself, you know the end is near.”

    But the reality of living with leukemia, which makes him more vulnerable to infections and other threats, draws his mind back to one of his great regrets from the Stormont talks.

    “We were at a critical early moment in the talks in the summer of 1996. I was trying to get them going, to adopt a set of rules. It was very complicated, unnecessarily complicated,” he recalled.

    With a vote on the rules due that coming Monday, he received an unexpected phone call from Maine. His brother Robbie, who had been fighting leukemia for five years, was close to death. If Mitchell hopped on to the next flight, he might make it back to his hometown of Waterville by Friday night — but he’d risk having the talks fall at their first hurdle.

    Mitchell called his brother’s doctor, oncologist Richard Stone at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, to be told that although Robbie’s health was deteriorating and it was impossible to be certain, he might well survive for several weeks longer. Wanting to get the first step of the peace talks banked before negotiations broke for the summer, Mitchell chose to stay in the U.K. over the weekend.

    That Saturday night, another call from Waterville confirmed that his older brother had just died.

    “I came back to Belfast on Monday and we got those rules adopted. I made it home in time to speak at Robbie’s funeral. But I didn’t see him before he passed away. That’s one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made,” Mitchell said.

    A quarter-century later, the same Dr. Stone is now treating the younger Mitchell brother for the same disease. Mitchell has been told that if the cancer returns, his advanced age means chemotherapy must be kept to a bare minimum.

    “Medical science has advanced very rapidly in the curing of leukemia. But as the doctors explained to me, chemotherapy is poison and if you take enough of that, that will kill you,” he said. “The doctor also explained to me that, on the other hand, I might go a few years and die of something else.”

    Bill Clinton shakes hands with George Mitchell in the Oval Office at the White House after naming the retiring senator to be a special advisor for economic initiatives in Ireland | Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images

    Mitchell estimates he’s already flown back and forth to Belfast at least 100 times since 1995. He and his wife, Heather, have approached this trip as if it could be his last — that this week might represent his final goodbye to a vexatious land he’s come to love.

    “I honestly don’t know if this is the last time I’ll ever be in Northern Ireland. But my wife and I accept the possibility that it is,” he said. “I told Heather on the way over, we’ve really got to enjoy this and take in the sights and sounds of this beautiful place and the people. My fervent hope is that I’ll be able to come back again.”

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    Shawn Pogatchnik

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  • 12 of the best books of the year so far 2023

    12 of the best books of the year so far 2023

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    The Survivalists by Kashnana Cauley

    In the Survivalists, Aretha, a lawyer, moves in with her coffee-entrepreneur boyfriend, Aaron, and his doomsday-prepping housemates. What follows is a half-joking exploration of capitalism, gun ownership, and what it takes to survive in the modern world as a black American. “Learn her name, because Cauley is one of the funniest writers at work today, period,” says the Los Angeles Times. Vulture agrees, describing Cauley as “one of the smartest and funniest writers working today, and this novel is a chance for fans to spend even more time with her cutting critiques of the flaws in American culture.” (LB)

    Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin

    Based on her own mother’s story, and interweaving real historical events with fiction, Cecile Pin’s debut novel begins in 1978, three years after the last US troops have left Vietnam. Young orphan siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh flee their village, first to Hong Kong, making their way as refugees towards the uninviting landscape of Thatcher’s Britain. Their journey is accompanied by the voice of their younger brother, Dao, a lost soul who speaks from the hinterland between the dead and the living. Wandering Souls is “subtle and gripping”, writes the LA Times, while the iNewspaper says: “this is a powerful and timely debut about seeking asylum; about what life is when it is ripped from its origins, and how happiness and identity can be found again on foreign shores.” (RL)

    The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore

    Set on the UK’s Isle of Wight in a beloved but crumbling family home, Sandcove, three very different sisters and their unconventional mother tackle life and long-held family secrets. The Sunday Times best-selling debut novel by Georgina Moore explores whether or not children can ever truly be free of the mistakes their parents make. “Each of the main characters is flawed yet relatable,” says The Independent, “and the family dynamics between the strong women are portrayed perfectly by Moore. An immersive novel which leaves the reader feeling they have become part of the family.” It’s a confident debut, according to The Observer. “With Moore’s evocative prose it’s easy to see why The Garnett Girls is being likened to works by Penny Vincenzi.” (LB)

    Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood

    This 15-strong short-story collection is Atwood’s first publication since The Testaments. Divided into three parts, it is dedicated in part to Atwood’s partner, Graeme Gibson, who died in 2019; scenes from the marriage of Tig and Nell sandwich a disparate bunch of tales that encompass everything from aliens to pandemics. Old Babes in the Wood is “a gripping read,” writes the FT, which highlights “themes that are always at the heart of Atwood’s work: the haunting presence of traumatic histories, profound imbalances of power and opportunity in the world today, and society’s darkest possible futures”. The Guardian says: “There are chips and fragments of lives, full of sass and sadness”. (RL)

    Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry

    When he’s faced with the past he would prefer to forget, retired policeman Tom’s life is thrown into further confusion. In the Irish author’s ninth novel, Barry explores how the effects of violence and abuse reverberate across generations. Old God’s Time is a “reckoning with violated innocence,” says the Irish Independent. “The familiar story of the crimes of church and state is told in a fresh and spectacular way.” Meanwhile, iNews describes the book as a “profound state-of-Ireland novel”. Barry, it says, is “a master storyteller… exploring the fluid border between the real and the unreal, and its relation to trauma”. (LB)

    This Other Eden by Paul Harding

    This is New Englander Harding’s third novel: following Enon (2013) and his 2009 debut, Tinkers, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. It is in This Other Eden, though, “that Harding’s gifts have found their fullest expression”, writes The Observer, praising “the depth of Harding’s sentences, their breathless angelic light.” Inspired by historical events, the story is set on Apple Island in early-20th Century Maine, which the mixed-race Honey family have called home for generations, until they are abruptly cast off the island. This Other Eden, writes The New York Times, is “a novel that is both devastating and meditative.” (RL)

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  • How to Expand Your Comfort Zone and Create a Life You Really Love | Entrepreneur

    How to Expand Your Comfort Zone and Create a Life You Really Love | Entrepreneur

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    When Kristen Butler was a kid, she says she felt a sense of responsibility to succeed because her family was on welfare and struggling financially. The oldest of four kids, she was an ambitious seven-year-old who often took on leadership roles, whether that meant taking care of her siblings or selling jewelry to make money. “When I was little, I told myself I didn’t want to be poor.”

