The WRITE Strategy

Welcome to The WRITE Strategy newsletter for business book writers and self publishers. 

The Write Strategy is a community of business experts and leaders who want to share and leverage their knowledge, build their profile and be recognised as a leading voice in their field.

Hi.

Such a simple, powerful word.

Friendly, open, inviting a desire to connect and exchange.

BUT...

The challenge we’re all facing right now is that most of us are really unsure about whether the Hello/Hi is coming from a human or a bot AND we’re so overloaded with information that we increasingly don’t trust the messages and information we’re receiving.

Hi/Hello could be the message you click on that opens you up to a scam, fraud, identify theft or much worse.

For us humans then, Hi/Hello has become a potential threat.

AI has put a rocket under this….and it’s demoralising and dehumanising.

This simple word has, potentially become toxic – just like much of the information we’re now bombarded with.

At a recent Wall Street Journal event, Anthropic (aka Claude) CEO Dario Amodei stated that in the next two, maybe three years, AI systems will be better than humans at almost everything.

For those of us in the book writing and publishing world, AI is already having a significant impact on all aspects of books: writing, editing, translating, design & layout, self publishing and marketing. Non-human content (written, audio and visual), fabricated content and bot-driven engagement is drowning out us humans.

Some of you may be feeling the same way about the book you’ve written or are thinking of writing. And I can understand why.

BUT…we humans are not done for yet, and the printed book is not done for yet either.

As philosopher and self-development expert Dr Wayne Dyer said:

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

As a business historian and book self publishing adviser I am taking a stand. We have to take up the fight for being human, for utilising the AI tools that are being developed NOT being subsumed by them.

I am determined to do what I can to reinstate humans in writing and publishing through taking our agency back.

So, I am formulating the Hii Project – Human Intelligence and Imagination.

Hii is a human agency project for writers and publishers.

Hii seeks to promote the vital role of human agency in a world of AI-generated books and content.

Hii seeks to promote the vital role and power of books to create and sustain connection.

Hii seeks to change the AI/book publishing discussion from one about what AI can do to one about what it should do, or not do and be used for. . . and how we humans can and must step up.

Contact me if you’d like to be part of the Hii Project.

5 things to do

1.  Join the Hii Project. What’s that?

I have started this project. 
Hii stands for Human Intelligence and Imagination. The Hii Project is focused on bringing together people from across the business, writing, self publishing and traditional marketing world to take our human agency back in the Age of AI. We aim to do this through:

• Advocating for human writers and content creators.
• Sharing information, knowledge and insights about existing and new AI tools.
• Upskilling writers and creators on what tools to use and how, and what to stay clear of.
• Empowering writers and ethical publishers to ‘stand their ground’, take back our agency about why it’s so unique and special to have humans at the front, centre and all around the creative art of writing and publishing.
• Call out unethical practices, scams and dodgy offers while highlighting trustworthy, ethical companies, coaches, service providers and writers.

1. Please let Jaqui know if you are interested in developing this project.

2. Keep an eye out for FREE learning tools for writers developed by Jaqui in conjunction with Peter Stanford. These will show you how to use AI tools, which ones to choose and why, and which ones to steer clear of.

3. Jaqui is keen to mentor and support writers who are fearful about the threat of AI.

Contact Jaqui directly here if you are interested.

Alone we are the ‘product’. Together we have a voice-and words-that can be heard.

2. DeepSeek has turned the AI world inside out.  It is a low-cost, open source large language model that has challenged the U.S. tech giants, think ChatGPT.  DeepSeek's AI assistant became the number one downloaded free app on Apple's App Store last week.

There is fear among some US tech industry observers because the Chinese startup has caught up with the American companies at the forefront of generative AI at a fraction of the cost.

The Australian government has banned it from federal government systems and devices.

Should you download it? As with most new apps, do your homework first. Decide if it’s going to add value to you, that you are aware of its ownership and privacy policies. I have not downloaded it.

3. Read Yuval Noah Harari’s new book, Nexus. A brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI, if you are interested in how information and knowledge exchange has changed over the centuries and why AI poses a different and potentially more dangerous threat to humanity

4. Improve your video presence. Whether you like it or not, having a strong, vibrant video presence online is essential if you want to maximise leveraging your book or content. I’ve decided to up my game and am in the middle of a course with Mo MacRae. I can’t recommend his program highly enough. Check him out CLICK HERE

5. Have a book idea but not sure if it’s any good? Share your book idea with me and I’ll review and discuss it with you over a FREE 45 minute book review session. Book in a time using this link. CLICK HERE

5 things from The Book Adviser

1. Learn how to develop better ChatGPT prompts.
Check out the two sessions I did with Peter Stanford last year on YouTube about how to write better prompts…and therefore get better responses from ChatGPT.  CLICK HERE
And subscribe to The Book Adviser You Tube channel. CLICK HERE

2. Book launch

19 February: Debra Graves’ book To Dementia with Love shares Debra’s very personal journey loving and looking after her husband Don through his dementia diagnosis and care. CLICK HERE

