David Moldawer

People confuse the two audiences required for a perennial bestseller—or, really, any successful publication, regardless of your definition of success. This confusion makes the platform discussion more difficult. Let's clear it up. First audience: the people who want to buy your book on a certain topic before

"When I was a teenager," writes Visakan Veerasamy, "I’d play bass in bands, sing horribly, and toy with the idea of being a songwriter. This is a letter I wish somebody had written to me when I was 17." Veerasamy's excellent "letter

I brought an umbrella with me to Scotland. This seemed sensible at the time. I was packing for my semester abroad and Scotland was sort of rainy, wasn't it? It did, in fact, "rain" on one of my first nights in Glasgow, but this wasn'

For Eminem, it's a 9-to-5 job. Assuming the recording work would begin in the evening—as it usually does in the music industry—the singer Akon arrived at the studio around six p.m. to begin his first collaboration session with Eminem. "Em just left," the

"Move to Seattle," a friend suggested when I was looking for a change. "You know how there's a hot dog stand on every corner in Manhattan? In Seattle, they have coffee stands." So I left the Big Apple for the Emerald City. Looking back,

Who am I to sit here dispensing advice on managing writing output? As my next manuscript deadline hurtles toward me like a big, um, hurtler, all these carefully cultivated creative habits wilt. The gears begin to grind. The machinery starts to smoke. I reconsider my path in life. As the

In college, I wrote and directed a few plays. In one of these masterworks of modern literature, the main character loses his belt and, in a moment of intense distraction that follows, accidentally lets his pants fall to the ground. This happens, in theory, for comedic effect. When I wrote

Jerry Seinfeld: Why can’t you be a comedian just because you’re talented and you’re smart and that’s why you’re a comedian? Garry Shandling: Why so angry, Jerry? Every week, I have a conversation or two with prospective clients. People who ostensibly want to write a

Creative work requires consent. Internal consent. Set whatever external writing goal you like: Op-Ed by August, tell-all memoir by March. If your muse goes on strike, the odds of achieving it are hopeless. When Stanislavski's acting inspiration ran dry, he panicked. Who wouldn't? As described in

Maven Game reader Margaret Kavanagh wonders how one copes with an overabundance of book ideas: I often get ideas for books but then discard them because I might get a better idea. I know this is just another form of procrastination, but I struggle to convince myself that writing a