    Her passion for writing emerged at an early age, and she aspired to write a book. When she was in third grade, her teacher told her she would never accomplish that goal, which motivated Butler even more. Years later, a supportive journalism teacher in high school helped to ignite her passion for writing and that encouraged her to pursue a degree in journalism.

    Despite her initial success in college, Butler eventually experienced burnout and decided to drop out. Rather than give up, she used her passion for writing and her entrepreneurial spirit to start her own business out of her apartment. Her first venture was an eBay shop, which she built through hard work and determination.

    One day she realized the key to feeling good was having a positive mindset and she started her company, Power of Positivity. 14 years and more than 30,000 pieces of content later, Butler has a following of more than 56 million people across her social channels and her 3 Minute Positivity Journal sold 100,000 copies.

    Over the years, Butler says she’s learned that success is not about stepping outside of your comfort zone, but rather about being true to yourself and pursuing your passions and that inspired her to write her first book The Comfort Zone: Create a Life You Really Love with Less Stress and More Flow. Through her journey, Butler has learned that success is not about conforming to the expectations of others, but rather about following one’s own path and pursuing one’s passions with determination and dedication.

    She sat down with Jessica Abo to talk about her new book, how you can realize your own potential, and shared the steps you can take to expand your comfort zone.

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    Jessica Abo

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  • Questlove’s new children’s book

    Questlove’s new children’s book

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    Questlove’s new children’s book – CBS News


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    Grammy-winning musician and producer Questlove joins “CBS Mornings” to discuss his new children’s book “The Rhythm of Time.”

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  • David Grann Talks Mutiny, Martin Scorsese, and Searching for Truth

    David Grann Talks Mutiny, Martin Scorsese, and Searching for Truth

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    In 1740, amid an imperial war with Spain, the Wager—a tricked-out merchant ship—set sail from England on a mission to capture a Spanish galleon laden with silver. The mission went awry. Two years later, a glorified raft washed up on Brazil’s shores, carrying only 30 of the original 250-odd crewmen. They told a heroic story of survival against all odds: illness, shipwreck, starvation on a desolate island. Six months later, three more survivors turned up on the coast of Chile, with an accusation of mutiny. 

    In The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (Doubleday), David Grann untangles the dueling narratives, bringing a nearly 300-year-old drama to life. Drawing from ship logs, survivor accounts, and court records—with context and color from the works of Lord Byron, Charles Darwin, and Herman Melville—The Wager zeroes in on the experiences of a handful of central figures, from Captain David Cheap to a 16-year-old midshipman named John Byron (the poet’s grandfather). The result: a genre-defying literary naval-history thriller, part Master and Commander, part Lord of the Flies.

    “One of my pet interests has always been mutiny,” Grann told VF. “I’m interested in military organizations that are designed by the state to enforce order. What is it that suddenly causes them to disorder? In literature and film, there’s always this question: Are they these extreme outlaws, or are they these romantic figures who are rebelling against something rotten at the core of the system?” 

    Questions like these have long animated Grann’s writing. Among his features for The New Yorker, where he’s been a staff writer since 2003, are a profile of the French serial imposter Frédéric Bourdin and the story of a Polish novelist charged with murder. And his books are cinematic, both narratively and actually, including The Lost City of Z, an account of a British explorer who went in search of El Dorado (Charlie Hunnam stars in the film version); the collection The Devil and Sherlock Holmes (notching Robert Redford a best-actor Golden Globe nomination for the adaptation of Grann’s piece “The Old Man and the Gun”); and the best-selling Killers of the Flower Moon, about the 1920s murders of members of the Osage Nation (with a Martin Scorsese joint starring Leonardo DiCaprio coming to theaters soon). In the wake of finishing Killers, as phrases like “alternative facts” and “post-truth” proliferated, Grann began researching the Wager. He had been desperately hoping that his next book might feature living figures he could call up on the phone, but “this weird 18th-century story felt like a parable for our time.” 

    Vanity Fair: Your writing often includes some kind of grappling with how to tell the story you’re telling, or otherwise engages with the act of storytelling. 

    David Grann: I think early on I was telling stories more straight and traditionally. And then, over time, you start to become more sensitive to the way people are telling their stories, or shading their stories, and also of your own challenges in trying to render the truth. 

    I have a sense of my own inadequacy now. I started off as a young reporter—you watch All the President’s Men and you say, Well, this is how it’s going to be. And then you start to realize that getting to the truth is really murky and hard. I am a zealous believer in the truth, but accessing it and knowing it and documenting it… 

    Sometimes projects lead to other projects. With Killers of the Flower Moon, I was so interested in the fact that here was one of the worst racial injustices and sinister crimes in American history, and yet I had never heard of it. Most people outside the Osage Nation had not heard of it. And it’s like, why weren’t we taught this? Why did this not become part of history? That was something that haunted me. And so when I found the story of the Wager, it seemed like here you could really see the way people were shading their stories, but then also how nations and empires shade their stories and create their own narratives and their own mythic tales. 