3. Book launch
20 February: Christina Georgiades’ book, No One Told Me, is Christina’s heartfelt story of her 20-year experiences through miscarriage, stillbirth, IVF, depression and more – all ‘topics’ that are still, largely, not talked about. CLICK HERE

4. Book launch
Early March (date to be finalised) Achille Ettorre’s book, The Digital Advantage. Success Strategies for Harnessing People, Culture and Technology. Achille lives in Canada and is passionate about the power of harnessing data and AI to drive business success…whether that’s a small family business or what we’d call an SME (small to medium enterprise). CLICK HERE

5. For those who live in Sydney, the Woollahra Writer’s Festival is on over the weekend of 29-30 March. Organised by Nicole Abadee, it features Susan Wyndham, Anna Funder, Suzie Miller, Kate Evans, James O’Loghlin, Suzanne Leaf, Richard Morecroft, Tim Olsen, Christabel Blackman, Dianna Reid, Nikki Gemmel, Michaela Kalowski, John Bell, Heather Piper, Ailsa Piper and Shankari Chandran. Bookings essential CLICK HERE

5 things to know

1.  When thinking about your book content, ask yourself this question. What happens AFTER someone reads my book? What ‘first next step will they/can they take’ after reading your book? If you can’t come up with at least 3-4 clear, actionable steps go back and revise your book purpose, content outline and actions.

2. Have you learnt how to use ChatGPT (or other AI tools) or are you just winging it? I spend 30 minutes most days learning from various online and direct sources about HOW to engage/prompt a wide range of AI tools. It takes time to leverage AI tools effectively and efficiently. 

I also look into what each tool does with the prompts and responses that are generated by my interactions. ‘Know thy AI tool’. You are responsible for everything you ask AI tools and how you use the outputs from them.

Take responsibility.

3. Look at NotebookLM. This will either have you freaking out or piling in. NotebookLM can ‘create’ podcasts based on your book and other content, complete with your (limited) choice of synthetic voices.
Here’s an example that was shared with me by Mark Schaefer on LinkedIn. CLICK HERE

In some ways it’s amazing, in others it’s just more ordinary content jamming up the internet and not adding real value. You all know where I sit on this continuum, but part of my job is to share what’s out there.

I am exploring it as I consider myself a bit of a crash test dummy for writers and authors who are self publishing. I’ll let you know how I go.

4. Bluesky, CLICK HERE the X alternative is gaining more and more users, especially since Elon Musk has ‘entered the White House’. Having started within Twitter, it’s now ‘out of Twitter’ and is an independent ‘benefit corporation' based in Seattle. 

It reached 20 million users in November 2024.

I have not subscribed, so can’t comment either way/any way about its effectiveness for self published authors.

FYI I cancelled my very poor Twitter account several months ago and I am focused on other platforms.

The key thing here is to understand where your target audience is and then ‘go play in that space’.

5. Know of Reddit? If not, you need to. 
Reddit CLICK HERE is now a listed company on the US Stock Exchange.

You might be interested in some of its history … I am.

Reddit was founded in 2005, acquired by Conde Nast and then became an independent subsidiary of Condé Nast's parent company, Advance Publications. Reddit had several funding rounds led by or supported by Sam Altman, Marc Andressen, Peter Thiel, Snoop Dog and Jared Leto among others. In March 2024 Reddit debuted on the US stock exchange and it’s current market cap as of July 2024 is $10 billion. Knowing who owns/invests in your AI platforms is part of having agency.

If you use Reddit, and I do, you will be interested to know that Reddit’s new Pro Trends tool lets users track real-time conversations about brands, products, and industry trends, monitor discussions across 100K “smart” keywords, visualise conversation volumes across Reddit communities, and more. 

If you’re really proactive about your book marketing, Reddit is a platform you need to be across.

in the media-author profile

We started working with Garry in 2019 on his book, Brand New, Brand You. It launched in July 2020 (yes, in the middle of COVID) and continues to gain visibility and sale through to the present day, selling over 2,500 books online and via speaking engagement and presentations.

Brand New Brand You has leveraged Garry’s profile as a speaker on the topic of astute leadership, reputation and relevance for board directors and developing true thought leadership.

https://garrybrowne.com.au/books

Garry launched a Podcast, Astute Leadership, where he explores the nuances of personal
branding for board directors, business leaders, sporting and community influencers.
with leading Australians including Craig Foster, Sir Peter Cosgrove, Tony Nash, Louise Walsh, Matt Levy, Charlie Teo, Prof Attila Brungs. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/astute-leadership-podcast/id1609209201

Garry comments:

“Working with Jaqui was a most rewarding experience for me and she says for her too!

“I have known Jaqui for more than two decades and reconnected in the last 7 years was as if we had been working together for the entire 20 years.

“Jaqui manages to get the best out of you in terms of making you dig deep to identify your talents,
thoughts ideas to realise your potential.

“Her approach is tailored to each individual and she took a disciplinary approach to me which was
needed yet was still full of encouragement and injections of inspiration. This is the hallmark of a good friend!”

is it time to publish your book?

The Book Adviser has helped more than 400 business leaders, owners, consultants and entrepreneurs to successfully self publish and market their business book. 

Find out more about The Book Adviser Program CLICK HERE. 

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