    More and more, I’m acutely aware of parts of the story that have been scrubbed or whitewashed, and sometimes really tragically can’t be accessed anymore. Sometimes what haunts me when I do a story, it’s not the things I know, even when it’s a horrible crime, but actually the things I don’t know. 

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    Keziah Weir

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  • The new Steve Jobs book is free to download now — here’s where to get it 

    The new Steve Jobs book is free to download now — here’s where to get it 

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    Apple founder Steve Jobs has continued to inspire even after his death in 2011. Just this week, in fact, Tim Cook — Apple’s AAPL current CEO and chief operating officer for a decade-plus under Jobs — mused in a GQ interview on life lessons imparted by his predecessor. 

    And now anyone who wants to get an intimate glimpse into Jobs’s wisdom and reflections on his life, which was cut short at just 56, can download a curated collection of personal correspondence, speeches and interviews — for free.

    “Make…

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  • 4 Reasons Why You Should Join a Collaborative Book Publications | Entrepreneur

    4 Reasons Why You Should Join a Collaborative Book Publications | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Have you heard of the power of a group when it comes to building your business? Well, now the power of a group is being used in publishing to launch niche, collaborative books.

    Multi-author books are one of the biggest publishing trends this year. Also called collaborative books or anthologies, multi-author titles typically work by gathering together a group of like-minded, aspiring authors. The publisher is usually a small, niche publishing house, which charges authors up front to participate in the projects in exchange for providing their services.

    There are obvious benefits to the aspiring author. Instead of writing an entire book, each co-author contributes just one chapter, usually 1,500-5,000 words long. The publisher then steps in to organize the editing, formatting, publishing, and collaborative book launch.

    These types of books are almost always bestsellers on Amazon because they have 10-30 authors promoting them at the same time. And that is a big draw to potential contributors; You can become a bestselling author without spending the time or money it takes to write and publish your own solo book.

    Multi-author books can be a great service for the right aspiring author. But it’s essential to be realistic about the advantages and disadvantages of joining one.

    Four benefits to being a co-author of a collaborative book

    1. You will get experience as an author. How do you start writing your own book, let alone publish and market it? It’s a complicated and overwhelming process, which is why less than 1% of aspiring authors succeed in finishing their manuscripts.

    Many co-authors join these types of projects as a stepping stone to their own solo books. They learn about the writing process, what goes into publishing and especially how to launch and market a bestselling book. By the time you publish your own book, you will be much more prepared.

    Related: 5 Business-Expanding Benefits of Collaborative Book Publications

    2. You will grow your network. What is your network worth to you? To your business? One of the biggest benefits of joining a group book project is the opportunity to meet, network and collaborate with like-minded peers. Your co-authors will likely be in your niche and have similar backgrounds and professional goals.

    If community and collaboration are important to you, then a multi-author book makes a lot more sense than going at it alone.

    3. You will expand your reach. It is getting harder and hard to reach anyone, let alone your ideal audience on social media. It is just too saturated. And to top it off, the algorithms are constantly changing. It’s frustrating and can be a serious problem for your business. The key to any algorithm is engagement. And that is the principle behind any group book launch.

    If you happen to see a multi-author book launch on your social media, take a second to look a little closer. You will likely see an exciting announcement where all the co-authors are tagged in the publication, that it has been shared several times and has plenty of co-author comments, emojis and GIFs below it.

    All of these factors tell the algorithm that this is a good post, so it will get shown to exponentially more people across all of the co-author’s networks. It costs a lot of money for solo books to compete with that kind of book promotion within their own niche.

    Related: Top 7 Questions About Publishing a Book That Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

    4. You will open a lot of doors. Becoming an author will open you up to speaking engagements, press and media coverage, brand sponsorships and collaborations, and more. I‘ve also seen authors use their books for job hunting, handing them out as business cards and adding them to their resumes.

    But remember, you still have to be the one to walk through them. You will need to actively practice author marketing and branding if you want to make the most of your multi-author book contribution.

    What being a co-author of a collaborative book WON’T do for you

    1. You will not get rich from the book royalties. This is still a shock to many people. They think of a bestselling book, and thousands of dollars in passive income immediately pop into their heads. But it’s not like that at all. Let me explain why.

    First, when your book is published on Amazon, you must remember that Amazon keeps a cut of the profits. For an eBook, they take 30-70% and charge a delivery fee per copy based on the total size of the file. For a print book (paperback or hardcover), Amazon keeps 40% of the royalties after the printing cost.

    While these percentages might not be so bad for a solo book, when it comes to a multi-author book, you split the work between 10-30 authors, so you split the royalties as well. That’s why many multi-author book publishers don’t even include royalties for co-authors.

    Example: If you co-author a $2.99 eBook with 14 other contributors, that amounts to a $2.10 royalty per sale to be split between 15 authors. Each author would get .14 cents per sale. Considering the average non-fiction book sells about 250 copies in its lifetime, that would be only $35 in royalties per author.

    There you have it. These are the most important factors to consider when joining a multi-author book project.

    The decision to join one is right if it makes sense for you, your personal and professional goals, and if you deeply align with the project.

    Related: How to Make Money From Your Book Without Selling a Single Cop

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    Sara Tyler

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  • Author Jeannette Walls discusses her latest book

    Author Jeannette Walls discusses her latest book

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    Author Jeannette Walls discusses her latest book “Hang the Moon” – CBS News


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    Jeanette Walls, author of “The Glass Castle,” is back with her newest novel. “Hang the Moon” took almost a decade to write and touches on similar emotional themes of family, neglect and triumph. Michael Glor has more.

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  • The Whiting Awards Bring Together 10 Literary Up-and-Comers for Optimistic Celebration

    The Whiting Awards Bring Together 10 Literary Up-and-Comers for Optimistic Celebration

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    Every year, the Whiting Foundation awards 10 up-and-coming writers with a substantial award, and by the time this year’s winners gathered on Wednesday, most of them were still a little dazed by the honor, which comes with a $50,000 cash prize. This year the foundation honored an already accomplished bunch of poets, journalists, fiction writers, and dramatists at its annual awards ceremony at the New-York Historical Society on Wednesday, which featured a keynote address by Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar.

    Reflecting on his relationships with his own mentors, Akhtar, currently the president of PEN America, an organization that works to defend free speech and expression, made a case for the importance of separating one’s artistic conscience from the world at large. “In the matter of making art it is often right to get it wrong, and on careful reconsideration, to get it wrong again,” he said. “Doubt, not certainty, is a surer route to the kind of knowledge most useful to you as an artist.”

    The Whiting Awards are best known for their uncanny ability to recognize writers who will eventually become some of the best known people in their fields, including Jonathan Frazen, Sarah Ruhl, Michael R. Jackson, David Foster Wallace, Ocean Vuong, Sigrid Nunez, Mary Karr, Tony Kushner, and Susan-Lori Parks. Recipients have gone on to win Pulitzers, National Book Awards, Guggenheim fellowships, and MacArthur “genius” grants. In 2011, the awards recognized playwright and actor Danai Gurira, who later skyrocketed to fame with her role in Black Panther. 

    On Wednesday, Peter Pennoyer, the president of the foundation’s board of trustees, mentioned that possibility during his speech explaining the purpose of the awards. “One or two of the winners may even become a celebrity, but that is not the object of the game, because that’s something other people do to you,” he said. “What these awards are designed to do is to encourage you to go out and produce something that will be wonderful for yourselves.”

    The annual award ceremony is a bit like a literary cotillion, and winners travel from near and far to attend two days of events where they get to know one another and are introduced to a collection of literary luminaries. The journey was fairly easy for Sidik Fofana, a fiction writer and high school English teacher, who lives in the Bronx. The judges praised his debut collection of short stories, Stories From the Tenants Downstairs, for representing “voices with a reporter’s careful ear” and recording “them with a fiction writer’s unguarded heart.” 

    Novelist Carribean Fragoza had a more difficult trip, taking a red-eye flight from Southern California with her husband and her two children, ages 4 and 11. In an iridescent pink dress, she discussed her work teaching writing at CalArts and the progress she had made on a forthcoming novel, which she hoped would become easier with the assistance of the Whiting award.

    Unusually, this year’s winners included two magazine journalists. Stephania Taladrid, wearing an elegant black jumpsuit, was joined by her editor and her fact-checker at The New Yorker. Linda Kinstler was joined by a group of supporters, including her team at PublicAffairs, the imprint that released her book Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust Ends. The judges wrote that her work “bristles with eagerness, moving like the spy thrillers she tips her hat to,” and on Wednesday, she reflected on the challenge of writing a book about the little known Nazi trials in the Soviet Union. “I wanted to make it fun,” she said. “I’m so afraid of boring people because I think that’s the cardinal sin, but it’s such a serious subject.”

    R. Kikuo Johnson might have been the night’s most surprised winner, if only because the award has never before gone to a graphic novelist. His recent book, No One Else, is set in his hometown on the island of Maui, in the Hawaiian archipelago, and on Wednesday, he wore a garland of leaves while accepting his award. Johnson said he learned that he had won while recovering from a case of COVID-19. “I think my exact words were, ‘I’m usually not an emotional person, but I’m feeling very overwhelmed.’”

    Poet Tommye Blount wore a sheer blue button-up—perhaps an oblique reference to his recent collection Fantasia With a Man in Blue—with a ribbon bow around his neck and a wide-brimmed black hat. In a casual polo at a luncheon the next day, Blount explained that by day he works in the advertising industry. “But my real job is poetry,” he said.

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    Erin Vanderhoof

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  • 3 Tips to Get Your Self-Published Book Into Bookstores | Entrepreneur

    3 Tips to Get Your Self-Published Book Into Bookstores | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Seeing your book on bookstore shelves is one of the greatest rewards that any author could have. Not too long ago, opportunities in the publishing world seemed almost nonexistent. However, as the feasibility, affordability and acceptability of self-publishing grew, so did the ability to see that dream of having your book on bookstore shelves come true.

    One of the best ways to make this happen is to start with your local bookstores and then leverage each one to build your way up to larger chains. As a publisher for over eight years, here are some of my best tips for how to self-publish a book in a way that will increase your chances of having bookstores sell your book:

    Related: 7 Ways Self-Publishing Can Make You 6 Figures

    1. Your book(s) should meet industry standards

    For a long time, self-published books were not as highly regarded as books published traditionally. Now, if done correctly, the playing field is much more even. While having great marketing and publicity does come into play in the publishing world, so does the attention to the physical details of the book. Aesthetics is one of the things that matter most to bookstores. Starting with the fonts you use, but also including having an eye-catching cover and using high-quality materials, meeting industry standards is a must if you want to have a shot at getting your self-published book onto bookstore shelves. Learning what industry standards look like is as simple as visiting a bookstore and studying the books that they carry.

    As a self-published author and publisher, here are a few of my best tips:

    • Font: Garmond

    • Size: 12 – 12.5

    • Spacing: 1.15 0 1.5

    • Justify alignment with hyphens (words stretch from page to page with a hyphen at the end to reduce gaps between words)

    • I also choose book sizes that are industry standard, such as 5 x 8, 5.5 x 8.5 and 6 x 9 for non-fiction books.

    • For children’s books: 8 x 8 or 8.5 x 8.5.

    I suggest you properly do your research for your genre and find what fits best for your word count.

    2. Your book should target a specific audience

    Your cover and title must match the audience you intend to target. Industry standards may also come into play when it comes to the types of fonts, sizes of fonts and the use of subtitles, if applicable. Images and keywords are also important.

    Before working with someone on creating the cover, study the covers and titles of the books on the best-sellers list. Have an idea of what you want it to look like while including the formula typically found on most best-selling books. One trend you may notice is the use of large fonts that spread across the book with a title and book description that targets the audience they intend to reach.

    You have to ask yourself, “In what section of the bookstore would my book be found?” Then make sure your book reflects those books on the shelves, but in a way that models instead of mimics.

    Lastly, the easier that the reader you intend to target can identify with the book’s content, the easier it will be for the bookstore to see it as marketable, which will make them want to consider carrying it on their limited shelving space.

    Related: 5 Things to Do After You Publish Your Book

    3. You should use the right distributor

    Amazon is a great start for a self-published author, but most bookstores will turn down a KDP (Kindle direct publishing) book. Aside from the quality of the printers, there are risks of not selling the books involved with purchasing books to be sold in stores.

    Ingram Sparks is by far the best option for authors who want their books sold in bookstores, because not only does Ingram offer quality covers, but they also allow bookstores the ability to purchase and return books directly.

    With Amazon, technically, you are the distributor, so you will have to sell to bookstores directly. If they agree to carry it, you will invoice them and ship to them, versus using Ingram, which will do it all for you.

    While both provide P.O.D. (print on demand), Amazon follows a more direct-to-consumer model, while Ingram has a long-established relationship with bookstores and is more of a direct-to-business model.

    There is more than one way to sell your books to bookstores:

    1. Consignment: Once the book is sold, then you are paid.

    2. Wholesale with a return option: They will buy your book at wholesale at 33%-55% but with the ability to return it.

    3. Wholesale upfront: They will buy your book at wholesale outright, usually at 60% off of the price of the book.

    A good place to start is with your local bookstore — and then build from there. Barnes and Noble allows local authors to host events whether they carry the book or not.

    As a local bookstore owner of over 20 years in Los Angeles told me: “A good book is promotion in itself if it is written and done right. I’ve seen this kind of success work firsthand; one of the highest sellers in our bookstore is a self-published book.”

    So, having a successful self-published book is possible, and might even be easier than you think.

    Related: 10 Steps to Self-Publish Your Book Like a Bestseller

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    Saba Tekle

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  • “The Guns Are the Most Important Thing”: A Day With Lauren Boebert’s Doomsaying Diners at Shooter’s Grill

    “The Guns Are the Most Important Thing”: A Day With Lauren Boebert’s Doomsaying Diners at Shooter’s Grill

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    I came into the mountains last June at the so-​called golden hour, through cliffs the color of sand and grace. Wildfire smoke made the whole Western Slope seem becalmed, as if through the particles the sun breathed soft light. Time layered in stone, olive, rust, and dusky violet. I was listening to Christian radio. A preacher from Wisconsin. An amiable voice, beneath its surface a sense of fracture. Ochre, if I had to give the preacher’s voice a color.

    “Quite a few years ago,” the preacher mused, “we went to the coast. I was studying on the beach while my three teenage boys were out in the ocean.” His three boys frolicked in the waves; the preacher considered God’s word. Sound sifted away—​until the preacher heard his wife screaming. “She said, ‘Honey.’ ” He had shorn the memory of alarm. “‘Do you hear the boys hollering for help?’” In his telling she asks as if she is simply curious. Do you hear our children drowning? “I looked up. And listened. I said, ‘Well, it kind of seems like they are.’ ” He dropped his Bible in the sand, he sprinted to the water. “Only problem, I was wearing blue jeans. Have you ever tried to swim in blue jeans?” His legs were heavy. The water carried his boys away. “The undercurrent,” said the preacher. The undertow. “I was drowning myself,” he observed.

    And then—​I don’t know. The radio signal stayed strong, the preacher kept talking, his voice carrying me up into darker canyons too steep for the setting sun. Evidently, he survived. His three boys? He never did mention. The story, which we may imagine as beginning in fact, had been made into parable, the meaning of real things smoothed like sea glass. Myth carries people away. The preacher spoke more about the weight of his jeans. “The weight of our lives.” The weight, he said, is anything that distracts us from God. His sovereignty. His authority. That was all that mattered, even more than his three boys. The “weight” that drags you down could be anything. “It may be a love.” Even for your children. “Lay it aside,” he rumbled. There is no saving this world.

    When I first came west at nineteen, I had my own religion. I thought that the mountains were the Earth’s secrets rising to be seen, by me, as if geology were revelation. This is a widespread misperception. Over the years, I came to think of them instead as indifferent, not made for me or anybody, not made at all. There is no intention.

    But now, driving, I saw them as tender. Maybe it was the haze. These mountains still grow but as they do their peaks soften and drift down to the plains. They rise, they subside. I thought of Andrew, my friend, who would be soon riding his bicycle up this spine across which I drove. His mind would be clear. “I don’t really do the past.” Neither do the mountains. I imagined them sleeping. But they were never awake. Or always awake, always sleeping, rising, sinking. How does a body come apart? How does democracy dissolve? It subsides.

    I drove down a riverine valley into the town of Rifle. Riparian green punctured by factories and grain elevators, the spike of a steeple at the edge of town. Shredded tire on the road and two men by a broken blue pickup, hood raised, drinking beer and watching the sun’s last smoke-​filtered light, purple and violent, shot through with the palest of pink hues. Dead deer down by the water, its body half-​open.

    Photograph by Jeff Sharlet. 

    I was hoping to eat dinner at a restaurant I’d heard about called Shooters. Like Hooters, but with guns. Waitresses in cutoffs, each of them armed. It was the creation of a congresswoman named Lauren Boebert, and she carried too. “I am the militia,” she’d declared. There’s a photograph of her flanked by two servers in their Daisy Dukes and cowboy boots, armed with eight guns between the three of them. Boebert looks back over her shoulder, not at the viewer, but down at the assault rifle the buttstock of which she is framing—​no other way to put this, one must respect self-​presentation—​with her ass.

    “Buttstock,” though, is only the correct term if it’s a rifle. This gun may actually be a very elaborate pistol. “For an AR-​15 to be that short and still have a buttstock,” a gun enthusiast friend told me, “it would need to be registered with ATF as a ‘short-​barrel rifle’”—subject to much greater regulation. “The ‘pistol brace’ she has in place of a stock is meant to be clamped around your forearm to stabilize the weapon if you fire it like a pistol.” My friend called it a “photo-​op gun”—​lacking a sight, he said, “you could point it at something and maybe hit it, but definitely couldn’t hit anything at a distance that would require adjusting aim for vertical drop or wind.”

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    Jeff Sharlet

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  • Judge rules online archive’s book service violated copyright

    Judge rules online archive’s book service violated copyright

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    A federal judge has sided with four publishers who sued an online archive over its unauthorized scanning of millions of copyrighted works and offering them for free to the public. Judge John G. Koeltl of U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled that the Internet Archive was producing “derivative” works that required permission of the copyright holder.

    The Archive was not transforming the books in question into something new, but simply scanning them and lending them as ebooks from its web site.

    “An ebook recast from a print book is a paradigmatic example of a derivative work,” Koeltl wrote.

    The Archive, which announced it would appeal Friday’s decision, has said its actions were protected by fair use laws and has long had a broader mission of making information widely available, a common factor in legal cases involving online copyright.

    “Libraries are more than the customer service departments for corporate database products,” Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle wrote in a blog post Friday. “For democracy to thrive at global scale, libraries must be able to sustain their historic role in society — owning, preserving, and lending books. This ruling is a blow for libraries, readers, and authors and we plan to appeal it.”

    In June 2020, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House sued in response to the Archive’s National Emergency Library, a broad expansion of its ebook lending service begun in the early weeks of the pandemic, when many physical libraries and bookstores had shut down. The publishers sought action against the emergency library and the archive’s older and more limited program, controlled digital lending (CDL). Works by Toni Morrison, J.D. Salinger and Terry Pratchett were among the copyrighted texts publishers cited as being made available.


    An inside look at the Internet Archive

    04:03

    While the Authors Guild was among those opposing the emergency library, some writers praised it. Historian Jill Lepore, in an essay published in March 2020 in The New Yorker, encouraged readers who couldn’t afford to buy books or otherwise were unable to find them during the pandemic to “please: sign up, log on, and borrow!” from the Internet Archive.

    In a statement Friday, the head of the trade group the Association of American Publishers, praised the court decision as an “unequivocal affirmation of the Copyright Act and respect for established precedent.

    “In rejecting convoluted arguments from the defendant, the Court has underscored the importance of authors, publishers, and lawful markets in a global society and global economy. Copying and distributing what is not yours is not innovative — or even difficult — but it is wrong,” said Maria Pallante, the association’s president and CEO.

    The Internet Archive, founded in 1996, is a nonprofit “founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.” Unlike traditional libraries, it does not acquire books directly through licensing deals with publishers, but through purchases and donations. The archive also includes millions of movies, TV shows, videos, audio recordings and other materials.

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  • Talking With Your Child About CPP

    Talking With Your Child About CPP

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    Some kids seem to grow up faster than others. That’s even truer if your child has central precocious puberty (CPP). That’s sexual maturity that starts before age 8 in girls or age 9 in boys.

    Puberty can affect how your child looks, feels, and acts. And when it happens too early, kids may get confused or embarrassed. You and your doctor can help talk them through the process.

    Here are some topics to bring up. 

    Body Changes

    Often, it’s not a medical problem that causes CPP. It’s just an early start to a natural part of life. Jami Josefson, MD, an endocrinologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, says that’s something you should tell your child.

    “They may be the first one to have some body changes, and that’s OK,” Josefson says. “Let kids know there’s nothing wrong with them, this is just the way it goes. Soon, everybody else will have these changes, too.”

    Josefson suggests parents read about puberty with their child. There are lots of books to choose from, but she likes the Care & Keeping of You series by the American Girl doll company.

    Alla Vash-Margita, MD, chief of pediatric and adolescent gynecology at Yale Medicine, agrees that your child should know what’s happening to their body. You can tailor your talks based on your child’s level of maturity and age.

    In her practice, kids who are 7 or older usually understand the word puberty, but a 4-year-old may not. So for younger children, she’ll say they’re going through a “transition” from their childhood to teenage years.

    Vash-Margita, who treats girls and some transgender boys, says she also explains everything from breast development and growth spurts to pubic hair and periods. Sometimes she’ll use teaching aids.

    “I have lots of pictures in my office, so I show them what a body of a child looks like and the body of a girl who has had puberty.” 

    Medication

    It’s pretty common for kids with CPP to take drugs known as puberty blockers, Vash-Margita says. One of the main reasons is because early puberty shortens the window kids have to grow taller. Treatment can stop the brain from telling the pituitary gland to make the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen. If taken before puberty ends – something doctors figure out based on bone growth – medication can pause or reverse the maturing process until your child is older.

    Medical tests and treatments can be a little scary for kids. So Vash-Margita tells them why their puberty is early and why they’ll stop it. She uses illustrations to show how the brain, ovaries, and uterus all work together.

    Then she points out, “In your case, the brain started sending signals to your ovaries, and your ovaries started producing another hormone, and this hormone is making all these changes in your body, and we can give you medication to block that process.”

    It can be hard for really young children to grasp all that. So Vash-Margita sometimes just tells kids that medicine will slow some body changes down and “allow you to look just like your classmates and friends.”

    Emotional Challenges

    Girls who develop earlier than their friends may become self-conscious. “Developing breast buds when you’re 4 or 5 is stressful,” says Vash-Margita.

    On top of body changes, kids with CPP might have mood swings.

    Talk to your doctor if your child isn’t ready for puberty.

    “One of the goals of therapy is to keep girls from having a monthly menstrual cycle,” Josefson says. “Which, when girls are really young, can be a challenge to understand emotionally and also from a hygiene perspective.”

    Josefson says puberty blockers can “put everything on pause to prevent kids from developing and appearing older than their age.” 

    And let your child know they can come to you if they’re feeling low. Make sure to ask them how their schoolwork and friendships are going, too. Reach out to a mental health professional any time you or your child needs some extra help. Josefson says a social worker or therapist can help your family talk through some of the fears and anxieties around CPP.

    Keep in mind that CPP might be a little tougher on transgender children – those who don’t identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Josefson says most kids with CPP are comfortable with their gender identity. But early puberty can be extra confusing or unwanted for those who aren’t.

    Talking to Others About CPP

    It’s important to have honest talks with your child and their doctor. But this kind of information is private, Josefson says, and you don’t have to share details with anyone else.

    If your extended family or child’s teachers bring the subject up, “you just say the child is tall for their age or this is how development runs in our family,” she says. “It’s kind of none of their business.”

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  • ‘Daisy Jones & the Six’: All the Biggest Changes From Book to Series

    ‘Daisy Jones & the Six’: All the Biggest Changes From Book to Series

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    Many of the weeds, including discussions of Daisy’s billing with the Six, have been removed in the TV adaptation. In the book, she officially joins the Six after performing an acoustic set of her songs with Eddie before a live audience, including a Rolling Stone reporter. That journalist, Jonah Berg, will later write a cover story with the headline, “The Six That Should Be Seven,” and insist that she “belonged in the band” (more on that storyline in episode six). But the series has Daisy’s admittance into the band sealed with Camila’s permission, telling her at a party that the band is “a family—we’ll take care of you if you take care of us.”

    Track 5: Fire

    How Karen and Graham Get Together

    Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

    In the show’s fourth episode, Graham makes the secret crush he’s long been harboring for Karen known by kissing her at a party. While she initially laughs off his advance, in the fifth episode Karen grows jealous of Graham’s romance with a Barry Manilow-loving woman named Caroline (Olivia Rose Keegan) and is awakened to her true feelings for him. Karen makes the first move in the novel, asking Graham on the phone one night: “How come you’ve never made a move on me?” He says, “I don’t take shots I know I’ll miss.” She replies, “I don’t think you’ll miss, Dunne.” 

    Track 6: Whatever Gets You Thru the Night

    The Role of That Rolling Stone Reporter

    The book version of Rolling Stone’s Jonah Berg (played in the series by Nick Pupo) takes an interest in covering the band much earlier, writing an article that plays a key part in making Daisy and the Six one musical entity. In the series, Jonah is called in to write a puff piece about the group by producer Teddy Wright. The focus of his piece, however, becomes simmering tensions within the band and between Daisy and Billy. Eventually, Billy spills details about Daisy’s addiction to avoid the publication revealing how his own rehab stint prevented him from being present at his first daughter’s birth, a story Daisy tells the reporter herself. Similar events take place in the book, but occur much later in a second Berg piece tied to Aurora’s release.

    The Songs, They Are A-Changin’

    Much of the sixth episode is devoted to the creation of Aurora, Daisy Jones and the Six’s album. With the exception of “Please,” most of the fictional songs proposed for Aurora in the book have been scrapped or significantly altered.  “Impossible Woman,” Billy’s impassioned plea to Daisy about her sobriety, becomes “More Fun to Miss;” “The Canyon,” Graham’s lost ode to Karen, doesn’t factor into the series. The lyrics to “Regret Me” are also different, although the song remains. 

    Mick Riva Is Missing

    There is a Taylor Jenkins Reid universe, wherein the author includes nods to fictional characters from her previous novels in each new work. In Daisy, Mick Riva, a fictional singer first introduced in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, attends Daisy’s wild party at Chateau Marmont, which she throws instead of attending the Six’s recording session. Shortly after Mick shows up, an extremely intoxicated Daisy takes a dip in the pool with all of her clothes on and later cuts her bare foot on glass. This scene is recreated in the series, but Mick is nowhere to be seen. 

    Billy and Daisy’s First Kiss

    A major point of contention—and inspiration for Daisy’s scorched-earth song “Regret Me”—is a kiss (or lack thereof) with Billy. In the book, the pair’s lips barely graze during a songwriting session before Billy shuts Daisy down. The series has them actually pull the trigger and passionately kiss during a contentious recording session for “More Fun to Miss,” Billy’s blistering song about Daisy. In fact, everything about the increasingly charged Daisy-Billy-Camila love triangle is far more pronounced on screen than in the book. Billy says in the novel that “there was this unspoken thing between Camila and I,” adding, “in some marriages you don’t need to say everything that you feel.” But Camila more pointedly tells Billy at episode’s end: “If you love her, if you ever do, that is when this ends.”

    Camila and Eddie

    However subtle, there is reference to potential infidelity on Camila’s part in the book, when she has a long lunch with her high school prom date. “She was gone four hours,” Billy recalls in the novel. “No one eats lunch for four hours.” But in the show, it’s bass player Eddie with whom Camila shares a few stolen moments. “There’s a moment where Camila talks about going out and seeing an old friend. And you don’t know exactly what that means because the book is told in the style of an oral history, you don’t ever know exactly what happened,” showrunner Will Graham told Vanity Fair. “So in the show we had to find answers to those things that felt satisfying and real, but also hopefully are surprises and fun for the fans.”

    Track 7: She’s Gone

    imone’s Queer Identity

    As already established, Simone plays a much larger role in the series than the book. This includes examination of her sexuality in episode 7, which shows Simone’s musical career taking off in New York City clubs—and the ways her romance with Bernice could complicate her career. “In the first conversation I had with Taylor, I said, ‘What would you want to see more of in the show that you didn’t get to do in the book?’ And she said more of Simone,” Graham, who directed episode 7, told Vanity Fair. At the end of the episode, Daisy even uses Simone’s identity against her in a particularly heated moment, asking, “Are you in love with me? Is that what this is?”

    Daisy’s Marriage

    Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

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    Savannah Walsh

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  • How to Become a Successful Authorpreneur | Entrepreneur

    How to Become a Successful Authorpreneur | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    You’re nestled in a bustling café, surrounded by the delicious aroma of freshly brewed coffee, the melody of clacking keyboard keys and the rush of your imagination flowing like waves crashing in an ocean. Whether you’re in an East London café by the canal, the Tuscan hills or a garden center café in Maui, Hawaii, you can work from anywhere in the world, your writing venture all the while supporting what you want to get out of life. If this sounds appealing, keep on reading.

    How do you make this dream a reality? The answer may be in the captivating realm of authorpreneurs.

    Writing a novel and transforming it into a thriving business can be both thrilling and intimidating. But anything can be possible with a passion for writing anywhere in the world and the drive to bring your publishing vision to life. So, let’s embark on this journey together and explore some strategies for achieving success as a novelist and an entrepreneur. The thrilling moment arrives when these two facets — writing and building a business — merge and blend, enabling you to become a successful authorpreneur.

    Related: Authorpreneurs: You Need to Do This Before You Write Your Book

    Becoming the storyteller, the novelist

    First, we need to write a book. Easier said than done, right? But it can be, simply because we all have interesting stories to share and our creative imagination that can be explored. Therefore, seeing the trail of the ink on paper or hearing the melodic sound of the keyboard is far better than pondering. Start writing those words. Here are three key areas that might help you start as a novelist.

    1. Unearth your unique voice:

    This means letting go of your fears and allowing your creativity to run wild. Write about what matters for you, what ignites the fire in your soul. We all have a unique voice; discover yours — the one that sets you apart from everybody else.

    2. Embrace learning and growing:

    There isn’t such a thing as “the best formula” when writing a book, but there is a form or structure that could help you start. So much literature has been written on storytelling and writing crafts, including courses and seminars you can attend. Being a voracious reader is a must, and it is so much fun to learn, research, broaden your knowledge and enjoy creating characters and scenes. I attended a four-day story crafting seminar a few months ago and will join a weeklong writing retreat in Italy this year. The learning never ends.

    3. Make writing a continuous improvement process:

    Writing a novel should be viewed as a marathon, not a sprint, requiring perseverance and determination to build strength and improve with each step. Tenacity is no less important than talent — perhaps more significant for success. Talent alone will not write that book, but perseverance will push you to expand your horizons and allow you to gain valuable experience.

    Related: 7 Common Obstacles Aspiring Authors Face — and How to Overcome Them

    Becoming the authorpreneur

    So, you authored a riveting novel, but now it needs to connect with its readers. Self-publishing is indeed a business; consider upfront costs such as editing, cover design, website development, marketing and more.

    Here are three key areas that will help you as authorpreneurs.

    1. Master the business of self-publishing:

    Writing is just one facet of being a successful authorpreneur. You must also thoroughly understand the publishing industry and determine how to publish your book. I learn from successful self-publishing authors, my husband being one. I also combine years of business acumen with improving my book publishing journey.

    There are workshops and a vast network of self-publishing authors and industry professionals to help you gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed. I am joining a self-publishing seminar in London and another in Las Vegas this year. The learning never ends, and it is undoubtedly exhilarating.

    2. Visualize a roadmap:

    As with any other business, having a plan and clarity of what’s ahead helps me to assess my capacity and supports how I manage my time. Having a roadmap helps as I have my annual goals and a high-level plan for the next three years. It is my big picture. I might derail here and there, but that is also part of the journey. Life happens; coffee helps.

    3. Have a marketing plan:

    While publishing your first book is undoubtedly a great accomplishment, subsequent books can pave the way to see you become a successful authorpreneur. However, even if your book is exceptional, effective marketing is still necessary so that your story reaches its readers.

    Get social media working for you, and learn from unconventional success stories. Publishing one book will be great, but your second or third book will illuminate your path to becoming a successful authorpreneur.

    Related: How to Become an Entrepreneur – 8 Tips to Get Your Business Going, Even if You Don’t Know Where to Start

    From dreams to books on shelves and beyond

    The journey of a first-time novelist and entrepreneur is an exciting and fulfilling adventure. With dedication and a willingness to embrace a new path, it can lead to beautiful possibilities. So, grab your pen, laptop and coffee cup, and start writing your success story.

    Picture this: You are sitting at a table behind impressive piles of books, and your fans are lining up to get their autographed copies. Imagine the possibilities open to you as you pen your next book somewhere around the world that you always dreamed of going.

    Drumroll, please; you’ve now entered the fascinating world of being a nomadic authorpreneur.

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    Gulcan Telci, MBA

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